Art from Russia

A couple of weeks ago I made an awesome trade with a new trading friend from Russia. This was back when trading was still relatively new to me. I gave away two custom paintings, one of some elephants because they’re pretty popular! And I also repainted Buckden Towers since my first one sold on eBay.

 

Russian post is apparently a little sluggish so I was worried when it took nearly a month for them to arrive, but it’s all ok and we’re both happy bunnies.

 

I am thoroughly pleased with the ATCs I received. Victoria does these amazing tree doodles with some awesome vibrant colours and face collage, such a unique way of throwing things together. Collage is something I’ve never been able to achieve well. We will probably do more trading in the future!

 

Check out her blog over at 365 day Zentangle Project

 

I also got an altered envie – which inspired me into doing my own. I really love the trading community!

 

 

Thanks for looking :)

How to Make a Grumpy Turtle

So far turtles for me have been quite interesting to paint because they have an interesting pattern on their fins and shell. They're well suited to acrylic paint since they're underwater and the blue ocean is always so rich in colour. They take longer than my watercolours but they come out really well and it's worth it. This is the process of a custom ATC:

So first I have an outline and I paint each of the first important elements, lime yellow, lemon yellow and cerulean blue. I don't spend too much time being neat just so long as I don't go too far over the lines!

Grumpy Turtle - work in progress

Next up is the background elements because they have less detail and I can sort that out quite quickly. The sea is usually simple, pick the appropriate corner and then use a washed down ultra marine blue over the top and make sure it fades in nicely with the other blue. With the sea bed I use a cadmium green mixed with black to show all the crevasses of the coral and greenery. I never go all out on accuracy, it's more of a representation and to create depth.

Grumpy Turtle - work in progress

Third step is my favourite, painting the turtle. This works in 2 stages. Firstly I use a cadmium orange to establish all the shading, I usually don't worry if not much yellow can be seen at the end because it's more of an under colour. Then I get a crimson red and water it down heavily - do NOT want big chunks of red in there that could be very difficult to remove. Dilute it right down and then paint on the spots, dimples and the lines often found on the under belly. This is very much when it starts to take shape. Often there is a third step of re-shading, since sometimes the red overpowers the orange.

Grumpy Turtle - work in progress

Nearly there, this part is crucial of course, when it all comes together. The black outline! I use a uniball eye fine black pen that has waterproof and fadeproof ink. They have long been my favourite and would recommend them to anyone! I enjoy putting the lines in!

Grumpy Turtle ATC - Acrylic and Pen

And voila, one custom ATC completed!

What are your techniques with acrylic? This has worked via trial and error, everytime I paint I notice a new technique emerge: happy accidents!

The Evil Bunnies

"Zombie vs Psycho" - Acrylic and Pen ACEO




"Attack!" - Acrylic and Pen ACEO

About a year ago I found this rather amusing crochet pattern which can still be found here: Mr Bunnyford - The Original Zombie Rabbit. On the spur of the moment I bought it because I wanted it! Only to realise not only can I not crochet but neither could Mum. Oh well what to do now? So I somehow convinced my Nana in law (let’s call her Nana 3) to make one for me. Hah – she did it willingly! But once those evil eyes were sewn on and that bloodthirsty mouth was made a new terror was born. I was so extremely happy when she made the first one – I called him Zombie bunny and he didn’t leave my side! So I pushed for another one, bunnies need companions! This other was slightly different, with some special beads for eyes and different colours, I decided to call him Psycho bunny. Little did I know that rather than companions they became sworn enemies!!!

 

However, all is not lost; it would seem they will put their differences aside to attack the new bunny on the block. A gorgeous innocent stuffed bunny given to me at my baby shower – oh dear!



"It's a Trap!" - Acrylic and Pen ACEO



Acrylic vs Watercolour

3 x Elephant ACEOs - Acrylic and Pen

So I discovered two techniques recently and I wanted to put them to the test. Acrylic vs Watercolour??? Above are 3 very cute elephant ATCs I did for a personalised swap for some adorable bunnies from Australia (can't wait to get!) I have to say I love painting elephants, I also love elephants, they're such gentle giants (well mostly). This bright vivid style lends itself quite well to that bright and intense heat in Africa.

So the next test was to see the results of doing the same thing with watercolour.



3 x Elephant ACEOs - Watercolour & Pen

 Ok so they're a lot less vibrant - however I am loving the effect of crosshatching to add some depth. I did these three and they're all on etsy now: Abstract Etsy Art by Katie Hone

Honestly I couldn't tell you which I prefer? I prefer to paint in watercolour since it takes less time but the acrylic is that much more vibrant and "popping" What do you think??

 

 

Barmouth Harbour completes the set

Barmouth Harbour - 9" x 12" Acrylic on Chunky Canvas

 And here it is, full of colour. This panting is one of a set of 4 which I've now fully completed. They're all 9" x 12" but two of them are on chunky canvas since I had no more flat canvases. I wonder which I prefer - blue skies or yellow? What do you think?

