Where has the year gone!!

I cannot believe it's July already, this year seems to have whizzed by without me noticing. I'd like to think it was because I was so busy painting that I didn't notice! alas no - as of today I don't think I have completed a whole painting this year, many started projects but none finished. Although i haven't been idle i did get some jewellery making done, check these out....

Ear cuffs No piercing required just wrap around your ear.

They are all on Etsy if anyone would like to buy one

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SocietyInk

I have also been working on a very large fishy pic, goldfish to be precise. in watercolour if you work in watercolour you will know the difficulties of covering large areas with colour that doesn't look stripey or blotchy.  This painting is no exception in as much that some of the areas are still quite large pieces that have very dark colour on them. The only way I have found to cope with this is to mix up paint from tubes in a tray to a milk consistency and then with large brushes wet the area to be painted with an under coat, so for me it was indigo undercoat. Two reasons for using this staining colour 1. it covers very well and intensifies the black that go over the top 2. If I'm going to lift any of the lighter parts out I can do so but still have a blueish tint to the paper which works well with any thing black.

OK that done let dry

repeat the process with your next colour in my case blue-black on wet paper again, I usually advocate mixing any darks with deep colours such as purple, blues or deep greens to give the dark more body. In this painting it wont be needed as it is a reflection through glasses which will be slightly grey in places as the light hits the glass.

As for the fish you can see from the above photo that I started with a base coats of Winsor yellow and Vermilion diluted for the fins. These are then let dry before re-wetting the paper with water and applying intense colour do this gently as you do not want to churn up the under layer. keeping this intact will leave room to lift highlights and edges of scales when it's dry, as you can see the yellow shows through really well.

If you haven't guessed already the picture in the background is Aubrey Beardsley' Peacock skirt. It does actually hang behind the fish bowl on my desk!
Try some distortion paintings there good fun but a little time consuming.