Thursday, June 11, 2009

Little Projects and New Supplies

I stopped by the Christmas Tree Shop yesterday looking for inexpensive nail polish. I have a collection of all the wildest colors that I can find, which I use for a variety of miniature projects. In the past I've found sets of really wild nail polish for only a few dollars. I didn't find any nail polish, but there was a whole bin of stain pens for only $3 per set.

I forgot to mention that I got two tiny brushes at the Sturbridge show. They were sold by Phyllis Hawkes. I decided to test them out by trying some micro watercolors. The lines of the index card helped me to keep a sense of scale.
Each painting is less than 1/4th inch square. I tried to paint a dog, but wasn't quite happy with him. The shape was fine, but I couldn't add any shading at this scale!

I was much happier with this bowl of fruit.
This vase of flowers was one of the last I tried. I'd love to try portraits, but I don't think that I'll be able to get enough detail to make them look right. I'd also love to try micro oil paintings, but am worried that the paint will be too clumsy in this tiny scale. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for small scale oil painting?

6 comments:

  1. These are amazing!! Do you have pictures of the brushes?? I'd love to see them. My tiniest ones are still waaaaay too huge to do something like this. Your paintings are gorgeous! -ara

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  2. I find that furniture touch-up markers are so much more convenient than bringing out a whole can of stain for little objects. And they don't have any fumes, too!

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  3. Eliza, just be sure to thin down the oils the same as you do with watercolor and you should be OK. The paintings that you are doing are great. Unfortunately they are a bit hard to see as small as they are...Keep up the good work!

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  4. Hi Eliza, thank you for following, I really appreciate it. You are so talented and have such a good taste while choosing your minis.Love your watercolours and your work .

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  5. Eliza,
    I just found your blog, I love your work. The micro watercolors are great. And the tiny doll you shared near the beginning.. she is amazing. Well all of it is.
    I am going to be returning to see more.
    Tina

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  6. Ara, the brushes are Silver Ultra Mini brushes, numbers 2400S and 2417S. I'm always looking for good tiny brushes, and these have already become favorites in the few days that I've had them.
    Mary, I wouldn't know what to do without the stain pens! They save so much time on the micro projects.
    Caseymini, thanks for the tip. I'm thinking I might have to invest in magnifiers soon. So far, I have been managing by just working in sunlight, but they are hard to see!
    Rosanna and Tina, thank you!

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