u/lenaruisz

Green Lush – 17×17cm, watercolour with a tiny bit of white gouache, on Arches. one of my dense, maximalist little worlds.

there are 9+1 insects hidden in it – I'm honestly curious how many you can find!!

the colour that basically built this painting is this one pan I'm a little sheepish about: Renesans Cinnabar Green Pale No. 29. it's a convenience mix, the kind people say you should really mix yourself....but I never do, as I just love it too much. 😁

I wanted the share my  Apis fratris ♂, "the bee of the brother." painting with you! :)) They are only flying out to mate, and theydon't forage at all - so they are a rare sight for those who are not directly around the hives.

He's a Buckfast bee, a strain bred about a hundred years ago by Brother Adam, a Benedictine monk at Buckfast Abbey in England, so the name is literal. (trainee beekeeper here! 🐝)

it's mostly watercolour – a few Sennelier colours and Renesans ivory black (PBk9) – with a bit of Horadam white gouache, coloured pencil for the pollen and the fuzz (some of it vintage Derwent from my grandpa), and a touch of pearlescent oil pastel on the wings. all on Clairefontaine Fontaine, 100% cotton.

Wanted to share one of my most detailed paintings with you guys, because it was soooo fun to make. Again, a visual diary of a sort – this time set in my old dormitory room. I was curious about perspective, so I tried two-point out. You can even see a mini-sketch of this very painting on the wall (second image in the slide).

It's ink and watercolour. Another favourite part: a one-to-one copy of Bach's handwritten manuscript of the Ciaccona, written for solo violin. A monumental, fantastic work – I was studying it on the violin while I painted this!

For the ones who like to look closely, let me know if you can find:
🐈‍⬛ the three (!!) cats
🧘 the four monks in different robes (actually, twice, but one is extremely tiny)
🐭 a little mouse
☕ my breakfast
☯ two little yin-yang symbols

if you painted one painting a year – a whole year of your life packed into one picture – what would end up in yours?

This is mine. it's called Invictus, one of my Cabinet of Small Worlds. I do one every year, like a visual diary. the original is only 22 cm square, so everything inside is rather tiny.:))

it's named after the Henley poem – go, look for it inside the painting!

the whole thing is built on the black - the entire ground is PBk9 ivory black – charred bone, one of the oldest pigments still made the traditional way. I painted it last, by hand, behind every single object, and it took waaay longer than all the colour put together 🫠 But that's actually the point: the colour only glows because of the dark behind it. The paints are mostly Sennelier watercolors.

oh – there's a black cat hidden in there (maybe two?). there's one in almost everything I make, I can't help it anymore. 🫣🐈‍⬛

this is a male Buckfast bee – a drone. I painted him from life about a week ago, kneeling next to the hives in the apiary, with the bees in the air around me. took about four days.

I call him Apis fratris ♂, "the bee of the brother."

the Buckfast strain was bred about a hundred years ago by Brother Adam, a Benedictine monk at Buckfast Abbey in England – so the name is literal. the ♂ just means he's a male.

it's mostly watercolour – a few Sennelier colours and Renesans ivory black (PBk9) – with a bit of Horadam white gouache (sometimes mixed with watercolour!) , coloured pencil for the pollen and the fuzz (some of it vintage Derwent from my grandpa), and a touch of pearlescent oil pastel on the wings for the shimmer. all on Clairefontaine Fontaine, 100% cotton.

by the way, did you know, that every honeybee you ever see out on a flower is female? They are the workers, the males, the drones, don't forage at all; they leave the hive only to mate - so a drone is the one you almost never get to look at up close. (and the bees in the last photo are all girls too!)

I'm also training to be an organic beekeeper up in the Austrian alps, so I've been looking very closely at a lot of bees lately 😅

do you paint from life, or from photos?

a couple of days ago I showed you that tiny green cabinet detail with Vivaldi playing underneath - this is it's black pair!

It was the first of these I ever made - I do one a year, kind of a diary, and this was where it started.
it's called Invictus, after the poem. it's written in there somewhere if you go looking!

This is the painting where I went obsessed with (the renesans) PBk9, ivory black, the charred-bone one - I painted it last, by hand, behind every single object, and it took way longer than all the other parts put together 😅

oh, and there's a black cat hidden in it. (Or even two??) there's one in almost every (maximalist) painting I make, I can't really help it anymore. 🐈‍⬛🖤

do you paint with black, or are you one of the ones who got told never to touch it?

Wanted to share a small detail from a yearly tradition of mine - a painted "visual diary" I make once a year. This is a corner of the Green Cabinet from 2025.

Drawn into it with a 003 fine liner is a scrap of sheet music: a few bars of Vivaldi's Grosso Mogul violin concerto, which I play. So the sound under the video is me, playing the actual concerto, real time - the same notes you watch me writing in by hand. Watch until the end for the whole painting!

Sound on if you can. The detail is tiny, so I was working almost one note at a time.

Can you follow the notes...? 🎻😁

Green Lush – 17×17cm on Arches, watercolour and a tiny bit of white gouache.

There are 9+1 insects hiding in it. I’m curious how many you can find.

I want to introduce you to my guilty pleasure paint that basically built this painting: Renesans Cinnabar Green Pale No. 29. It’s a three-pigment convenience mix (PG7 + PY3 + PY83) which means any serious colour nerd should probably mix it themselves. I never do.

