Not feeling this one as much

I think I am "fighting" with this painting a little more than the last one. I was thinking of washing off the water last night. Just putting it under the faucet and letting it wash off. I don't know about this weight of paper though. It is a heavier weight and is stranger for me to work with and is sucking in the paint faster and deeper and it is hard for me to tell what it is going to look like and making me second guess myself. I guess that is what is frustrating. Maybe once I get a little depth into the background I will feel a little better about it. Last night when I was doing some detail work on the shore and in the water with watercolor pencils Jim had Liesl in his lap sleeping in the family room. He said " how come it sounds like you are coloring?". I said. "because I am". It was kinda funny. I don't think he knew I did some detail with watercolor pencils sometimes. Here is the painting I am working on currently. I almost didn't want to post a picture because it is at a point I am frustrated with. But here it is.

Started a few more paintings

Liesl went to sleep at 5:30 pm last night and didn't wake up until 7:30 am this morning after her long day at the zoo. Needless to say, I got some painting done. I decided to start a couple more paintings last night. Both of them are a different version of the birch paintings. One of them is quite small and I would mat it on a VERY big mat. Not sure what I will do with it when done but there is a demand for all kinds of sizes. The other is a standard size piece of heavy duty cold press paper that had something on the other side that someone else started and gave me the paper because it was really expensive. I really liked working with it so far. We will see how it turns out when I am done. I wasnt able to start anything else as my roll of paper was where Liesl was sleeping.

Altogether, I have 5 paintings started and at different stages and probably 4 or 5 more paintings that are in the final stages of completion. Which is a very good thing because the watercolor takes a long time to dry and you cant always work on it until completely dry depending on the effect.

Prints?

I found a really sweet company that would do prints. I would send them my original and they would do a high resolution scan of it and color correct the image which would have to be done with watercolor because of the porous nature... it kind of distorts the color when light is applied. the kind of print is called a Giclee, which I have researched before. They would print it on watercolor paper with high quality inks. Looking forward to sending one in. It would be inexpensive to have one printed and I would get a full size proof of it. Example: For the size of this watercolor painting I just did, a Giclee to print 100 would be $80 plus shipping etc. Plus, I can go back and order 15 prints smaller later or more. I see it all coming together. Here is the site:

Crimson Atelier

Ideas on framing

This is gonna be a super big piece of work. The finished size is 43 1/2X 25 1/2 found a place to order over-sized mat board but as always with the over-sized stuff the colors are limited. Not sure I could get something as exciting as I picked out for this on the left. oversized mat board

Standard size mat board is 32X40...way too small. If I can get a good color in over-sized (40X60) for this which would be plenty big I could put a 3 or 4 inch mat around it. If I am going with a mat it might as well be 4 inches in my opinion......which would make the piece total size with overlap 51X33.

If I go with just a frame and spacers to separate the artwork from the Plexiglas it would look nice too. Just depends on what I could get for over-sized mat board colors to make it worth my while. I did find some frames that would definitely do the work justice without a frame. Here is an example of the artwork un-matted.

Betula Magic

Well, the painting is finished now. I don't think there is anything I can do more at this point but flatten it out. I put in the details in the canopy and in the ground cover and I am calling it done. Here are some pics but it doesn't do it justice as the flash tends to bounce back more from the watercolor pencil than the soaked in paint.

Birches....done.....on to leaves detail and ground cover?

I did some serious working on the birches tonight. They are amazing and glowing. Cant wait for people to see these. The picture says it all. I cant wait to work on the other details tomorrow. I have to admit I have been scared to paint again thinking I had lost the creative juices. I guess I picked agood subject.....Or Dee picked a good subject for me to start back up on. I feel really good about going onto Etsy and the new house and my new studio.

Created an Etsy Storefront

I just created a Storefront on Etsy. If you havent been introduced to Etsy yet please join and mention that you were referred by me. My user-name is ingridtierney. I have not been able to put anything up in my shop yet but I am hoping to get some of my paintings on there this weekend if I can take pictures of what I have left in my portfoio and anything I might have finished recently. My (still empty) store-front is located here at Ingrid Tierney Watercolor Studio I will include an Etsy mini on this blog on the left but again....empty so will wait until I have something in there to sell. Wish me luck!

