Mermaid, lots of birds and a New Model

The Female Tattoo Artist Group that I am involved in is doing an art exchange project. This time we are exchanging postcards. Every participant will get an original piece of art and a book with scans of all of the other postcards in it. The woman who organizes these is amazing. There is no way that on top of all of my other on-going projects I could scan in 50 pieces of artwork and have them printed. I will sing her praises here but leave out her name as I try to avoid talking about people online without their permission.

So what is the thing to do if you are submitting art to your peers? Well experiment with a new medium that you have never ever tried before. Of course! Well, actually only half true. I have used watercolors lots of times before…. but I have never used liquid watercolor and I have never used permanent watercolors. The colors are more vibrant and I have always wanted to try them… but never wanted to shell out the cash for them.
Fortunately I have wonderfully supportive family and my mom and my sister gifted me with a full set for Christmas. First step. Bust into the pretty color set:

While figuring out what to draw for the postcard. I’m unclear as to rather we are supposed to be just making pretty pictures or trying to make them look like something that would normally be on a postcard. I decide to cover my bases and make a postcard from Atlantis even if no one else gets it. (I’m not going to write “Greeting from Atlantis” on the art side, but I might write it on the back.)

Starting with the normal thumbnails and rough sketches progressing into color:

I still need to cut her out and probably bind it to another piece of cardstock to make it safe to mail…. but I think this side is probably finished (but not signed, which means I’m not completely committed to it be in its final stage). I love how bright these colors are – much better than normal watercolors. Would have been easier if I hadn’t left most of my watercolor brushes in Webster but it was a fun experiment and I would use them again for sure. I especially like that they came with a white – which helps a lot for blending pinks and skin tones.

Monday morning and back to paint class. I built a bracket to hold the paintings up straight while I am working on them. Much of this session was spent trying to make things upright that were “off” from the first go around. Looking at these photos while I was uploading them made me see that another one needs to be corrected more. Perspective is good : )

Much more to come on those. Hoping to have them mostly or all finished by Hell City so that I can start on the other paintings that will be in this series.

Monday night is figure drawing class as always. This Monday we had another brand new model. I forget in our discussion about light and shadows that these brave folks are coming and getting naked for us…. then holding poses for a ridiculously long time. You may think that it is not a big deal – but standing perfectly still for 20-25 minutes in an awkward twisting pose without even moving the position of your head is not that easy. On top of that this model stood for our long pose as well – so he spent the better part of two hours in exactly the same position under hot lights.

So for all of the figure drawing models out there – just wanted to remind you that you are appreciated. Thanks for helping us out – we couldn’t do it without you.