My Creative Space

Happy September! A snapshot at my creative space this week. I got two days off mid week this round (for working the past weekend), so I got some good creative time in. Here’s a bit of my mess:

I worked on my large painting that I had shared with you last week. It’s sort of taking a form of it’s own as I progress through it. I just keep adding layers, and it’s working itself up.

How it started this week:

And, since I haven’t make a movie in awhile; here is some speed painting for you. The song is “Eet” by Regina Spektor.

Please excuse that my head is in the way a lot of the time…

My snazzy plaid shirt is a old shirt of James. I have a whole pile of them from both James and my Dad – I tend to get paint all over the place, so it’s the only way that I don’t ruin all my clothes…although some still meet that unfortunate doom.

Where it stands now:

I also splurged on some gorgeous hot pink pumps this week for a wedding that I have this weekend. (I have a black dress that I’m wearing, so I wanted shoes that ‘popped’). I will just say now: I *love love love* heels lol…they just make you look so much more poised {ehm, makes legs go on for forever}…, and are the perfect accessory to any outfit.

I was initially looking for a stiletto heel, since they are my favourite, but my shopping was limited. I think the chunky heel is a little more funky, but I don’t have many ‘chunky heels’ so it will be a great edition to my wardrobe.

You can see more Creative Spaces here.

Sleepy Painting Days

 

As I’m painting away, Oreo is sleeping the afternoon away under my art easel. Lately I’ve been finding his furry feet poking out on a more regular basis – I think this has officially become one of his hidey-holes (As well as in my closet, on my shelf – cuddled in my clothes – but I’m trying to break him out of that habit, since his hair isn’t very fashionable on me). Here is can still look at the birds outside.

Monday Class: The Colour Wheel

I got so excited to start on these classes, that this one is being posted up a few days early :o)

Yes, the colour wheel! Back to basics is how we know everyone is on the same page! And you will want this for some future classes...So, open up to a sketchbook, or grab a piece of paper and grab the following colours of paint: a red, yellow and blue. With these three colours - known as the primary colours, we can typically mix any colour we want. And, I don't want any cheating here.

So, lets first create our secondary colours by mixing our primaries: blue+red = violet, red+yellow = orange, and blue+yellow = green

And, from there we can make our teriary colours by mixing our secondaries: blue+green = blue-green, blue+violet = blue-violet, ect. Continue until you have completed your wheel.

Yes, some of the colours don't look fantastic, and some might even look a little muddy. That's why some people go out and buy their different colours instead of mixing; and you can adjust your mixing ratios to get the colours more clear and bright. And, you will find that, for example: different blues with the same red will give you different purples...maybe some less muddy than others. The differences are subtle here in my example below, but there are different nonetheless...you can see them better on my paper than the scan.

Homework: you can experiment with your colours and determine which colours make the best mixes. If you want to share your results, you can just post a link in the comments :)

Art Inspirations: Introduction

I have decided - in an effort to continuously practice old and new skills myself, and share them with everyone - to start a weekly post on art instruction and inspiration. Sometimes it will be sharing with you all a painting technique, other times it will be sharing a wonderful piece of art and drawing inspiration from it. It will not only be encouragement for me to sometimes put my comfort zone to the side and try new things, but it will also work in an effort to use up all my hap-hazard art materials that don't seem to get used up (Yes, there is a solely personal and greedy reason for this hehe). Sometimes I find it's hard to get 'in the mood' when it comes to my art work...and when I come across posts, like the ones I hope to create, I just get sparks of inspiration - and that's ultimately is what I hope to achieve and share with you all.

I do not claim that these are all my 'original-never-heard-of-them-before' ideas, because that would be silly. Many of these ideas and techniques are well known among many artists, I'm just simply sharing with you to provide inspiration and to enlighten others who may not be aware of some of these wonderful techniques and materials. I do promise that nothing is taken directly from a book, and that all images that I present are mine in this series (with the exception of the inspirational pieces that I will share from other, most notably famous, artists).

I will try to run these posts on Mondays, and try my best to be diligent about it. We all know that I may have problems will keeping focused on one thing *blushes*...but I will try my best, since I think that this will be a lot of fun. For appropriate classes, I will try to get some videos made up - even if they're just a painting or drawing demo.

I'm not totally sold on any title for this series either - if you have an idea, please do share! It's seemingly hard for me to think up something, since it will be painting and drawing...and mixed media, as well as the inspirations pieces.

You can always click my label below as well to see my entire run of these 'classes' at any time.

My Creative Space

This week has been very busy at work - I worked the weekend, and then got called back in at least once per night. So I didn't have too much time to be very creative....but I did squeeze in some sketchbook time during breaks. And I started a new painting...but there's lots to do on that still...

An overhead sketch of a layout of where I grew up, my parents farm (on right), and then a sketch of my hand holding that page (on left):

Of an elephant scene from nationalgeographic.com:

Of a street scene from nationalgeographic.com (I don't often draw buildings, but this scene had such vivid colours I was drawn to it...I only noted them with words for future reference in case I get the unlikely urge to paint some buildings).

Plans for my painting below with a thumbnail sketch, and some sea anemone :

This is the starting of my painting. It's 24x24", with acrylic paints - I want lots of thin layers, and so I need it to dry quickly or it would take forever :)

The first few layers down, but the next time you see it, it will be drastically different. This piece will be prominently white I think - I just want the odd bits of these colours to peak out.

Please see more creative spaces, here.

Sketchbook Project 2012: Our Distances

I completed page 4 (and 4b) last night. It was a mixed media page, using a couple different mediums: acrylic paint, matte gel medium, glass beads medium, gold mica flake medium, black marker, collage. I'll take you from the start, and then show you the end product :o) ... this is going to be a long post with tons of pictures!

