I have started on a new venture. I now am making prints of my art. Not all of it, just the ones I particularly like and I feel are my best work. I started by ordering them from Zazzle.com. This is where one of my mentors gets her prints as this company is reasonable and does quality work. If you ever want to try it you will want to order the prints on archival heavy-weight poster paper. Then you must order backer board, mats and clear sleeve bags. These can be purchased through Clearbags.com. Again, this company is reasonable and has quality products. Two things to keep in mind are you must keep the price low enough to make a profit and when you order the bags or sleeves, they must be just larger than the mat and backer board. The "fold-over" sleeves are the most professional looking ones. The advantage of doing this is that people can purchase your art at a more reasonable rate when they get a print AND the painting can be sold multiple times. More bang for your buck, or work. In other words, you make more money and get more satisfied customers!
I have made a lot of progress on my second painting for the Nature and Wildlife show. It is a salt marsh scene as I mentioned before. I have it set in the late afternoon and the sun is giving that golden glow as I mentioned before. Like the horse painting, I am taking it slow and putting in a lot of detail. So it is sitting for now and I keep looking at it. When I see something that needs work, I pick it up, Acrylics dry darker so I am waiting to see if my Sabal palms darken or if I will need to darken them some. My husband thinks the front tree is too light. Ever the critic! LOL!!
While it sits, I have started on the commissioned painting. It is a "paradise" scene with the family in the scene. I am working differently on this painting. Most of my work consists of painting the entire canvas with underpainting and then building on that. On this one, I am working from the top of the canvas to the bottom. Many artists do that, but I don't normally. No particular reason, it is just the way I started out. I have a photo below so you can see what I mean.
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| "A WALK IN THE RAIN" |
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| This is the preliminary or roughed in painting that I posted last week.... |
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| This is how the painting looks currently. Notice that I have changed the sky by lightening the blue and simplifying the cloud formation. Remember that we can have a complicated sky OR landscape! We CANNOT have BOTH complicated because the eye cannot decide what to focus on that way. But we CAN have both simple. Confused? I hope not. At this point at least, the palm tree foliage is too light. Acrylics darken over time, usually a few days, so I will let this set and see if I need to darken it or not. I still have not come up with a name either. |
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| This is the commission that I am working on. If you will notice, I am working this one differently than I normally do. I am working from the top of the canvas down for most of this one. Probably because there is so little sky in this one. It doesn't really matter which way you work, but I am also using almost a watercolor technique here with the paint being very thin. It is fun and a different approach for me. One more thing. I have decided that I have enough small simple paintings for the Art Walk for the time being. For the near future anyway, I will concentrate on my more detailed paintings. They take more time, and thus cost more, but they also give me more satisfaction and I progress more in my skill. And, after all, isn't that what it's all about? |
