Tree holding...

...a misty sun, or the moon!

Last week we had a very foggy day with the most gorgeous silver coin (the sun) in a steel grey sky. So this was to be my inspiration for my next set of paintings.

I cannot even begin to recreate what I saw. Probably I would have been able to in watercolours in a wet in wet painting. But my challenge to me is to understand acrylics and learn more about them.

So this is my clumsy attempt in acrylics. It feels like that to me. I got home shattered and went into a deep sleep, but when I woke up my eyes were too blurred to see (which happens after a very deep sleep), so I had to stay sat by the window as darkness fell, and finally the blurred bright evening star came into focus.

So I made a cuppa and did a background of the land, sky, and sun (or moon if you prefer!), but I couldn't paint the tree. My hands are too shaky with my arthritis to control the paintbrush for detail in acrylics (I think it is easier with watercolour...more forgiving). I found it hard enough doing the details in acrylics on the eyes of the sheep last week.

So had to redo the background (I preferred the first one I did!) and when that dried, I found my black Japanese brush pens. And did the tree...upside down. I found I had more control that way bringing the brush pen down towards me. I think this black tree drawing is very stiff and stilted, it could be more free. But I cannot do that tonight. This is my best effort for today.

This can improve and I have ideas. I have various brush pens, and Copic pens and others. I have some acrylic inks which would do a wash over the acrylics. First of all I have to find where my stuff is.

So I think the next week or so will be my grey/black phase (maybe with a hint of colour), and experimenting. In acrylics I only have two greys...Paynes Grey and a Warm Grey...I don't know enough about greys. I will research greys tomorrow. Obviously I have blacks and whites as well, but I think I need to research them too to see what the different types/names of colours do.

So this is my painting for today for a pic every day in 2017.