Catching up

A Fun Paint... 

 I am still catching up after being sick, but getting there. Now that this frame has been delivered I can share it ~ it was super fun to paint and I think you will be able to tell why. My customer ordered a frame for his wife for her birthday, and simply said she liked turtles, sea otters and octopuses (is that the plural? I have no idea). I do love the challenge of designing for this tiny narrow area to paint on. Its a really happy frame and has made me anxious for summer!

 The painting technique I practice is from the early 19th century and is done in water colours. I first draw my design or parts of it, on the wood with a steel tip pen, then all is painted with watercolurs. Several coats of watercolours....on this frame some areas have nearly 20 coats of paint. I have to be very careful to have paint to water ratio just perfect so that the new coat of paint does not take off the layers beneath it.

 

 I very much enjoyed painting the octopuses, these are the first I have ever drawn and painted. There are three, and I wanted to portray how they change to camouflage themselves, 

So the fellow in the center is starting to change to blue. I really love how he came out. I used titanium white for the suckers on the tentacles which really made them PoP!

The otters are cute 'as all get out ' as my Grandmother would say~ so playful

I had to include one with an urchin on their tummy~

With as much time that we spend at our frames, they should be pretty and make us smile~ dont you think? I sure do~