Category Archives: art

Tompot Blenny Fish using coloured pencils.

art, painting, pencil, sketch

I was reading a science magazine one day and found a fabulous photograph of a Tompot Blenny fish which looked so colourful and full of character that I wanted to have a go at painting it.  With kind permission of Alexander Mustard (the photographer) I had a go.  I did a rather scruffy, coloured pencil painting/sketch in my sketchbook.   I did not do the photograph justice, so one day I will do a better painting but perhaps with water colour, acrylics or mixed media. It needs some really bright colours.   As usual, some of the blended colours did not show up on the photograph below, especially the turquoise in the background.  It was fun to do but I am not happy with the result, it is too scratchy looking and not bright enough.  Must do better.

 

 

Abstract self portrait.

abstract, art, painting, watercolour

Over on Artist Demo Days on facebook, Ali Hargreaves did a few demos on cubism (it is also on you tube here .   Now, although I don’t like cubism, I thought I would give the self portrait a go as Ali’s finished painting was really good. Cubism uses geometric shapes and lots of straight lines and for someone like me, who likes soft and fluffy, this was difficult.  My hair had grown a lot during the last lockdown and was quite wavy so I used crescent shapes to depict the waves and so that meant it didn’t look too harsh and jaggy.  I used  my Bockingford NOT block 300g as I was going to be using watercolour but I should possibly have used a smoother paper to get smoother outlines.  I ended up using a mixture of watercolour, Marvy le Plume pens, Copic pens, Stabilo pens,  Posca  pens, inktense pencils, gold and silver Pilot pens.  In a few places I added a little sparkle using a gel glitter pen and the outline is in black Faber Castell Pitt pen.  The pale colours in some Copic pens don’t show up well in the photograph, and the dark English red Marvy le Plume looks almost black in places..

You start by jotting down a few things you like and try to incorporate them into your painting.  You don’t have to use them all.

list of happy things

 

You begin with a soft pencil sketch then go over the outline with a permanent pen.

abstract self portrait outline

 

One you have your outline, it is just a matter of colouring in and adding some patterns – great fun.

abstract self portrait

My abstract self portrait is almost zentangle and not really cubism in my opinion.  At the end I added a bit of sparkle and a few gold and silver highlights but they don’t show up on the photo.  The whole process was a lot of fun.

My husband really likes this painting and wants it framed and hung on our wall.  Even though I really like it, I can see all the wee mistakes that I made.  Also I have painted right up to the edges and a mount will cover the detail at the edges.  So my dilemma is: do I start it again using smoother paper and leave a border for a mount, or,  just go ahead and get it framed?  I am quite a lazy artist and don’t like the thought of doing it all again, but I don’t really want to hang something with mistakes in it.  Anyhooo, there is no rush to make the decision as we are in another lockdown, and as we are shielding we aren’t going anywhere.

White cat painting.

art, painting, watercolour

white cat paintingGhost

Sharon Hurst did a demo of this painting of  white cat  (Ghost) over on Artist Demo Days on facebook.  Using salt on the watercolour background is very effective.  The turquoise colour doesn’t show up well though on this photograph.  It was fun to do although I may have made Ghost a bit jowly.

Physalis and poppy heads mixed media painting.

art, mixed media, painting, watercolour

Practising with some texture in this painting using sand mixed into acrylic paint.  This was painted using the techniques from  Alison Board’s first book ‘A beginners guide to watercolour with mixed media’.  I love this book as it it gives you lots of ideas and easy to understand instructions and I like Alison’s lively, loose painting style.  I used dried fern, fennel,  and acer leaves dropped into the wet background and left to dry.  There is also some lifting out, using a leafy stencil and a magic sponge eraser, and some messy splattering and dripping.  The camera hasn’t quite picked up on some of the subtle shading so it looks much better in real life.

Owl mixed media painting

art, mixed media, painting, watercolour

I am a big fab of Alison Board, so whenever I get the chance I watch her demos on Artist Demo Days on facebook, or on her own web page, then sometimes I have a  go myself.  However this one is from one of her workshops on the SAA site.  I used watercolour, gouache, brusho,  conte crayons and a fine liner pen.  Alison used a photo of Boo, a little owl, which has such a lovely face, and I love the splashy loose techniques she uses.

Puffin watercolour

art, watercolour, watercolour painting

I have been checking out the Artist Demo Days on facebook and love the demos and chit chat about painting.   This is one of Ali Boards demos of a puffin I did yesterday in order to  get a looser approach to painting.  It isn’t quite right but I am getting there.

Shimmering dragonfly on black paper.

art, black waterclour paper, mixed media

It has been a while since I had my paints out and this is the first attempt using black watercolour paper.  Alison Board was doing a demo for SAA so I followed along with that  (more or less).  This is a mixed media piece, and I really like the shimmery Rembrandt watercolour for the wings.   You can’t really tell from this photo but the mount is quite green so it brings out the greens of the background even more.

Anchor and butterfly sketch.

art, Prisma pencils, sketch

Duddingston Kirk are holding an event in early January 2020 called – a time of hope and new beginnings – contemplating , poetry, prose, paintings, photographs as well as  performances of music, song and story telling.  I decided to google symbols of hope and came up with the idea of an anchor, which used to be an early Christian symbol, and a butterfly, a symbol of hope.  Using Prisma pencils I made a sketch, and I also used a few stamps.  I didn’t like the background as it was a bit scratchy looking despite me trying to smooth it using Sansador.  Anyhow I took a photo of it, cropped it, then mucked around with the image in photoshop to give it a bit of a border/vignette. This is my first version, it looks like a tattoo and I am just not sure….I may change it before I send it in to exhibit.