The Chosen One - Plein Air Sketch

The Chosen One

6x4 inches

acrylic on canvasboard

Hmmm - I hope Blogger is back to normal soon. I couldn't post last night. And forgive the missing posts -they are supposed to be restoring them soon.

Anyways, today was another plein air backyard day with my six year old. And the black flies. Ick for the black flies....I had to scrape them out of my little paint pots when I got inside. And remove a tick, too - which by the way, if you live in tick country like I do, I highly recommend this little tool: http://www.tickedoff.com/  I actually got it to use on the dog, but I have found that it works great for getting ticks of myself in those hard-to-reach places (and don't worry, I bought more than one  ;-)

Anyhow, still refining my set up. I toned a few panels - a little too much - I need to lighten them up a little. I also was having a lot of problems with getting my (acrylic) paint to flow well with the wind and the sun, etc. I used to mix in a little retarder in the old days. I was trying to avoid that, because I felt like it "deadened" the color a bit. But I really need to do something....I figured it has been 20 (!) years since I tried retarder - I know they have made advances in acrylic paint formulation, so why not in the mediums? So I have some from a different manufacturer on order. In the meanwhile, I added a drop of gloss medium instead. It definitely helped with the flow - but I'm not sure about the little bit of "gloss" factor when working out in the sun. I will keep experimenting!

Now off to finish my pepper painting for the DailyPaintworks Vegetable Challenge.......