Dot Mandala Painting

Good morning. I am back for more computer torture and will attempt to shrink my pictures again today with a quick post on some dot mandala painting I attempted. As I said yesterday, I am very much a beginner at this painting technique but have enjoyed the process and the finished product.

When out at Zoo's last year, we had purchased dowels of every size from her local hardware store. I cut a piece about 3-4 inches in length from each of them for both of us. When doing my first attempts at home a couple months ago, I could not find my dowels and ended up using small corks from the Dollar Store and pen ends to do my wing-it trial pieces. So the pictures from yesterdays post were done with found objects in my craft room (except the last photo, which was done last month at Zoo's with freshly cut dowels and things).

Having cut new dowels and following a beginner YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rub1aoqnuFY&index=19&list=LLrPw3KR7TMCTKUPVvRy-_3g&t=0s) away I went. It took me a bit of time to figure out what size dowel would work for the sizes of dots in this woman's videos but after a piece or two I was getting the hang of it.

                 

When I returned home from out West, I made a few cards with the small squares of dot painting I had done. They were quick and easy to make and turned out cute.

Practicing on the small black pieces of paper prepared me for the next day's rock painting with Zoo and her sister.

I know I will do more dot mandala painting in the future and will watch additional Shwetart03's videos to inspire and teach me how to do better.

Have a great weekend!

Rock Painting Fun

Good  morning. It has been ages since I have done a post, mainly because I wanted to figure out how to make my pictures smaller first. Well, this morning I was shown by Zoo and my wonderful Hubby, and so here goes. I played around a little bit with picture size in Paint and they are a little smaller and I can get a couple side by side but will need some practice to get them so I can put two or three side by side.

About me and rocks...I have been collecting rocks since I was a small child. I had many, many, many of my parents' old tobacco cans lining the basement staircase filled with rocks and rock dust. I would break the rocks open to see what the inside looked like, I would crush rocks to dust to see the differences of each kind. I took a geology class in university and loved it. I married a geologist. Suffice it to say that I have always loved rocks and that my house is full of them to this day.

So when Zoo's sister came out to paint rocks with us last year, I was thrilled. She showed us how to do a pour and then we went to town painting away.

 

 
This past winter I was sorting one of the pails of beach rocks I have in my craft room and decided to try out some dot painting. Turns out I love it and was surprised to discover that hours had gone by when doing so. These are my first ones with a big bug that I had a blast painting to go along   with it.

 

 I used a can of ancient Spar Varathane, that my Husband had out in the shop, to protect these latest rocks. The can said that it may 'yellow' the surface and in fact it did. You can see it in the picture to the left,  where the varathane pooled in the dimples of the rock. It took forever to dry between coats but I am curious how it will survive outside in the garden. The kids and I painted some rocks years and years ago and the varathane (I think it may have been indoor varathane) we used then wore off within a year or two and then the paint chipped and flaked off. I am hoping this stuff will last longer, as it is used on boats and other marine things.

 Below...On my latest trip, a couple months ago, to Zoo's, we once again had her lovely sister out to paint more rocks. I once again worked on mandalas, this time using the dowels from Zoo's house and a beginner YouTube video. I will do a post on dot mandalas next, as I don't have her link on me now.

Well. I am finished for today. I see on the preview that the picture still do not line up the way I had hoped but I will work on it again another day. Hope you are having a fun and relaxing day like myself. Happy Spring!