painting technique – Gator Girl Art

Hi all y’all!

I am trying my hand at a video. My weakest area in vlogging is setting up the camera (my phone). I have little patience for some things. Sometimes, in the video, I wish I had been more patient.

If you paint, Miskit is super fun. The little jar is $15 and if you use your 50% off one item at Michaels, it is $7.50 at checkout.

I have only used Miskit for watercolor before. When you watercolor, you have to save the white areas. It is not like acrylic paint, where you can just add white later. The reason I used Miskit with this painting, is that the face was small compared to the tool I was using. If I got the aftro paint on her face, it would take long time to get her skin color back the way it was. Also, I wanted to only think about the wig, not think about keeping her face clean. Lastly, it was super fun to use.

Can’t Stop the Feeling is a song we danced to all last season.

Tonight is the opening for Soul, Soul, Soul at the Old No. 77 Hotel. I have always wanted to have art in one of the shows there. 3 of my paintings were chosen this time. My friend, Cheryl Grace‘s work is the focal point. If you have time, come by and see the show. It will be there all through Jazz Fest. The hotel is beautiful and is connected to Compère Lapin.

Have a great day!

Gator Girl

Hi all y’all,

I wanted to finish Gator in the Hen House before I wrote to you this week. I am taking 4 paintings to Dorka to photograph this morning. This is my photograph of the finished painting. I am going to frame it with some wood I have saved under the house.

This is pretty large, 24 x 36 inches. My favorite part is the alligator. My second favorite part is the chicken wire.

My goal was to make the gator the center of attention with a smug and cavalier attitude. The chickens are a riot of color and feathers. They each have their own personality.

I raised the chicken wire with molding paste, then lightly brushed some Golden Green Gold and Cobalt Teal back in.

The rooster was painted with Golden’s Permanent Violet Dark, then Carbon Black and more colors. The shiny parts are Silk’s Acrylic Glaze.

This rooster is standing as straight as he can on his tiptoes trying to look invisible.

This hen's eyes are starting to roll back in her head. She thinks she might faint. — This hen’s eyes are starting to roll back in her head. She thinks she might faint.

I used Golden’s molding paste and Liquitex heavy body acrylic on the white chicken. I said “used” because I painted with a brush, my fingers and a palette knife.

I loved this chicken when she was pure green, but I wanted her to be a more realistic color and contrast with the gator.

So I changed her to..

Mama chicken is yelling, "Get outa here!" — Mama chicken is yelling, “Get outa here!”

On Mama Chicken I painted with acrylic paint and Dylusions Postbox Red Ink Spray. I painted with it, not sprayed it. I love how it saturates. I had to seal the hen with varnish and then paint the white bits back in. When you paint with ink it keeps soaking through.

I made the floor of the hen-house dirty, by putting broken toothpicks and beads in black and tan paint, putting them on the floor of the hen-house and pulling the pieces off with tweezers. I knew I would have a hard time making the dirt look random, otherwise.

One of the challenges of this painting was to keep the chickens in the background as supporting actors. They really wanted to take over.

I bought this cart at IKEA. I love it more every day.

Each day I have to trust again that I am on the right path. For me, right now, it seems like the only one. So I am putting one foot in front of the other and going on.

Loving you unconditionally,

Tag: painting technique

Miskit a Liquid Frisket

Gator in the Hen House

Gator Girl