Another Koi? yep... ACEO

This Koi is an artist collector's card and is for sale for $8.50 and since its so small, shipping is FREE! Its a koi fish as you can see, the colors are Purple, blue orange and red.... This card is signed and dated and can be the start of your collection!

Here 's how its painted. Start wet into wet. Wet the entire background all around the fish, then drop in the lighter blue color and allow it to burst across the paper, while this is still wet, place some dark purple or ultramarine blue in areas around the edges of the paper. don't stroke the paint on but drop it in. Then using a thirsty brush, ( ie: a damp brush which has had all the water taken out of it by squeezing with a paper towel ) pull out some of the color in areas to create a little drama and to also allow some of the white of the paper to show. This will help you have three very distinct values. Light medium and dark. If you like the small amounts of white in the background this is actually painted around and just allowed to be white paper showing thru. Some artists call these "little windows" and they are always in their backgrounds. I find I like them in certain situations but don't always put them into my backgrounds.

If you would like to try watercolor a good way to start would be to paint some of these Small collectors cards. They are fast, easy and fun! They will teach you to paint with a big brush because all brushes are big when your painting on a surface that is 2.5 by 3.5!

I sell these on ebay as there are just tons of folks who collect these small cards. Originals bring the higher prices the prints are usually .99 cents. its an inexpensive way to start an art collection and they can be displayed in a number of ways. On an easel, in a frame, matted in intersted groupings, or placed in plastic baseball card sleeves and kept in an album.
ACEO stands for: Atist collector Edition or Original some folks call them ATC which stands for: Artist Trading Card then there are OSWOA Origninal Small Works of ART these are post card size paintings or silghtly larger. I noticed someone even has a book out now on how to paint these and market them. Trends seem to come and go we'll see where this one leads. I only paint a few a week and since their so small I can usually paint them pretty quick with drawing or planning. That makes them fun to paint.
email me shantmarie@aol.com