Good morning everyone. Today I thought I’d show you two little hand painted cards I made a couple of weeks ago. Well I had been looking at YouTube and thought I could try it out. The flower is just intuitively painted, but the challenge for me was the tiny size of the paper. In fact, only three and a half inches by five. And that’s tiny for me! Also, the other technique I tried out here was to put down the background first, something I never do. Actually, there’s gold paint on here too, to give the whole thing a bit of sparkle. But, you maybe can’t pick that out on the screen.
The sunflower, another of my hand painted cards.
To be honest, I love painting flowers, especially the ones I pick from my own garden – see here . But I made this one up – not something I do often, because my visual imagination is quite poor.
Any way, I practised laying down a background first and this one was in watercolour wash with a subtle design in white pen. If I remember correctly, the flower itself was in acrylic. To tell you the truth, often when I’m doing mixed media, I grab anything on my workspace. It all gets added to the mix, then I forget what I used!
The Printed Card
Finally, do you prefer the hand painted cards or the print? This is one I had printed last year from an acrylic painting of carp rising to the surface of the water to be fed. Actually, my intention was to try to show the bodies of the fish covered by a thin film of water. As I recall, the theme of our Art Society project was ‘Under Water’. Undoubtedly, the cards made by hand are more special, but I have found that people also really appreciate a print. Fortunately, you don’t have to make your mind up. Because you can just do both!
If you want to see more flowers, have a look at my gallery here . And, don’t forget, if you find anything you like, go to the Contact Me page on the menu and send me an email. Because, everything is for sale at reasonable prices!
I love all 3 Margaret and to receive any one of them would be special.i Love doing painting on small cards, but like you my visual imagination is very poor and have to have the real thing ,or you tube!!! To help me…🎨👍
Thank you so much. Yes, I agree, there’s a lovely lot of inspiration on the net. I always think how generous artists are to share it all with us!
Good morning Margaret I love your little hand painted cards, they are beautiful 🙂.
Thank you so much, Ally. Take care.
I like both original and print. I love the pond image especially. It looks like a cool fresh day and I like the orange of the fish in contrast.
Thank you so much, Claudia. I really enjoyed painting the pond image – to be honest, the print doesn’t really do it justice. There’s a lot more texture and brightness on the original, but it wasn’t an art print shop I took it to – just a local cheap and cheerful place.
I sitll love it. I think it is a life-affirming image. That comes through no matter what.
Before I forget gotta say I marvel at how much depth and detail you get into those small cards, Margaret! I love the two flower ones the best, but not sure if because they’re not prints, some prints have their own power, so I think here’s it’s just the coloring and subject matter. I like to offer both when I can, but I’ve had to cut back quite a bit on my prints cause they were piling up during pandemic, lol! When able, yes, both! 😊
Thank you so much, Felipe. I don’t usually work so small, but it was surprisingly enjoyable! Like you, I have a storage problem when it comes to artwork. Especially now when I have a lot of time to be even more creative ( I’m not complaining!)
To me hand painted is always precious, but I must say the I like most the carp under water.
Thank you for taking the time to answer. I’ve just found out that I really enjoy making little cards – it seems so doable and very satisfying.