March 27, 2010 - Day 229

Ink and watercolor on 250gsm Antique Folio hot press watercolor paper

Ran out of the white hot press paper so now I am moving on to the tinted paper. I only have a couple sheets of sample hot press paper left. They are both Folio paper - one is called "Antique" and the other one is "Tea Stain". I really like the look of the watercolor on the tinted paper. I think I will have to experiment more with tinted papers.

March 26, 2010 - Day 228

Ink and watercolor on 290gsm Coventry Rag Vellum watercolor paper

I really love dragonflies and I especially like the way this dragonfly turned out. They are so simple to paint in chinese brush painting. Looking back over the chinese brush painting that I have done so far I feel that they are so simple yet tranquil. They would make very nice note cards. I think I might start making some designs specifically to be used in note cards or greeting cards.

March 25, 2010 - Day 227

Ink and watercolor on 290gsm Coventry Rag Vellum Watercolor paper

The inspiration for tonight's painting was Twestival Victoria 2010. The venue was packed with people mingling and talking. I had a great time but I am so tired right now that I can't stop yawning.

March 24, 2010 - Day 226

Ink and watercolor on 320gsm Coventry Rag Vellum watercolor paper

This was my last piece of pre-cut ACEO watercolor paper so I had to quit with this attempt at painting a butterfly. With each previous attempt something always went wrong. On this painting I liked the way the flowers turned out but I messed up the butterfly. It worked so well when I was practicing on scrap paper :(

March 23, 2010 - Day 225

Watercolor on 320gsm Coventry Rag Vellum watercolor paper

Oops! I just realized that I didn't use any ink on this painting. I had wanted every painting to contain both ink and watercolor washes.

I decided to try the Chrysanthemum again. This time I used the teardrop brush stroke instead of the long narrow brush stroke. As I was painting the main flower I ran out of paint on the brush and ended up dry brushing the outside petals. I think that this created a nice effect. I also made sure to mixed the green paint strong enough so that I didn't have to go over the leaves again.

All in all, I like this painting.

March 22, 2010 - Day 224

Ink and watercolor on 320gsm Coventry Rag Vellum watercolor paper

Well this was a lot easier than I anticipated! The flower heads looks so difficult but actually they were really easy to do. I must admit though that I "cheated" on the stems and leaves. I hadn't mixed my green paint strong enough and the color barely showed once it had dried. I decided to paint over top with a darker green. I didn't use the chinese brush technique but rather just held the brush and painted in my normal way. It really made a huge difference in the look of the leaves and stems versus the flowers themselves.

March 21, 2010 - Day 223

Ink and watercolor on 320gsm Coventry Rag Vellum watercolor paper

I really like the way the ink flowed on this one. For some reason it left speckles of white paper which looked like sunlit leaves.