MerMay part 1

Hello friends,

Thank you so much for those of you who have commented on my art. Your support means so much to me. It's amazing what a difference a few kind words can make when somebody's feeling down.

This is what I've been working on this past few days for MerMay. I've pulled a few pieces of work that I've done from other projects as well, because they're relevant. One of our prompts, for example, was pearls and some of my earlier index card art seems to fit in quite well with it.

Seahorse, in this case highly stylised by way of a Dendritic print

or this interpretation of Atlantis 

This is one of the mermaids, I am rather pleased with this one

and finally for now, an image of cetaceans swimming across the Universe.  The colour reproduction is poor, it's not as slime lime green in reality but my new phone does not seem to do well on colour reproduction.

It still persists in raining most of the time here in the west, so this watery theme of mermaids for May, or Mermay, seems somewhat appropriate still!

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie xx

The Oliphaunt

Hello Friends!

I am very happy with my little oliphaunt {as Samwise Gamgee would say}  It was drawn from a copyright free stock photograph as part of the online Drawing Magic Secrets at Atelier Ida Andersen Lang.  It took me somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes.  I would like to revisit this image and do an in depth study with all the shading.

I was rather intimidated at first as I'm not used to drawing animals and it pushed me well outside my comfort zone, but that is how we learn.

I received this lovely A5 pocket sketchbook by Winsor & Newton for Christmas.  It is vegan pleather.  What a thoughtful gift.

I hope you are not too badly affected by the weather. It is awffy cold!  I was reading just this morning that the NHS recommends the minimum temperature for health is 18*C, or 64*F.  I do keep mine at that balmy setting but do my best to keep myself warm with layers of clothing, quilts hot water bottles and hot drinks.  Funny how in the summer months 18*C seems most pleasant. 

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well, stay warm

Debbie

The Vikings Are Coming!

Hello Friends!

I hope everyone in the UK and near continent and Scandinavia are safe after the barage of storms we've had in recent weeks. I know some of you have suffered and it's going to be a long time before the flood waters will drain. I am thinking of all of you and sending wishes for normality to be restored as soon as possible.

There's a Viking invasion on Facebook.  It's a silly game everyone is playing whereby you have a photo of you edited to show what you would look like as a Viking.  Having had an obsession with Vikings since I was a child {along with all things Celtic too} I couldn't resist joining in. Frankly, we all look like siblings!

This is me as a Viking.  I like it!

As I enjoy creating fantasy portraits, and I'm currently learning to draw using graphite, I just had to draw a portrait based on me as a Viking.  My goal it to be able to draw people that are recognisable and while I'm very happy with the sketch, she does not look like me as a Viking.  

She is not quite finished.  Part of me wants to invest a little colour but part of me resists that thought.  I want to finish off her shirt, and I'd like to work a light bokeh background but I am afraid of spoiling it.

To satisfy my need to apply colour, I did this one using just Caran d'Ache watercolour and Spectrum Noir water resistant coloured pencils.

When drawing the outlines I use the basic formula of an oval divided in half both vertically and horizontally, then the bottom half gets divided in half again, twice.  Here are some stages in the early development of a portrait as you might like to see how one develops.

As you can see, the proportions are basic and can be altered, but the more you tweak, the less human like the face becomes, making it more fairy like, or elfin for example. I like to fill in the eyes early on as it makes the face less spooky!

*Editing to add that this method for drawing a human face was not created as one might think by the genius that was Leonardo da Vinci, but by the American illustrator Andrew Loomis in the 1940's!

Next week I begin a seven week long intensive drawing course using graphite under the mentorship of Danish artist Ida Andersen Lang I hope to vastly improve my skill set in this medium.

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well, stay warm!

Debbie 

2024 The Year Of . . .

Hello Friends!

So here we are, Day Two of a brand new year.  Now, I'm not one for making resolutions.  I see them as setting yourself up for failure from the get go, and if you truly, really do want to do something, why wait for January  1st?  Why not start as soon as you can?

Totally out of character for me, I have come perilously close to making actual resolutions for the first time in about forty years, but thankfully I pulled myself up just in the nick of time. I have, however, decided to make some lifestyle changes and commitments to improving myself, it's just coincidence I'm implementing those changes now.

So, what are they? I hear you ask.

Dispense with the Grumpy Old Woman syndrome!  Instead of whining, whinging and complaining try to find something positive to say about a situation

Be kinder and less angry by looking in the mirror.  By this, I mean that when someone does something that unbeknownst to them upsets or angers me, instead of ranting or giving what for I should stop and take a look in the mirror to find out why their actions are provoking me so.  Then, diffuse the situation with love and take steps to remedy my response or reaction.  {caveat: misuse and misspelling of two, too and to; their, they're and there, sew and sow; sowing not planting seeds; drop not bit of water, etc are not included in tolerance management lol}

Eat sensibly and try to exersise more,  This should not require explanation.  It's common sense, but thanks to a combination of grief a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease, and the pandemic both have been ignored for three years and I have suffered.  It's time to get back in the driving seat.

