A small burst of the creative spirit. My first wreath for my first home.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Virginia is for Lovers
So we've settled into our new home in Virginia. The move itself was full of trials and tribulations. Barely made it through a single state with some sort of issue. We've been here for just over a week, and a few house related things have been accomplished or at least identified as future project. One of the most important things we've taken care of was selecting a palette for our home. We chose Valspar's Colonial color scheme, with colors like "Sandy Cove", "American Schooner" (dark blue), "Bliss" (light yellow), and "Polar White" for aaallll the trim.
On a more artistic note, we have a large open space right above our fireplace that is just screaming for a painting. So I've decided to do one. One of the many great things about where we live is the proximity to a large Jerry's Artarama. Heaven on a budget! I purchased a set of palette four knives for $10 and a 30 x 36 in 1.5" gallery wrapped canvas for like $35. Stellar deal if you ask me!
The next task was to what exactly I wanted to portray. I've ultimately decided to find a scene from around the area, and I think I found it. It's a view of a local park and it incorporates just about every color of our colonial color palette. So that is my big project! Pretty excited about it.
However....in the mean time, I have a small autumn themed wreath to make with tiny woodland forest creatures. I'll be sure to post a picture of it once completed. Big thanks to hanging around. I hope from this point on posts will get more regular and feature more work.
On a more artistic note, we have a large open space right above our fireplace that is just screaming for a painting. So I've decided to do one. One of the many great things about where we live is the proximity to a large Jerry's Artarama. Heaven on a budget! I purchased a set of palette four knives for $10 and a 30 x 36 in 1.5" gallery wrapped canvas for like $35. Stellar deal if you ask me!
The next task was to what exactly I wanted to portray. I've ultimately decided to find a scene from around the area, and I think I found it. It's a view of a local park and it incorporates just about every color of our colonial color palette. So that is my big project! Pretty excited about it.
However....in the mean time, I have a small autumn themed wreath to make with tiny woodland forest creatures. I'll be sure to post a picture of it once completed. Big thanks to hanging around. I hope from this point on posts will get more regular and feature more work.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Hiatus
As if it wasn't already evident, but I will be taking a temporary hiatus from the blog and painting/drawing/crafting in general until my family and I have completed our move to VA. These past few weeks have been filled with house hunting, home inspections, and general nonsense related to general home procurement. And these next few weeks will be a whirlwind of packing, driving cross country, unpacking and settling. I do hope you'll stick around. Our new home has a 3rd room that I can transform into my artistic working space! Not exactly a studio but space with a door at least. In the mean time, thanks to everyone for following and I hope to be back and active by late October.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Touch Ups
Since I completed "The Poppy" it's bothered me. It just screamed "Come Back, I'm not done!" I liked how the colors for the palm came out and I was happy with my rendering of the flower, but there was just something that felt unfinished. I received many compliments, but when I put the color pencil Poppy next to the acrylic I felt that the color pencil piece had a greater presence and sense of completion. So I thought and thought about what I should do, if anything, to the acrylic Poppy.
A few things had to happen for me to approach my painting again. First, having completed some more ATCs (which I will post later) I felt more creative and accomplished. This gave me more confidence that I could maybe achieve what I wanted to. The next trick was to figure just what that was. Due to the sad demise of our local Border's bookstore, every week there have been heavy discounts. Surprisingly, the art books have actually gone quite quick. So even though it was discounted as much as I wanted, I went ahead and bought some art books that I had kept my eye on. "Botany for the Artist" by Sarah Simblet, "Colored Pencil Painting Bible: Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Ultra-realistic Effects" by Alyona Nickelsen, and lastly "Acrylic Landscapes in a Weekend" by Keith H Fenwick. The last one about acrylic landscapes finally introduced me to the technique that I figured would be perfect for my Poppy Problem. Sounds so silly not to have thought of this before, but what I learned to do was to use glazes. The examples in the book really helped to spell it out and make it a very easy technique.
After stewing on it for awhile and finding the time, I set out to apply some glazes. I started on the palm first. I layered a Permanent Green Light and Thalo Blue mix glaze to help define each leaf. I went back and forth a few times. Touching up here, adding there. The palm now has characteristics of watercolor, which I really like. I think there's more depth now, and I like how they stand out more. The next area that I figured needed correcting was the poppy. After I finished it and referred back to the original photo I realized it was WAY too orange. I decided to go with a straight Cadmium Red Medium glaze. This definitely deepened and brightened the flower. I think that I have now achieved a color that is closer to the original and is a lot less orange.
Below are the before and after so you can determine if you can see the differences. Finished with my touch ups I think that I am now TOTALLY done....(I think...)
