A Major Accomplishment

Today was a big day for us, we sent Jack’s newest book to be edited. He has been working the last two years writing Sea to Shining Sea: The Mexican American War and the Manifest Destiny. It’s the sequel to Ten Years in Texas, Jack’s first  historical novel (shown on the left). Ten Years in Texas covers the ten years Texas was a Republic, after winning independence from Mexico and before being admitted into the United States.  Jack named the main character after his best friend in high school, Bud Miller. Bud grows from a boy of 16 into a proud, young man during this exciting time, interacting with many of the major players in Texas History. We’ve had several former Texas legislators tell us it’s one of the best they’ve read on this period of time in our State’s colorful past.  If you are interested in ordering Ten Years in Texas just click here.

And, Jack did the painting of Sam Houston on the cover. I’m so proud of him!

Now for the red bridge. The darkest reds in the shadows are Cadmium Red Deep + a bit of Alizarin Crimson, while Cadmium Red Light is used for the red in the sun.

This piece was planned with a lot of green so the red bridge would glow. Red and Green are complimentary colors, across from each other on the color wheel. Juxtaposing them makes the red appear even more intense.

Using the mahl stick to brace my hand the final details are drawn with a fine, liner brush. To find out more about how a mahl stick is used just click here.

The darks of the Elephant Ears and rocks stop the light behind the bridge from running off the right edge of the canvas. Bright sunlight on the soft foliage in the background acts to accentuate the red bridge even more, while pulling the viewer’s eye through the painting. Thank you for visiting today. Hope to see you tomorrow, we’ll do some planting. Hugs, Mikki Senkarik

Website: www.senkarik.com