The First Teabag Painting - Finished!

If you remember, (and if you don't, you can click here) my first teabag painting began with the article by Wendy Hill in the June issue of Watercolor Artist in the Creativity Workshop section. I read it and couldn't resist trying it. Things like this are an excellent way to get over, out or through a major block - I speak from experience! If you click back to the link above, you can see the steps taken to get to the wild background of this:















At that time, I had no idea what to do with the result! After much thought and contemplation, and a great suggestion from Rhonda of how ginkgo leaves might 'fit', I drew in lots of ginkgo leaves and berries. I had planned on doing them all in negative painting but once started, quickly changed that to a few in negative painting with the rest done positively. Ann asked if I saw anything in the design I wanted to enhance and I worked with that question in mind.

In the upper right corner I could plainly "see" this little fetal warrior. Every time I looked at the painting, I would see him, complete with a tiny little spear in his hand. I kept him in the finished painting 'cause he was so cute.

I won't go into detail about what I originally kept 'seeing' (the warrior along with a birth canal and two fallopian tubes) but I will say that I was starting to seriously worry about my warped imagination!

So, here's the finished painting that I plan on entering to the magazine:

When I posted the almost final version to Ann and Rhonda, Ann asked what I was thinking as I painted it. (Ann knows the perfect questions to ask to get you to think about your painting!) My answer was this: "Hmm, that's a good question - what am I thinking about when I paint it...... Mostly I guess I'm thinking about getting a mass of gingko leaves in there. I'm looking at the shapes and searching for spaces that would accomodate a leaf. I'm thinking of how I love the colours that show up in the leaves through the green paint. I'm thinking that I'd like to put darker greens for the leaves but I don't want to lose those colours showing through. I'm thinking that it might not make any sense to anyone but it's been one heck of a lot of fun doing it because I didn't really care if it was a mess. I'm thinking of HOW could I make it make some sense. I'm thinking that that fetal warrior is becoming like a little friend and I'm creating a forest world for him but that I 'd better not mention that fact to anyone or they'll think I've really 'lost it'. ROTFLOL. I also keep wondering how I'll get those teabag spots to look more like stepping stones. Whew! that's a lot of thinking while painting, isn't it?"