December 19, 2009 - Day 131

Acrylic on 300lb Lanaquarelle hot press watercolor paper

I would say this painting is 90% completed. The ornament really should have been brighter and had more highlights to make it look shinier. I finally had to call it quits otherwise I wouldn't have had enough time to post it tonight.

December 18, 2009 - Day 130

Acrylic on 300lb Lanaquarelle hot press watercolor paper

Started painting at 8 pm and was going to paint for an hour then take a break but I got in the zone and suddenly it is 2 hours later and I am done the painting. I love it when that happens!

December 17, 2009 - Day 129

Acrylic on 300lb Lanaquarelle hot press watercolor paper

I don't know what was up tonight but my hands just weren't steady. I had to repaint one eye at least 5 times because each time my hand would tremble just that little tiny bit and mess things up.

Usually when I paint metal I use shades of yellow, yellow ochre and brown mixed with white but tonight I thought I would try a metallic gold paint that I had on hand. I like the way it looks but I don't think I will use it very often. It might look nice splattered on an abstract painting - if I was ever to do those again.

December 16, 2009 - Day 128

Acrylic on 300lb Lanaquarelle hot press paper

Thank God I can still create my painting every day because words seem to have totally deserted me lately.

I would like to have at least one paragraph each post describing the artistic process or even just my thoughts on how that day's painting came about but lately I don't really have anything new or interesting to say.

So, on that note, here is my painting of the day.

December 15, 2009 - Day 127

Acrylic on 300lb Lanaquarelle hot press watercolor paper

Happy with tonight's result but it took a lot of work to get here.

December 14, 2009 - Day 126

Acrylic on 300lb Lanaquarelle hot press watercolor paper

I picked a gingerbread man as my subject tonight because I thought that it would be so easy to do compared to the bow that I did last night and the peppermint candy the night before. In hindsight, red probably wasn't the best choice for a background color. I must admit though that my head just wasn't in the game tonight and I really didn't have much motivation to paint this subject.

Before I started this blog I would have been so down on myself for not creating a "masterpiece" but after 126 days I realize that there are going to be days when my painting doesn't turn out. It is not the end of the world - I'll just start a new one tomorrow.

On the plus side I finally finished a painting of a puppy holding a candy cane that I started a week ago!

December 13, 2009 - Day 125

Acrylic on 275lb Acqerello Italia watercolor paper

I love painting shiny things like this Christmas bow. They look so difficult to do but really they are pretty easy. Each point of the ribbon is done the same way - medium green base color then a stroke of yellow green highlight then right beside the highlight a stroke of dark green shadow. Voila! A shiny ribbon.