I do not seek inspiration or wait around hoping it will find me.
Sometimes it just shows up, performing an aerial glomp.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

ACEO: Extinguished Candle: Completed September 12, 2010


ACEO: Extinguished Candle
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2" x 3 1/2",
246# Strathmore Acid Free acrylic paper.
I doodle windows and candles often, but due to being intimidated by having to attempt to draw straight lines.. I have not attempted to paint a window until now.

I painted the background the day before blending upward with Primary Yellow, Primary Red and Primary Blue. The red and the blue were much darker than I planned.. so I threw in a bit of Titanium White to make it easier to see the planned silhouette. I blended for quite a while and worried it would become too muddy. Finally to remove some deeper valleys created by my brush strokes, I swept the surface from yellow up to the blue with a cosmetics brush (blush brush) I use only for my acrylic paints. It created a slightly wood-grain-like look that I was pleased with.. so I left it alone to dry for a few hours.

Later, I returned with Mars Black and painted the window frame. At first, I tried to keep things much thinner.. but it kept growing as I had difficulty making the lines look uniform. I accidentally smudged the paint many times and had to go back to correct my mistakes. But, there finally came a time when it looked like a window and I left it to dry for the night.

I had thought that painting the handle of the candle holder was going to be more difficult than it was.. but by turning the art card and moving slowly, it worked out. I planned on having the candle unlit but waited until everything else was dry before attempting the wisp of smoke.

With the wisp of smoke, I tried a bit of white and it looked too bright. Gray looked too out of place.. and I worried that black might look too dark to look like smoke. However, after many attempts the paint started to dry and become difficult to use. The paint became increasingly difficult to get onto the art card. Just before I was prepared to put more black paint on my tray I gave it one last try. The paint only partially went on the art card as I moved my thin brush.. and it produced a rather wispy result. Usually when this occurs, I paint over the line once more to thicken the appearance. In this case, it was perfect just the way it was.. making the candle look as if it was just extinguished.

I feel that it is a sleepy sunset. One can imagine someone blowing out the candle, putting aside a book they were reading and preparing for sleep.

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