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A
New Painting Surface
Art
Boards with Watercolor Paper
In
2008, I discovered a new painting surface - Art Boards, specifically
their Cold
Pressed Watercolor Panel. Another member of the Auburn
Old Town Gallery had used them with great results and
I thought
I'd
give
them a try. I'm always looking for new ways to create art and
pet portraits and these looked promising. ArtBoards are a natural
fiber (wood) panel with various painting surfaces adhered to
the front. The watercolor panels have 156-lb Arches paper mounted
on a
3/8" thick board. The board has a keyhole back for hanging.
My
first paintings on the new surface were these goats on 4"
x 4" boards. I used ink (a black Micron pen), watercolor and color
pencil. The surface worked well for all three mediums and I was very
happy with the result. I decided to skew the color palette
a bit and use orange and purple for the goats. I sprayed the finished
paintings with Krylon UV resistant spray. I also painted the edges with a matching solid color of watercolor so the wood
wouldn't stand out.
When one of my pet portrait clients saw these at the '08
Autumn Art Studios Tour,
she wondered about having new portraits of her dogs done on
this surface. I was glad she asked because I ended up with
three more examples of what I can do with this surface.
I'm now offering this style of portrait as an option for clients.
They fall somewhere in between a looser, super
brightly colored Petzazz portrait
and a realistic, highly detailed portrait. As I did
with the
goats, I use
a vibrant palette and I'm not worried about lots
of detail. To find out about all my pet portrait options
and pricing, please visit this page of my web site. And yes,
I'm still much farther behind on my commissions than I'd
like to be, but have made a vow to try to get a handle on
portraits
this
year
so I'm only six months behind instead of a year or more.
Thank you to all my wonderful, patient clients!
Watercolor
on Yupo Workshops
Two
Workshops Scheduled in Auburn, CA
Either March 20 or April 17
The
workshops are one day classes focusing on techniques
in
working
with watercolor on Yupo. One workshop is offered through
Placer School for Adults, the other is offered through Sierra
College
Community Education. Visit the class
info page of my web site for details: times, prices, supply list and links to sign up.
Yupo is a synthetic paper that offers a unique working surface - much different
than traditional watercolor paper. I really enjoy using Yupo, it's bright white,
slick and non-absorbent. The water in the paint evaporates instead of being absorbed
by the paper, resulting in vibrant color and wonderful watermarks and patterns
left as the paint dries. Lifting paint is easy, but correcting mistakes is a
challenge. My method with Yupo is to plan as best I can and then let the paper
and paint do what they want. If you're game for something different, sign up
for one of these workshops!
"Tigger" - Napping
Tabby, 6" x
6", Watercolor on Yupo
Commissioned Portrait
My Crazy Cell Phone
"Llamatized"!
I'm
so happy with how it turned out that I wanted to share my
recently customized cell phone - it's now
a bright yellow and green mosaic of "Llemon-Llime
Llama".
I won't
bore you with the details here, but the product, a vinyl
decal, is well made and it was fairly easy to apply. If you're
interested, you can find out more on my
blog post.
Original
art. Reproductions on note cards, prints, magnets & earrings.
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