Butterfly Koi

Watercolor on Masonite 8 by 10. $75.00 Some folks call these fish ” fairy fish” or “Dragon fish” and “long fin Koi”. I watched this Butterfly Koi swimming back and forth under about a foot of water and I was desperatly trying to see if this little long fin fish would hold still. Not a chance, she was moving like Isadora Duncan, & her fins were flowing all around her like veils. She swirled in and out of the Lillypads. It was like watching an underwater dance all alone skimming thru the water and dancing for no one but for herself. They are beautiful fish and so different than the standard Koi. Some folks think their not Koi at all but a hybrid. I don’t really get involved in show Koi ( although they are beautiful) and I don’t care about the correct classifications of Koi, I just like them as I like my three rescue dogs, for the pleasure of watching them and having them be a part of my life.
I’ve owned several purebred dogs in the past but none ever gave me the love my three mutts have given me each and every day.
Also that reminds me of my Walmart fish.. I told this story a while back…who would have thought, its an ugly duckling story all over again.
It started to rain tonight and the weather seems a bit cooler. Its refreshing after a couple of very humid days.

koi blue

This is the the finished painting I started earlier this week. Its painted in acrylic on wood. I didn’t gesso the wood but just gave it a light sanding. I painted the background and allowed it to dry, then I painted the fish. When the fish was dry I sprayed light green and blue from squirt bottles to set the fish back a bit. Last I used white ink and spattered and painted the white specks. I like it. It has a fantasy type look to it. I may give the underside of the Koi a glaze of blue but I’m not sure just yet. I may also repaint his eye... it needs to be moved down a bit so it looks sideways, righnow this guy is looking up or back I can't tell which. we’ll see.

8 by 10 Watercolor on Gessoed Masonite " Koi pals"

I had a bit of a headache last night and even though I had plenty of paintings to post I forgot to post one.  I listened to my ipod and fell asleep.   

This is one of the Koi I painted last week. Its painted on heavily textured Masonite and it gives the painting a nice effect which looks like moving water.

This morning I went down to the boat ramp with my dogs and the wind was really blowing, I gingerly stepped along the Rip Rapp of rock along the water's edge, trying not to fall into the lake. while the dogs sniffed the rocks I looked out over the water and saw a small sail boat with a brighly colored sail. I'm not much of a sailor but I do enjoy seeing the boats on the water because they have such a great profile.

Red Water Koi

8 by 10 watercolor on gessoed masonite

Sometimes I'm just in a red mood. SOLD

Koi deluxe

Koi delux, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

Watercolor koi on gessoed masonite 5.75 by 5.75.

It rained pretty hard this morning and I took the dogs to the lake, later it turned cold and I had to take a hot bath to warm up. As soon as the dogs hear the water running in the tub they usually head for downstairs just in case I get some crazy idea to give them a bath. Now with the dogs all snuggled up in their beds and me drinking hot tea, the house seems quiet. I like rainy days.

Koi Downstream

 

I painted this Koi today with a media that I haven't mastered, I painted it on clayboard with egg tempra, its a bit tricky but I can see the possibilities.

The two things I noticed that are diffent is the drying time and the consistancey.

This painting was painted in a class situation with instructor, Ashley Lathe. He’s an artist in residence at the Mc Coll center of the Arts in Charlotte NC.

I enjoyed his class and found him to be an informative and easy going instructor. He demonstrated the mixing of the paint with the egg yoke and then proceeded to paint a small painting, explaining the various strengths and challenges of the media.

Before starting, you should used soap and a bit of water on your brushes to coat the brush hairs. Apparently if the egg dries on the brush its almost impossible to get out. So you might want to have your brushes ready to go before you mix up the paint. Also consider using cheap synthetic brushes till you become used to the process. No one likes to ruin a good brush.

