My sweetheart just had a big birthday this past weekend, and I know how much he loves bald eagles – they are, unquestionably, his patronus. I know as a beginner painter I am likely to make big mistakes when trying to paint…well…basically anything, but I truly liked how this one turned out.
Eagle Over Mountains
I love to gift my people with cards that are meaningful to them, and that bring some sort of reference or symbology to what we are celebrating.
What should I paint next? Any suggestions for Easter? That would be fun!
It was my father’s birthday this month and I decided to gift him with a card that would represent his roots. He was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and elCaminito is one of its most famous alleys located in La Boca, mostly a touristic neighborhood, yet one of the most popular sites for local artists to make and sell their art.
Image source: Flung Magazine
So I thought that painting el Caminito for my father’s birthday card would be special. He has some paintings of Buenos Aires at home, but none of them showing this specific place.
I started off by outlining the pictures, something I rarely do. But I thought it would be important to have guidelines for this one.
¡Tango! I know a lot of local tango dancers perform in front of this building to entertain tourists and make some money with their art, too.
Here is my father holding the final work! I’m happy that he loved it and said he’s going to frame it… so sweet!
My father is a technology guru, so when I asked him to send me a picture of the card (because I forgot to take one of the finished product) he also sent me the scanned file, which I appreciate so much, you can really see all the details of the painting that way. Thanks dad!
So here’s my two cents for celebration cards, make it unique, make it in a way that makes sense to the person that will receive it, I’m sure that will make them feel very special!
Happy 2023! I’ve been MIA from the blog but in real life I’ve been working on some cute pieces, including this lovely (and fairly easy) idea for a Valentine’s Day card:
‘Mates For Life‘
I painted this one for my beloved parter, it was inspired by an image I found on Google.
Also, I’ve been taking an online watercolor course, I intend to share more information about it in the upcoming posts, so stay tuned!
I have been MIA after going through a big loss. That’s a story for another post. But after months without touching my brushes I was presented with an opportunity to resume my work.
My mom had asked me to paint a birthday card for one of her best friends who is turning 60 years old. She said her friend’s favorite color is yellow. So I decided to paint a yellow lily.
You can find more videos of my painting on TikTok: gisele.t_
‘Lírio da Amizade’ – by Gisele T.
I’m happy to be back. Hopefully I’ll be working on some more pieces this week.
I know, it’s been so long, I feel rusty and have a lot of self-criticism when it comes to this card, but I put a lot of love into it so I’ll just be thankful for what it meant to me and to my mother.
As Mother’s Day approaches us I thought I’d share a small inspiration I painted a few weeks back.
I started off with some wet-on-dry shaping the orchids the best I could.
I added the leaves and some details in yellow.
Because the idea of a card sometimes makes me think of sparkles, I used some gold paint to add bright points over the leaves and petals.
With the same gold paint I painted letters and thought the custom word would add a special touch to it.
‘Mãe’ means Mom in Portuguese.
My beautiful and amazing mom and her card! I gave this card to her on her birthday back in February, she said she loved it (…moms gotta be supportive! Lol).
I hope you all are having an amazing time working on your art. I have had some hiccups in life that sort of made me take a break from painting, but I have some more of my work to share in the upcoming weeks and hopefully will be back to spending time with my brushes soon.
Tomorrow is the birthday of my other half, so it was a great opportunity to work on something completely new and challenging to me. He is a nature lover, so the options were endless…
Yes. The options were endless. It took me some time to decided what I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to paint the skies, so I envisioned a beautiful sunset. I don’t usually take advantage of my flat large brush, but I did use it quite a bit on this one.
As I was working on the colors I thought many times that it would not turn out okay. Insecurities… am I the only one? But I kept on going. I used the flat brush horizontally for the skies and vertically for the field.
It was also the first time I used some help to speed up the process! No, that’s not cheating…Definitely not…!
Black paint for the silhouette – I love it!
Okay, time to paint the silhouette of the buck. I got super nervous, I knew I had close to zero room to make mistakes here. So I picked my 00 brush and began to outline it as slowly as possible.
At this point I was very happy about how its body turned out to the point I asked myself if it would be okay to just leave it headless haha!
Well, he isn’t headless. He even has points and everything. Oh.. And a tail!
After finishing the buck I felt like adding another pine tree, and that was it. Singed it, done!
‘Buck At Dusk’ – original, watercolor
There’s something special about handmade birthday cards, right? This one does not fold, I have a handwritten message for him on the back. I hope he likes it.
Gisele's Gallery 