Hello Everyone! Last time I talked about working on a painting. This painting began during a visit to the mountains, although I didn’t know it as such then. It all started with the tree. Then, slowly, a painting formed in my head, accompanied by the beginnings of a story. After a fair amount of prep work, I was ready to paint. After our last visit to the Sierra Mountains, I added the final touches to the picture. The beginning in 2020 and the ending in 2024 both came from the mountains.
During that visit in 2020, I noticed this tree outside the window of our cabin. I drew it in my sketchbook at the time. I was very sure a story would come to me some day, and that this tree would be a part of it. This year, out of nowhere, it appeared – a story about a dragon and the tree.
Once I finished the drawing, I scanned and printed it out so I could color it with color pencils. That gave me a basic idea of what colors I would use and how I would layer the colors.
I did a small watercolor painting before starting the larger one. This was a good way to make sure of the watercolors I would be using on the larger painting.
I love dragons, so I hand made the green book ( handmade clothbound journals in my shop ) for dragon paintings only. This was just the perfect addition to that book.
The original painting did not have the background mountains. I added them after my last visit and trek to the Gaylor Lakes in Yosemite High Sierra. The surrounding mountains there inspired me to add mountains to the picture.
Let me just say this out loud – I hate using masking fluid. I avoid using it as much as I can. It can stain the paper, and applying it is not easy either. This time, however, I had no choice. I needed to keep the tree white. Some of the branches are really thin and small. There was no way I could paint around them without staining them with the surrounding colors. I had a mishap with my first prepped picture while applying the masking fluid. It damaged the paper enough that I had no choice but to retrace the drawing on a new sheet and restart.
With both the pencil colored drawing and the small watercolor painting beside me as a reference, I started painting. Since I work by layering, it took me many hours to finish this 8″ x 10″ painting. All the prep work I did really helped.
I do love dragons. I think of them as gentle and solitary creatures. Every story in my Girl and Her Cat story book has at least one dragon in it. Each dragon I draw has its own little story.
Story time
The blue dragon comes to visit this tree once a year, every year. Around that time of the year when mountains are wrapped in solitude, she flies in during the early evening hours. She sits at the shore, and spends the night there longingly looking at the white tree. Once dawn breaks, she flies away, not to be seen for another year.
Until next time,
-Soma
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