Mini Lights Continued

You may recall that I recently painted a really small lighthouse -- the one up in Mukilteo, on a 3" x 3" canvas in acrylic.  I found it quite difficult.  I had issues with the paint thickness, and finding the right brush to get tiny details.  It was so frustrating that I pondered the wisdom of painting tiny pictures in acrylics, and went on to do pen and watercolor ones instead.

However, I still wanted a trio of little lighthouse paintings, so this past weekend I decided to tackle the next one -- the Alki Point light.  I experimented more with an acrylic medium that extends the drying time and makes the paint a bit looser to work with, and I tried out different brushes.  And what do you know -- the whole process was much less frustrating.  It was even downright enjoyable at times.

Someday I  may drink a cup of tea, but in the meantime, that bag will continue to be used to show the size of my miniature paintings.

Here it is again, showing the two paintings together:

For the third painting, I did the West Point lighthouse at Discovery Park.  This worked out well, since the first paining had the tower on the righthand side of the building, the second had the tower on the left, with both in close-up views, while the photo I used of West Point light showed the building farther away with the tower more in the middle.  It would make for a nice contrast.

Here is the final painting, not only with tea bag, but showing the tiniest paintbrush in the world, which works well for doing itty-bitty windows:

Then I had fun lining up my lighthouse trio in different ways:

I think this arrangement would work well:

The edges of the canvas are also painted, so they don't even need frames.  I just need to put tiny screws and hanging wire on the backs somehow...that will be fun!

I think for my next project, I'll paint something really big.