After meeting the tireless Karyn Traphagen at ScienceOnline11 in January, she asked me for an unusual commissioned painting: something on slate, no larger than 1.5"x2".
It was more difficult than I had thought. I have often painted creatures and details that small -I knew I had the right brushes- but I had never tried to fit a whole composition in something that small.
The challenge was on.
It was more difficult than I had thought. I have often painted creatures and details that small -I knew I had the right brushes- but I had never tried to fit a whole composition in something that small.
The challenge was on.
 |
| Apparently I drink too much coffee to reliably use the camera's up-close feature. |
The piece languished on my desk for a little while, unfinished, until I came up with the idea of adding the ladybug, an image that I've done in a similar way before in pencil. I added a bit of gold-coloured paint (actually titanium-coated mica flakes) to the ladybug to give it a shimmer.
Here's the final piece:
Here's the final piece:
Thanks Karyn!
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Interested? I have a couple of larger, similar pieces painted on slate for sale and I remain available for commissions.
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