Firs I coated the image that I printed out with gel medium, so that when I started painting and dabbling on it, it would not run / smear.

While this was drying, I rebound my sketchbook so that I could insert a page of tracing paper. I have never bound / rebound anything before, so I did not have proper tools. I ended up using a thumb tack and a screwdriver to make the holes a bit bigger, and threaded in green/white bakers twine. I had to do this twice: the first time, I rebound half the book upside down from the other half - opps! This also means that towards the end of the book, there's another piece of tracing paper! :)

So I ripped the edges, and then used the same gel medium to affix the image to my book.

I added some colour with some paint.

Now on to the fun part: I added glass bead medium. It goes on white, but dries super clear and adds a very interesting texture. I used a palate knife to add this, I find it works better if I want large sections of beads.


A close-up of it dry - those little beads just attract so much light into them! :)


The tissue paper makes this spread that much more interesting. The other piece that I have in this book, I'm going to try to make it so it interacts with both sides.

Next, I added more colour. The green I just dabbed on with a piece of shop towel (I find these 'paper towels' stand up better for my painting - you can get them at Canadian Tire ect.)

After a bit more painting, some more glass beads and some gold mica flakes - the page is complete!

A close up of those lovely beads:


The spread with the tissue paper on top. The tissue paper has indicated where either of us lived (since we were long distance for while), where we started and where we are now.


And, with it on the other side, the lightened areas are places where one of us have lived.

I hope you enjoyed this (thorough) look at my pg. 4 and 4b page :)

Store Update #1

I've updated my store with some of the many creations from the past two days. One painting went right away (I was confused when I went looking for its link last night, thinking I screwed something up lol). So that painting is now available as a print.

Hedgehogs - Original Painting Available

Night Watch - Original Watercolour Painting Available

Full Moon - Watercolour - Prints available

Chinese Lanterns - Original Watercolour Available

Golden Autumn - Original Watercolour Available

As well, there are some Christmas items that are slowing fluttering into the store. I am offering hand painted Christmas and Holiday cards this year. I will not be offering the printed variety. (sorry).

My Creative Space

Work has been keeping me very busy, so my creative space hasn't been too creative - except for the past two days (days off, yippie!) - it's been a mad house of creativity.

I've been dabbling in my square sketchbook a lot, I think the smaller size and the more unique shape are more attractive and inspirational to my mind.

Oreo as a cartoon, and Little Miss X-ray:

I've also gone on a sort of a 'paint-a-thon' these past two days (and to continue today as well). I know that there are busy, busy times ahead, and I wanted to get out some paintings before I may not have time (I expect to be painting a lot of commissions instead with the holidays around the corner - sigh, yes I know it's silly to say: but it is in the online shopping world). Here is my 'studio area'. Yes, my headphones are taped together, but they are my favourite for painting - and they still work lol.

I no longer have a desk to work on (that didn't make the move to Owen Sound), but I figured since I'm not sharing the apartment with roommates, that I can paint where ever and it's working out fine. Those paper are 'lists' of ideas - I make then when I'm at work and an idea strikes - I know I won't remember until I get home or near a sketchbook. Here's a sneak peek at some of the paintings that I will be posting in a day or so:

I've also figured out the main page for my Sketchbook Project 2012. I'm pretty sure I know what I want to do for the cover, but I think I want to wait until I'm almost done the book since it will sort of 'wrap around', and if the book gets thick I don't want that compromising it. I also have ideas for another spread of two that I will do today, and I'm hoping to introduce some tracing paper into it!

And lastly....*drummm rollll*....I got a new printer!! :o) Yesterday, my scanner on my old printer broke - it just wouldn't scan under any setting but document, and I didn't want that (and you know, when little things stop working it's a precursor for larger breaks to come). So I looked up my warranty, and I still had it - but it was done at the end of this month! Yikes! It needed to be looked after pronto then. So, I brought it in, and after some paper work - this new baby was mine! (Buying that extra year of warrenty was a great decision - out only 30$ instead of over 250...). So here's my new best-y: this one has touch buttons totally cool!

Check out some other creative spaces :) Happy creating!

Sketchbook Project 2012: All my Lovin'

I've already made a painting based on this theme, but I do love the song, and I love the little paper airplanes:

Sending You All My Lovin' - pg 5 - watercolour and ink

I know - I'm bouncing around in my book...it's just some spreads are only one page, and some need both. This one was half done for a little while too, I wasn't sure if it was complete, and then I added some watercolour hearts in with the ink, and I'm confident of it's lovliness now.

Poppy Watercolour Sketch

Just playing in my square sketchbook with some watercolour paints:

I got some of those watercolour brushes that hold water in them - I am smittingly in love with them now!

I must also tell you: I've been painting like a mad-women (and plan to continue for my two days off starting tomorrow :)...I'll have a major shop update, and some goodies to post for everyone real soon :)

Sketchbook Project 2012: Coming Home

After my sketch of the "Berry Bird" in my square sketchbook, I knew I had wanted to do another sketch in a similar style.

Coming Home - Pages 12-13 - Pencil

It's a finch welcoming her fellow finch with a welcome home leaf :)

Sketchbook Project 2012: A-Mazing Love

I recently completed another page in my Sketchbook Project submission:

Amazing Love, Pgs 8-9 - watercolour and ink

I used to make mazes when I was really little (Grade 2 or 3), after an 'art project' in class: the whole class each made a maze, and then the teacher photocopied them all and made us all an activity book. and I loved making them. They weren't as complicated or large as this one.

I just hope that no one solves this puzzle in ink / pencil when they're reading my little sketchbook. I put a disclaimer on the top, just to be safe.