Theresa's Rose and Swirl Pot AXED!

Well, i am having a bit of a creative slump. Not sure why, my last one seemed to come so easy but my lavender pot i really struggle with. So rather than put more time / materials into it i have decided to axe it!

I may come back to it later but for now that one has to sit on the backburner.

To be honest it kinda felt like i was suffocating with the need to try to get the flowers and the pot to look right. I needed to break free, so here is a little watercolour study i did. And after that i feel much better. The roses are from my MIL's garden that she brought with her on her last visit. The roses were absolutely beautiful and the perfume was just gorgeous.

So here they are i dont mind how this turned out i might have to do another watercolour in the not too distant future of these :)

Lavender Swirl Pot

To be honest i am not sure this one is going to last the weekend its driving me absolutely bonkers!

I am not entirely sure why but it just feels wrong :(... I am fumbling around left right and center with the actual drawing so hmmm lets see shall we.

Lavender Swirl Pot

I have two people standing over me in my head as i work on this one. One is JSS who is looking over my shoulder pulling me up on not trying draw what i think i see and only what i see (Which is imperitave as i draw these flowers, i seriously am doubting whether this piece will work out how i want it to and whether i can draw them decently).
I also have Arlene from ScribbleTalk hitting me on the head with a hammer regarding coloured pencil technique, getting your values in, doing your background first and the whole CP process. As well as her (understanding and techniques on complementary underpaintings / colours which i am doing a bit of on this one and have used those before).


Its weird if i think about them standing over my being my boss i tend to "perform" better rather than if i am just in my own little world and just work.
I have a few other people in the background as well popping their head in but these ones atm have the loudest voices.

So here i am working slowly and listening as i work i only hoping to be able to satisfy their teachings :)



Enough rambling LOL i tend to want to jump in a finish sections at time when working but i know from experience that this is not the best way for me to work particuarly on something like this where i dont know where the final bits are all going to be. SO, i am trying to get most of the underpainting done on this one before i start any final layers. The step on this one tho is to use some ZestIt on the background to get that darkness in. I will come back to the other bits i promise.

Lavender Swirl Pot

I have started my next piece :) It's already had a false start (i had a disaster with some watercolour paper ) its a reference shot that i took when i was inspired by JSS so he is visiting me as i do this one.

It will be a bit different from the reference, so i am really drawing it as i go as opposed to some of my other works where i have worked directly from the pic. I hope to also do quite a limited palette on this one and stick to it. Its in that ugly stage atm but wanted to post it for you so you dont think i am off in the never nevers.

I am hoping to enter this one should it work out in a show in a couple of months.

MIA

I have been MIA this past week, only because i have been working on a comission (which i cant post here just yet) so all time was spent on that in order to get it done for a deadline :) Will post that one for you soon.

I have still been around tho, reading on those doing the Van Gogh project its been so interesting. Monet has been coming up in my various readings. He is an artist which is quite familar to me as I have visited his house. Many years ago but when i was 18 i stayed with my aunty and uncle in denmark for 4months, she is an artist and they took me to Paris for a few days and on a day trip to Monet's House. While i didnt know much about him at the time the visit always stuck with me. So i dug up a few photos recently of my visit there. :)

I hoped to have a photo of myself there but i cant find one. The man videoing on the bridge is my uncle tho .. so its just so lovely to have these memories.

Who would have guessed years from then i would be looking back on the artist wanting to learn more. Its just funny how life works out. :)

Van Gogh Project for February

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)Cypresses, 1889Oil on canvas; 93.4 x 74 cm (36 3/4 x 29 1/8 in.)

This months artist project for the Fineline Artists is Vincent van Gogh. While i am not as "inspired" by him as i was with JSS i am still enjoying watching the other artists tackle the project and learning a bit more about him.

Unfortunately i can't participate this month, but i am enjoying reading his letters at: Unabridged Letters by or to Vincent van Gogh http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/.

There is something about the way people used to write that is just so lovely to read, i really enjoy reading about what he thought about his art and just the various issues of a different time.

One thing i am taking away from Van Gogh is the way he sketched i love mood he would create with his lines as well as the fact that he sketched everything. So taking inspiration from this i have been sketching more often, doesnt matter if its good or not or if i only get 5mins in... just the fact that i am doing it is the key factor.

Just in the week or so i have been doing this pretty regularly i have found a remarkable difference in the way i have been seeing things and the way my lines will flow easier and i have found now i have started a new project my painting and drawing is also flowing better and with greater confidence. So YAY for me! This is something i realise i have to continue with reguarly.

Katherine has a great post about all thats going on in the VG project here.

Farmor's Vase Update

Just thought i would post an update for this one. I think i have turned a corner on this one it seems to be flowing much easier now. (I think because i am concentrating on what i am doing rather than just painting) You cant really see it on this pic but i have really blurred the edges on the wall and the top of the mantel as well as the picture on the wall :)

I am yet to fix and darken the values of the book shelf and the bricks and chair but i think i am happy with the wall and the picture. In my reference photo alot of this back area is covered by flowers but there is a hint of a few photograph frames placed on the mantel.... i am still trying to decide whether to include them or not. The idea would be that they would be hiding there and only just peeking through the flowers but at the same time in that case might not need them. hmmmm... any thoughts ?

Also i would be interested to hear anyone's opinion on the white reflection on the table ... i am thinking now that its way too white and it needs more "table" in there... this is pretty much the same as my reference photo which is probably a mistake on my part as i was coping the photo, which i now know is that photos lie.... BUT hmmm do i really want to go back to the table again ... not really ..... but i will if i have to.

