North Coast Web Students

Well, there's a new blank page that awaits me, one with html code. Not quite blank actually. I have made a new site, North Coast Web Students. Click here to see it. :)

sand and hairy stuff

By the looks of this blog, I haven't been doing anything arty for months. Actually I have, but no-one would be the wiser (due to a regrettable lack of updates).

So here is an update. 

Below are some in-progress pics to give you an idea of some recent work. I won't be posting the finished work pics up nor explaining the title/idea until after August though. It is mixed media - I have used a lot of sand, acrylics, coconut fibre, and textured mediums, so it has been fun and sometimes messy. :)

One thing that has surprised me a little, if you use reasonable quality mediums mixed into your paint, having only student-quality paint hardly matters. The mediums add body and character that no amount of expensive artist's acrylics could achieve. So there you go, it's more about mediums than the paint (although I'm sure good paint does help...)^.^

^ My PD, the photograph on the bottom (sans me) provided inspiration for this artwork.

^ At some point in the process, I realised with horror that I was morphing into a werewolf. ;)

Coconut fibre before use (below) and after it's been twisted (above).

^ The background has a sandy texture... painted with acrylic and stained with tea. 

bird of paradise, part III

I just realised I never posted the outcome of the impasto work. Well, here it is (lol, this was done a few months ago now). The painting itself is not technically finished, I still want to do a lot of refining. I have been procrastinating with that because I need to buy some finer brushes and have had other priorities. Anyway, I'm glad I used the impasto gel because it has added another dimension. One day it will get finished! :)

It's a bit hard to see the impasto effect at a distance, so here's a close up (sorry, it's a kinda crap photo, but you get the idea!) The white stuff is modelling compound and the clear stuff is impasto gel.

underpainting, cont'd

I found a window of time to work on my painting, so I've now done the full colour underpainting. Right now the colours are looking mostly right but are somewhat flat and texturally unremarkable, so the next stage will involve another layer of colour, using finer brushes and more attention to detail. Basically cleaning up some of the edges and refining. I'm thinking that mixing in some textured impasto paste will add liveliness to the surface too. Let's see what happens! :)

Painterdise

Well it has been awhile but recently I started a new painting. It's based on the Bird of Paradise flower, these particular flowers are said to represent joy and... paradise. I chose this particular subject for its vibrancy and distinctiveness. It also means I'll get to have fun with pure strong acrylic colours as well as softer tints in the later stages.

For now I've just completed a monochromatic tonal wash/underpainting of sorts. I'm still making up my mind about the background, at any rate it'll be something the flowers can contrast strongly against. Now it's a matter of creating a colour palette, doing a full colour underpainting, and honing in on details. The sketch was based loosely on a number of photographic studies. To make a pleasing composition I flipped and (mentally) scaled up the foreground flower and overlapped it with another one. One thing I noticed, no two of these flowers are alike, and I saw at least twenty of them. Let the fun begin. :)

HaychBe

I've had creative block and motivation issues re: art for awhile now. So tonight I thought I'd just sketch my little wooden art mannequin, keep it simple. My sketching skills are pretty rusty! Anyway I got bored halfway through, and this is the result. Incorporating some imagined with the real... kind-of like a bizarre self portrait.

I used a couple of coins to do some rubbings under the top to add interesting details. This is something I want to experiment more with.

Only HB pencil was used, with varying pressure. I couldn't be bothered to find my other pencils. Next time I think I'll use deeper ones such as 2B, 4B, 6B to make it easier to suggest light/shade etc. :)