Up Side Dog

                                                                       Up Side Dog
                                                                           11"x14"
                                                                           Acrylic
Well as part of my New Year's resolutions I wanted to enter more challenges as I have found they make me try things that I haven't done before.  The challenges I have done previously pretty much have been everyone paints the same photo.

This is this week's DPW challenge, The Underwater challenge.  I have moved to this challenge because they give you both a photo you can use or just the subject and then you have to think up what to do.  Thought it might help my creativity.  Well, heck, anyone could paint a fish.

 I had seen this photo on PMP, by Gretchen, the other day when I was looking for inspiration and since I am hung up on water right now I thought this might be the perfect time to paint something that is pretty abstract.  All the reflections I thought were pretty cool.

This is on mat board and I taped off a border and just went at it.   I found this gray paint at Hobby Lobby called Cloudy Grey and I just love it, sort of a blue gray that really tones down Pthalo Green.

Thanks much for taking a look.

Comments

Danielle v/d Horst said…
Heel erg mooi gelukt knap hoor Lieve groetjes Danielle
May 26, 2016 at 3:46 PM
Unknown said…
I love this - the water is absolutely awesome! I am constantly amazed at your abilities and in awe.
May 27, 2016 at 7:03 AM
hmuxo said…
This definitely looks like a challenge Nelvia!! It looks like a watercolor not acrylic! Lovely work as always!
May 27, 2016 at 10:04 AM
Mellowood Gallery said…
This is a very strange scene, Nelvia but the execution looks great.
May 27, 2016 at 11:58 AM
Nelvia said…
Hi Danielle, I hope this find you doing well. Got to take a break and catch up on what you have been doing. Glad you like this one.
May 28, 2016 at 8:19 AM
Nelvia said…
Hi Diane, thank you. I am as you know constantly working on trying to get the water flowing and am enjoying the study. Thank you so much but the wonderful compliment. Can't wait until we can start painting together. Know we will both grow.
May 28, 2016 at 8:20 AM
Nelvia said…
Hey there my friend, how is it going up your way? You know I often use acrylic with watercolor techniques. But alas in real life it is more vivid than watercolor. It is subdued somewhat because of the mat color choice I think and I didn't deviate too much from it's value except in the underwater line. Thanks so much for taking a look.
May 28, 2016 at 8:22 AM
Nelvia said…
Hi Val, yes it is unusual and I guess that is what drew me to it. I did have fun trying to learn how to do the water movement and the light refractions. Very end of the brush and just twirl it as you move it - harder than it sounds, but super light touch. Love it when I learn to so much from a painting.
May 28, 2016 at 8:23 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bold woman's portrait

Image
Bold Ok, for today's portrait I went out of the box and decided to try a different look and approach. This is on watercolor paper, I applied a layer of paper collate over it (you can see that some of it started lifting - so got to use more medium to glue it next time)  Anyway then I tried to leave part of that under collage showing, even in the face.  Went back in and applied several more light lawyers of transparent and opaque paint and then put in the hair using my dagger bus.   Gosh that brush makes hair so much easier While this might not the best example what are your thoughts to taking portraits this more dynamic direction? Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
Read more

Her Highness mixed media woman portrait

Image
Her Highness   I just absolutely loved the expression on this lady and knew I wanted to try to capture her elegance and serenity.  I knew that I didn't want an exact portrait and decided to try another mixed media piece.    I added blobs of paint and used my large scraper to make the areas of color.  Just put paint on a piece of watercolor paper.  Then I inscribed and mixed the colors together with the end of my brush and got all the wavy lines (in real life they actually stand up so there is a 3D effect to the background).  Where I thought I wanted the face I really scraped most of the paint off, and ended up with color blotches and tones, and if you look in the forehead you can sort of see the design that was left.  I thought it would add some variance to the skin tones. I also want to keep her very soft so I tried to stay in the pastel tones, even with the lips.   Once I got shadows and lights added in, and went over it with some skin tone and more blue colors I let
Read more

In The Garden acrylic painting Redo

Image
In The Garden Original painting Well, thankfully I have some folks who tell me what they think.  I value their objective opinions very much and appreciate that they feel strongly enough to tell me when they feel something is off.  In the original painting no one liked the addition of the yellow flower, and felt it pulled the eye and overshadowed the focal point.   Well, I sat on it a bit and starting playing with how I could work it back into the composition.  I wanted the third flower, but I couldn't just really dull down the yellow.  As you an see I ended up making it darker in shadows and then burying it into the foliage.  I like it better because it now looks, to me, like it is part of the picture instead of just being put on in the corner.  Moral of the story, fix it first because it is hard to come in and match colors later. What do you think of the changes - for better or worse? Thanks much for stopping by and taking a look.
Read more