Friday, October 13, 2006

Illustration Friday -- Smitten


I am smitten with the technique I used to create this painting of an abandoned house. I stained the paper with tea and I used pen and ink with a watercolor wash to complete it.

22 comments:

Elizabeth O Dulemba said...

Very nice Gina!
:)
e

ELLA ELVIANA said...

with tea? very interesting! beautiful.

murphy girl said...

gorgeous! lots of character to it

Anonymous said...

THAT IS GORGEOUS! Lovely painting!

Pete Hay said...

Tell us more about staining the paper with tea

anhdres said...

oh my, i would have swear by the small thumbnail it was a photo. nice work with the tea, indeed.

fortwertz said...

You're a Wyeth if I've even seen one. Nice stuff, very nice.

Janet said...

Very nice!!!

Gina Cuff said...

Hi Pete,
I draw my image onto watercolor paper and I stretch it and wait until it dries. Then I pour boiling water over several teabags. When the water is cool, I stain the paper with several washes of tea (letting each wash dry before applying the next) to get the color I want. Using pen and ink and watercolor I paint the image. Very simple technique with lovely results.
~Gina

Anonymous said...

That's a painting? I thought it was a photo! AMAZING!!!

Heartful said...

Wow, gorgeous painting (I thought it was a photo too at first), and interesting methods!!

Jana Bouc said...

So interesting and beautiful. Very evocative, haunting image.

Dorkus Americanus said...

I'm having trouble believing this is not a photo. Awesome.

Unknown said...

A truly beautiful image. I love the tone the tea creates.

Graham McArthur said...

Very beautiful painting superbly rendered. I love it.

Anonymous said...

Wow!

Pete Hay said...

Gina,
Thanks for the reply. This weekend I tried soaking 140# arches cp in tea for various lengths of time. I got quite varying results (some very good, some no so good).
I'll try the wash technique to see if I have more control over the tone.
Pete

shadows and clouds said...

really like this lots... beautiful picture, interesting tea idea! :)

lil kim said...

wow amazing! looks like a photograph!

Anonymous said...

This is really amazing...I love it

K said...

very nice indeed, and the technique sounds intriging...wish there were pics of the process in between...as that is always the most fun part- the process! cheers

Minda said...

That is definitely an amazing piece of work! I never would have thought of tea. :)