Mask

I love masks. This one I painted with acrylic inks on mixed media paper. I had no specific reference for it, I just loved the combination of redand brown colours and the light green serving as focus point.

Village in the Haute Provence

In the 1980s we spent a three weeks holiday in the Provence in the South of France. At that time diapositives were the state of art - and so this photo was taken as a dia. Now that I am retired I have the time to go through the stacks of diapositives and to select the ones which I want to have digitalized. I chose this one because I like the contrast between the light and the shadows and I like the architecture of the village houses.

Cute Houses

Here I used an old line drawing which I had done with Inkscape a really long time ago. I coloured that drawing many times - with acrylic inks, with markers - and now with gouache paints. I painted on mixed media paper which tends a bit to buckle when you add too much water. So I taped it down with a normal painter's tape, and when the paper was dry I didn't peel the tape off but simply cut the tape off together with the paper. 

I used the following brands: Lucas Studio Tempera/Gouache, Reeves Gouache and Schmincke Akademie Gouache. The interesting thing is that I am quite surprised how manageable the Lucas Studio Gouache is, whereas I had two disappointing experiences with the Ultramarine paint from Reeves and the Schmincke Akademie Indigo paint. When I opened them a big blub of water came out, with some coloured binder. Obviously the binder had separated in the tube. I kind of expected something like that from Reeves, but not from Schmincke. However the second Gouache paint from Schmincke Akademie, the Violet blue, worked fine.

Where is the snowflake?

Just now I am challenging myself with using snowflake line drawings and transforming them in such a way that you have difficulties recognizing the snowflake shapes. My palette here is quite limited - in fact I am using up the paints left on my palette from the last painting. 

I find that kind of painting very relaxing and zen-like. After having thought about the hues to use I am slowly colouring in, trying to stay inside the lines and to work as precise as possible. I know that other people do a proper colour chart planning before they begin to paint - I do not do that (yet).

Viking shield

There are hundreds of snowflake templates on the web. Some of them I downloaded and printed out, hoping they may become useful some time. Well, as I am practicing painting with gouache I thought:,  "Why not use one of them?" However, my goal was to transform these snowflakes into something different - and here it is - a snowflake turned into a Viking shield! Of course no one knows how these Viking shields looked like in reality - but why not paint something that could have been a Viking shield?

Playing with colours

Paintings like this are never planned by me. They happen. The only thing I think about in advance are the colours I want to use - in this case it was simple because they were leftover from the painting before. I don't clean my palette thoroughly - I only clean the mixings on the palette, so that there is place again for adding new blobs of paint.
I used a variety of brands - an indigo from Schmincke Akademie Gouache, a golden yellow from Lascaux Gouache, a brilliant blue from Reeves Gouache and an orange from Lucas Studio Tempera/Gouache.

Abstract Landscape

This abstract landscape was done with gouache and markers and a white acrylic paint marker. When I started the painting I had no idea what the outcome would be. I was just putting marks on the paper. Of course there was a moment when I thought that it would never come together, but I kept on painting. Considering that I have very little experience with gouache I am rather satisfied with the painting - and I decided to focus on that media.