I'm stuck with my painting, hihi.
I got to here some 4 days ago. And now I don't know how to finish it off.
Inspiration isn't flowing, Merlin remains silent, isn't helping out. As we say in Dutch: he's silent in all languages.

I've asked a man who has great affinity with Merlin as well, he's a witch and Priest of Avalon.
Maybe he gets something.

Thing is, I want something that connects Merlin to the bottom left corner. Possibly something from his right hand.
But... what?

I think later on today I will finish off the path with grasses etc. and hope that I'll get an idea.

Good painting !

Thank you, Julie :)

Getting to the finish line now!
Almost done :D

Keep up the good work .

Thank you, Julie. I will :)

Hello, how are you? I am new on the network and I would like to make new friends through I like to discover new horizons and I would like you to be part of my new friends.

I started a new canvas a week and a half ago.
There were a few things I wanted to have in it, but I had to figure out how to merge these.
That didn't go as smoothly as planned, but I'm getting there now :)

Still a lot of work to be done!

Good start .

Thank you, Julie :)

I've gotten a lot further :)

Worked on the armour which is done.

Green foliage on the tree and made that foliage a lot wider.

Added the extra rock/mountain in the middle as I felt there was too much nothingness there.

A few rocks in the water.



Getting to the stage where it's finishing touches. Have more work to do on the path, add grasses, some small shrubs maybe.
And of course the knight's hands & legs, stir-ups, reins, and the legs of the horse need some work.

But... the end is near.

Keep up the good work .

Thank you, Julie :)

I finished the painting a few days back and I'm very happy with it.
It's such a typical style, I love it!
Someone on an artist forum said it looked like a book illustration and at first I didn't get what he meant, now I do.

It's one size up from my usual choice of canvas size, it's 50x60cm

I'm calling it "Return to Carcassonne"

Good job !

Thank you, Julie :)

After not painting for half a year I´m working on a new canvas again!

First couple of sessions I was struggling, almost as if I´d forgotten how to do it.
Also because I am using a different technique for certain parts so there was a bit of trial and error.

This is where I am right now. Still a helluva lot to do but at least you can now clearly see where this is going :)
Colours are a bit brighter than the real thing but I had to tweak it a bit otherwise his shirt looked totally off. Seems the camera doesn't fancy aquamarine blue, hihi.

As someone who's spent a great deal of time in galleries, I would suggest that "Return to Carcassonne" has an oddity that draws my eyeballs and says "that just ain't right".

The vegetation line along the water's edge - it looks too manicured, like that you find in parks or on tended park trails, not something one would likely find in such a passed age where people didn't do "tended" paths for scenic reasons, they simply existed because people and animals traveled along the water's edge.

There would almost certainly be some other plants reaching further toward the sky - more brush, a young tree, something other than uniform height grasses & the one (or two) bushes you added to the right - if the path was trafficked enough to be so demarcated.
There would probably likely still be signs of people and animals breaking the grass line to reach the water for an occasional drink on such an obviously groomed (by man or beast) roadway.
(Maybe not in that specific place however, so that's just too picky-picky to be a valid point.)

I can't draw a stick, let alone something as wonderful as you do Crystal, so feel free to completely disregard everything I've said.
I AM quite envious of your talent.

Crystal, I just finished going back and traversing the entirety of this thread.

I'm even more impressed now and even more jealous of your talent - so jealous in fact that I want to draw a stick & beat you with it for reminding me how much at a loss in my life I am because I have ZERO talent.

Don't feel singled out, if I was to go about it I'd beat a former girlfriend from high school, my mother, and my youngest son too - ALL producing artists in different mediums.
The former girlfriend-ish (brief summer romance) is working in watercolors, my mother works primarily in chalks, and my son works in pencils, albeit he's dabbled with oils and wants to get back to them soon, after his return to schooling is over.

The most I've ever contributed to the world of art was to pose as a nude model in my college days, for life drawing and sculpture classes.
A bit shocking to be walking down the main drag of my home town with my wife-to-be & come across a storefront for the local power company filled with pictures of my nakeed arse (& other parts) plastered all over a couple hundred square feet of plate glass.


What you've done here is invaluable.
You've given artist and non-artist alike a window into the creative process.
As admirers we see finished products, even though we know the art doesn't just magically appear when someone like Zee waves her wand.
But we never SEE the process (Bob Ross made bank letting folks into that world).

You've done more than bring wonderment and enjoyment into our lives with your generous sharing, you've helped all of us understand the "process" that creates those feelings in us, a little better.
To me, that's worth as much as the works themselves.

Thank you so so so very much for sharing.

It's wonderful seeing you post your art and its process again. I don't think many people understand just how special the process is and that choosing to share in itself is a privilege for the viewer.


I look forward to seeing how it will the journey will unfold.
🦋