The Fly

This one took two tries and it still could use some grounding with a few shadows now that I see it on screen. I used Ranger Pearl mixative on the wings to make them look more fly wing-y and I added the veining with a Prismacolor colored pencil...Violet Blue, I think. A waxy pencil on Yupo, you say? I know but I'm fairly certain it'll be permanent after a good spray or two of Krylon gloss varnish.

Pecking Order ~ WIP 2

With flash

Without flash

I'm trying to spend just a few hours at a time working on this to avoid breathing too many fumes but it's really difficult when I get in the zone. I've got the chickens finished but it's hard to tell from these images. I tried photographing twice, once with and once without flash and got varying results, neither of which turned out well. I used Ranger's Pearl mixative on the white chickens and the flash lit the ink up like crazy because this particular ink contains iridescent particles. Without flash the painting looks dull but the quilted effect from the waxed paper is less apparent. I decided I'm going to post both images because with all these gloomy days(and no sun predicted in the foreseeable future) I doubt I'll be able to do better before the painting is done.

Wild Plum ~ alcohol ink

SOLD

Wild Plum is one of the newer Tim Holtz colors and it is very potent and also, as I've discovered, extremely hard to scan or photograph. I've spent the last 1/2 hour working with this image in my photo editor, trying to tone down the Wild Plum background without losing the other colors. This is the best I could do although it looks much better IRL...trust me. I'm making a mental note to go easy with the Wild Plum next time. It's a gorgeous, vibrant color but a little goes a very long way.

I did add some pearl mixative with this color and made a sample swatch some time ago. The pearl seems to quiet it somewhat.