February 13, 2010 - Day 187

Acrylic and watercolor on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Another nebula today. After it was all completed I thought that it would be interesting to paint a spaceship over top the nebula. I had a long hard day at work though and just wasn't up to the task. It is something that I plan to try though within the next couple of days.

February 12, 2010 - Day 186

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Acrylic and watercolor on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

The top painting is what it looks like before I add the color. The black paint creates very dark areas that bleed out into light gray as the paint moves across the standing water on the paper. Looking at it now I think that maybe I should just do some black and white ones because they really have a lot of impact.

My main complaint with the colorized version is that I can't get the colors as vibrant as I would like them to be. Next time I buy paint I am going to see if they don't sell neon bright colors. Either that or I will need to experiment with leaving a lot more areas pure white so that the colored glaze isn't dulled by even a touch of grey.

February 11, 2010 - Day 185

Acrylic and watercolor on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Another in my space series. There are things that I would have done differently with this one. I would have had more black around the earth so that the planet would show off better. I also forgot to put in the stars before I removed the masking from the planet and space ship. Usually I would dip a toothbrush into white paint and bend the bristles back to spray white paint randomly onto the painting but this time I had to put in each star by hand. Other than that I kinda like this painting.

February 10, 2010 - Day 184

Acrylic and watercolor on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Acrylic and watercolor on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

I really love doing these paintings! I did the yellow one first and really liked the way that it turned out. I first sprayed the paper with so much water that it puddled. Then I took thinned black acrylic paint and just touched the water. As the paint touches the water it pushes the water aside and creates the most amazing designs. The areas where the black paint doesn't flow remains white. When the black paint dried I painted a wash of bright watercolor over the entire painting. The finishing touch was to flick white acrylic paint over the painting to create stars.

After I completed the yellow painting I came up with the idea of placing stickers or tape down before applying the water to see if the technique would still work. I used green painter tape for the large planet, a smiley face sticker for the medium planet and packing tape for the smallest planet. I really didn't think that it would turn out so I created the painting on the flip side of one of my failures. Now I wish I would have used "good" paper.

With the planet painting I used red, yellow ochre and black paint in the first stage to create the multiple colors. Once dry I removed the tape and sticker and used watercolor to create the shading on the planets. I could have used acrylic but I think that the watercolors are more vibrant than the acrylics and better suited for this type of painting.

February 9, 2010 - Day 183

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Now for something completely different! I got bored with the doors so decided to try something else. There is an artist on the internet (can't remember who or where) that does splashes of color on watercolor paper. Once the paint is dry they look for an image within the randomness and use paint and ink to bring out that image. That is what I was going for here but I liked the way the paint flowed so I decided to keep it as is - well, that and I couldn't really see any image to bring out :D

This painting really reminds me of the pictures of space nebula and galaxies that I have seen. I have been a Trekkie since the 1980's watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and have been wanting to paint sometihng sci-fi for a long time but I have been too scared to try. Even now I am scared to try. What will I paint? How will it turn out? Don't have a clue but it seems really silly to me to not paint the things that I love like sci-fi and fantasy. Those are my favorite type of books so why am I so blocked about painting something like that?

February 8, 2010 - Day 182

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Today is the half way point in my 365 days of ACEOs. I would have liked to have completed a better painting than what I ended up achieving. This house had such wonderful moldings and personality to it but I just couldn't do it justice today.

I am going to be so happy when I am done this blog. It is a lot of work completing a painting EVERY day but it has also really helped me to grow as an artist.

February 7, 2010 - Day 181

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

I really liked this doorway with the pale yellow siding and the white and red awning. It looked so cheerful.