Things are happening!

I'm really excited today because one of my pieces, 'Last Flower Standing', has been featured on someone else's blog for the first time.

http://lovarevolutionary.blogspot.com/2009/04/flickr-picks-lova-revolutionary-blog.html

This piece took me a really long time to make- about 40 hours. It's one of my favorites because of it's brilliant colors. There are more pictures of it in my Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22068425

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Today I've been laying down the sky for the large piece that I've been working on over the last week. This took me about 6 hours today- it is a very painstaking process but I'm happy with how it turned out. The colors are a bit dull in these pictures but once I apply the varnish at the end, they really brighten up and you get the full effect.

Someone asked me why I bother covering the entire canvas with a background, only to cover it. The short answer is that it would feel unfinished to me if I didn't. There IS a sky behind every tree, and grass or other vegetation behind the trunk. And behind the blooms there are branches. I would always feel it was a shoddy half-finished job if I left those things out. So I don't. Which is why it takes so long to put all the different layers together. I did the same thing to a cityscape piece that I made which is about 2/3rds covered up, yet it had to have a full sky. Perhaps it's the nerd in me.

The next step for this new piece is to lay down the trunk and the branches of the tree and then the blooms, which is my favorite part. I started picking out the stamps for the blooms today. This is a small sampling:

I was really hoping to have this piece finished today, but I always underestimate the length of time it will take, usually by many hours. If I can get the trunk and branches laid down tomorrow, then I can finish it on Friday. Stay tuned....

Andrea at Studio6