calligraphy paintings

Hello everyone!  I hope that all of you had a fabulous Christmas!  I enjoyed spending my Christmas with my wonderful family and boyfriend...going to a lovely Christmas Eve church service, eating lots of yummy food, exchanging gifts, playing board games, and traveling a bit too.  I have so much to be thankful for, that's for sure :)

 

In addition to all the holiday festivities, I made sure to set some time aside for painting too.  Since it's been such a busy time of year, painting time tends to have to be a bit quicker than usual for me.  I want to share with you some fun little projects I've been working on and offer a few tips for those of you who enjoy painting as well! 

I usually do a lot of oil painting, however, that process involves a longgg drying time, so acrylic paints were the next best thing for the layered outcome I set out to achieve.  So, gather your favorite acrylic paints (metallic paints are a great addition to this type of painting, too!) and some heavy weight paper (I used some made specifically for mixed media), some paint brushes in different sizes, and a few more tools listed here: 

This image includes labels for some of my other favorite painting tools: a comb tool (found in most art stores with the paint supplies), different sizes of palette knives, unsharpened pencils (used to draw lines into the wet paint), and even mason jar lids dipped in paint! 

Using a combination of these tools, plus paint brushes (and your fingers too!) can be used to spread and layer the paint onto your paper in an efficient and fun way.  I like to experiment with different color combinations and textures, so my outcome is usually a surprise.  The more layers, the better, too!  Here's a few close up images of these paintings:

  

For Christmas, I was excited to receive a calligraphy kit from my sweet Nana!  I knew these abstract paintings needed a little something extra to make them complete, so I decided to try making some calligraphy additions to some of them as well.  Calligraphy will take some getting used to, but I am just thrilled with all the new possibilities.  

This evening, I gathered up my different calligraphy pen tips, some skinny paint brushes, some metallic silver ink, and black ink.  I decided, however, that white writing would be better for these paintings, so I mixed up some pearl acrylic medium with white paint and water to make my own white "ink." 

 And here's the finished products! 

I absolutely loved working on these abstract paintings, as it frees the mind and allows for playful creativity to shine through.  I'm exploring the possibilities of selling high-quality artist prints of a variety of my paintings, too, and would love any feedback that you may have about what types of art you'd like to see as prints!  Questions and comments are more than welcome.

Also, I'm always looking for new quotes, verses, words, etc. to add to my paintings, so any suggestions that you'd like to see would be great!  

Thanks for everyone's support, comments, and feedback!  Have a lovely evening!