Trying out brushes and brushstrokes.

 

I prepared gold surfaces - but muddled radius and diameter so ended up with 4 circles that were too small for my brushwork! I stubbornly and foolishly started out freehand before being a bit more systematic with compass and ruler on the second. The others are waiting for future practice and inspiration.

My gold acrylic paint is a bit old and not of the highest quality. It was very easy to overwork it and drag lumps and bumps into existence. Also the black card wasn't quite heavy enough and did buckle a bit.

In place of plywood I found part of an old cardboard box, which worked fairly well as a base.

 

I still cramped the design too much, not leaving enough space for some of the final swirls and flourishes, and having too thick lines for some of the stems, but the bit that frustrated me most was the runners. Another time I'll try a much smaller brush for those details.

The pencil lines were still showing through after using an eraser so I tried touching up the red in one or two places, but it didn't make much difference and I think if I keep adding red my lines will get even thicker!

 

Thank you for the class.