While the ink drys

I love painting, and I love all of the different things that each medium brings to the table in art. Oil painting is the one that I have the least experience with, but I really enjoyed the malleability of the paint, the ability to blend and smooth. Acrylic is so versatile, it works not only like itself, but with the correct mediums it can be smooth and workable like oils, or you can use it to tint over areas like watercolor, slowly building color. Watercolor took me a while to get used to, since I was most familiar with acrylic, but once I grasped the basic idea of it, I took off running. I loved the idea of building color, of lots of pale layers building to create impact. All three of these mediums are very workable, they're fairly forgiving, and mistakes are pretty easy to cover.

My second love, after watercolor, is ink. (Shh... don't tell watercolor, but ink is slowly creeping closer to my #1 spot). Ink is not forgiving. Once it is down, that's where it lay. While this may be frustrating for some, I greet it as a necessary element of the process. I absolutely love the little surprises, the trails in the paper the ink will travel, the beautiful and unpredictable way it spreads and tendrils through water.

I sat up last night as I was trying to sleep, and I quickly sketched out a piece of a face, hidden in windswept hair, the slightest curl of a smile on her lips, and I knew that she'd be perfect for today. As soon as Morrigan laid down to nap, I got to work. I was so excited to be working on this piece that I got a bit ahead of myself. I blocked in the figure with just a bit of tinted ink in the background, and then set to working detail in her hair. As I let that dry, I moved to painting a bit of the form in solid black. The silhouette met with a piece of background that was still damp, and the ink began to tendril out into her pale, unformed surroundings. It took only a moment of wide eyed surprise before I jumped to work, blending, adding more ink, moving the paper... the background got a lot of form out of it, all unplanned up till this point, all enchanting.

I pulled out some special paper for this piece, a beautiful cotton watercolor paper that I've been saving for just the right thing. At $40 a book (20 pages), I'm always hesitant to use it, but something about her demanded special attention, so out it came.

I'll most likely have her to share with you this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!