Tiny Paintings

For years Vicki has wanted me to paint small paintings so I would have a variety of  sizes and prices for different people to be able to pick up.

As I am ME I always said… NO. Not really actually, I would try but it was always hard for me to reduce an image down just because. They like to be the size they are going to be. At least that’s what I always told myself.

 

This little sketch isn’t much bigger than a magic card and as I show below the little bit of narrative translated well to the cropped image.

 

I used my laser cutter to cut a precise template that marks a thin border on the ap card back. Of course a pair of scissors would have worked to cut it to but I had an excuse to fire up the laser…which always makes me happy.

As it happens I am perfectly capable of painting quite small pieces because I jumped into sketching and painting on the backs of Magic Artist Proof cards. (For me, the ultimate in tiny paintings) This series takes us from sketching to color roughs to final painting.

Sketch Transfer with dura lar film. I traced the sketch and flipped it over and used a colored pencil to transfer it to the card. Standard process like you’ve likely seen before.

Transferred sketch… it worked pretty well.

 

So after I transferred the image I took my printed sketch (I print on Strathmore medium surface drawing paper) and I used some fairly light Copic markers to play with form and value.

 

 

I inked the image with a Signo gel pen that I also spray fixed afterward to keep the ink from sliding around.

I taped the card to a piece of safety glass I bought for this purpose… mainly so I don’t accidently make the image upside down in relation to the printed image on the front.

The piece below is done in a similar fashion but is a little further along at this point

 

 

The first layer of paint is acrylic gouache mostly white with a touch of yellow and burnt umber I believe.

I use these little color cups with lids to keep the paint from drying out as I work and color mixing.

Working in Shadows with darker colors and letting it get a little messy.

Work in progress… a comparison with the other at a similar stage, though the top card is in oils at this point.

Background Color which is a very dark almost black warm color, aka brown.

For the final shades and tints I layered some adjustments over the acrylic with some very thin oils.

 

I painted the little flower shedding its petals as the last bit.

“In these days of memento mori do not forget to live”