Christmas is upon us!

Well Christmas is upon us and i will be taken up by family celebrations for the next week or so. So there will be no art for me, i am hoping to do a little after boxing day but lets see what i get to. It will be the first christmas celebrating as a family of four so i plan to enjoy it. Will post again more art hopefully soon.

Just reposting this as i need to link to it again :)

Well Gracie liked her mirror, (i think) :) ...anywho here is a better pic, it has small white flowers on it but you cant quite see them here.

OHNO! my bucket:(

*CRY* Max moved my painting from the table to the floor in order to get to the computer. I left it there as i was busy doing things and Willy wasnt awake and forgot about it. Will got up and was busy going for a crawl and crawled in and look at my painting !!! :( I think i can glue it back but i wasnt finished there !!! so its not going to do me much good ..... *CRY* its my own fault but arghhhhh

Gracie's mirror

Still no more on the bucket yet, but i have been working on another mirror as a Chrismas present for Gracie for her 1st Christmas. Its a little simpler than my previous ones but i like it like that. You cant see it well in this photo but I had lots of trouble getting the hair to look right for dark hair, its raining outside today so i will take a better pic hopefully later. :) I still have another one to go for Will, but i have just simply run out of time in the lead up to chrismas so he will have to get it for his birthday. I likely wont be doing much for the next few weeks we have a very hectic next few weeks of christmas and then we have Max's 3rd birthday in January so its likely i wont get much done. Will try tho ! A mothers work is never done :)

Bucket update

Here is another bucket update. I have kinda been struggling with the colours on the shadows but i think we are getting there. The highlights i would like to get alot brighter but i am reaching the threshold with the layers and paper so i might just have to live with what i have got. I still have a ways to go all over but we are getting there.

I have had lots of comments on the forums regarding the hands and how they are bigger than they should be because of the distortion of the camera lens. But i dont mind the bigger hands in this instance i think they add to the character of the work :) The only thing i find annoying about this is now all i see when i look at it is the hands !!!! But i do think it kinda works if you ignore that .... i have lots of projects to finish for christmas so i am trying to get this one done otherwise if i put it down i wont pick it up again :)

But in saying that i am enjoying doing the portrait on dark paper i think i will definately give it another go :)

Bucket update2

Ok i am happier now ... i fixed the colours and a few things and i feel like the face looks heaps better. Guess what i did ? I worked in the kitchen standing up ... so i could move backwards and forwards!!! so i got my distance .... that really helps ... not to mention the natural light ... i am usually working in the office with a desk lamp... so this is something i think i might have to do more of in the future !

Bucket update

Here is an update of the bucket pick. I am really finding this one challenging and frustrating, mainly becuase of the colours and i keep working it over to get things right and in the process end up changing bits and pieces .... so arghhhh...

anywho here is an update... i always go through this stage and it works out ok in the end :)

Max in a bucket

Recently have been so inspired by Tommy Hunts http://www.tommyhunt.com/ portraits amoung many other CP artists. But Tommy has such a wonderful and unique style that always seems to capture something about the person with the painting. So not comparing myself to him but i thought it would be fun to give one a go. I really wanted to open up a bit with this one and be a bit looser and freer with my strokes as well as my burnishing. Turns out i dont think i am supposed to be one of those artists and i cant help myself but to smooth out every single colour
and stroke. The funny thing is i can do it in painting i just cant do
it in CP.

Anywho, here is the beginings of Max in a bucket. I always loved this photo, we were swimming in the pool but he decided that the water was too cold and that the water in the bucket which had been sitting in the sun all day was much better so in he went. I am not sure i can do it justice but i will give it a go :)

The colours arent quite right here its alot bluer than it is in RL. I think i need to add some more peachy type colours on the light side of his face. As this are all light colours i am actually really struggling with it. There are so many colours in the shadows as well i am finding it difficult.