 

4 Paintings of Barmouth

A Work in Progress

Barmouth Harbour - Work in Progress

Another painting of Barmouth - this time it's the harbour. I didn't think this one would be difficult but Barmouth harbour is pretty complicated. I decided to choose a less dense area overlooking Fairbourne and the Bridge once again over the estuary. Mainly because if you pan around to your left there's a lot of buildings, bridges and impossible perspective angles. You'll see what I mean from an earlier blog: The Calm before the Storm. I don't think I'll finish this tonight, I find it better to do the colours when I have natural light spilling into my room. However I could be busy this weekend, sister is coming over and I have a baby shower to attend!

Barmouth Harbour - Work in Progress

Barmouth Bridge

I'd like to start by telling you all about how I got featured on the Art Promotivate Blog: Katie Hone Featured Artist - They have an awesome blog which gives lots of interesting tips and tricks about how to sell your work and promote yourself. I'm still pretty new at it so any hints are of great use to me.

 

So I may not have mentioned that I'm 37 weeks pregnant, trying not to let that hinder the creative process but now I get quite tired. However I did manage a new painting this week!

 

A friend of mine asked about doing some paintings of my home town Barmouth. All of a sudden my painting hat went on and I got right underway and started. Given that the last time I did a Barmouth Bridge painting got so much good feedback I decided to do it again (different this time also).



Barmouth Bridge - Work in Progress

This is how I typically start with a painting like this, get all of those all important black lines in. Similar to the ACEOs I have a very obvious black outline to a vibrant scenery picture. The only difference with this and the ACEOs is the medium. I adore watercolour but for canvas painting I much prefer acrylic - you can get brighter colours and paint over any mistakes!





Barmouth Bridge - Work in progress





Then I add colour, the fun part! I usually spend some time before adding colour working out where all the colours will go. I don't like colours to clash too much but I don't want to deviate too far from the standard red, blue, green and yellow palette.





Barmouth Bridge - 9" x 12" Acrylic on Stretched Canvas





And here it is! I am thouraghly pleased with it and have now got one more to do of Barmouth Harbour. Will probably make a start on it this weekend some time. Has anyone been to Barmouth before? It really has loads of landmarks considering its not a very big town, an impressive beach and a huge amount of cafes! I do miss living there.

 

The Clan of Mugzey

Years ago when I was 15 my Mum came back from New York and she brought each one of us (1 of 4 siblings) a bear called Mugzey. They come in small medium and large or junior, norm and senior. At the time they were all named after something about the USA - Hershey, Donut, Pretsal and Soda... but it didn't take long before we carried on calling them Mugzey. Now eversince this moment Mum has not been able to resist buying more because lets face it they really are adorable. The small ones especially with their squashed up face and little beady eyes and pot bellies. What's not to love!? What used to be a modest clan of 4 is now bordering insanity at 14! So I couldn't think of anything more appropriate to give Mum for Mothers day, a hand painted card of the pioneering Mugzey's.

Life drawing taught me something

A couple of years ago the idea that I might be painting portraits would have astounded me. I studied life drawing in college for 2 years and I hated it. Don't get me wrong its all valuable experience, but being cooped up in a small room with 20 other students, trying to fight to get a donkey easel (they were more comfortable) was not my idea of fun. Painting from a photograph is so much more relaxing, you can take as long as you want, the subject won't move and you can sit at your computer desk checking your Facebook at the same time. Did I mention how much I enjoy painting now? I started this painting for my fiance's Dad who had his 52nd birthday recently. I had a feeling this might be a difficult photograph to paint, I've never been fantastic at painting hair. So I started this painting at least a week before his birthday. This first picture is what the end of that day brought, a basic outline of the image and facial features and I deliberately made it high contrast. A technique I learnt (grudgingly) in life drawing was how to underpaint, this is when you paint quite heavily, in big block shapes, often in colours that are not in the photo. (Obviously not in this case but the principle still stands). Then you spend some time with watered down greys and whites to bring the painting to a more likely range of colours. I'm still pretty new at this and still find it pretty awesome when it works. I never really know how well a painting will turn out. After the first day of painting I left it, I wasn't that keen on it and I had no clue what was next. So rather than hitting my head against the wall I left it for a few days. On the day of his birthday I finished it (yes I know I left it to the last minute)! Now I had a fresh idea of what I wanted to do to it. I've learnt not to be too bogged down with your first impressions, after all it is acrylic and you can paint over all that isn't working. So that's exactly what I did, I toned down all the heavy lines I'd created around their faces and slowly but surely brought the tone back. I find it much more difficult to paint somebody I know, however immensely more satisfying. Needless to say he loved it.