The Beauty of Winter

No, winter in general is not my favorite season. I especially hate November with its short and often dreary days. December is better, with all the lights of the Christmas season. 

However there is beauty in winter - like in the image on the left. The crispiness of the frozen leaves in contrast to the red of the berries - looking at such an image makes me happy. With all those AI generators on the web I can easily create my happy version of winter!

Alcohol markers and acrylic ink

One of the advantages of Acrylic ink is that you can generate shades of the hue by simply adding water. The acrylic ink here was a burgundy refill for Molotow acrylic markers; By using the ink as it comes out of the bottle you get a quite dark brownish red. The more water you add the more pinkish the color gets. 

Alcohol markers on the other hand are flat; you can get some kind of shading by going over the same spot twice with the same marker, or, as I did in the last painting, by using inktense pencils on top of markers.

With this painting however I wanted to create a strong contrast between the acrylic ink background and the shapes painted with markers in the middle of the image. 
 

Explosion of colors

Oil pastels are a medium I do not use very often. I've got a set of them, but they are nicely stacked away. However, in the past, I have played with them. One of the results is the design on this round magnet. I love the vibrant colors and the movement which is expressed in the design. 

I did it a long time ago in 2012. The only digital step I took was to scan the painting and remove the background. No AI at that time whatsoever!

 

Explosion of Colours Magnet
by ullahennig

Mixed media Painting

This abstract painting - the 1st one of the month of November, is a true mixed media piece. Up to now I have been colorblocking with alcoholmarkers, doing the shading with my inktense pencils. With this one I added a third medium: black acrylic ink for the background.

Why acrylic ink? Well, I wanted to create quite some contrast between the shapes in the middle and the background. And acrylic ink is really, really black. In addition to that it saves marker ink. I only needed a few drops of acrylic ink to cover the background.