Finished!!!

Oh My Word!  I just took a photo of my Goddess in daylight!  I am just so proud of her.  Having never painted a canvas any bigger than A4 AND I only really started painting seriously about 8 or 9 months ago (save for the stuff I did at secondary school) I am just amazed at myself!  Of course she isn't going to make it to the Tate or any other grand art museum or gallery, and she did have a few little 'accidents' along the way but to me she is perfect and I love her!  To be fair though I am fickle so probably the next one will be the love of my life too ha ha!

 

I finished the detail on the butterfly whilst watching Harry's Law last night!  I find it impossible to just sit at 'watch' TV these days, I have to be doing something else at the same time!  The butterfly is actually a sort of failed attempt at making a 3D butterfly in flight.  I cut some pretty colored paper from a glossy magazine and stuck it, face down, to  Habotai silk and then I thought I could dry it moulded over something curved.  This clearly wasn't going to work so I decided to dry it flat and then sew beads on it and build up the undersides with molding paste on the canvas.  Then I just chickened out altogether and applied it as it was to the canvas with Matte Gel Medium and detailed it with black ink, white gel pen and gold pen! 

Almost There

Late last night I noticed that the lovely Tam had posted this weeks video tutorials and of course I just had to watch them both before bed!  So today I have played...ALL DAY!  Well nearly, we had more snow so had to shovel the driveway, but apart from that...I played.  So here she is, almost there.  I still need to do the detail on the butterfly - gel medium takes a while to dry.  I also want to paint the sides of the gallery wrap in gold acrylic too.  I used a little rub on gold leaf which needs to be sealed so I will give it a light coat of acrylic matt varnish when I'm happy that I have it totally finished!  It isn't the best photo but the best I could do under electric lighting!

New Year, New Beginnings, New Art Class!

Ok so it's nearly new year!  I am just so excited!  I have a parcel en route from a new supplier I found - Thank You Tammie for sharing!  Some crackle medium, sparkly things, metallic acrylics, rubber stamps and some gold leaf! On 17th January we get to start our new on-line e-course, Magical, Mystical Makings with Tam.  I am totally hooked on whimsy style, and I love angels and unicorns so as you can imagine I am almost bursting with anticipation on this one!  

Of course it wouldn't be right to start a new year without some resolutions or, more aptly, some goals.  So this coming year I want to stretch a little.  I want to learn more.  I want to experiment more with mixed media,  I want to learn new techniques, use new mediums.  I want to have a go at things that scare me like abstract.  Perhaps scared is too stronger word, or even the wrong word.  Abstract bothers me, I find it difficult.  My little brain cannot cope with it, it doesn't make sense these random shapes and colors.  Having said that there are some abstract paintings that I find pleasing to look at like some recent paintings by Cathy Bueti, and others that I cannot remember the names of, but on the whole abstract doesn't sit well, doesn't feel 'right' or make sense.  However I feel that I should at least try it for myself if only to be able to say "I had a go"!  I also want to try simply experimenting with shapes and patterns.  My friend Lorrie has a particular and personal style which I admire, her work inspired my piece Sea Anenome, again this is something I want to develop.  Lastly, Oils!  Kelly recently experimented with this medium and took to it like a duck to water, and boy look at her now, in a gallery no less.  Well done Kelly here's to a great year for you!  I bought some oils recently, but like the abstract thing I keep making excuses not to try them!  Oh and the calendar...yes my lovelies there will be a calendar.  Hopefully as Christmas settles down my lovely brother will be able to get that template done. If you would like to join Kelly, Cathy, Lorrie, Jeanette, Marlene and myself in 'donating' a piece of art to be featured on a calendar to sell and raise money for Cancer Research please check out my post or e-mail me for details.

So, I actually have quite a lot to achieve this coming year don't I?  How about you?  What are your creative goals for 2011?

Finished!

Remember this beautiful young lady?  This is Amber.  Her mum Sonia, a friend of mine, said that she would love to have a painting of her so I duly offered!  I just did Tam's Heart, Art & Healing course and have enrolled on her Magical Mythical Makings course starting in January.  I just love this whimsey style and experimenting with new mixed media so I was more than happy to have the opportunity to play with new ideas and techniques.  So here she is Amber: The Angel and The Unicorn

WIP update 2!

