non-obligatory blogging

Just got this one back from the framer in Socorro. This is an ATC (3.5" x 2.5") I did several years ago to use as an example of a hand-painted artist's trading card. I needed it in a hurry for part of a presentation to a group I was trying to interest in the concept of ATCs. Anyway, it was a quicky painting accomplished (again) by sort of cheating because I didn't have much time. I turned a photo of a tea cup (this one I had actually photographed myself) into a line drawing in photoshop or illustrator (can't remember now what program I used) which I then printed out on watercolor paper in a very, very faint light gray. Then, using watercolors, I hand-painted it using the original photo as a guide for the colors.

I got a call yesterday from someone requesting that I donate some art for a silent auction to benefit the local hospice program. How could I refuse since the hospice program has been such a benefit to us with what has been going on lately with my grandma. I messed with an art idea yesterday that had been on my mind to try but still didn't come up with anything appropriate for their "spring tea" benefit luncheon being held tomorrow afternoon. I was awake this morning at 4 am so I decided to try again and throw together something a bit more tea partyish. I put a "borrowed" photo through a bit of digital manipulation to make it little less photolike and then made a mask from the outline of the photo printed onto regular copy paper and adhered that onto watercolor paper cut to 5"x7". I then rubbed in powdered pigments all around the masked area and sealed that with matte acrylic. I flipped the photo in the program I was using (Illustrator), printed it onto