50 dark movies

I came accross this website from inspiration from Heather Castles Blog (which i just find so inspiring (http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/), its 50 dark movies for new dark M&M's its very cool painting check it out.
http://us.mms.com/us/dark/

Three Pears

Looking over some of my previous work (particularly the yellow flower) i remembered how i used to work and how i enjoyed "getting dirty" with pastels but i so enjoy the detail with CP so i decided to do a pastel underpainting and have a bit more "fun" with my next piece.

So here is the Three Pears, its still a WIP, i really enjoyed this so far process, i sprayed fixative in between the pastel and the CP and it worked a treat :) I feel like it flowed really easily i didnt trace this one it was drawn from a ref photo. I think this process worked really well as i was able to work fast with the pastels and was able to get all of the elements in quickly in one sitting i think the usual CP underpainting takes too long for me as i am constantly getting interrupted i could do the underpainting and beginings of pencil work in approx an hour.

Appologies if this post sounds a bit confusing i have had two teeth out this week plus now i have an earache and a cold .. so the old head is a bit cluttered.

Red Onion

Here is what started to be an ACEO but turned out to be just a little test run thumbnail of a Red Onion pic i wouldnt mind doing a series in. I think i might try doing a larger CP piece as well as a oil maybe of this one i have a few variations but it was a cute little one to try.

1 mirror down another 2 to go. yay ... the other mirrors are for xmas tho so i can put them aside for a bit .. these are fun to do and i enjoy switching from acrylic to cp... and i find i am coming accross many similar problems in both mediums but i am fixing them so thats great :)

anyway here is a post of the latest mirror, lorcan loved it and had a good 2nd birthday :)

Boys mirrors

Here is two more boys mirrors i am doing as presents. One will have a car theme an another will be dinosaurs.

One is for a birthday in a week or so, so i need to get these finished before moving on. :)

Mirror Sophia

Here is my latest in my line of mirrors which is for a 2 year olds birthday. I wanted to do a girly one and decided to do a pattern this time instead of pics in the background. I like this one not 100% on the colour of the letters but i need to finish it off so i dont mind it :) I think i will use the pattern in future ones.

Isn't it funny what you come across when you through your computer files...

I was doing a bit of housekeeping on my computer and looking through previous artworks when i came accross some old work i have done. I have been reading various blogs from oil painters lately and it has reminded me of how i enjoyed using them (but dont so much now as its a bit hard with the two kids) and hope to do some more in the future.

Anywho i came across these two oils i did some years ago, which i had totally forgotten about. I still have them on display in my Dad's showroom, hmmm maybe i should ebay them ? I love the background on the fruit pics, at the time i was experimenting with trying to show different textures. The other is acrylic which i also enjoyed i think i was experimenting with impasto on that one.

Well yay i am finished ! Theres a few things on here i am not happy with, i ended up erasing a few sections of this a couple of times which the paper didnt like so as a result i couldnt lay down as many layers as i wanted to in the end result. I had hoped that spraying would allow me to add a few more but it didnt work as well as i hoped.

Nonetheless i think this one came out not too bad for a first attempt. I learnt a few things with this one. One big thing is when i work so large i need to remember to work the "same" area in the one sitting. As i am frequently called away from my work i tend to work on small areas and become really focused without sitting back and working all over the place. This is one reason why i am choosing to do underpaintings as i really tend to struggle with this. Something to be mindful of in the future.

I have some really good ideas and subjects for my next pieces but i need to finish a few other projects i have going first. Stay Tuned!

Here is another update :)

I have been erasing and adding and finding all sorts of issues, and i am getting to the stage which i often do with large pieces where i felt i need to move on, so i am trying to get this one done :)

I had originally thought that the brown horse would be easier than the white horse to do but the opposite has proven to be true. I found that i had gotten many of the values and highlights completely wrong in my underpainting and i was very heavy handed which meant that alot of my underpainting was working against me :( I erased tho many areas and that seemed to help. In the future if i use white in my underpainting for highlights and if i erase more i think that will make a bit of difference. Also i think i included too many lines in my initial copying so if i draw things in more as i go i feel i work better this way. I also need to sort my colour palette better, because i am stopping and starting so many times i tend to loose track and concentrate on small areas which has always been my problem. So WORK the WHOLE area again i have to keep remembering.

