Greetings to all my loyal watchers out there, i know it's been a while since i've submitted anything, but here's part of the reason why. i've been mostly working with traditional mediums lately, and have gotten into gouache which it like a thick-opaque watercolor that behaves a lot like oil paints. it's been great working with this stuff and i'm really enjoying the fact that i can now layer my paintings (unlike my previous watercolor paintings).

This particular picture has a Sepia watercolor base that i layed out before making the beach scene. it helps separate the scene from the white canvas and brings some of the texture of the canvas itself to life. i liked making that sort of background for the picture, so i've done that again in the next couple paintings as well.

This picture is the first in a series of paintings i'm doing in preparation for my upcoming mission trip to the Philippines. we're raising money for the trip and so i'm making a bunch of various paintings and going to be selling them for donation towards the cost of travel. On that note, anyone who'd like to pray for me while i'm over there, it'd be greatly appreciated and if someone would like to make a donation i can gladly accept any amount (large or small) at my paypal account: chris-jon[at]satx.rr.com
*(side note: this is not a way for me to make money off of you, 100% of the money collected through this means goes towards the mission trip itself as either my own travel expenses or those of another member of our group)