We didn’t use dry pigment but took a little shortcut and used watercolor pigment. This was good news for me since I have a fishing tackle box full of watercolor paint. First we separated an egg and kept only the egg yoke. Then we pierced the egg yoke and only used the inside of the yoke throwing away the membrane. We added 2 tablespoons of distilled water to each large egg yoke and mixed it thoroughly. Using an eye dropper, the yoke mixture is then placed on a glass pallet with equal parts watercolor pigment. Then mixing with a spatula to insure the yoke and the paint are completely mixed, your ready to go. Of course, you only make the amount of paint to cover an area you can paint before the pigment becomes too sticky. This is where experience helps.

If you need to make a color from more than one pigment say yellow and blue to make green, do this before adding the yoke.

Ashley explained to us when painting with the egg tempera paint you should always pull paint from a pool of paint and not from outer dryer area of the paint. This will give you more time before the paint dries on your piece. I also chose to wet my clayboard to give me a wet into wet look for the first two layers of paint. This also gave me a little extra time to get a feel for the consistency and the drying time of the paint.

This painting is a bit darker than I usually paint only because the egg tempra does not dry back like watercolor. It holds its luminosity and is very translucent.

This type of painting seems to work well for glazing because like watercolor you can put a second color over the first to create a third color. There is a stain glass look to the finished product because when dry, the paint continues to have a surface sheen. Texture was easy to achieve and you can almost use anything including a palette knife or a scratch tool These paintings do not have to be framed under glass and should last many lifetimes if properly handled.

All in all this was a good experience and I’m sure you’ll see egg tempra paintings in the weeks to come.

Work in progress Koi

This is my work in progress, its a koi and it is a commission. It will be cut down to about 18 by 33. You can see I'm standing on a chair because the painting in still wet. I didn't paint a small painting today, things started out badly when I locked my self out of my condo this morning. Agghhh, I had to sit with my neighbors till Art came home from work with the keys. My neighbors are great, its just I hate to waste their time, or be an imposition. Anyway... I'm going to try to get this piece finished this week. I like it already and I hope it will be exciting, fun and beautiful.

Under the falls

Finally got this painting complete! yippee, its 24 by 24 acrylic on panel. I changed the little fish on the upper left hand side and put in some bubbles.

Sunday Koi

12 inches by 7 inches watercolor on paper.


Koi and other fish with lovely bright colors.

I was sick today with a sinus infection. I've been fighting it off all week and it finally got the best of me.

I took some zertec but when I've taken it before it puts me to sleep, so I took some with the decongestion included... so far it hasn't put me to sleep. Now I just hope it doesn't keep me up all night.

Thats the problem with drugs you just end up trading one symptom for another.

I listened to my Ipod most of the day, I'm hooked on short tories. and subscribe to about twenty podcasts a week. Its a good way to relax and also to get some work done. I do a lot of computer work and it can be very boring. With my ipod, I can sit all day and it doesn't bother me. My favorite podcasts are ... The New Yorker, NPR, WYNC, PRI,Librivox, & bound off. I just finished 1772 its not a short story, in fact it is very long... but a great audio book.

If you enjoy short stories and know of some pod casts which are free, drop me an email at shantimarie@mac.com

Check out my new mac website and a Pink dolphin

http://web.mac.com/shantimarie


It isn't finished yet, but its a work in progress. I thought I would post it.


Also, I have my new 40 by 40 inch Koi painting its finished.

http://h20color.wordpress.com


Is this really an albino dolphin or is it photoshop? I don't care, its beautiful to me.

Koincedence

This is a large piece, 15 by 22.

Family of Koi 4 by 4 " watercolor on textured ampersand

This was one of those days when I had so many things to do that I felt a bit pushed to produce which doesn't usually work for my creativity. I had purchased some 4 by 4 clay boards and I decided I would just paint some koi and not stress out about it. I'm working on my larger piece and I really need as much time as I can get to finish it. Its almost done now. I'll post a new photo of it tomorrow.

These fish are painted in the deductive method: this is where you paint very wet the entire piece then pull out the fish and after it has all dried you glaze in the fish to create form and shape. Its a very easy way to produce an impressionistic piece.

The Dance

5 and 3/4 by 7 inches..... watercolor on gessoed watercolor paper.


