The hunchback goes formal

From this mass produced and well used cover

to

this swirly number. The running guy is happier don't you think? Just seems to have more of a spring to his step.

Cinderella Books, Which Makes Me the Fairy Godmother

So, I've done a few more books since my last post. I finished the two that I had bought specifically to paint on and so I looked around at my own books thinking... "hmmm" and found a few that needed a little sprucing up. I am very happy with the results and have a bunch of ideas for more of them. I have a few books from the early 1900's and really like the color designs embossed onto the covers. I also saw one the other day that had the cover illustrated in just gold so there are many avenues to explore. Tell me what you think. Maybe I should do a workshop? Think anyone would sign up?

The sun, trees, houses and the letter N

Wooden Cross ACEO

Another recent ACEO.

A Forest of Topiaries

Here is a group of the topiaries I have been working on. A couple of them don't have the background finished yet but I thought I would include them anyway. Funny how I have been working so hard to get good pictures of the gold and now I just take a silly group picture and the gold shows up perfectly! I will get the rest of them up on Etsy soon.

Couple 'o Christmas Trees

Snowman Topiary

ACEO Topiary Number Three

Here is the next one but I am going to have to wait for the sun to come up (assuming it shows itself tomorrow) to take a photo of it on the easel.

Another Crooked Topiary

I kind of think of them as Bonsai Topiaries. =) See how the photograph does not show the gold like the photo in the last post? I need tips here. Feel free to post your ideas. Same materials and size as the last one.

It is a Topiary Kind of Thing

This is the latest thing I am obsessing about. As I posted earlier, I am doing a bunch of topiary ACEO's. I have always loved topiaries and now putting this iridescent gold behind them I am really loving it! As you can see from the scan, if you look straight on, it just looks like a kind of a bluey grey. But when you tilt the artwork it shines gold. There are a bunch more coming that I will post, maybe later today or tomorrow and I have a bunch in the pencil sketch stage right now. The really difficult thing is getting a good photo of the gold part shining. It usually just washes out so you can't tell what it is. Then when I finally got a good shot of it shimmering, the rest of the picture is way too dark! If anyone has any good tips on how to shoot reflective serfaces like this I would be very interested. It is painted with acrylics (Golden Brand of course) and Micron pen for the outline. The dimensions are 2.5 x 3.5 of course.

Christmas ACEO, Shiny, of course!

My latest ACEO done with iridescent acrylic paint on Bristol board. Kind of looks like brocade fabric to me. It is for sale in my Etsy store.

Gold, ACEO's and Icons

Some of the latest to come out of my studio. As hard as I try I just can't seem to stay away from shiny glittery things for long. =) I really like Golden's iridescent series of acrylic paints. I am not sure where the idea came from to add gold to these cards but once I had done it, it made me think of Russian religious icons.

New Letters and some changes to others

I added more letters, added color to other letters, changed a few, what do you think? Comments and feedback are appreciated. I am too tired to crop each letter individually so I just scanned my sketchbook pages and put them up as is. The gold looks really cool but I am not sure it reproduces well. Does anyone have experience scanning or photographing gold paint?

Finally Finished

The finished product. Image is 4.5 x 5.5

A little more progress

This is where I am at now. Unfortunately the gold doesn't scan very well but I think you can get the idea. Little bits here and there to do and I want to add more gold but am not sure where yet.

Illuminated Heart in Red

Well, I have chosen the colors. Red and... hmm... what do you think would go with red? I have it all planned out but I would love to hear other opinions. I stayed up way too late painting swatches and testing different methods trying to get the effect that I want. I finally figured it out. I will post more when I get the next step done. I know it is too late for Valentine's Day but I don't care. I am just enjoying this. The red is done in gouache. I was thinking of doing it in acrylics because I have a beautiful Quinacridone Crimson (dark burgundy red for those, like me, who don't have a clue what Quinacridone Crimson is) but I just really like working with the gouache. The color is Rose Madder for those that care. =) I think one of the things I like the best about gouache is that it doesn't harden while you are working with it. It drys but you just add water and keep going unlike the acrylics that dry up and then you have to get out more paint.

Sunflower #2

Another 8 x 10 acrylic painting. A sunflower also from Misty's yard. =) In contrast to the Honeysuckle painting this one was done with very thin watered down layers. I wanted the semi rough texture of the gesso to show through.

Honeysuckle

This one is done in acrylic paint, Golden brand to be exact. Love their products! No they are not paying me, I just really like their paint. =) It is 8 x 10 done on watercolor paper. Oh yeah, they are honeysuckle that grew in my yard. I took a lot of pictures when I had that yard and now I am glad I did because I have reference pictures to last me a lifetime... well, almost.