I fell asleep...

...as soon as I got home....into a deep sleep, only to be woken by my phone and iPad lighting up in succession reminding me to do my blipfoto entry. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep...

So I finally got out of bed, made a cuppa and was still racking my brains on how to do these velvet paintings for my art group demonstration and lesson tomorrow...see yesterday's blipfoto entry if you are confused...

So I cut a bit of velvet off...I wanted to leave those I had mounted on card last night for my art group tomorrow. It was difficult working on it moving all over the place. I was too tired to think.

All I knew it must be simple for them to do because painting on velvet is not easy the first few times. Your brush must be dry with only a little neat acrylic on it, either one or two colours, and you very gently, lightly brush the velvet with the paint brush.

I wanted their first attempt to be successful, so then I thought...use the round toothpick plastic container lid and the brush a tiny bit of white on the rim, and then plonk it on the sky area, lift off and voila...you have a full moon. I shaded mine in a little but, I think it looks more like a wormhole into another dimension than a full moon...

Then I painted the mermaid's hair...yellow and orange both on the same small flat brush at once, so just a few strokes and you have the long hair. A little flesh colour and white for face and arm. Then the tail...I painted the tail black initially...you are probably confused now...but there is a reason...I have some Interference colours in acrylic...these only work on a black painted surface underneath them (they don't work directly on the velvet)...they are shimmering colours which I thought might work for the tail. They did.

Then the sea and the horizon. Even my arthritic hands cannot draw a straight horizon...so I thought...why not use the household paint/wallpaper scraper that I have started to get fond of using in my last few acrylic paintings...so I did.

Then I used it for all the waves too. It was a lot easier than using the paint brush and getting that delicacy of touch on the velvet. First thing in a morning I might be able to use the brush for this but not at the end of a long tiring day. So I think there is a chance for my art group's first attempt tomorrow at this, to be able to produce a good picture.

Okay, I need my bed now. It took long to write this than paint the picture!!!

So this is my picture for today for a pic every day in 2017.

I will have a look at your blogs tomorrow or on Friday when I am a bit rested.

Might as well enter this for Cailleach's wild Wednesday, as I am half convinced the Enterprise is going to come zooming out of that wormhole and whisk that mermaid away by morning...