So i still have a fair bit to do on the front of the white horse and i need to play with the background more but we are making progress, a few things i wont be able to fix until i do a spray as the paper has just taken too much, but using the blender and felt for blending has been great.

Some Colour!

Ok i have added some colour to the blue horse and getting in the final colours on the grey horse. I found that i really didnt roadmap the blue horse very well in terms of values and shadows etc with my underpainting i found i got lots of bits wrong. I also found that i went perhaps a little too dark on the colour, but its working out ok so its not too bad. I seem to be able to correct most things which is fine next time i think i would go for more of a lighter aqua blue for the midtones as the horse is quite organgey and use a lighter touch. i think also i do better to do very basic contour lines in my road map and then get them in better in the underpainting, i think i relied too much on the tracing without "seeing" it. But all in all i am happy with the way its coming out.

More Horses

Ok i am over the ugly stage and onto the polishing stage ... more or less .. yay !!! So i have started with the grey horse and i am happy with the way the colours are coming out. I was told by Dan today that i am not allowed to start anymore paintings until i finish some of the projects i have going ! which is fair enough really .. i do have a few things going atm i still never finished my latest mirrors... Nevertheless, i was shopping for fruit and vegies and spotted some of these wonderful artichokes which would look great, so i am now inspired to do some of those maybe as a mixed media or as one of the smaller pieces i normally do. So took a few rough ref pictures that might be something we see sometime soon :)

Here is the lastest update, i have been told that the front leg on the grey horse needs some adjusting as well as the front shadow on the blue horse .... so i need to revisit these as something was bothering me about these two areas also :) i am at the stage now where i need to get cracking on this one or i will put it aside and never get back to it.

Watercolour Flowers

This is one i did a few years ago as a spare of the moment thing one weekend which i ended up finishing and giving to Theresa as a mothers day pressie, its now hanging in willowgate hall (hence the scewed photo). Apparently its a pic that all the guests always comment on and love and i keep being told that more of these would sell. I think its definately something that i think people would tend to put on their walls.
So, i have been thinking for a while that i might do a few of these, its alot looser than my usual cp work and wont take as long so it might be good for some light inbetween work :) It does include some cpencils but the base is made up of watercolour and i think i had some guache in there as well.
I feel like the horses are tying me down a bit atm as its so detailed and large so i might do a few of these to get into the groove again.

Horses Update

Here is an update, we have had such a crazy past 3 weeks with sickness so doing any work on this has really been just too hard but hopefully we are on the mend (i said that last week) and i will have a bit more energy for this.

I am not entirely sure i have made the right choice on the underpainting of this other horse but i am going to just go with it and see how it works out. I did next to no contour lines on the tracing of this one so i am defining the shading and the muscles etc as i go.

After getting a bit more of these horses in i think the background is working pretty well which was my plan all along. lets see how it progresses :)

horses started

Here is an update of what i started last week with the underpainting of the horses.
I am doing a complementary underpainting. After 10days of gastro i havent really done much since this one.

i thought i had already posted this but turns out i hadnt so here is the horses update with the sky that was done last week.
i had a bit of trouble with the clouds / sky, this is by no means finished. going to revisit it once the horses are in so here is the update so far

kids mirrors

Well i have been away and had a 2.5year old with gastro so the drawing has been put on hold for a few days while i deal with that. But i have done a bit of work on my other artistic venture which is customised painted kids mirrors amoung other things. I have had 3 of them on my desk for a couple of months now, but we have a birthday party to go to on the weekend which i thought would make a nice gift so i better get cracking on it. So here is a pic of this one so far and some past ones. I havent decided whether to do the stick on letters for this one or not simply because i cant get to the shop to buy some ! :)

Horses Update

I have pushed on further with the grass. There is still a bit further to go but for now this is fine.

