Painting Harlequin Diamonds

Look, I know I talk a lot. I’ve been told that since I was a little girl and my two older brothers and two older sisters would whine, “Mom! puhleese make her shut up!”

Writing a blog, nearly daily, should provide an outlet, a vehicle, for people like me who tend to go on and on and on. And on. Shouldn’t it? But then, throw in a subject that I’m passionate about, say, painting, and I’m afraid it can get downright annoying.

I know, I know, you can always just ‘click’ and head off to somewhere else in Blogland. But I don’t want you to. I want you to at least look at all the post’s pictures if you’re not into reading my daily dribble.

The other day while I was working on the Fall Leaf project for a guest post at Type A Decorating, it hit me. Really hit me. Hard.

My posts are too dang long and I post too dang many pictures.

Now, I’m not making any promises but I’ll try, really try, at least make an attempt, to keep my posts a little more, um, manageable. So that you’re not reading a flippin’ book every time you drop by.

To keep things short-er & sweet, I’m gonna try splitting projects into sections. Which is putting me into a really, really uncomfortable place ‘cause I really, really don’t like showing paintings that aren’t finished.

But I really, really want to make this blog a place where you can learn how to paint – if that’s what you want. And that means lots and lots of pictures with accompanying tips (read: editorial).

I can’t promise, but I’ll try to keep it shorter.

Crap, I’ve already written almost 300 words and I haven’t talked about the painting.

Do you see my problem? Moving on . . .

A couple of weeks ago I posted a few sample color options for this painted wall hanging. The clients decided on the lavender monogram and the rest of the painting to be in colors that match the mural and the bookcase.

But first I had to paint the background. In diamonds. That are all the same size. Presumably, the clients want the diamonds lined up and centered too.

Since I will do nearly anything that remotely resembles mathematics and those horrible, awful ‘story problems’, I just made a template, figuring I’d trace it onto the canvas.

After drawing the first couple of diamonds I saw that it wasn’t gonna work. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was the one who made the canvas. The canvas that was pretty close to 24” wide by 42” long. Pretty close.

I wound up drawing lines at all intersecting points (doesn’t that sound all math-like!). Then I scrapped the template altogether and took a yardstick to draw lines along the intersecting points.

Not precise, but better than pretty close.

After painting the pink diamonds pink and the white diamonds a combination of white with a little pink, there were still a ton of pencil marks showing. About a third of the way thru erasing, my fancy-schmancy eraser ran out.

Then I remembered something I read on a blog somewhere along the line – wipe pencil marks off with a damp rag.

I didn’t believe it’d work but it did – like a charm! A little smearing, but it just wiped right up with a clean area of the rag.

Phew! Saved me a ton of time.