A few things had to happen for me to approach my painting again. First, having completed some more ATCs (which I will post later) I felt more creative and accomplished. This gave me more confidence that I could maybe achieve what I wanted to. The next trick was to figure just what that was. Due to the sad demise of our local Border's bookstore, every week there have been heavy discounts. Surprisingly, the art books have actually gone quite quick. So even though it was discounted as much as I wanted, I went ahead and bought some art books that I had kept my eye on. "Botany for the Artist" by Sarah Simblet, "Colored Pencil Painting Bible: Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Ultra-realistic Effects" by Alyona Nickelsen, and lastly "Acrylic Landscapes in a Weekend" by Keith H Fenwick. The last one about acrylic landscapes finally introduced me to the technique that I figured would be perfect for my Poppy Problem. Sounds so silly not to have thought of this before, but what I learned to do was to use glazes. The examples in the book really helped to spell it out and make it a very easy technique.
After stewing on it for awhile and finding the time, I set out to apply some glazes. I started on the palm first. I layered a Permanent Green Light and Thalo Blue mix glaze to help define each leaf. I went back and forth a few times. Touching up here, adding there. The palm now has characteristics of watercolor, which I really like. I think there's more depth now, and I like how they stand out more. The next area that I figured needed correcting was the poppy. After I finished it and referred back to the original photo I realized it was WAY too orange. I decided to go with a straight Cadmium Red Medium glaze. This definitely deepened and brightened the flower. I think that I have now achieved a color that is closer to the original and is a lot less orange.
Below are the before and after so you can determine if you can see the differences. Finished with my touch ups I think that I am now TOTALLY done....(I think...)
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| "The Poppy" -Before- 16x20 Acrylic on wrapped canvas |
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| "The Poppy" -After- 16x20 Acrylic on wrapped canvas 8/19/11 |
Sunday, August 7, 2011
In the mean time...
As I continue my search for my next painting subject (which has been excruciating) I've completed a few more ATCs in the mean time. Virtually all the ATCs I've completed have been for private swaps with my aforementioned friend. Only one have I swapped with someone else. The kicker is, in that larger non-private swap my friend was randomly selected as my partner! So I sent mine to a stranger and she sent one to me. Needless to say I have a rather extensive "e" ATC collection.
The themes for the 2 ATCs I'm going to post were "Favorite Places" and "Tin Foil". The "fave places" ended up being a bigger challenge than I anticipated. I knew I was going to do an Maine themed one, but I had a hard time figuring out just how to go about it. I ended up doing it in two phases. I started with a computer printout of Quoddy Head Lighthouse and the Sea Dog Blueberry Ale logo. I had another image of a moose I was going to include but I just couldn't make it work. The final push to put the finishing touches came when I discovered and old "Downeast" magazine and my friend's stash of extra craft supplies arrived. From the magazine I included the Lobster Festival logo, and the Maine heart. I included the word "home" because that is what Maine represents to me. Even though I'm not from there and I only spent roughly 2 years there, there hasn't been a single place I have been or lived that has felt like "home". My husband and I share the same sentiment and one day we will go back to stay. We can't wait to go "home".
The second theme, "tin foil" I chose to mix it up a bit. I figured working with an unusual material would be fun. I also knew exactly what I was going to do when I came up with the idea. My brilliant idea was a toy robot. It was Erin's craft supplies that provided me with the materials for the details. All the little embellishments came from her stash. I pre-cut and wrapped each part of the little robot's body then glued him onto the cardstock. I chose to do his robo-claws with red glitter, just because. I loved this little card and I'm happy to know that in my friend's possession he'll be appreciated.
Our next to themes are "layers" and "coins". I've finished the "layers" one and will ship it out this week before I post it and I already have an idea for "coins". So until I find that perfect piece for my next painting, I'll just have to be satisfied working on these little creations.
The themes for the 2 ATCs I'm going to post were "Favorite Places" and "Tin Foil". The "fave places" ended up being a bigger challenge than I anticipated. I knew I was going to do an Maine themed one, but I had a hard time figuring out just how to go about it. I ended up doing it in two phases. I started with a computer printout of Quoddy Head Lighthouse and the Sea Dog Blueberry Ale logo. I had another image of a moose I was going to include but I just couldn't make it work. The final push to put the finishing touches came when I discovered and old "Downeast" magazine and my friend's stash of extra craft supplies arrived. From the magazine I included the Lobster Festival logo, and the Maine heart. I included the word "home" because that is what Maine represents to me. Even though I'm not from there and I only spent roughly 2 years there, there hasn't been a single place I have been or lived that has felt like "home". My husband and I share the same sentiment and one day we will go back to stay. We can't wait to go "home".
