Ellen Crimi Trent was born in Massachusetts and graduated from the prestigious Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. First she went into designing children's wear before deciding to become a freelance print designer. She branched into licensing. She leads art tours in Europe yearly. She now has a YouTube channel and Patreon. You can definitely hear that Eastern accent when she speaks!
Ellen's Patreon has a sketch level for $3 a month, another level for $6, and one for $12.
The $6 level includes sketches and references and her YouTubes without any commercial interruptions.
She started doing Monday Mini Madness, painting small, about 4" by 4" or on special cards made by Stonehenge that are 2.5 by 3.75 in. (These are available at Blicks or Jerry's for $1.99 each. Amazon is a bit more, since you have to buy 12) I enjoy referencing her when I want to get some ideas for making cards. (Although she does have a lot of regular sized painting projects).
Painting small has some distinct advantages:
You aren't using a lot of paper or paint.
You have to focus on the most important parts of the painting. There's not a lot of space for special effects or techniques.
And it doesn't take a lot of time. It's great when you don't have a lot of time to paint but still want to keep your brushes wet.
It's good for experimenting with composition.
Usually with her minis, Ellen will tape down two cards, side by side, and teach both pictures in the same video. Often they follow a similar theme. Here is a link to some of them:
hot and cool flowers mini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Py8ZOWzSJhQ
abstract landscape mini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mk5OxZWufoU
Each mini teaches about an art concept: hot and cool colors; painting loose; negative space; etc.
When I did mine, I wanted to have a theme. I took a walk in our local park by the river, Lesko Park, and took some photos and made mini paintings from them.
I prepared the paper by dividing my 9 x 12 paper into squares (4 squares and 2 smaller rectangles). I taped off each to give me a border around each one. I drew a scene onto each square. (Top left to right: bird feeder and iris buds, spring blossoms, large, and a lady walking her 2 dogs. Bottom left to right: house with pink tree, small blossoms, and blank.)
The bird feeder scene was inked off with permanent micron. The large buds only have a bit of Miskit on the stamens. The house scene has Miskit loosely sponged (or use paper towel wadded up) over the pink tree. The small buds were completely covered in Miskit. Each one to show a different process.
Bird feeder: Ink and wash is one of my favorite ways to paint! If this were a larger piece, I would be using several widths of water proof ink. I used an 05 Micron for this size. I just washed in a sky (opportunity for practicing clouds or sunsets here). I washed in some yellows and greens for the stems and leaves. It had to dry to do the bird feeder, but it dried pretty quickly. Besides ink and wash, I wanted to show using an "underpainting." I painted all the shadows with a cobalt blue. (Mine are on the right side of the feeder) when that dried, I washed over it all with burnt umber and some ochre. Instant shadow! You can add whatever details you like after that, such as a little color in the iris buds.
Small blossoms: This was a demo on negative space. While Miskit is on the buds, loosely wash in some blues and yellows to create sky and some greens by the flowers. You wash color over everything, including the stems. This has to dry completely. Then draw in some leaves or stems. Mix a darker green. Then paint AROUND the newly drawn leaves and stems, to make them stand out. If it is to be sky, use a darker blue around it. Be sure to blend the new color into the background so you don't have any hard edges except around the leaves. You can do this several times, going darker each time.
Remove the Miskit and paint in the blossoms. If you want white blossoms, just paint in blue in the shadows.
House and pink tree: There is just a bit of Miskit where I want to paint the pink buds on the tree, and maybe on the tiny flowers around the house. I applied this with a crumbled up towel (or you can use an old sponge) so that there would be little spaces and not just a big solid white space. Paint greens around the background trees, grass, etc. The background trees should be a little bluer or duller than the foreground. The yellow green should be in the foreground.
Paint the house any color you want, but the left side should be a darker versions of that color to suggest it is the shadow part. (in mine, the light source is on the right, shadows to the left) While painting the house, be aware of the perspective, especially doing the windows. They should all slant the same way. Paint in the roof and windows if the area around them are dry.
To do the pink tree, remove the Miskit. Be sure to leave some of the white. Wet some of the white and drop in pink dots. These wet ones will give a softer look. When dry, add some darker pink to give volume to the tree. Paint in the trunk and a few branches.
I didn't have time to do the larger blossoms. On it, I only used masking fluid on the tiny stems. The flowers are large enough to just paint around. I wet the entire background and dropped in colors I liked: cerulean blue, yellows, etc. I wanted a very loose background, and all the attention to be on those white buds. I wanted white buds, so just painted the shadows a pale cerulean with a little burnt sienna in it. I painted the centers yellow (wet in wet), and painted in the stamens with yellow, making a blue shadow under each stamen.
The other picture is a woman I saw walking her two little dogs in the park. The sun was casting a pink reflection on the river, but the river was a muddy color from all the rain and mud.
Mini sketches:
Progress photo: House pic still has Miskit on the tree; small blossoms Pic has just the first color wash.
Progress photo: House pic has blossoms on tree. Blossom pic has negatively painted leaves and stems.
Still has the masking.
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