Creating more stock

I sold a lot of ACEO's and small paintings in the last few weeks from my Etsy shop. I am working on new ACEO's at the moment. Here are already 2 new Mixed media ACEO's:

And I worked on watercolor (and pen) paintings. Both paintings are 5" x 7". A lovely sleepy and cuddly koala and a lazy dog. Is there anyone who wants to play...? 

And one with watercolors on YUPO paper, also 5" x 7". This is a view from the Pacific Highway 1, running down the coast of California. I will be going to California in a few weeks time, and I will blog about my adventures and show you some sketches I make along the way.

Painting holiday in the Netherlands

Last week I went on a 5 day painting holiday in the Netherlands. In the National Park 'De Wieden'. A beautiful part of the Netherlands with lots of water and beautiful landscapes. I focused on working with watercolors, but also did some sketching. As you see, I made several paintings of the same view :-).

What to do with all these gelli prints?

Today I decided it was time to do something with the great painted papers I created with the Gelli Plate. I have a bunch of different kind papers (deli paper, regular copy paper, rice paper, etc.), in all colors, with all kind of motives. It is really addictive this Gelli Plate. I was thinking about creating some birthday cards, but started with a collage instead.

I took two similar colored papers for the background and braided them. I put some gel medium on the back to stick them together. The collage is actually created in a Visual Journal 9" x 11". I am going to dedicate this journal only for Gelli Plate prints, collages and journal pages with Gelli prints.
Looking for a table I found this lovely purple Gelli print on delipaper. The vase is delipaper as well, and you still can see thru it.
I cut the petals from the tulips from 2 different kind of red prints.

I love it, and it does feel good to create something with all these lovely prints!

Learning a new technique - Steven Reddy's Craftsy class

I took Steven Reddy's class on Craftsy and I love the new technique I learned. It starts with a sketch with pen and an underpainting with Indian ink. Love the technique! The class is great, Steven is very patient, explains well and he is very comforting, you are allowed to make mistakes. Great class for everyone who wants to learn new sketching techniques.


All in my Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbook, 7" x 7".

Flower pots with ink washes

And the flower pots with watercolors

And a selfie ;-)

And it also works for portraits

The flower pots and Jim (the old man), the references are from pmp-art.com. PaintMyPhoto. The selfie of me on a Greek terrace drinking coffee is my own.

Playing with alcohol inks

I saw an image on Pinterest of an abstract painting which inspired me to go and look for my alcohol inks again. The 2 abstracts I created have absolutely no resemblance with the image I saw, but I love how they turned out. Both are on A3 size (30x 40cms/ 11 3/4" x 16 1/2") Yupo paper, with alcohol inks and I have added some details with Promarkers. I do love the bright and intense colors of the alcohol inks (the second painting is brighter IRL, but alcohol inks do not photograph well..).

The old barn door - reworked

I showed you this print of the old barn door in my last post.

I had a total of 3 prints, the above one being the best of the 3. I took one of the 'lesser' prints and worked on it with pen (black and brown ink) and soft pastels. And I love how it turned out!!

I am wondering if I could use some watercolors on the other print. The print is printed on Mulberry paper, not sure if it will handle washes... And I am even not sure the printing ink is waterproof. Maybe I need to check that first!

Printmaking for the WetCanvas WDE

I have been watching lots of printmaking video's on YouTube lately. Looking for new techniques of printmaking. I love Belinda del Pesco's video's. She explains and shows different printmaking techniques in a short video. I was looking for a image to use as a first experiment for a matboard collograph (Link to Belinda's video). And I found one in the WetCanvas Drawing event for this weekend.

This is the image and my first cut in matboard (coated with gloss medium) with an X-Acto knive.

After another coat of medium, I rubbed the ink into the cuts.

And with a cloth, a tissue and a q-tip I rubbed some of the ink of for the high lights

I cut 3 pieces of Mulberry paper into 8" x 10" size pieces and soaked them in water. The print plate is 4" x 6". I placed the paper on the printing plate and started rubbing with the back of a spoon, and rubbing, and rubbing....

After the first print I made some more cuts in the plate. This is the second print and is the best of the three. And drying on the washing line as you see ;-). Great new technique!! Thanks Belinda!

When they are all dry I will see if I will work on them a bit more, maybe with watercolors, or ink, maybe colored pencils. Lots of opportunities, will certainly try this again.