After yesterday’s post about the Renesans Ivory Black, I got so many lovely messages and questions about the brand that I thought – let me show you what else they do.

Tape removal and swatch video of No. 29 both in the comments – for the ASMR nerds like me :))

I am working on a series of "small narratives", and I thought getting your thoughts on the title! I talked to so many friends, and all had something different to say - I'm curious about your thoughts!

I also thought I have to share this finding with you guys, as I think it's a really special paint:

Ivory Black No. 53 by Renesans - a small Polish brand.

I just swatched about 4/5 different brands, a lot of blacks, and this really is special, a single pigment PBK9, fully opaque in the formulation, so matte it almost feels like pastel on the paper. No light comes back out of it, it just absorbs everything underneath completely.

l've never found another watercolour black that does this. Most are semi-transparent or have a slight sheen, but somehow this one doesn't. It became the foundation of an entire series of paintings for me, as I was going through a period where I was drawn to darkness but also completely obsessed with colour, and that combination of absolute black background with colour on top became my whole visual language for a while. Have you ever tried it?

I am working on a series of "small narratives", and I thought getting your thoughts on the title! I talked to so many friends, and all had something different to say – I'm curious about your thoughts!

I also thought I have to share this finding with you guys, as I think it's a really special paint:

Ivory Black No. 53 by Renesans - a small Polish brand.

I just swatched about 4/5 different brands, a lot of blacks, and this really is special, a single pigment PBk9, fully opaque in the formulation, so matte it almost feels like pastel on the paper. No light comes back out of it, it just absorbs everything underneath completely.

I've never found another watercolour black that does this. Most are semi-transparent or have a slight sheen, but somehow this one doesn't. It became the foundation of an entire series of paintings for me, as I was going through a period where I was drawn to darkness but also completely obsessed with colour, and that combination of absolute black background with colour on top became my whole visual language for a while. Have you ever tried it?

Lemon Yellow 501, Permanent Magenta 680, Phthalocyanine Blue 326.

Every single square is just those three Sennelier paints – different ratios, different dilutions, nothing else. 144 colours total.

I actually made this a while ago and just stumbled upon it while scrolling my old photos:) Back then I was following a YouTube tutorial which is unfortunately behind a paywall now – but I found a free resource that explains a similar approach really well if anyone wants to try it:

susanchiang.com/blog/watercolor-charts-type-4-color-mixing-chart

I honestly never get tired of this exercise. There is something almost meditative about limiting yourself to three paints and just seeing what happens. (Not to mention the washi tape removal…😁)

Anyone here tried a mixing matrix like this? Curious which primaries you chose.

Lemon Yellow 501, Permanent Magenta 680, Phthalocyanine Blue 326.

Every single square is just those three Sennelier paints – different ratios, different dilutions, nothing else. 144 colours total. (The first step was to create middle axes, starting from the yellow, adding 9 mixed colours. Those serve as the “backbone” of the entire chart)

I actually made this a while ago and just stumbled upon it while scrolling my old photos:) Back then I was following a YouTube tutorial which is unfortunately behind a paywall now – but I found a free blogpost that explains a similar approach really well if anyone wants to try it:

susanchiang.com/blog/watercolor-charts-type-4-color-mixing-chart

I honestly never get tired of this exercise. There is something almost meditative about limiting yourself to three paints and just seeing what happens. (not to mention the washi-tape removal…😁)

Anyone here tried a mixing matrix like this? Curious which primaries you chose.

The result of a good 3h+ colour mixing exercise, all solely from three primaries – Sennelier Lemon Yellow 501, Permanent Magenta 680 and Phthalocyanine Blue 326.

Sennelier Lemon Yellow 501, Permanent Magenta 680, Phthalocyanine Blue 326. That’s all.

Every single square is just those three paints – different ratios, different dilutions, nothing else. 144 colours total. I honestly never get tired of this exercise, it completely rewires how you see mixing.

The first photo still has the black washi tape grid on, I love how it pops the colours!

I think we sometimes forget how incredibly far three primaries can actually take us. Yes, I am absolutely obsessed with having every colour ever made, but there is something almost meditative about limiting yourself to three and just seeing what happens.

Anyone else done a full mixing matrix like this? I’m curious which primaries you chose and why.

edit:

I realise now that the video I followed by wildpaint is now behind paywall, so I am not sure if it is alright to share her system. But, credits to her for this very long, but fun excercise.

free source I found on the topic: https://susanchiang.com/blog/watercolor-charts-type-4-color-mixing-chart

Lemon Yellow, Permanent Magenta and Phthalocyanine Blue. That’s all!

Every single square is just those three Sennelier paints at different ratios and dilutions. First photo with the black washi tape, then without.

My favourite kind of rainbow, the one hiding inside three tubes of paint 🧑‍🎨🌈

I’m mainly working with watercolour, but recently recieved this incredible gift, along with some single colours from Luminance and Museum Aquarelles, and I honestly don’t even know where to start.

Happy to get your suggestions on how to start with the basics, especially mixing with watercolour. I love swatching and getting deep into the technique, so I all tips & tricks are welcome! 🤗 I’m obsessed with detailed, colour intensive and miniature creations.

This little lady is my first try with this medium :)