Bonus Art: Developing a new style

(Click the pictures to see larger versions.)

"Untitled"
16x20
paper, acrylic paint and varnish

I had some canvas left over after Commingle Too, so was inspired to create something new. I've used tissue paper a LOT in 365 Masks and have grown more and more interested in the textures and colour effects I can achieve with it. I didn't start out with a specific theme in mind with this one, just layering blue tissue paper over black using varnish and coaxing as much crinkling and texture as possible.

When I let that dry and then give it a wash of diluted gold paint it turned into a deep-sea dark-greenish blue and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I used more diluted gold paint to add some impressionistic deep-sea effects, then finished it off with a single fish cut from a sheet of paper patterned with pumpkins, if you can believe it. I'd bought it for the colour, not the subject matter, and it worked perfectly for this. A couple of coats of varnish later and it was finished!

This is not a perfect shot, by any means, but I like how the side lighting highlights the texture of the tissue paper background. Colour-wise it's actually pretty accurate, although some subtleties have been lost in the gold paint.