On My Table

This is how my work table looked last night.  I ordered some lovely things from Amazon and received part of my order yesterday, so they are on my desk along with my current WIP.

Here's a breakdown for you:

1.  Gouache - Savoir Faire French School Opaque Watercolor Gouache 

My first gouache set.  I haven't had enough time with these yet, but I do love them so far.  I wish I had the 20 color set.  

2.  Sweet tea.  Always by my side.  

3.  Messy water cup.  I like using glass jars for my water; they look so pretty and messy with streaks of color running down the side.

4.  An upcycle project for my daughter's room.  She is such a princess.  The bright beautiful colors are Dye-Na-Flow colors (yes they are made for fabric, but work well on many surfaces). 

5.  Palette - Master's Touch Plastic Folding Palette.  Filled with Koi watercolors.

6.  Brush - Master's Touch 20/0 Liner from the 5 piece white taklon set.  One day I might invest in some higher quality brushes, like maybe when I learn not to leave them soaking in water all night long.

7.  Remote control for the TV/cable.  Tuesday night is Face Off night, and I own the remote at 8 PM!!!

8.  My sorry excuse for a phone.  One day I might get a better one.  I dropped the two decent ones I had and ruined the speakers on both.  

9.  My new Koi Tube Watercolors.  I got the 18 tube set.  I am in love with these and I just got them yesterday.  I had the 24 pan field sketch box, but found it frustrating to activate the colors in those little pans.  And since I never go out to sketch I gave those to my daughter and ordered the tubes.

10.  Stephanie Corfee's Creative Doodling & Beyond.  I ordered this with my Koi watercolors.  If you like to doodle and seek inspiration, I would definitely recommend this book.  I love Stephanie's art (see more if it here) so I had to get a copy of this.  I got it last night and after about 10 flip-throughs and reading 1/3 of this I can see already that I will really enjoy the projects in this book and will keep it around for inspiration for years to come.  I love it!!!

New Necklaces - Bright Flowers on Brass Tags

Here are some necklaces I have been working on. I hand dyed the flowers myself and added them to hammered brass tags.

Each is on a strand on colorful seed beads.

And I added some colorful beads to the extender chains.

I don't plan on listing any of these. Instead they will be sold locally at a jewelry party. But if you are interested just post a comment or send me an email.

My Sewing Desk - Work In Progress

I am so happy so far with the way my desk is turning out.  I still plan on adding layers of color and design, but here are some peeks on the progress so far. 

Primed and front panel painted.  I just sanded the surface enough to give it tooth and then primed it with gesso.  I am going with a prism color scheme here so all my paints and supplies will look nice with it.  I love color!!!!

Now a couple of pictures with the first layer finished.  



Some more detail and color added.



From this point I plan on adding a bit more detail with color, then doing an overpainting of black and white patterns.  I have no idea how this is going to turn out though.  I am having a great time just painting with no plan.  For now this guy is unfinished, but when i get the painting done I plan on adding a couple of layers of gloss to bring out the color.

Skull and Sparrows - New Painting

A friend of mine requested an original painting.  She wanted a Day of the Dead inspired painting that combined a sugar skull, sparrows, daisies, swirls, and rainbow colors.  I did a bit of research and here is the thumbnail sketch I came up with.

This painting took me forever to do.  I experimented with a few different techniques, and they took me a long time to figure out.  First I worked on my backgound layers, a step that I had previously not put much effort into.  I was inspired by a video by Regina Lord of Creative Kismet.  You can view the video here.  I collaged layers of sketchbook paper with gel medium, coated them with a light brushing of gesso, then added some yellow with watercolor crayon.  I wish I had taken of photo of this step, but I did not.

Next I did an underpainting in white.  I have never done this, but after seeing this underpainting by David Lozeau I decided to give it a try.  You'll notice his is much, much, much more detailed than mine.   It was more work, but I like how it brightened all of the colors in my final layer.  Here's the underpainting.

Next I did a sketch in pencil over the underpainting to use as a guide.  This is usually where I start, then I do detail work, then try to paint the background in.  You can imagine that this really limited the amount of detail I was able to include in my background.  I much prefer this newer method.

Once the sketch was down, I began painting.  I also had two lovely birdies to paint.  These were thrifted vintage, and I believe they were from Homco circa 1970-something.  They were golden, so I added layer of gesso and painted the the same colors as the sparrows in the painting.  Here's the end result.

I learned a lot with this piece, but most of all I learned that acrylic is a labor of love.  I think my next project may be watercolor, or maybe just a simple ink drawing.  I need a break!  Hey, let me whine just a little bit.  I am 11 weeks pregnant and exhausted.