I used bits of felt to blend the grasses together as well as varing my strokes. I also have used cooler colours towards the back and warmer to the front its not that noticable but something i will endeavour to take more notice with next time around.

So, i have made a start on my horses :) I have started with my pastel underpainting and with my backgrounds first. At the moment there is only blue pastel on the sky but i have started with more detail on the grass i applied quite a few layers of cp.

Being so large i found that i was making my usual mistake of not looking at the values and working "too close" so i stood up and worked which i found really helped as i could see the drawing as a whole in stead of in sections. It also allowed me to add in some different types of strokes i held the pencil very loosely almost laying it down on the paper as i worked and moved the position of it constantly (much like you do with charcoal) which allowed me to loosen up some.

I then very lightly dabbed places with some turpenoid to smooth the colour and cover the bits of paper, this should now allow me to go over it with much more detail.

Horses

After my last piece i found it was had to get the detail i wanted so with this next one i wanted to larger so this one will be A3 size. About the largest cp one i have done.

So i will be attempting some horses. Horses arent really my thing but after a recent visit to a horsestud i was inspired and given that Scone is such a big horse town if i can make a few pics to sell at the in-laws B&B that would be fantastic.

So here is the reference pic i have chosen thanks to rewston at wetcanvas.com. I wasnt happy with the composition of it so i added a bit to the top bottom and side :)

This one will be done on white colorfix paper, i really enjoyed the texture of the paper on the last piece but given that this one is white paper i will need to be adding in some underpainting to make the process faster.
So i have experimented with different materials ie. watercolour pencils, pastel and have decided to go with the pastel. Its fast, doesnt use water, colours can be mixed fairly easily and the pencil goes on fine over the top.

I seem to struggle when i have to do things like grass and sky i think this is mainly connected with not seeing values correctly and getting my colours. So i have done a bit of research with various books (mainly my Ann Kullberg books) and done a few experimental bits of grass and sky.
What i have learnt from this is:
- get my darks in first!
- use the eyedropper / value viewer to get the correct values and colours of what i am drawing not forgetting that cp mixes with the colours underneath and what it is to have a warm / cool shadow etc
- experiment more with different strokes and pressures
- start with a lighter colour to "roadmap" what i am drawing
- not forgetting to "roadmap" with complementary colours for shadows etc and roadmapping as i have learnt in previous pieces.

Welcome and Cumquats

I decided to start this to put down my thoughts and experiences mainly concerning my art simply because i keep forgetting!!! Everytime i do a piece i learn something new and then by the time i start the next one i have forgotten those lessons and then go "ahhh that right i remember this i have done this before" so anyway here is the blog. yay !

Cumquats
This is my latest piece "Cumquats" its my first one in quite some time after the birth of my second child Will. I had a hankering to do a new piece for a while and there were a few things i wanted to try which were: Dark paper, Artspectrum Colourfix paper, Rendering Glass and a subject which had some interesting lighting and shadows.




Out came the camera and took quite a few photos for composition this was the result. The final piece came out fairly well and met all the requirements of what i wanted to achieve so overall i am happy.

What i learn from this one:
- the importance of getting the drawing right, what you copy from a reference photo (even tho you trace it) doesnt mean that it looks right... so you need to adjust the drawing accordingly as i go along.
For the future this means to not being too finicky about the transfer of the drawing onto the paper, you adjust this as you go in terms of keeping all the lines perfect.
- Values - i got the values of the cloth & lemon completly wrong initially so i need to remember to get those values happening over the whole area before continuing on. i seem to really need to work on light colours .. darker colours ie. the flower i didnt have as much problem.
- I also learnt that erasing on Colourfix is great! you can erase almost back to the paper without any problem
- Dark paper - i work really well with the dark paper it seems to flow really easily for me i think i will use more of this in the future. i think its to do with that i am forced to put my lights down first.

As i said all in all i am happy with this one, one to frame and sell :)