A Trap

 

Halloween Night

Complementary colors look very pleasing to human eye. That's why it is good to check out the color wheel before coloring the painting. This one was made with my favorite pair: blue and orange. For blue I used French ultramarine only, for orange part I used regular orange plus yellow ocher, burned umber and burned sienna. Black color was achieved by mixing burned umber and French ultramarine. To preserve white of the paper I masked the candle flame and nearby highlights.
First wash was done in wet in wet technique because it let me create soft edges between colors. The devil like shadow behind the mouse was created this way. With the next steps I gradually went darker and darker with details. The outside of the picture was painted with bold brush strokes softened occasionally with clear water. People naturally look for the light that's why in this composition I created tunnel like filling with the brightest element - the fire in the middle.
On my sketch below you can see that the mouse have different look. My daughter said that the mouse needs to be cute and she redesigned the head for me. My daughter is a cute expert so I decided to trust her. I love you Justyna :)

Peeking

I love painting mushrooms 

The Alps in Clouds

My painting was inspired by a fabulous photo gallery by Jose Antonio. If you would like to see more of the beautiful Switzerland mountains and historic sites go to the website.
When I was looking at the original photo, first thing I noticed was the low clouds and the mountain peaks above. That gives the scene an unusual look and dynamic. Most of us know how quickly such scene vanishes. Thanks to Jose - the author of this photo for sharing the moment with us. I wounder what happened next. The clouds went up and cleared the view or maybe quite opposite, they covered everything with a mist. In the high mountains you never know.
Because I'm painting with watercolors I left the white of the paper to represent the lightest parts of the clouds. Sticking to the rule "the less is more" I tried not to over do this part of the painting. I think I succeeded in this.

The painting process of this picture is on YouTube

Grand Teton