Post #607409 by tigertail777 on Mon, Sep 19, 2011 9:55 PM

Hey thanks Wendy (and Dan) for tuning in! Glad I can keep you both entertained. By the way I am loving your missionary downfall women right now, especially the details you are painting on each one.:) Well I went on an all night marathon to try and finish her lady mermaidness, but didn't quite reach the finish line. I have just a few more touch ups to do, and then some experimental new paint stuff (I bought some water based oil paints to try and bring out more of the vibrancy of the colors, as I find that even straight out the of the tube unmixed most acrylics really lose a great deal of brightness and vibrancy when they dry. So I thought maybe if I touched up acrylics with oils it might help, and I would not have to use the more expensive oils for everything). A little nervous with my "experiment" as it does have the potential to ruin it to some degree.

After this, I am afraid I am going to have to halt the painting for a while until I can find some way to pay for new art supplies, including an easel. I could never figure out why artists used easels... after last night I know why. I woke up with such an incredibly stiff and sore neck and back from looking down painting all night, I know now I just have got to get an easel if I continue this. Plus my paints are running low and I am afraid I have grounded several of my brushes on mermaid reef just a little too much: they are mere stubs now. The magazine job is not a paying job right away (at least not more than skittles and rum...if that), like many art jobs these days it's the old idea of working on the ground floor of a fledgling company in the hopes that said company gets "big" and then being paid accordingly. Not much better than "spec" work, but hope rises eternal in today's economy. Meanwhile bills do stack up so I have to scramble to find ANY illustration/graphic design work I can do that pays. So pardon if I am absent for between painting bouts; that is just me trying to swim.

So all that said... on with the show!

Now for some details...

The main attraction blissfully watching another attraction in the foreground. You can see the pitted details/barnacles/seaweed decently in this pic.

And finally, since the lighting is utterly horrible in the dining room where I paint these things, I figured a tilted angle might show the colors a little truer to what they really are.

Next time I part the curtain, she should be finished. This is a wood panel I am painting on, so I am debating what to paint on the sides: just plain blue...more sea life details...or what? Also I really don't have a lot of experience in painting on wood panels, so am wondering if I should use some kind of sealer on it (matte of course if I do). I have a 11X17 Epson scanner, so I am hoping on the final version it will scan the colors much nicer than the camera has been picking up. Well, gang until next time thanks for dropping in to see the tiki mermaid show.

[ Edited by: tigertail777 2011-09-19 21:58 ]