Well, what can I say?  I almost had a disaster, having painted my little Angel and fairly satisfied with her I took a photo and uploaded to photoshop.  At this point it became glaringly obvious I had got my proportions a little off kilter!  Poor child looked a little like Quasimodo with a misplaced hump!  So with the little help of some extra molding paste, gesso and a little white acrylic I think I successfully rescued her!  Then I decided to experiment with my new pot of fluid medium, which I had been told I could use with a tiny amount of acrylic color to make a glaze.  I wanted to give the white feathers on the wings a hint of gold to give them more 'oomph'  so on it went!  I had fun.  I wondered if it would give her hair that little bit of something too.  Amber has beautiful golden brown hair and I couldn't seem to get it exactly how I wanted with watercolor pencils alone.  I actually got so carried away I gave her dress a very thin glaze of gold too.  Just hope I haven't overdone it! So work in progress mkII

W.I.P.

Hi all my arty, creative, blogging pals!  Remember last week I said I had two little piccies going on in my head?  And then on Monday my little snow queen was born?  Well, this morning I woke up and the other little girl, an angel, was there again in my head and this time she had someone with her.  I told Lovely Man about my angel and he said "Why don't you go sketch her now?"  BUT  I had promised yesterday that I would do everything I needed to get done and go x-country skiing with him this morning.  So I said "No" she would wait.  I could see her very clearly and she wasn't going anywhere soon.

So this evening, after the skiing, the facebooking, the family phone calls and the beef stew and dumplings I got out the sketch book.  I had taken a photo of one of our local horses last week, with the intention of trying a horse sketch, which I got up on my computer screen.  And then it just all sort of appeared on the paper, and you know?  I'm really excited!  For a change I REALLY like her (and him)!  So much so I couldn't resist sharing the progress so far. 

Now question is...do I play safe and use watercolor crayons and acrylic as I have been for the other two I have done?  OR...do I maybe dabble with the oils I bought?  OR shall I do a truly mixed media - watercolor background as before, textured wings, acrylics and then oils for the face?

Answers on a postcard please!  Alternatively post them in the comments LOL!

My first life painting!

Ta da! Here it is my first attempt at a life painting/mixed media! Oohh this was a frustrating little project! I had all these ideas. I am a great admirer of One Little House. Maisy has recently done lots of mixed media ladies and I absolutely love them. I've also been watching some tutorials on-line about layering with acrylics and generally swotting up! So there I was with all these ideas swimming around in my head when I realised that I didn't have any Golden Matte Medium which is apparently what I need to stick things and be able to paint over it. And when I looked further I didn't have a lot in the way of things to stick on either, despite having oodles of boxes of what Lovely Man refers to as "Crapola".

So I sorta ditched the mixed media thing and just went for a little canvas painted with acrylics. At least I could do the layering thing and experiment. All was going quite well. The background came out more or less how I wanted it. I had used gesso to prime over the top of my pencil sketch (I thought I read somewhere that was what you did!) And I did layers of thin colours and then used a scrunched up piece of tissue paper to dab some lighter blues and white on. I used a BIG round bristle brush to dab about a bit with the greens and some yellowy tones.

Then came Kelly. Oh my! I've never mixed skin tone before! I had a vague recollection of an art teacher at school saying you mix a pink and then add a tiny bit of yellow. Poor Kelly nearly ended up some very strange colours. Eventually she ended up like this but I haven't a clue how I did it and I'm still not sure I'm happy with the colour but hey! It is the first one and I just wanted to have a finished piece. And how on earth do you paint fine features with even the smallest brush? I retreated to my trusty Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens in the end! Hey! It's mixed Media OK?! I wanted flowers at the bottom and a butterfly but I was terrified I'd ruin it if I tried to paint them. Then I remembered my mum gave me some transfers of flowers from her card making stock and I searched them out. Whilst doing that I came across a rubber stamp of a butterfly and a gold ink pad. An idea started to take shape. Mixed Media. That means you can use anything right? So Hey Presto! One mixed media canvas, albeit a little crude and perhaps childlike!

So without further rambling I present..............

Kelly Berkey in mixed media! LOL!

I now patiently await your lovely comments (be kind ladies!) AND my order from Wallacks before attempting a more 'professional' piece! Oh and if I thought this one was an exercise in stretching outside the comfort zone go visit Kelly's blog and see what she has for us this week! OMG! Face, hands....and now feet too!!!