Just a little addicted

Here is what I managed this evening... I think it is the most that I have been able to do so far. I got through with all the back forest trees and the washes on the birches. Tomorrow or the next time I paint I will do some detailing on all or some of the birches and add some highlights to the trees and grasses. I dont know how much more after that til I call it quits. Maybe a small amount of leaf detail and thats that.

There are the birches

So I finished one birch tonight and started detailing several more and I am really starting to get into this painting. I am loving the detail. I put in some happy little grasses at the base of the tree and some happy little shadowy trees in the distanceand it is getting some real depth. Birches are such fun trees to paint. Jim thinks that sleeping on the couch is being my muse. Well at least he didnt go to bed on me. I think I am about more than a 1/4 of the way through detailing the birches and I will be putting in the shadowy trees in the background as a go. The grasses look really nice at the bases but the photo doesnt do it justice. Kind of shows up a lot more with the camera than it in reality does. I like the subtlety more. Same with the shadowy trees. It really is something more to see in person but this is my only mode of showing people. So enjoy. Hopefully I will paint tomorrow.

One Tree at a Time

So.... there are something like 8 trees in the painting. If I keep this up and 1/2 way do a tree a night it will take me 2.5 weeks to do the trees alone. hehehe this is where the craziness comes in. It wont take me that long. I just had a little drink in me from the pre-St Patty's day celebration tonight and I have an early day tomorrow. Tomorrow I will try to put more detail into that tree and then go onto the next. I think it is really popping!

Unmasked

Well I unmasked the trees tonight. I am thinking it was about time. Took me all evening. One of the only bad things about working so big. I really do like it though. I think the only other time I worked this big was the mermaid graphite drawing and that was one of my better works. We shall see how this one turns out. I will probably start detailing the trees and the ground cover and then layer on some more leaves in the trees possibly with watercolor pencil but have not yet decided.

Splatter, Splatter

Last night I did some splattering for the trees and the groundcover. I think I might have to go back and do some more to make it a little more dense. Then I can remove the masking which I am super happy about because I can then start to do some detail and start the trees which always makes me feel better about the painting.

Paintbrushes Help

So I did try and paint on Friday night too but I forgot my brushes at Mom's.... The most important part of course and I couldnt do without them. Last night I managed to get a wash on the painting. Jim was my muse providing my inspiration. This is what I came up with so far. I do have a long way to go and I cant wait to take the mask off the trees and start painting them too and getting to detail. I think I have a good start and of course already thinking about the next painting. I have never worked on a painting that I have to walk to the other side to get to. It is 45X26.5 which is huge!

It's been a long time paints...I missed you

Well, I was able to start a painting last night. Didn't get to the "painting" point yet but I did manage to do some masking. I am working on a "birches" painting. Going to do a giant wash on it and do some splattering into the wash like I did with my other "close up birch". This painting is about 36-40in wide and about 24 in tall. Kinda big to be starting out again on but I do best on bigger paintings. I am going to try and take a hint from mom and try and get juried on some of my stuff and go for it. What the heck have I been so afraid of taking a leap on this for. I have plenty of stuff I can try and get juried on. We shall see....maybe my studio is not too far off? What do you think of my start?

Watercolor?

Thursday night I am going to start painting again. I am hoping to make this my new career but I am gonna start out slow. Dee saw a line of paintings by an artist in Holland (mainly birches) and she wanted to buy one. I am gonna try and hook her into buying one of mine instead. Think I may just take a pic of the one birch painting I have done and post it up. Then whip up a bunch of them for her to choose. Thinking I am gonna hopefully get pics of them in different stages to post here. I may try to sell them on Etsy and see where that goes but I aspire to have my own studio. I would love to tech classes to kids and adults eventually too. I think I have done my time with what I am doing right now.