Projects and ideas in photos and paint

 These went fairly well but I've got several days into them and I'm still adding layers of clear coat so it may be tomorrow before I'm actually finished with them and ready to send them on their way.

 Coming to the end of that project I'm kicking around ideas for what I want to do next. I started by photographing my Christmas stocking. So far the plan is that if I don't like the way the photo itself works on a greeting card I'll just use it to base a series of drawings and paintings on until I find an image that works for me.

There are several reasons that I love this stocking. Of course the top one is that I designed and made it out of a lot of great things that people I care about have given me. I'll give a short list as I finish this post.

 There is a stick pin that my sister Becca cross stitched for me and some some plastic "shrinkies" that she made as well (drawings on a shrink plastic that turns them into small charms)

 Some of the fabric is from my cousin Susan's wedding in Hawaii, there are buttons from my sister Chris and hand made paper beads from my husbands aunt Doris.

So many things from so many people, and now I want to share it with more. I'm hoping that they'll love it as much as I do...now I've just got to decide which photo to start with...

Are we there yet?

 I'm pretty happy about this envelope design except of course that some of the outlining strokes are a bit to wide. Thank goodness that can be corrected with the computer.

As far as the card goes I want to do a bit more shading on some of the beads and I'll add a bit of something spilling out of the top of the stocking on the card. We've scanned it here in case I overwork or spoil it somehow as I continue painting.

Christmas Watercolor Card and Envelope Set

 I had enjoyed working with this garland on the acrylic painting I did of it back in September so I thought I'd see how it would work out in watercolors. As always I started with the envelope first so I'd have some practice with the design before painting on the card itself.

 Here's the start of the design on the card.

 Here's a shot of the card in progress.

 It looks like the foot of the stocking came out too large because I hadn't sketched it in first. I also didn't make the whole image small enough to leave room for the sock monkey. Oh well, I may try it again...meanwhile, it's nice enough to toss in the mail.

Sock it to me. Sock Monkey and Granny Square Christmas Stocking

A few more steps

5. Feel free to turn your work to avoid touching areas of wet paint and to make it easier to paint in small details.

6. Keep inspiration handy so that you can see how well you've captured the item that you've decided to paint. As you can see here I've decided to use a black background and a small bristle brush (the coarser the better) to tap in Alizarin Crimson and Cad Red Medium to get the look of the old red wool stocking.

7. As long as you've got the reds laid out on your palette you might as well get out a small bit of white and add small dabs of the resulting pinks to the background that you're building. (With the price of good paints being what they are we don't want any of it to go to waste)

8. I've added the black to the are where the Granny Squares are going to be (I'm much more accustomed to crocheting them than painting them so this should be interesting). As there was a small amount of black left on the palette this was a good time to add the stitching details to the stocking as well.