Lime 43

I started off with an 11" x 14" canvass board. Then with a gel medium I pasted down ripped newspaper. Then I did the watercolor. And I tell you what, newspaper is not a great surface for watercolor.

Lime 42

This piece didn't end up the way I set out to do it. I wanted the lime to have a cut out look and the green kind of floating behind the ink. Oh well. So this sis what I ended up with. I will try another like this in the future. But with only 58 limes left to do I'm not sure I will be able to fit it in.

Lime 41

This is from a reference photo. I just modified it a little.

Lime 40

Ahhh, much better. I went into this piece with a plan. his is on yupo paper. I realized I haven't done an ink and watercolor on yupo yet, so this piece was made.

Lime 39

This one is an embarrassment. I wanted to try a duo toned and failed. Oh well, there will be a new lime tomorrow.

Lime 38

No special note about this lime. Just something I had in my head and tried to get it on paper.

Lime 37

Many people have commented that the lime series makes them thin of margaritas. So this one is for all of you.

1/4 sheet arches hot pressed. Ink drawn with the ink cap eye dropper.

Lime 36

I had a previous yupo piece with tomatoes. People said the tomatoes stole the show. So I had to put the lime back on top. Cherry tomatoes from the garden carrying the lime. Now who is the boss!?

Lime 35

This was the first night I really didn't feel like painting the lime. I didn't have a very solid idea what to do. But I dragged my self to the art board and started work. I decided to do a bunch of limes to take on the shape of the lime. I started with a pencil sketch. Then drew in ink with the eye dropper on the cap. Ten I took a beer bottle and stamped ink rings, then took a sponge and dipped that in ink and started stamping.

I really got into it and was happy with the lime project once again. This is on 1/4 sheet arches hot pressed.

Lime 34

I didn't have very much time for this night's lime, but I got it done.

Lime 33

This is on yupo paper again. I added two tomatoes from the garden. The yupo is pretty fun to use. I definitely like more than the first time. I guess I couldn't like it any less.

Lime 32

It feels good to be working in watercolor again. I went with the ever fun yupo paper for this one.

Lime 31

I dusted off the acrylics to paint this lime. I treated it like a water color and started painting in the light areas. Then I kicked over to the dark areas. Then I kicked myself. I have no joy in working with acrylics and now remember why I stopped. I'm bringing back the watercolors.

Lime 30

For some reason my scanner doesn't like pastel. The colors are off and the dark areas are too dark. But you get the idea.

Lime 29

Just a simple charcoal. My daughter did her very quick in color pencil and called it done. She always asks me if it's enough. Tonight I said, well you could do a little more. So she went at it and I thought did a pretty good job. And when I told her that she said, "No, you can't post it!"

Lime 28

Well my son finally got into the act. He asked if I could do a lime for him. So I asked him to sketch out what he wanted. And here ist is, a pokemon, lime, matrix guy.

Lime 27

Broke out the pastels and charcoal for this one. The scan didn't come out too well. The shadowed area isn't that dark in the original.

I'm starting to feel old. I have to wear my glasses more and more as I work on the limes.

Lime 26

Here is the third in the conte crayon, field series.

Lime 25

A quarter of the way there. Only 75 left to go. Phew! Another conte crayon on charcoal paper.

Lime 24

Man can not live on watercolor alone! Therefore this one was done in conte crayon.

Lime 23

For this one I cut a lime in half, then gutted one half. My friend Chris suggested using lime juice to mix with the paint rather than water, so I saved to juice to do so. hen I used the gutted half and the non-gutted half to use as stamps with ink.

For those of you that have used arches paper, you know it has an odor when wet. But when I used the lime juice instead of water....PU! What a stink! then a weird thing happened. The lime juice ate up the blue pigment. It was like painting with invisible ink. But the orange pigment was just fine with the juice. Strange.

When the paint was still wet I rolled around the lime halves to create texture in the paint. The is also some left over pulp dried in the painting.

Lime 22

This is another plastic bag painting. Had a picture in my head of what I wanted to do. I was going to go in and give the shapes drop shadows and make this one 3-D like. But when I got to this point I loved it and couldn't touch it. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Lime 21

Here is another fun one. I had the idea in my head, but wasn't sure how to approach it. So I took the time to do a few pencil sketches first.

Lime 20

My daughter posed for this one. While posing she suggested I make the lime pour out between her fingers. That's my girl!

I'm starting to feel the time restrictions on this project. It seems to get later and later at night before I finish. Then I see things the next morning I would change or enhance, but it time for a new lime. I guess that is part of the charm of this project.

1/4 sheet cold pressed. Black is ink drawn with the eye dropper on the lid. The black smears towards to top is ink that hadn't dried before I did the wash.

Lime 19

This one was fun. If I had time I would have started over at the inking stage. The shadow under the foot got way too heavy. I tried to save it by making the lime shadow heavy too, but that got way too heavy. Oh well, no biggy. I also do not like the blue shadow on the ground. I would rework it a little, but this lime is so yesterday. Time for a new lime.

Lime 18

My daughter is sweet. She asked if doing this lime project is keeping me from my other art. I said it was. She asked if I would rather be doing other art than the limes. I told her I love this lime project. It is exciting to me to come up with something different every night. It is a very fun, challenging project.

Here is tonight's effort. I tried to go a little more traditional I guess. It's a little boring compared to most of the others. 1/4 sheet arches cold pressed.

Art Walk

My home town is having it's 300th anniversary this year. They have had parades and special events and so on. One thing they are doing is having an Art Walk. Local artists submit their work and if accepted a store is chosen to hang their work. I just found out I was accepted. Woo hoo! Next saturday I have to hang my work, then hang around for a couple of hours during the art walk. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I've never done anything like this before.

Lime 17

I had the idea of the lime opening up and the green pouring out. I did the ink first. Then I added a horizon line. I didn't like the line, but couldn't get rid of it because it was ink. So I added more background. 1/4 sheet arches hot pressed. Ink was done with a brush and rapidograph.

Lime 16

I did this by putting on the color then putting super market plastic bags on top. Then a heavy book to weight down. When dry, peal off the bag. Step and repeat to your heart's delight. I think this came out pretty cool looking. I will definitely explore this some more.

Oh, I forgot. Last night brown spots started to show up on the lime. Ut oh...

Lime 15

I got the idea for this one from someone I know on wetcanvas. She goes by bluegenes. You start off by painting gesso first to give some cool textures. Then you paint as usual over it. However, on my second coat of paint the gesso started to loosen up with all the water and the color washed out. But I kept playing until I got a feel for it. It is hard to see the texture with the scan, but live it is really cool.

Lime 14

My daughter started off this session by saying she was really bored with this project. I told her not to worry, only 86 left to paint.

Lime 13

Oh no! the yupo paper ruined me. I can't believe I lost it after only two yupo paintings. It really did throw me off. I guess I am trying to make a lot of excuses for this one. Not happy with it at all. Then I noticed it was unlucky 13 so I have yet another excuse. Tomorrow I come out with both brushes blazing!

Lime Post Cards

My friend Chris got into the lime spirit. He has sent me a flurry of Lime Postcards. He seems to be having as much fun with this lime project as my daughter and me.