A New Medium

My birthday was yesterday, and my children decided, in their infinite wisdom, that it was about time I tried something new. My gift was a small set of acrylic inks in delicious colours! They hadn't found any blues, kind of important, so I was told to get myself some more and they'd pay. I found a great deal and ended up buying six more colours and also some Atelier Interactive acrylics - heck, if I have to learn a new media I might as well throw myself into it!

It's kind of scary starting out with a totally alien material - learning what it will and won't do, how it differs from watercolour, but it's scary in a good way! Watercolours will always be my passion but it'll do me good to play with the bright acrylic colours too.

A short session with my new paints/inks shows how exciting they are going to be! This was a very quick sketch with no real planning but I kinda like it!

Tulip Rainbow #2

I wasn't thrilled with my first tulip painting (Primary Tulips) so I immediately started again with a different reference image! I'm very happy with the way this one turned out, there was no masking involved, colours were allowed to move and blend, but overall the effect isn't busy.

Tulip Rainbow #2, watercolours on paper, 14x10

Summers End

Back to the catch-ups! I saw this hydrangea while visiting Bodnant Gardens in North Wales last September. I love the colours that the previously white flowers (although technically they're bracts) turned as they faded. It's quite muted for me, but I really like how it turned out!

Summers End, Watercolour, 14x10 inches

Primary Tulips

It's tulip time - the shops are full of colourful bunches, and I can never resist buying a bunch of mixed colours. I think the recent snowy weather got to me and affected my palette for this painting!

Primary Tulips, 10x14 inches on Fabriano Artistico watercolour paper.

Sunburst #2

Here's my finished sunflower! I'm very pleased with how it turned out, especially that I managed to retain the freshness of my colours and looseness of my brush strokes. It's very easy to overwork watercolours and make the colours muddy.

Finished, but no photo yet!

The sunflower is done, and I can honestly say I'm glad! Sometimes I start a new work and feel incredibly excited, but the process is interrupted and I lose the real excitement and end up plodding along. That's what happened with this sunflower.

Oh well, here's the final progress image!

Nearly There

This is taking so much longer than I anticipated! One more push and it should be done though.

Sunflower - more progress

The weekend is always busy in the Harris house, with people in and out constantly, so it's nice to find even a few minutes to paint amid the chaos!

I got a little further with the background (or setting) for the sunflower, and jumped in with my darkest darks in the centre.