Snow Day

Apparently there's another winter storm passing through this week.  Personally, I'd love to see a few snowflakes, but here in Memphis the forecast just looks really cold and wet.  We haven't had any snow all winter (not really complaining, especially when I think about those who have had far too much!), but I made my own snow day a few weeks back while working on Seth's birthday invitation. 

It's a bit unorthodox, but I almost always paint the background last.  For this painting I wanted to put snowflakes in the background so I started by tracing some coins.  I can draw a lot of things, but a perfect circle is not one of them!

After I had my circles, I drew in snowflake designs.  Mostly I referred to a tattered Christmas gift tag that was still laying around.   

Then I just painted over the lines with a masking fluid.  Once dry, it allowed me to paint the entire background in washes of blue while preserving the white of the paper under the masking fluid. 

When I was ready, I simply peeled off the masked part, revealing the clean, white snowflakes underneath.  I was  a little ambitious in the intricacy department, so some touching up here and there was in order.  Overall, I was really pleased with the final result! 

Plus, ya know, Seth was all, "Oh my gosh Mom, that painting is so amazingly cool and special and I will treasure it forever and ever!" 

Only not really, cause he can't talk yet. 

And he prooooooobably wouldn't say that, even if he could.

"Seth's First Birthday" 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 watercolor on paper by Holly B. Johnson ©2014