Rodney Rooster – 4th ATC/ACEO – painted for World Watercolour Month

Did you know that this year, 2017, is the Chinese year of the Rooster?   It began on January 28th, 2017 and lasts till February 15th, 2018.   The Rooster is the tenth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign.

So … what else could I paint for World Watercolour Month but … a Rooster!  Rodney Rooster in fact.

When I paint an ATC (ACEO) I cut a piece of watercolour card bigger than the required size – this is because the size, (2.5″ x 3.5″) is a little small to hold, and you don’t have any ‘spare room’ to hold onto the piece.  So I will measure and draw out the exact size of the ATC, but then cut the watercolour card bigger, so that I have places to hold onto the bit of watercolour card, without getting my thumb prints all over the places I’ve painted.  BUT …  doing this can sometimes be my downfall...  as it was with Rodney the Rooster here.

Rodney Rooster – a hand painted ATC/ACEO #WorldWatercolorMonth

The above photograph shows Rodney the Rooster painted on a piece of watercolour card, which I cut a little bigger than the required 2.5″x 3.5″.  But if you look carefully at the photograph, you can see that I measured and drew in the ‘box’ of the exact size of an ATC, so that I wouldn’t paint any of the details outside the required size.  All well and good so far.

Once I’ve finished painting, and the paint is fully dry, I then cut the ATC’s to the correct size and all’s well in ATC land.  BUT … can you spot where, in my gung-ho state of  ‘lets get this painted’  I made one of the mistakes I am sometimes known to make?

I painted to the size of the ATC …. rather than paint  within  that size.  I’ve mentioned in previous posts about ATC’s,  that I love to ‘frame’ my ATC’s/ACEO’s with a mount – and even sometimes frame them behind glass (raised up off the painting to safeguard the painted picture), and because of this, I have my mounts cut to just a tiny bit smaller than the required mount size, so that everything tucks nicely behind that tidy mount.  And that normally works perfectly,  [sigh] …  but not today.

Rodney Rooster ….  was too big for his boots …. or rather, just a tiny bit big for his mount!

Today I had obviously left my brain on the pillow when I got out of bed this morning.

I had a choice.  I could either hide a bit of his beak behind one side of the mount.  Or hide some of the ends of his feathers on his tail.  Neither was acceptable.  So … I went with choice three…  I used a heavyweight textured paper mount which was cut to the exact size of an ATC/ACEO so that none of his feathers were hidden.  Problem solved.

 

#WorldWatercolourMonth

I prefer the wider mount (the blue one) – but needs must.

Lesson learned?  I doubt it.  I’m a total numbskull and I’ve done it before so I’ve no doubt I’ll do it again  (and again! lol).

But y’know …  maybe I like him without a mount at all.  Ahh, Cobs…   it’s just an ATC/ACEO ….  not World Peace!  Stop fretting.

Thank you so much for coming and allowing me to introduce you to Rodney.  Mr. Cobs is going to have a surprise when he reads this blog post on Thursday morning . . . .  he thought I’d said that I’d painted  “a cockle”.  Bless his bad hearing.  Always thinking of food is perhaps more like the problem!  LOL

Have a truly blessed Thursday.  Be good to yourself.