My first painting on Daily Paintworks....

Well, I just joined Daily Paintworks and I'll be listing a few of my small paintings there and selling them from my ETSY page.  I honestly don't know what I'm doing yet, but hope to spend some time over the next couple of weeks figuring it out.

One thing I've learned as an artist in this day and age, is to use social media as much as you can.  I really wish I had gotten more involved years ago instead of doing only the bare minimum.  Honestly, I dislike working on the computer, but I have to admit, my time spent there usually pays off.  

Happy Painting!

Horsehair Pottery & Feathers
5 x 7 inches, oil on canvas board
$49.00

 

Saving your brushes when using masking fluid or frisket

Masking fluid is a great tool for your watercolor paintings.  Most of the time when using it, I have a few old brushes that I save just for that purpose.  The photo shows one of them.  However, you can use your good brushes and still keep them in good shape by doing just one simple thing; putting your brush in some liquid soap.  Here’s what I do…

I just use whatever liquid hand soap I have at home.  BEFORE dipping my brush in the masking fluid, I dip the brush in the liquid soap and work it into the bristles all the way up to the metal,  then I just wipe it off with a clean dry paper towel.  No water. 

After that, I just dip the brush in the masking fluid and apply to my paper like normal.  When I’m finished, I clean the brush with soap and water and the masking fluid comes right out.  

I had been painting with watercolors for years before attending art school and had never heard of that before college.  Now I can use my old brushes like normal, but I can also use my good brushes for more refined detail work and don't have to worry about ruining them.  

I used masking fluid on the below painting to keep the lightest parts of the birds feathers.  

Happy Painting!!

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Lovely day...

I had a very "lovely" day today. I didn't do anything special. Mainly I just got things done. I completed a couple of paintings, finished homework, ran errands, and ended the day with a nice bike ride and some chit chat with the neighbors. Sometimes it's nice to just do ordinary stuff without any pressure.

For this or other paintings I have for sale on ebay, click on the link at the above right.

Tidal Pool

5 x 7 inches, Oil on board

Available for sale on ebay after 2/5/2011

Working alone...

I don't know how many of you feel about this, but I prefer to work/create when I'm alone. I seem to get so much more accomplished that way. Now it could be that because I'm a bit of a "talker" (those of you who know me personally probably think that's an understatement!!), I don't get as much done because I'm chatting too much. I think that's part of it, but I also think that I don't like for people to see my "process". I prefer to only show my completed work. I used to hate in college when we had to work in class and I constantly had someone looking over my shoulder. I got around that by working very slow, then finishing up at home. I'm sure I didn't fool my professors, but no one called me out on it!

For this or other paintings I have for sale on Ebay, click on the link at the above right.

Dramatic Sky

5 x 6 inches, Oil on board

Available for sale on Ebay after 1/30/2011