The second theme, "tin foil" I chose to mix it up a bit. I figured working with an unusual material would be fun. I also knew exactly what I was going to do when I came up with the idea. My brilliant idea was a toy robot. It was Erin's craft supplies that provided me with the materials for the details. All the little embellishments came from her stash. I pre-cut and wrapped each part of the little robot's body then glued him onto the cardstock. I chose to do his robo-claws with red glitter, just because. I loved this little card and I'm happy to know that in my friend's possession he'll be appreciated.
Our next to themes are "layers" and "coins". I've finished the "layers" one and will ship it out this week before I post it and I already have an idea for "coins". So until I find that perfect piece for my next painting, I'll just have to be satisfied working on these little creations.
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| Favorite Places ATC- Maine Sweet Home |
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| Tin Foil ATC- iRobot |
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Landscape #3
I attempted my third landscape acrylic painting. Recently I have been using my free art time (between the hours of 6pm-9pm) with the creation of ATCs. I had mentioned them previously and since then I have finished two more. Their themes were "Favorite Places" and "Tin Foil". These were private swaps between my friend and me. Although I had forgotten to take their pictures before sending, I'm sure I can count on her to take and share the pictures. Since I have completed those two, I wanted to paint again. I chose to do another landscape.
I have a pretty decent stash of wrapped canvas in various sizes to choose from so my first task was to determine the size. Did I want to go large scale like "The Poppy" or smaller like "Tree with Flowers"? Ultimately I chose to go smaller with a 9x12 gallery wrapped canvas. Next, and the hardest part of all was the subject. I dug and clicked through most of all my photos on my hard drive and KodakGallery.com account. I eventually had to go through some of my friends and family's "Shared" albums. I came across an album of my moms from when she and my sister came to visit me in Maine in the Fall of 2007. We took a trip down through Fryeburg, ME and into Conway, NH. We stayed that this super cute B&B called Crystal Lake Bed & Breakfast. The beautiful fall foliage around the lake and with little white steeple church just made this shot quintessential New England.
I took a few creative licenses primarily with the trees. The original picture has oak trees, but I decided to go for birch trees. Ultimately, I am very happy with this piece. I framed it temporarily with a frame I found at an antique shop. Unfortunately the canvas is a little too deep for the frame so until I find another way, this will have to do.
Below are the original photograph and the competed painting. Please enjoy!
I have a pretty decent stash of wrapped canvas in various sizes to choose from so my first task was to determine the size. Did I want to go large scale like "The Poppy" or smaller like "Tree with Flowers"? Ultimately I chose to go smaller with a 9x12 gallery wrapped canvas. Next, and the hardest part of all was the subject. I dug and clicked through most of all my photos on my hard drive and KodakGallery.com account. I eventually had to go through some of my friends and family's "Shared" albums. I came across an album of my moms from when she and my sister came to visit me in Maine in the Fall of 2007. We took a trip down through Fryeburg, ME and into Conway, NH. We stayed that this super cute B&B called Crystal Lake Bed & Breakfast. The beautiful fall foliage around the lake and with little white steeple church just made this shot quintessential New England.
I took a few creative licenses primarily with the trees. The original picture has oak trees, but I decided to go for birch trees. Ultimately, I am very happy with this piece. I framed it temporarily with a frame I found at an antique shop. Unfortunately the canvas is a little too deep for the frame so until I find another way, this will have to do.
Below are the original photograph and the competed painting. Please enjoy!
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| Crystal Lake, Conway NH, Taken Oct 2007 |
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| "New Hampshire in October" 12x9, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas |
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Heron
I finished "The Heron" this evening. I had been working on it for a few days on and off. It started from a photograph I had taken of a heron at the Cincinnati Zoo. He was in an enclosure so there was no natural background to include. Due to the lack of background interest, I had to come up with my own. This is something I haven rarely done, of have done successfully. I did a lot of research into marshes, herons in marshes, and reeds vs cattails. I had to figure out my horizon line and the light source. I ended up doing this piece backwards (I didn't think it all the way through). I didn't complete the background at all before I drew in the heron and cattails. So that was a challenge. Working with a light source that I determined would be behind the heron, I adjusted my cattails accordingly, and rather successfully. However, as I looked it over I realized the lighting didn't match the heron's. This was the lighting issue I had mentioned previously. This was corrected by just making the heron much darker than I originally rendered him. My next major challenge was water. I have never sketched water before. Again, I went back to researching images of marsh water and other graphite drawings. I think it came out alright. Probably the least successful element of the piece I think. Overall, very happy with my heron and I hope you enjoy it as well.
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| "The Heron" 16x13 Graphite on Strathmore 80# |
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