#shiny bits

[rachaelmayo]

This is Malachite Sentinel from 2021, a personal favorite. It's one of those designs that sat in my to-do pile for years, until the right color scheme gelled in my brain. What finally kicked the project into high gear was the stone in the ellipse to the left of the dragon. That bit of reddish-brown was the balance I wanted with the color scheme - it provided an interesting accent color that I don't usually think of using with "malachite" colors.

There's a lot of stuff involved in this project... The dragon and its light-colored surroundings is a single layer, and was done with watercolor, Prismacolor pencil, and gold paint pen over an ink drawing. The large stone in the ellipse is called "sunrise chrysocolla" (aka Sonora Sunset/Sunrise or simply chrysocolla cuprite). There are black color-treated agates and dessert jasper along the top, and one small malachite on the upper right. There are glass tiles and a gob of shiny bits. The circle designs (and other background paper elements) are fancy scrapbook paper.

[adorkabletwilightandfriends]

Adorkable Twilight & Friends – “Shiny Bits″

https://www.patreon.com/adorkabletwilightandfriends

http://adorkabletwilightandfriends.wikia.com

http://adorkabletwixfriends.deviantart.com

[ruthscloset]

Ruth Negga, Ones to Watch

[rachaelmayo]

This is the finished version of Turquoise Conjunction.  I worked out the dragon design quite a while back, and recently returned to the project to finish it off with fun background elements.

The dragon was done with Prismacolor pencils over an ink drawing and watercolor wash.  There are also gel pen accents and assorted shiny bits.  The dragon holds a copper/turquoise composite stone.

The background is constructed with fancy scrapbook paper.  I included lots of 3D accents.  The small, yellowish round stones are desert jasper.  The green stones in the upper left quadrant are bloodstone jasper (I liked the deep green color; there isn't much red flecking in these ones).  The black stones are color/heat-treated agates.  There are glass tiles, metal bits and bobs, and lots of shiny bits.  There are additional gel pen accents, also.

[rachaelmayo]

This is Winter Contemplation, part 4 of an elaborate trade project I did with a DeviantArt friend. I was keen to experiment with layers and depth, and this is one that, like the other three seasons, I mounted in a shadowbox.

I made the dragon first as a standalone element. I used watercolor, Prismacolor pencil, and silver paint pen over an ink drawing.

The layered project contains all kinds of stuff. The outermost layer is acrylic paint. The thin middle layer has acrylic tiles and other shapes, shiny bits, and beads. The inner layer, behind the dragon, has beads, cabochons of opal, moonstone, chrysocholla, blue lace agate, and others; there are metal stickers, shiny bits, pearls, and glitter. All of this is on top of an acrylic background. It's chaotic, but it was a lot of fun to assemble. And that is the point!

[rachaelmayo]

This is Summer Celebration from my Four Seasons series. All the colors! All the allergens! W00t! Isolated dragon image is below the text block.

Seriously, though, I think I enjoyed making this one most of all, because I really did go wild with the colors, shiny bits, and paint spattering. And then there's the dragon! All the colors for you, too, my friend!

I used everything within reach on this, media-wise. The outermost layer is acrylic paint. The middle strip layer has acrylic shinies, metal shinies, and enamel shinies over acrylic. The dragon was colored with Prismacolor pencils over watercolor, and has gold paint pen details. The deep background has shiny bits, pearly bits, enamel bits, metal bits, plant stickers, star stickers, metallic ink, and assorted beads and stones (aventurine, agate, black goldstone (which is deep violet), and the larger orange teardrop is chalcedony).

The whole mess is mounted in a shadowbox. Mom fell in love with it, so it hangs at her house. This is nice, as I can go visit it at any time I like.

Here's the rainbow dragon without all the distractions:

[rachaelmayo]

This is Star Wave Unicorn. A winged unicorn. A horned pegasus. An alicorn. A unipegasusacorn. Something like that.

I used the Caran d'Ache pencils for this one. I added a gob of shiny bits, as well as a turquoise cabochon.

[rachaelmayo]

We're going to go full-on fluffy with this project: This is Expressions of Light 12.

I originally made this design for a friend who died before I could complete it. I didn't want the fun design to go to waste, so I completed it several years later. It's a serious departure from my usual fare - pastels, fluff and frills, sweetness and light, ACK! Ironically, the departure from my preferred subjects and color ranges are part of what made this angel design fun to complete. I figured, why stop at pastel colors? I can bling the hell out of it (nyuk nyuk) and make it as girly and frilly as possible. So, there we go.

The angel figure was done with Prismacolor pencils and a touch of gold paint pen. There are rose quartz cabochons in the circular thing that she's sitting on. There are several hundred acrylic shinies, and there's iridescent mylar as well. It's all mounted on a watercolored board.