Postcard Set and Print GIVEAWAY!!

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One lucky winner will win a set of 25 of my fantasy/gothic art postcards and an 8.5 x 11" print of my newest painting, "A Glimmer of Hope!"

Postcards included in this set art:
Toxic, Dead Sea, Opium Poppy, Broken Halo, Witching Hour, Candy Hearts, Pine, Spellbook, Midnight Minions, Black Hellebore, Midnight Travelers, Adrift, Nevermore, Wither, Holly, Wisdom, Despair, Hope, Submerged, Winter, From the Dark Depths, Absinthe, False Hellebore, Christmas Kitties, and Windswept

Good luck everyone!!

Let me know asap if you have any trouble entering.

The "tweet about the giveaway" and "easy entry for all" options can be done once a day to increase your chances of winning! In the easy entry for all option, if you have to type something in the box to enter, you can put whatever you want, even just your name.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Enter using the form below. Please allow a few seconds for it to load.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dead Sea - New Art!

"Dead Sea"

Here is my newest painting! This is a commissioned painting. I was given free reign with a photo the client gave me. I love commissions like this! Since I've been on a mermaid kick lately, here is another! :) I believe this will be my last mermaid for a little while though.

5 x 7" watercolor and white gouache.
Prints are available on my website, eBay and Etsy!

I discovered something simple but neat while working on this painting. I discovered that there is indeed a difference between using zinc white gouache and titanium/permanent white. A while back I'd done some reading about gouache painting because I was thinking and still hope to do some all-gouache paintings someday. I'd read that zinc white isn't as opaque as titanium white, but it is good for making tints. When I first began combining white gouache with my watercolor, I mainly used it to add some white highlights here and there, so for that I wanted the most opaque white. Over the years my techniques have changed some. I paint in watercolors in transparent and opaque techniques. I know the traditional watercolor approach is to use watercolor and let the white of the paper show through. For the most part I do paint that way, but I do like to use other techniques such as bodycolor, which is the use of opaque watercolor (either all-gouache or by mixing opaque white with transparent watercolor). I usually do this by mixing a little of a color (watercolor) with white gouache. I was never a stickler for tradition and am more concerned with the final result.

I've been using this technique with titanium/permanent white for several years now, since that was the white I had. While at Michaels last week I saw a tube of zinc white and remembered what I'd read about it being good for making tints. Since that is basically what I've been doing I bought the tube and tested it out on this painting. I have to say that I love this white so much better for my technique of painting! It is a more sheer white, but this works so great for building up subtle layers! And it can become very opaque when desired. I only used zinc white for the gouache parts of this painting, which includes much of the skeleton fish, the bright highlights and detailing in her hair and scales. It seems like it blends better with the watercolor and looks more natural and less chalky. I've always wondered whether it would really make a difference... now I know. :)  I'm sure there will still be times when the opaqueness of titanium white will be better suited, but I'm glad that I made this discovery about zinc white for my bodycolor techniques!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

New Painting and Products!

"From the Dark Depths"
This is my newest painting, finished earlier this week!  I actually painted a mermaid this time!  It is not a subject that I get inspired to paint often for whatever reason.  I just don't get that many mermaid ideas.  :)

I wanted her to me more of a dark mermaid, and even though she is up on the beach, I didn't want it to be beautifully sunny.  So I opted for a cloudier atmosphere.

Watercolor and white goauche, as usual.  5 x 7"
Prints are available on my website!

New Products!
I'm pleased to announce that my artwork is now available on a couple of new products!

Some of my art is now available as Iron On Transfers from Kat's Magical Patches!! These can be used for all kinds of fabric crafts!

Also, You can now get some of my art as Rubber Stamps! Pre-order my first sheet now at Sweet Pea Stamps!!

Other...
We got the kittens spayed this week, and they are now at home recovering.  As it turned out, all 3 off them are girls!  I thought for sure that at least Loki was a boy.  Oh well, I guess we'll just have to have a girl cat named Loki, because I couldn't get used to another name at this point.  lol

They seem to be doing well, except for the fact that they don't recognized each other's scent and keep hissing at each other.  This also includes their mom.  She hisses if one comes anywhere near her.  I've heard this is common and should pass.  I sure hope so!

Darkest Night -- finished painting

I finish this tonight. Another mermaid finally! I don't paint them very often. This is only the 3rd or 4th I've ever done, I think.

I hope you like it! :)

Watercolor and white goauche. 9 x 12"

Prints available on my website... ACEO prints may be available soon. I have so see how it looks that small first.

Details:

Sea Dragon and Mermaid Sketch

This is a sketch that I've been working on. I don't paint many mermaids, but this idea came to me. And I've been trying to paint more dragons too because they're my favorite fantasy creatures. I've just always been better at painting/drawing people.

I don't really know exactly what kind of colors I want to paint this yet. All I know is that it is going to be night, so it'll be pretty dark. :)

Below are some of the little thumbnail sketches that I did to figure out what pose and composition I wanted to use. Yes, they are very rough! :) I decided I liked the third one the best. It seemed the most natural to me.



Well, that's about all for now. I just thought I'd share what I'm working on at the moment...