Paint with Watercolor on Glass Ornaments

It's been a while since I posted on my blog. I thought my process to paint with watercolor on glass ornaments during this Christmas season would be a good post.

I use Daniel Smith's watercolor grounds painted on the surface with two or three coats and then leave it to dry completely. This surface then allows me to paint with watercolor rather than the acrylics that I used to use on the ornaments. The Daniel Smith grounds perform very much like watercolor paper and allow for all the normal watercolor techniques including lifting, glazing, and wet into wet.

Daniel Smith has 5 watercolor grounds - Transparent, Titanium White, Opalescent, Iridescent Gold, and Black. They can be used on almost any surface.

To see the whole process, follow this link: http://www.danielsmithpaint.com/blogs/a-glass-ornament-and-watercolor-ground-demonstration-with-lorraine-watry/

 Some of my finished ornaments.

Hand Painted One-of-a-kind Cardinal Ornaments

Hand Painted Ornament ©LWatry2014

It is the Christmas season and I am once again creating my hand painted, one-of-a-kind, glass ornaments. The ornament is 3" in diameter and 1 1/4" in depth. I paint them with acrylics and they are sealed with an archival, crystal clear sealer. They make a great heirloom gift for a friend, a loved one, or for your very own tree.

Hand Painted Ornament ©LWatry2014

Cardinal Ornaments: features bright red Cardinals. Ornament comes with a silver ribbon hanger, mini crystal beads at the top, signed and dated by me, and will be shipped in it's very own gift box.
Purchase for $30 plus shipping and handling.

Although these three cardinal ornaments have sold, a similar ornament can be commissioned. Commissions taken until Dec. 10th to allow time for the creation and shipping before Christmas. If you are interested in commissioning an ornament please contact me through email at: livewiregrafx@yahoo.com

Hand Painted Ornament ©LWatry2014

Hand Painted One-of-a-kind Blue Jay Ornament

Hand Painted Ornament ©LWatry2014

It is the Christmas season and I am once again creating my hand painted, one-of-a-kind, glass ornaments. The ornament is 3" in diameter and 1 1/4" in depth. I paint them with acrylics and they are sealed with an archival, crystal clear sealer. They make a great heirloom gift for a friend, a loved one, or for your very own tree.

Blue Jay Ornament: features a beautiful Blue Jay in an evergreen. Ornament comes with a silver ribbon hanger, mini crystal beads at the top, signed and dated by me, and will be shipped in it's very own gift box.
Purchase for $30 plus shipping and handling.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Five

"Green Glass, Goldfinch, and Grapes" LWatry©2014

Day 25 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days and I finished a few minutes before midnight! The title for this one begins with 'G' words - Green Glass, Goldfinch, and Grapes".

Once again this glass painting seemed to go faster than I though it would. It is all about painting the little abstract shapes and make sure there are good values. The glass is a few pieces that I have collected from depression era glass. I like the glow of the juicer.

I enjoyed painting the goldfinch and ended up getting a nice glow around his head.

The painting is not quite as intense in color as the image appears on my screen.

"Green Glass, Goldfinch, and Grapes" is a 6"x6" watercolor was juried into the 2014 Randy Higbee Gallery, 6" Squared Exhibition and Sale. The paintings are available through the gallery and online at: www.DailyBrushwork.com

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 8

"Jeweled Jay" LWatry©2014

Week two, Day 8 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days found me painting a Blue Jay. I think Blue Jays are a very pretty bird and already seem to be wearing jewels in their feathers. I guess this Jay wanted to be even fancier and decided to put on some jewels!

The Jay was painted with a mix of cobalt and manganese with just a touch of permanent rose in a few places. The feathers at the tail area were painted with Peacock blue, a very bright turquoise blue.

"Jeweled Jay" is a 6"x6" watercolor and it is available for purchase on Daily Paintworks for $90 - SOLD

Watercolor of Colored Glass

Glass Menagerie by Lorraine Watry ©2013

I started this painting as a demonstration for a class I was teaching this summer on painting glass in watercolor. I don't usually paint still-lifes but the reflections and detail in the glasses were exciting. I began by setting up and rearranging all the glass pieces that I collected for the class. Then I tried setting them up with different backgrounds both inside and outside to provide different lighting. I ended up choosing this scene because I liked the contrast that the wooden bird statues played against the blue bird and all the other glass. It also felt like there was a story.
     The next step was to block out all the highlights with masking fluid. It is better to save more whites in the beginning because you can always paint some of them out later. Then I started with the upper right corner and just started painting the shapes in the white glass bowl. Having strong contrasts and looking for all the little abstract shapes when painting glass is important.
     One of the changes I made from my photograph was to paint the little glass pieces around the blue bird red instead of the blue that they are in the photograph. I did this for two reasons. The first was that the red helped the blue bird stand out more and the second reason was to spread the red around the painting a little more.
     After finishing a painting, especially a busy one like this, it is important to look at it for a while to make sure there are no areas that need adjusting. I looked at my painting from across the room and in different light, I also looked at in reverse in a mirror and saw a few areas that I wanted to adjust. After making the adjustments, I removed the masking that had saved the white of the paper and painted in the areas that needed color. The rest of the masked areas were cleaned up by painting some of the surrounding color to make them look less cut out or I scrubbed some of their edges to soften them to look like highlights on the glasses, ex. as seen on the green goblet in the upper right hand corner.
     

Miniature Watercolor Available at Daily Paint Works

"A Friend of Mine"

SOLD 
$
click here to Bid - Daily Paint Works Auction

2" x 2 1/2" Miniature Original Watercolor

This is a miniature watercolor of a Black-Capped Chickadee on some beautiful read and gold berries. This watercolor painting is 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches and comes framed with a velvet ribbon ready for hanging or an easel stand on the back for placing on a table. Please check out my auction at Daily Paint Works.