Lone Turtle

Lone Turtle

Watercolor 16 X 20

I've been enjoying painting these underwater turtle scenes . I start out with a background painting using a lot of texture techniques especially on the bottom. These give me a starting point for the scene I have in mind. I will lay pieces of wax paper, plastic wrap, gauze, tissue paper, rice paper, bubble wrap, or netting into the wet wash and let it dry. This gives me a foundation for all the coral and rocks in the bottom of the painting. The trick is to not do too much or too little. 

The 30 in 30 Challenge starts in February this year. I've signed up for it but it's a very busy month for me with multiple art shows and workshops.  It's time to get organized and have an idea for what I want to work on. Endless possibilities have to be narrowed down. I think the word for the month will be "Focus".

Watercolor Without Glass

Undersea Turtle

7.5 X 7.5 Watercolor

Waxed and mounted on 8 X 8 Board

I visited a gallery in Salem Oregon and saw some amazing watercolors that were displayed without being under glass. The gallery owner said the artist sealed them with wax. They looked so nice without the reflection of glass that I knew I had to try it. The neat thing about living in this modern time is that anything can be researched on the internet. I found out that artists can use Dorlands Wax Medium to permanently seal their watercolors. It stays clear and does not yellow. This is my first attempt at it and so far it's looking good. I first sprayed the watercolor with workable fixative, let it dry and and applied a coat of wax. I will apply another coat of wax and see if it's sealed sufficiently to hang. I think it would be good to use a UVA spray before applying the wax so next time I will try that. If anyone has tried this, I'd like to know how it worked out for them.

Four, Maybe More

Watercolor on 300# Paper

15 X 22 

On my last post a comment was made to make my image larger. I don't know why I haven't been doing that. So, thanks for the comment and suggestion, Paris Breakfasts! By the way, she is my favorite blogger and one of the reasons I started to blog. She made it look like fun, and it is! 

This painting just started as a random background, I did have an underwater theme in mind but with backgrounds you never know what is going to show up. I was inspired to do turtles, rather fanciful turtles in glorious color. It was a fun painting to do.

I found I loved working this way on 300# paper! It is so forgiving and easy to change and rework. It's funny how you get stuck in doing things the same way just because that's the way you were originally taught or have done it. I've always done these backgrounds on 140# paper in the past and still have some to finish but in the future I think I'll work this way on 300# paper.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow bloggers and readers. Keep on creating!