painting

Artist Trading Cards (or ATC’S, ACEO’s or minis, whatever floats your boat)

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Recently I  joined a trade on Wetcanvas. For those who aren’t sure what I’m talking about. An ATC (artist trading card) is about the size of a baseball card and can be in any medium. And you trade them like baseball cards to other artists. It’s fun, you get to meet artists all over the world as well as being  great practice. Plus it’s nice to get real mail once in a while as well.

If you’re in this trade with me stop reading this until you get your mail.  😀

The theme of this current trade I’m in was Animals. Here’s a couple I did. These are all the size of a baseball or playing card..they will appear larger on your screen then they actually are. These are all acrylic, except for the skunk which is pen on acrylic.

Hope you enjoy.


Dummy is off on vacation. I am hoping to join him soon!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011

Gardening and car crashes..

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Hello! The heat has finally broken a bit and we are having some great gardening weather. People all over North America are in a frenzy to figure out what to do with the twenty million tomatoes they didn’t think would actually grow. I wouldn’t have planted any but Dummy insisted.

He’s has been listening to the news and bearing in mind that heat stroke is a terrible thing, he is being smart and is wearing a hat and sunscreen with a high SPF factor of course.

Checking the tomatoes…He’s so busy that he didn’t notice that his butt is on backwards..I would tell him but his feelings get hurt awfully easily. He’ll notice when he tries to sit down.

Tomato plant, dummy

And look how nicely the corn has come in…and yup, his butt is on right..

As for me I’ve been hanging out in the AC. I painted this little 3 x 5 inch acrylic of the downtown area in Rock Island, Illinois. I just noticed that the first building has a bit of a lean, someone should fix that.  It’s a tragedy waiting to happen. And the windows in the shop look like they’re ready to burst..Oh no! There’s a pedestrian in front of them….. Run! Lady! Run! ….It’s too late!… The white car tried to save her but has run into a stop sign which some fool put in the middle of the road…oh the agony…

acrylic 3 x 5 inches

Good thing I caught it all on canvas. I better go send this off to CNN  for their I-Witness newscast.

Summertime…

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And the living is easy…

Sorry I have that song stuck in my head.

 I just came in from sneaking around watering my garden. Why? you may ask.. Well, it’s not because we have restrictions on, in fact I live near the Mississippi and after the record amount of snow melt and rain this year, my well is overflowing. No, like the coward that I am, I was sneaking around avoiding my neighbor. He’s a nice elderly man who claims that I gave his yard Creeping Charlie.  I don’t have any in my yard but nevertheless he says it is so. He also has a thing about people watering.  I have an overflowing well and rain barrels but he’s not the logical sort.  99% of the time I find him amusing, the other 1%, well let’s just say it’s a good thing my mother made me learn my manners or I would be asking people to raise bail money for me.

It’s been a muggy hot summer so far. I haven’t done much painting wise, though in my head I’ve created masterpieces! This is a small 3×5 canvas of the backside and roofs of Rock Island , Illinois. It’s acrylic.

Well I should go find Dummy, he’s off gallivanting around. I think he may be trying to escape.

Learning from the masters…

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I recently participated in an ATC trade. The theme of the trade was to  learn from some of the great artists. It was interesting. I learned many things, mostly that I prefer to do my own paintings!

This one is based on Cezanne’s self-portrait. Acrylic, 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

This is based on a Monet. Acrylic, 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

These two are pencil sketches based on Waterhouse’s sketches. Pencil. 2.5 by 3.5 inches

I’ll be adding some works in progress posts soon, as well as some tips and advice on painting.  As always any critiques or comments are welcome.

Some older paintings.

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These are some older works. This first one is of my son, when he was a small baby. It was one of the first portraits I ever tried to do.

Watercolor

 

 

This second one is another miniature of a frog I came across. It’s about 2×3 inches. Watercolor.

 

 

This is a house I used to drive by in Northern New York.  This was one of my first acrylics.

 

 

This was one of my first oil paintings. It’s of my cat Kitten. I’m thinking of doing another of her. She’s such a character. Oil.

A painterly lesson.

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This is a miniature based on Bob Rohm’s book “A Painterly Approach”   available here. It’s a great book if you have a bit of experience with acrylic, oil or pastel. 

Acrylic, miniature, 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

Rohm lesson

I’ve had a few people ask how I get such fine lines in my minis. Personally I use a very fine rigger that is quite threadbare and a rigger that I left to dry in a curved position giving me a nice arch. The arch gives wonderful control when painting fine lines. As with anything to do with art,the best thing to do is to look at all the advice that’s out there and choose what will work for you.  The branches on this oak tree were done with the curved rigger.

Acrylic, miniature, 2.5 by 3.5 inches

 

Feel free to ask any questions or offer any critiques.

Non-purple dogs and a cat in three different mediums

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This is my lab Zeus who not being as silly as Sampson has never dyed himself purple.

Acrylic, miniature, 3×5

 

Zeus in acrylics

 

This is my neighbour’s cat Fletch in watercolour.

Watercolour, miniature,  card size.

 

Fletch in watercolor

 

And last but not least, Pepper, my other neighbour’s dog. Getting all those spots right was a trip.

Pen and ink, miniature, card size.

 

Pepper, ink

I accidentally “liked” myself…

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Yes I did, I’m not even sure how I liked myself. But I did. I mean I do like myself, that’s not a problem. It just seems a bit presumptuous to “like” myself on the internet.

Here’s a little lighthouse scene. This was done based on a lighthouse I saw while whale watching in New Brunswick near the Maine border.  It’s an acrylic miniature, 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

 NB lighthouse by Virginia Spencer

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011