The Old Man in the Tree: When Unexpected Things Happen

My hubby loves to paint with oils and is getting quite good!  He wanted to try his hand at acrylics (which I LOVE).  Michael's just happened to be having a 2 for 1 sale on Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics so we popped on over and picked up the basic colors: red, blue, yellow, white, black, and a fun shade of orange (2 for 1 right?).  I've been using softer body and fluid acrylics on backgrounds and for painting embellishments but have never really "painted" anything with them.  He picked up a 12x12 pad for acrylic painting to practice on so I thought I'd play along while he tested things out.  So out we went into the garage (AKA the painting and "misting" studio).

First off, the texture of the acrylic paper was fantastic!!  It's smoother than watercolor paper and with a crosshatch texture.

I was channeling fall it seems so I mixed up some nice shades of orange and burgundy.  The heavy body acrylics are definitely different than the more fluid ones I'm used to so the brush strokes showed up quite a bit.  While I'm not averse to brush strokes, I wanted a more blended effect.  So I took an old sock, stuck it on my hand and dipped my fingers in some water.  I then rubbed across the page to smoosh the colors together and blend them.  Love love love this effect!  I could have actually thinned the paint beforehand but there is nothing like painting with your fingers.  I tend to do that a lot which is one of the reasons I stick to non toxic media. 

After the I finished the background I looked over at what my hubby was doing.  He is especially good at painting trees.  I love trees and thought "ooh, a nice scraggly tree would be perfect on the page".  I mixed up a nice brown and handed him the brush.  He started on the outline and then handed the brush back to me and said "you can do this!"  So I did!  Brush in hand, I went at it with no fear mixing and adding more layers of colors as I went.  I plan to add some 3d embellishments when I'm done so not all of the branches will show anyway.  What did I have to lose right?  I stepped back and took a look and felt pretty good about my first "painted" project.

Heavy body acrylics on paper

Then the magic happened.

I held it up proudly to my husband and said "what do you think?"  He took a look and responded, "cool!  Who's that guy in the tree?"  I took a closer look and realized that there was the shape of a face in the foot of the tree - totally unintentional of course!  How cool!  I love when things like that happen.  So of course I have to call this piece The Old Man in the Tree. 

Do you see the Old Man? Click the picture to view a larger image.

I think the Old Man needs some shade so I plan to add some 3d leaves to him and I'm thinking of writing a poem to include in the lower right corner.  Not sure yet.  I have a strong affinity for trees so I feel blessed that this special little "happy accident" occurred.  I will always cherish the Old Man in the tree for looking out for us.