Hope Soars

5" x 8" 90# watercolor loose page, Tsukineko Inks, Acrylic paints, rubber stamps, medium charcoal pencil, General's white charcoal pencil. August, 10, 2013.

I was playing with inks on watercolor paper, and a straw to blow the ink around, I ended up just painting washes of color, as a background. I used acrylic paints to print a foam curly cue stamp, and was going to add words, but my stamps I was making, would have been reversed, so I just painted the words. Rubber stamp, lace doily circle, and charcoal pencil to draw the bird and outline the lettering, I wanted a free sketchy look. I highlighted with a white charcoal pencil. Spray fixative.

Fortunes

8" x 10" double journal page, water color paints, Pigma pen, rubber stamps, collage papers. August 3, 2013.

I used watercolor paints to paint the fortune cookie before I ate it, and a red wash in the background. I added outline details with Pigma pen. I collaged a lot of my collection of fortune cookies around it, with a red chopstick paper wrapper. A business card from China Buffet, is in the top right corner. I used several rubber stamps, one of "Wisdom," the other "Hope" in Chinese characters. And a square stamp with Chinese characters, which I have no idea what it says.

Puget Sound

5" x 8" gray toned paper, watercolor paints. August 3, 2013

I painted this on gray paper, it is very monochromatic, so it was a challenge to get the subtle contrast and color changes. I kept adding more and more pigment in layers to get the darker colors, and I am surprised the white paint showed up so well. When I used the white, it just looked like wet paper, no white, until it dried. I did not paint the sky at all, the gray fit the mood, and lots of times, that is the color of the overcast sky. I used a magazine photo for inspiration.