I ran across a challenge on Doodlewash®, for themed watercolors, complete with a challege to do thirty of them in thirty days. I am not sure I am going to get all thirty done, a I started on the 17th, but still worth a shot. I am very much looking forward to this challenge. I am finding that viewing the gallery is very inspiring as well
#WorldWatercolorMonth
For today’s creativity I took out learning Chinese Brush Painting set that I own. It is a beautiful box set with ceramic dishes and the bamboo brushes, a ceramic brush rest. I love it and have taken out the instructional book and paint and paper and worked through the exercises a number of time. There is something about the style that appeals to me, and somehow the boxed set makes it all seem so special to work with. I was thinking about it tonight as I got it out. Why is it so special. The watercolor that came with it, is similar in quality to my regular watercolor. I have yet to try it on the rice paper that came with the kit, as there are only a few sheets, so that is not what makes it special. The adorable little ceramic pallet that is about 1/16th the size of my regular, the tiny water dish and the ink stone and water spoon are all really cool, as is the ceramic brush holder, but while they are unique and fun to use they are not what makes it special. It occurred to me that what makes it special is that is was a gift from my father and my stepmother. My father, John R. Mitchell, is an artist and has always encouraged my art. His support is the best gift of all. Today(yesterday by the time this will be posted) has been special from all the support I’ve been getting in comments, and most especially
I want to thank Paula of http://keepitsimplemakeitgreat.blogspot.com/ and Chewy of http://chewy-myblog.blogspot.com/ as they both helped to make today special.
I am well behind the word count if you go by the take the month and divide by the number of days goal. However, this does not worry me as I know that it will come.
Today’s Artwork is Crystal Flowers. I made the flowers more translucent, moved them away from the arch and choose sunset rather than moonlight. I will crop this one a bit before printing so that the flowers are not quite so dead center.
I received a couple of questions about how did I create them.
The flowers were made in a 3d Sculpt program. The software lets you create what is called a sculpt map. A sculpt map looks like this. When you apply this sculpt map texture to a 3d building block in a 3d enviornment it morphs into the flower shapes that I have “photographing”. In the 3D environment that I work in, the basic shapes come up looking as if they are made of plywood. I then choose a texture. These flowers have textures that are designed to look like cut gems, diamonds and saphires. I tinted the one flower purple as I wanted it to appear more like an amythyst.
Rennata Tropeano 