Get Your Vitamin C Here...

What an awesome week it's been...The kids have been off school for March break, the mountains of snow have been melting like crazy, the sun has been shining and little plants have been poking their little heads out of the ground.  And I've been painting like mad.

For those that follow me on Facebook, you would have seen my status earlier this week...

My son and his friend were so disappointed yesterday. They were in the kitchen with me chatting and watching me cut up oranges. I put them on the kitchen table, artfully arranged them and started to draw..."Heyyyyy...we thought you were giving us a snack!" LOL I think they were hungry :-)
I've been creating loads of paintings of oranges!


This is one of my first paintings:

Watercolor on Paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

This is another...

Watercolor on Paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

The following two paintings are ACEOs.  For those that don't know what ACEO, it stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. They are miniature works of art, 2 ½ X 3 ½ inches that can be matted and framed to hang on the wall.

They are small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets if you choose.

ACEOs can even be put into a greeting card as an extra surprise for a birthday, anniversary, or just as a special surprise.

Watercolor on Paper ACEO

Watercolor on Paper ACEO

I started posting Creativity Tips this week on Facebook.  If you are an artist or just love to create, click on the "Like" at the top of my Facebook page to receive updates on my artwork or my Creativity Tips.  Here is my page: www.facebook.com/jdmstudios Or, just click "Like" on the right hand side of this page.  One of the tips I suggested this week was to use crayon or wax as a resist. 

I used wax on the following two paintings as a resist.  Check out the highlight on these oranges.  After drawing these oranges, I used a white crayon and colored in where the light was hitting them. When I added my washes of orange color the area where I colored with crayon remained white.  Looks just like orange peel skin.

Watercolor on Paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

 I used a white crayon on this painting, too but didn't quite turn out as well as the first one, unfortunately!   Too much paint and not enough wax. I ended up lifting color to create the highlights but didn't quite have the same texture as the painting above.

Watercolor on Paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2

This last painting is an acrylic.  My youngest son kept raving about how juicy these oranges are especially if you peeled them and bit right into it!  Hopefully some of that came across in the following painting:

"Juicy" Acrylic on paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2