Inspired by Crocodiles

I was watching a TV show about ancient Egypt and one of the visited sites was Seti I's tomb.  There was the most beautiful painting of a crocodile.  That inspired me.  So, using Tracy Verdugo's method of dropping acrylic ink into a shape painted with clear water, I painted three crocodiles. 

A page in a magazine about travel had a wonderful photo of a storm approaching over palm trees.  That gave me the theme of a storm approaching over the ancient Nile.  I researched several more tomb paintings, then painted this heron, again ink dropped into a wet shape..

I painted all three crocs on one sheet of Strathmore Mixed Media paper, then ripped them out, into strips.  The heron I painted on a full11" x 14" sheet.  After fiddling a bit with the composition, I decided to only use two of the crocodiles.  I glued the pieces together and let it dry over-night, ready for the next step in whatever might emerge.

My Mixed Media Class

 Earlier this month I taught a mixed media class in conjunction with our local art association's annual juried show.  I taught a method, but each student worked on her own project.  This was mine.

During the first session I worked on the background and glued down the drawings.  In preparation for the second session, I had torn out some magazine and catalog pages and had them sitting on the left side of the piece, ready to go, when I somehow managed to tip over my Diet Pepsi onto the piece.  I wiped it up, or so I thought.  But when I got to class and went to lift the torn pages, I discovered that the Diet Pepsi had partially "glued" the pages to the piece - right over my drawing of this sweet ermine.  I was so upset!  I didn't know what to do about it.  I used a wet paper towel to try to wipe away the transferred ink, but it began to lift portions of the drawing, so I stopped immediately.  Not knowing what else to try, I decided to just go ahead and work on other parts of the piece.

In the end, I touched up the ermine's eyes, and left the rest of the damage alone.  And I'm OK with it.

So, I learned two lessons.  Protect my piece - no spillables near the piece.  And, two, in mixed media, at least, go with serendipity!

Then Another

It seemed like a good idea to paint another frog.  When I was doing the first one, I didn't particularly like it - at least until I cropped it.  But now I like it more than this one!  Just couldn't resist the gold crown above this little prince.

As I look at it now, I think I'll go back in tomorrow and add two more large blue flowers.  One just doesn't seem enough.

I really like the greens I used.  Wish I had kept track of what they were/  But I think the primary one is Viridian.

And Most Recently, a Frog

Next I did a frog.  But this time the florals were different.  I tried to depict water hyacinths.  Both the flowers and the leaves are larger than in the other pieces I've done.  Because they were larger, they were harder for me to paint in watercolor.  But the frog was hardest of all.  This required layering.  I don't have much watercolor experience, so I'm always concerned about lifting previous layers, but it turned out OK.  

I started this as an 8" x 8" piece, but wasn't satisfied with the composition, so I cropped it.  The only problem with that is that I'll have to hand cut a custom size mat.

I especially like the colors.

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And a Bear

Perhaps I should have chosen flora associated with a bear, such as poppies (as in California, of which the bear is the state animal) or berries.  Maybe I'll do another one!  It;s about time to change my palette, so I'll be sure to include poppy and berry colors...