I got to paint my own Christmas ornaments this year! I was so excited. I already knew what I wanted to paint – places that I’ve visited this year! I wanted to sketch out what I wanted to draw first, but realized that once I paint over it I won’t be able to see it, so I ended up just painting without any sketching.
I used two paint brushes: a thin one and a thick one. I used the thick one for the background, which I tried to do a gradient with the different colors I had. It actually turned out looking nicer than I thought! The thin paint brush was very hard to control. The bristles would separate from each other and not follow the direction that I am painting in, making it difficult to make the thinner lines look nice. It was probably just the paint brush I was using, because when I switched to another thin brush (when I was working on my last ornament, unfortunately), it worked much better. I painted four ornaments: Taiwan, Tokyo, Austin, and Lisbon. Here are the results:
I really liked the colors of the Taiwan ornament. This is also the one where I think the text turned out best. The proportions for the Tokyo one are a bit off, and I think having a sketch for this one would have helped a lot. The back of the Austin ornament was my favorite. The dark blue blending with the red and then the yellow worked out much better than I expected. I also liked the back of the Lisbon one, but part of the paint got smudged so I ended up adding a star to the back. If I had more time, I would’ve let the paint dry properly before applying my next layer or painting the back and also paint the edges of the ornament.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas! What should I paint next year?