a different kind of painting!

This last weekend I did a different kind of painting en plein air -- I painted my front door! I narrowed my paint choices down to about a dozen or so blue colors, both cool and warm shades, and then I asked my husband to choose from those choices, 

Before...

After!

The final result is this cobalt blue. I painted the storm door to match. I painted my house number in gold with a black outline on a plastic palette, and hung it on the door.

Painting both doors took a little more than a pint of paint. For the palette, I printed out the house numbers full-size on a sheet of paper and placed it under the clear acrylic palette (available at any craft or art supply store) to use as a template. I painted the numbers with gold ink, and outlined them with black paint. The black outline makes the numbers easier to read -- there is not enough value change between the gold and white, otherwise. After it dried, I turned it over and spray painted the back of the palette white.