Progress shot from digital sketch to finished painting of a small tag I tucked into a Christmas card for a friend. He made the ink the picture is painted with from mushrooms that are boiled down with some cloves to make a thick, dark ink. The mushrooms grow wild around where he lives, and the ink smells really good from the cloves in it. He mailed me ink, I mailed back a surprise picture. Merry Christmas!

Top is the value sketch to figure out light and dark, second is the whole painting before being cut, and then the third is the final with punched corners. This ink is not waterfast when dried and it seems like any moisture will damage the picture. Definitely needs to be protected and ideally sealed.

Mushroom ink and white gouache on Arches paper. Final is about 2.5"x5".