Holiday Greeting Cards

I always end up with some sort of holiday project and one of mine this year has been to make my holiday greeting cards. Since I wanted to create an oil painting for the front of each card and have 60 cards to send, it's been quite the process.... no kidding! I thought I'd share it with you and give you a look at some of my final cards.
After deciding on my design, my first step was to paint the background on a big sheet of canvas. I began by dividing my canvas into correctly measured rectangles and then painting within each of the boxes (more or less.. you know I can't paint a straight line!). That proved to be a slow process with my oils, even though I'd thinned them with mineral spirits. So for my last sheet, I just painted the entire canvas the prussian blue I was using for my night scene. I also started to paint the shape of my egret but this didn't work out because my paints were too wet and the blue started to mix with my white. The first photo shows my canvases drying. The next day my canvases were dry enough to begin adding the details and other colors. Each little painting was different. I'd begun with two egrets and then decided to just paint one in each painting. Not one to enjoy doing the same thing over and over, in addition to changing the kind of egret in the painting, I added swirls of water to some, overhanging leaves to some, and eventually, even changed the kind of egret.
The next day, some were still a bit tacky, so I hung my canvases outside to make sure they'd be dry enough for me to cut out my individual paintings without danger of smearing the oils. After they were cut out and backed with with heavy watercolor paper I mounted each of the paintings onto a card. At last my cards were ready to have my message added inside and be prepared for mailing! You'll notice that even though each painting is different, they all contain a morningstar for the egret to "wish upon." For this reason, I think of them all as Morningstar Egret. Ginger