I have done a few sketches of the vase in RL. That i think will be helpful when i come to do it.

ALSO, I have been re-reading a book i have i thought might be of interest:

Its a great book, it teaches alot about drawing and painting what you see rather than what you think you see as well as compositon and value plans. Its actually where i often fall down in my paintings i think i need to refer to this book more often :)

http://www.amazon.com/Painting-Your-Artists-Brain-Purcell/dp/158180993X/sr=8-2/qid=1171171258/ref=sr_1_2/002-9083987-0880810?ie=UTF8&s=books

Three Pears for sale

Ok so i thought i would give ebay a whirl i have a few of these to go on this is the first.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Three-Pears-20X25cm-Pastel-and-Coloured-Pencil_W0QQitemZ300079599290QQihZ020QQcategoryZ113362QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Some Sketches

i have been asked to show some sketches so here are a couple of littlies, it was done as my two boys ate breakfast as you can imagine a 3 yearold and a 10month old dont stay still very long.

This was great, its something i can do with the kids and satisfys my art needs while i have a coffee :)sounds like a perfect multitasking activity for mum :)

These ones arent so alien looking as some of the previous ones i have done recently...so yay :) i think i am improving a little. The pots are ones i did the other day while the kids were playing out the back.

Fighthing strokes !!

Well, i have been fighting with this one ALL day. It started off this morning i was just going to do a bit more on it as i had altered the vase the other day (realising it was totally the wrong shape) .. which now meant that the background (which i was resonably happy with ) was out in colour and value.

So, off i started and i think i must have painted over the table area 10 times, and i got that frustrated feeling i always used to get when painting. It was like i would just get one bit good .. then i would go work on other bits to get that to match ... only to come back and find that it wasnt the right colour or style or too smooth and start over again .. I worked outside so i could get great distance but when i was in the midst of it .. didnt seem to be making much difference.....

i was just about ready to throw it in the bin and throw all my paints out and wonder why i ever bothered to do art in the first place .. then i got out some different coloured paint and different medium and a different brush to what i had been using and it all seemed to work. It's not finished or to the standard i would have like but its 100 times better to some of the versions i had.. ( i can see i still need to go alot looser towards the front .. but i havent got any smooth lines i promise :)

I am not sure what this problem seems to be but i find i do it quite often ...not so much with cp work but mainly with painting..... i wonder if it is overworking or just standing too close ..or not thinking in terms of values and worrying too much about mixing the paint .... or even working with not enough painting (having to remix) or even working with my palette / brush too messy .... ..on my final run .. it felt like i was putting the same brush strokes and same colours as the previous times but something about it clicked.... ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

anywho at least i got somewhere with it ... tomorrow i am not going to start until i finish all my chores for the day .. otherwise nothing gets down for the whole day ...... (now i better go feed the kids)

Blue Swirl Pot2

This one is now done :) yay :) I learnt alot from doing these and i can still see errors in these ones (i am never happy) but i think they came out alright.

I would be a little more confident to tackle the larger piece of this one, the comp will be different. Theres a few things i will do differently (i will go into that when i start the piece).

But just thought i would post the finished one for now and show both of them together. In a nut shell i feel the drawing of the pot is better on the second one, i took much more time with this as well as the cloth (the first one was basically a direct copy of the photograph whereas the second one the basic lines were drawn which i then "corrected" here and there as i went).

However, i think the colours of the background and the wood are much better on the first one, they are much clearer and vibrant. (due to the watercolour underpainting). The first one took much less time than the second in acheiving colour.

The second one's cloth however, has better values however than the first.

I think maybe the basic lesson i have learnt for pieces like this is to mix and match the techniques depending on the purpose it will be used for. If the item is quite light and detailed i think it's better to produce the whole thing in pencil, however for backgrounds and large areas of colour i think a watercolour or some type of wash will work much better with as i am not concentrated on getting down the correct colour value.

Also i need to cencentrate when i have something white or light with dark right next to it. The white of the pot (especially after the fixative) seems to have a blue tinge due to the swirls next to it. The only thing i can think of is a frisket but that wouldnt really be appropriate for something like this. So with my next one i am going to attempt to work cleaner to see if this makes a difference. I think the next one will be larger so it would be easier to get this kind of detail in as well ... its quite hard being so small.

On a side note : i have been doing more sketching of late, mainly quick little 5-10mins poses of the kids as they are doing stuff. The other day i did some potplants as the kids were playing i can really see the positives of doing this reguarly which has been highlighted in various articles i have been reading. So another thing on the long list of things to do is to sketch from life more often!!! :)

Farmor's Vase

Well i have had a fabulous day ... :) its raining out and the boys have been happy so i have been taking some time to do something which i have been itching to do for a while now - a painting. So the CP's were put aside and out came the big canvas and big brushes and no fine detail (as yet). wOOT !

It's been great, and JSS has been sitting in the background the whole time.

This one is totally different from my normal paintings. The palette is much darker from my usual work and the whole composition i think has some JSS elements to it. It has a personal connection as the vase was given to me last year on my 30birthday from my dad. It was his mum's vase (my farmor - in danish) it will have big flowers coming out of it.

I am hoping to make the flowers quite detailed and leave the background a bit rough, its late today tho and i really must get off to doing housework things. But i dont think i will be able to put this one down till its done.