I think of these two koi as male and female. I thought it would be good to paint something along the lines of a mating ritual..... The last time I was at a Koi show, the judges explained to me that the male koi are usually long and thin while the females are rounder and many times can be bigger than the males. Unlike birds both are very beautiful and both have their fish personalities.

Koi Inka Dink

This painting is is on Gessoed paper and I like the texture. How I make this texture is by spritzing the watercolor with water and wiping it off with a Kleenex. Where the spots of water fall onto the dry paint.. the kleenex picks up the color.

Its very late and I have to get up at 6:30 to host the life drawing class. I hope the heat is on at the Art league cause its supposed to be 20 degrees (F) tomorrow.

Koi Connection

This is my painting... Its called Koi connection. What another Koi? Yes another Koi ....


One of these fish is slighly animated Oh yes, and to animate fish all you have to do is give them great big beautiful eyes and some lips.

The viewer fills in the rest.

This is 6 by 9 and Is is for sale, for 35.00 e mail me if your interested. shantmarie@aol.com

I painted this piece by pouring on the paint and pulling the fish back out of the background before it dries. Once the shine is off the paper then I put in the detail.

Koi Ribbons

5 by 7 watercolor on textured clay board. 40.00 plus s & h

This stuff is great to paint on, you have to remember two things, the paint doesn't sink in which causes it to sit on the surface and the second thing you need to remember is that the watercolor will not be fixed unless you spray it with a fixative. I use a universal artist grade fixative but I have been told by experts you can use Krylon fixative for arts and crafts which can be purchased in most hobby shops for about 75% less.

This Koi looks like he is at the bottom of the pond playing in the ribbons of pond grass.

Emerald waters

This painting is 5 inches by 5 inches, watercolor on Illustration Board. $40.00

Emerald waters is the name for obvious reasons. I love the color green and there are so many greens which you can make or buy... that you can really have a great time painting all of them.

If you want to paint this painting: You paint the water first, and remember to leave a space for the fish. I used sap green, phathlo green & burnt sienna for the water. I used primary red, orange, indigo, & yellow for the fish. The white is the color of the paper. Paint in the fish last and remember to soften some of the edges so that the water and the body of the fish merge in places to avoid the fish looking like its pasted on.

Green Eyed Koi

6 by 9 inches


This is painted on illustration board that has been gessoed. I usually paint it right after the gesso dries. It's really important, you don't wet the gessoed paper first since that will work up the gesso and distribute it into your paint. If you want opacity that will be good but if you want the paint to be clean and transparent try not to reactivate the gesso.

After you finish your painting, just spray with fixative or frame under glass.

Perserverance

I call this persevaerance because I can just imagine three fish swimming upstream trying to fight the churning waters...

"Turkois" a koi painting

6′ by 6′ watercolor on gessoed wood panel, with a very light coat of varnish.
SOLD
The great thing about this piece is that is has painted sides.. so… it looks like galley wrap. I love the color turquoise and when I told my husband I was painting a koi in turquoise colored water he said “call it turk kois ” so another play on words but its better then Koi #110. Which by the way is its number in the Koi series.
LESSON

OK.. so here is how you do this. You buy wood cut into 6 by 6 then you gesso the wood with either acrylic gesso or watercolor gesso, both work well.
Put on at least two coats using a sponge roller, a sponge brush or a bristle brush, allowing the gesso to dry between coats. Sand it down a bit if it’s too rough for your liking. I actually try to give it a bit of texture by criss crossing the brush and dancing the brush across the wood . I feel it gives more movement to the water.

Once it’s dry you can paint with acrylic or watercolor. If using watercolor you have to have the paint as thick as creme but not tacky, other wise it will not appear wet. Once dry spray with fixative for watercolor or spray varnish for acrylics. If using varnish for watercolor, brush on with as few strokes as possible as the watercolor will tend to lift with too much back and forth movement of a brush. You can thin the varnish and pour it on, tiping and tilting the painting to get the varnish to coat the painting, then finish up with light brushing.