Hello friends!  It has been too long since I have been able to post anything due to “technical difficulties.”  However, in the meantime I was working a few things.

This is Larry, the Leatherback sea turtle done in Eric Carle’s style of art.  This was difficult to say the least.  I tried painting plain white tissue paper with acrylic paint, but found that the tissue paper I have was too thin or so I thought.  Now,  looking back, I think the paint I mixed was too thick.

So I switched to using tracing paper instead.  I like the texture of it more, but since I had my pain mixed already, I still used it.  And….I still think it was too thick.  However, I plunged ahead, painted a piece, light gray, one dark gray, one pink, and one blue.

Then I traced my image onto a plain piece of tracing paper going over the outline with heavy black pen and cut out the image in three  pieces:  one for the body, one for the head, and a piece for the “chin.”

Next I laid those pieces onto the different colors of painted paper and drew around the image like a stencil and cut those out.  Then I traced the whole image onto a piece of poster board.  The last couple of steps were the most time-consuming.  I had to glue down the colored pieces cutting the painted paper to precisely fit the image.  I had to conform the blue pieces to fit around the image for the water.  Lastly I added Larry’s features with black paint and used the paper that was already painted white to cut out and glue down his spots.

I think I went through more steps than Eric Carle did in his art process, but I learned from my mistakes…..I think.  I am not sure if I will try it again, but I may do another image in his style eventually.  It is not something I would choose to do all the time, that’s for sure!  All I know is that man must have had an amazing amount of patience!  However, I do like the way Larry turned out.  The part of the painting that is my favorite is the water, though.  Well…maybe his eye, too.

It is good to be back on WordPress.  Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug!  🙂