This is a pencil cactus. But really, it is a succulent. The stems are round like a dowel. During cooler months, they glow in vivid shades of pink, orange, and yellow. How fun is that? Their nickname is “Sticks On Fire”.
Even I’m amazed by My achievement but I confess that there were disappointments. Cacti, for example. I never really got them right. Can’t imagine what I meant them to look like, but certainly, they turned out wrong. Maybe I had the plans upside down.
This is a Sansevieria Snake plant. The stems are round like a pencil. So different, and so interesting. Another WIP. Haha. Oh, that green! It’s not easy being green, and this green is monstrous. Ghastly. It’s Grinch with a hangover. Haha.
I started with a geometric stencil. If you look closely, you can see hints of that on the right. I painted some of those shapes solid, and some I only outlined. I added a couple more layers, and inadvertently buried most of that detail. Haha.
I added white marks for texture, wiped it off. Tried something else, that I can’t even remember, wiped that off too. Experimented with green pastel. Wiped that off as well.
This morning, I tried using the same stencil again, win an ink pad. That sort of worked. I started to soften it with one more layer and lifted the non-waterproof (apparently) ink. The good news is, I was able to clean the ink off completely. Haha.
The pot started as a whitewash. then terracotta. Next a rustic, scratchy blackish. Nothing felt right. Until I tried the blue I used on Day 1. Windsor Blue. Deep teal Blue.
I found this very scientific description. It made me laugh.
Definition of Windsorblue: a grayish purplish blue that is redder and paler than average delft and redder, lighter, and stronger than average navy blue.
After scanning the image, the obvious answer was simply to crop it.
Woo Whoo! Here we are again. I am so happy to hear that so many of you are as excited as I am. It’s going to be a fun, and productive month!
There is a variation of greens and blues in the background of this Moon Cactus. Layers of texture that are not showing well here. I will continue working on this. The stones need help and the head needs attention as well. I did not add spines. They are so tiny, and on the yellow , they look dark and sort of dirty. I may just add some white spines around the edges.
You can see some of the texture here.
Gesso Texture
I found a basting brush at the dollar store awhile back. Made use of it in the first layers. Additional layers were added with a brayer, and there are small splatters as well.
