This is the last poppy plate.  Why poppies? Do I have some fascination with them?  No, not really, but since they grow very well, I have plenty of photographs, and I know what they look like.

My friend Gabrielle brought a magazine into our pottery class with an interesting technique in which the potter painted flowers on white slip using different hues of tinted slips.  I decided to try it out. Since we had a myriad of greens, the obvious choice for subject matter was botanical.

Even though our bedroom is the master bedroom, and we’re not likely to change, the kids decided that our room needed to be named after a mythical creature as well. I chose the unicorn. I also noticed that you could say that each animal represents a different element, and that the unicorn would be earth. Kind of silly, but I like the synchronicity, and earth is the element I like the most.

My kids (one in particular) decided she wanted a phoenix for her room, because her friend had drawn her a picture once and it looked very pretty.  I didn’t know how to make a bird look like it was rising from the ashes, so instead I painted the one from one of my favorite folktales, holding the tsar’s cherry in its mouth.

Birds can come in many different sizes and shapes, and originally my daughter wanted a peacock to be the basis of this one. I painted it, but I didn’t have any very good pictures to use as a reference.  My first practice painting came out poorly.  After I’d done two more (using a raven as a reference) I was much happier with it.

To make the stars in the background, I splattered the white canvas with liquid friskit, using a toothbrush and a paperclip.  That is, I dipped the toothbrush in the friskit and splattered the page by drawing the paperclip down the bristles.  Then I let it dry and erased it from where the bird was to go.

I realized after I’d already sprayed the fixative on it that I forgot to paint the legs, but I think it looks fine without them. 

This is the sign for the dragon room.  I did a practice painting for this one, but I gave it away without photographing it first.  It looks very similar to this one.

I’m unsatisfied with how the photograph turned out. I always heard that more light is better when it comes to photographing, but that’s not quite the case here. Some of the details are obscured, and the autobalance didn’t correct all the brightness and gamma issues.