This painting is from when I first discovered acrylic blending medium

 Acrylic blending medium is a substance that slows the drying time of acrylic paint, letting you blend colors easier. This painting has a lot of that type of blending. I like it.

fun colorful abstract floral cat fish art magnet
by MelskyArt

I really like this rose painting

 This is a magnet made from an acrylic on paper painting I did in 2010. Back when I was selling original painting, these rose paintings were my go-to. They always sold, and they were easy to paint. I'm looking at this painting now and I wish I still had the original. I guess I'll have to order one. I like the way the light works in this.  It is probably my best painting in this style.

Red green orange abstract floral rose painting art magnet
by MelskyArt

Art History Day

Still life painting with wine and window magnet
by MelskyArt

 This painting is old - I think from around 1999. It's when my painting skills were not that great! But it has a naive charm I don't think I could duplicate today. I'd like to remake this in illustrator and see how it turns out.

Happy Blue Cat magnet

 This is another painting of mine, turned into a magnet. It features a happy blue cat on a bright red background.

I've had cats pretty much my whole life, and they are my favorite thing to paint.

Happy blue cat pop art painting red magnet
by MelskyArt

Witch Assassin - Forest Poisoner

 

This is an elven assassin witch who lives in a little cabin in the woods. She gathers herbs and knows just the right methods to combine them into the most deadly poisons. She has no alliances but will sell her services to the highest bidder.

Just making up characters!

How did Joshua Trees get their name?

 People who settled in the area during the period of western expansion named them that because their branches reminded them of the biblical Joshua raising his hands towards the heavens.

I learned that as a child because we used to go camping in the desert a lot, and the rangers would have educational walks where they would lead us on a little hike and tell us stories about the history, plants and animals of the desert.

When I grew up, I spent three years living in a very isolated part of the Mojave desert, and I did a lot of paintings there. This is one of them! The original is acrylic on canvas, and you can see the brush strokes.

pop art desert sunset joshua tree art magnet
by MelskyArt

The Golden Owl of Athena and Minerva

 This is digital art I started a couple of months ago. 

That was when I first learned how to do gradients. They are so fun to experiment with that I have to stop myself from overusing them.  

Athena and Minerva are basically the greek and roman versions of the goddesses of wisdom. Their symbol is the golden owl of wisdom.

Looking at this picture now, I think I'm going to change the gradient on the leaves so the dark parts are on the side. I'm also going to add more branches and leaves, and a trunk for the branch to come from.

Digital art makes it possible to endlessly tinker with things. This is both a blessing and a curse. I can go back and change things when I see I have made a mistake or I think of a better way to do it. But it is an endless process, unlike when I was using acrylics and watercolors. With physical painting, I would finish a painting and then move on.

I hadn't thought of making any changes to this before I just happened to see it and thought it would make a good blog post. There's nothing like thinking about what other people will think about my art to make me look at it with an even more critical eye. 

Oh yes, I should also put some texture or shading on the branch. I will post this picture and the next version next to each other in a later post.