Zinnias are ready for picking!

I'm done with the Zinnias. What fun to use all those intense colors that are normally too much for a landscape.

Now that I've shown two of my bunnies, I have to include Marshmallow. He's getting old and slowing down. He enjoys hanging out behind the broom.

Adding shadows to the Zinnias

Wherever one zinnia is close to another, it has some reflected color of it's neighbor on it. I also added shadows and deeper colors. That white outline is the liquid resist. That will be removed soon.

Remember Pixie Dust? She was a stray picked up by a friend and came to live with us. She was weak and didn't jump, and her bones made noise when I picked her up. The x-ray showed she had a dislocated hip! Before jumping into a surgery, I just thought I would let her have free choice to come out of her cage and run around the upstairs twice a day. She got stronger and more athletic. She jumps over my legs and does "binkies" (joyful bunny hops), and can run very fast. I only pick her up when necessary. She loves being petted when let out of her cage. She will stay there forever, so that I have to do something else at the same time (I just have to multi-task!). So I have started a new thing "Pixie Yoga." (Downward dog - hold while petting with one hand, plank, chataranga, pet Pixie, cobra, downward dog, pet Pixie, walk feet in to forward fold, pet Pixie, triangle pose, pet Pixie....) Sorry, got off the art subject here...

Painting Zinnias and Multi-Tasking

Summer Saturday mornings at 8am we love to go to our Farmers Market. I love the Zinnias. Zinnias are summer to me. I begain with looking at my bouquet and sketching it out. I took a photo and printed it right away, so I have both that an the real thing to paint from. Here are the various stages: First liquid mask put in with a toothpick, then yellows. While drying, I spin more at my spinning wheel (gotta do something!). Then, the red & fuschia, and more liquid mask on top of yellow. Dry (and spin wool). Then light green on the white flowers. Then more mask on the reds. Dry and spin again. More on this tomorrow....