Sometimes they are taken from sections of paintings that didn't quite work and other times from paper where I am experimenting with a new colour or a new technique.
This one was from a strip of paper where I was testing a new colour to see how it would work with the other colours in my palette.
I lightly sketched in a couple of main trees and a horizon line.
With French ultramarine blue and a touch of burnt sienna I painted in the sky and the water of the lake.
I added more burnt sienna to the sky colour and put in the rocks on the distant shore and then the main tree trunks in the foreground.
Using various mixes of alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, raw sienna, aureolin, new gamboge, cadmium red and cadmium yellow I painted in the background deciduous trees and the bushes and grasses in the foreground.
Lastly, using combinations of Antwerp blue, raw sienna and new gamboge I put the needles onto the pine trees.
If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.
The ACEO shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.
