Acrylic background: July 30, 2009

Here is the background for my next acrylic painting which is 12"x24". I got this look by painting the background black and brown. After that dried, I used a sea sponge to dab on a mixture of colors: greens, grays, browns, off-white. I sprayed water on it to allow the colors to mix. You have to be very patient and not disturb the paint as it dries. Let it do its thing and this is what you get.

Dying continued: July 24-25, 2009

These silk scarves are almost finished. All that is left is to take them to the dry cleaner to remove the gutta resist. If I do more dying in the future, I think I will try other types of resist that don't require dry cleaning to remove them.

After the gutta dried overnight, I applied a couple layers of dyes. I scrunched up the fabrics, dabbed the fabrics into dye and sprayed with a water bottle to distribute the colors. Using two complimentary shades and randomly distributing the colors gave the silk interest and visual texture.

Once the background was dried, I stretched the silk and painted leaves using the dyes and a brush. The gutta left negative leaf shapes and the painted dye made positive leaf shapes as you can see in the close-up photos.

Dying to Learn Something New: July 23, 2009

I was cleaning out closets the other day and came across this tie-dyed t-shirt. My son loves wild colors including tie-dye but this shirt was just not bright enough for him. I got out some dyes and set to work to brighten up the colors in the t-shirt. You can see the before and after results.

While I had the dyes out, I thought maybe I should try my hand at dying a couple of silk scarves. My mom is a quilter and dyes her own fabrics so I borrowed supplies from her. I dampened my two scarves and dabbed dye on them, one with green and blue, one with purple and blue. I wanted this layer to be light in color. After this pastel layer dried, I added a clear gutta resist by outlining leaves from my yard. This leaf outline should retain the pastel color as I add the next layer of color.

In the images here, you can see the pastel colors of the first layer. The close-ups show faint outlines of the gutta resist.

House Numbers: July 20, 2009

These are some house numbers that I painted with acrylic on wood cutouts.

Trinket (finished): July 10, 2009

"Trinket" is complete. This is a 5"x7" acrylic painting on 140 lb. watercolor paper. Trinket is a very bashful little Yorkie and, oh, so cute!

Trinket (in progress): July 9, 2009

I've finished Trinket's body and legs and put in the background layer of color for her face.

Trinket (in progress): July 8, 2009

"Tinket" is the third Yorkie in this set, a work in progress.

Cookie (finished): July 7, 2009

"Cookie" is complete. This is a 5"x7" acrylic painting on 140 lb. watercolor paper. Cookie is an adorable little Yorkie who has a pet parrot who calls to her, "Here, Cookie, Cookie!" So cute!

Cookie (in progress): July 6, 2009

Cookie's body is done. Her head looks awful strange at this stage of the painting.

Cookie (progress): July 3, 2009

"Cookie" is in progress, the second of three new Yorkie paintings.

Sweetie: July 3, 2009

"Sweetie" is the first of three new commissioned Yorkie paintings. She is painted in acrylic on 5"x7" 140 lb. watercolor paper.