I love spending time in the garden taking photos of various plants but would like to get a bit more arty than the usual ones that I take. Here are a few floral photos that I have attempted. Some were from an online course that I took (https://ayearwithmycamera.com/) and some are just me mucking around learning what I can do with my Sony Mirrorless camera or Xenvo lens for my android camera. The last shot is Saughton pavilion.
Kingfisher mixed media painting.
Ali Hargreaves gave another fab demo on Artist Demo Days on facebook, this time a watercolour (or mixed media) of a rather bedraggled kingfisher. I had a go and made a small painting and it was fun to do. I still haven’t found a way of getting the turquoise colour to be true on the photo. I used some shimmering blue acrylic ink and some pearl Pearlex for some of the white flashes on a few feathers. In other places I have used white acrylic ink and pulled the ink out to makes the ruffled feathers. You can also find her demo here.
Hellebores watercolour painting
I had a go at Ali Board’s watercolour of some lovely hellebores from her book (A beginner’s guide to Watercolour with Mixed media) . I have many of these in my garden but they aren’t looking there best right now and, although I do have a few of my own photographs of my hellebores, they don’t look as nice as the ones in her book.
I quite like how it turned out but I still need to get looser with the paint. And the phone camera never picks up the subtle shading so it looks a bit bloby and patchy.
Tompot Blenny Fish using coloured pencils.
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.
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.
You begin with a soft pencil sketch then go over the outline with a permanent pen.
One you have your outline, it is just a matter of colouring in and adding some patterns – great fun.
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.
Fuchsia painting in mixed media.
I had a go at another of Ali’s demos the other day. I added a few tweaks of my own, like a bit of oil pastel at the end, and some dots and scribbles of a gelly roll glitter pen on the highlights. It was fun to do but I need more practice at getting a looser style, and blending out.
Physalis and poppy heads mixed media painting.
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
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.
Five ducks watercolour
Another painting using a fab demo from Alison C. Board, this time from the SAA site.
They were great fun to do and again just trying to loosen my painting. I tend to want to paint the entire image. Materials used were watercolours, pen, and Inktense pencils.