Resume Morning Pages. The above helps take care of the physical, Morning Pages helps take care of the mental.

Learn some new skills and take on the challenge of using and clearing my Crafty Stash.  This will help keep me active {especially when Winter weather limits going outside} will reduce the amount of "stuff" in the cottage, and hopefully result in some beautiful things.  I will share my progress with you.  Who knows, I might even run some giveaways for my makes.  You will need to be following visibly in the sidebar to qualify for these events which I will spring without notice.  

Procratination must stop.  Had I not procrastinated or prevaricated with such aplomb, I would not be in such a pickle over matters I do not wish to discuss!

Finally, I refuse to beat myself up if I slide off the Path of Changes and Improvements.

If you are implementing changes and wish to share, then I'd love to read about them too!

In the meantime, I have been busy sketching again.  Here are the results of Sunday's work

Until next time

Stay well, stay safe

Debbie

LifeBook Taster Sessions part 2

Hello friends!

This finishes up what I completed during Life Book 2023 taster sessions. It's been a while now, since I've not made art daily. I started on June the 1st with two months of index card art. That was followed with Artful August. Then there was Ida Lang Andersen's Artist Soul Gathering. And finally, Tamara Laporte's Life Book.  It's a lot of art!

I'm still making art. I've no plans to stop now until I can no longer hold a paint brush. October is my birth month, and I will be treating myself to some new art supplies for my birthday.  I am going to get, amongst other things, some professional quality watercolour paints. I haven't decided which brand yet. I think I'd like a set of half or quarter pans rather than tubes. Some of the brands I'm looking at are Daniel Smith, Schminke, Windsor and Newton, and Daler Rowney.  I already have cheaper watercolours, student grade as their known.  Basically, while they are still good quality, they're not as highly pigmented as the professional quality. And there's also the factor of being lightfast. Lightfast means if you hang your painting on the wall, the colour won't fade in a few years. Light affecting pigment is one of the reasons many galleries have subdued lighting.

Recently, someone asked if they could buy some of my work. Unfortunately, I had to refuse, because they have been made as the result of a lesson, and copyright of the images is not mine. However, this offer is why I have to seriously consider painting anything in the future using professional quality paints.  I would not feel comfortable selling something that wasn't made to professional standards.

I have also had someone offer me NFT's for artwork. But I have no idea what these are, and I have no intention of getting involved.

The next lesson I did was Tamara Laporte's "Butterfly Queen". It got a bit out of control with brightness, so I had to knock it back quite considerably to where I could look at it without wearing dark glasses!!!  I changed the symbolism to Christian by placing a Celtic cross design on the forehead instead of the more Pagan style used in the demonstration.  This lesson came at a time of year when I mark the anniversary of the passing of both my parents just three weeks apart. The fact that it includes butterflies seemed very appropriate at this time, because butterflies symbolise rebirth.

I used Neocolours, Derwent paint pens, and Brushos.

The next lesson I did was Mindfulness Mandala, hosted by Angela Murray, a superb class. I really enjoyed the freedom that this gave, taking me way outside my comfort zone of not being perfect. 

Mixed media.

I have struggled somewhat with the white lines but am working through it.  So, I did a second one to test my new ideas.  I gave this one as a birthday card/small gift. It was very well received. 

I'm not altogether sure I'm done with this one yet. I wanted to do one in autumnal colours. I do like the vintage feel that the colours have given.

The colours in this one didn't turn out as I'd hoped, but it's all a learning curve. I learned two new things making this one. It's all good in the end. Not as bright as I'd hoped it would turn out, though.  i am pleased with how well the free hand drawn circle turned out.  

So my friends, that pretty much sums up as far as I got this time. I didn't do as much as I'd hoped. But then I've been busy with other things. There are only so many hours in the day, and I'm struggling to get the garden ready for winter. And that has to take priority now. Next week I start another course. It's hosted by Ida Anderson Lang. It's a ten day long course, but we only produce one piece of work, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. I'll let you know later.

I'm hoping to start sharing work and progress on the garden soon, but in the meantime. I'm taking measures to try and improve my fitness and hope in the near future that I will be starting to go out and about on short rambles again. Maybe a mile or two with the camera. I want to get us back to normal as I possibly can, while I'm still able to.

Until next time.

Stay safe. Stay well.

Debbie xo

LifeBook23 and a Garden Newsflash

Hello Friends! 

I started the Life Book 2023 taster sessions. There are a lot of lessons offered every day, from different artists who are guest lecturers, so it's a case of pick and choose which ones appeal the most. Or in some cases, the ones that I have the time to do.

Some of the lessons appear to be very short in length, however, for a novice artist there's a lot of stop and pause the video to catch up on the piece you are working on. The professional artists can work at speed. I cannot. I would guess that for every hour of video clip I watch, I'm doing at least two or even three hours work.

I chose to do Tamara Laporte's Blessings of a Feather. I decided to quit while I was ahead. I made the mistake of pausing the video to work on an area and I blithely carried on working forgetting to turn the video back on. It just kept getting darker and darker. I reached a point where I thought if I don't stop now, I might just as well rip it up.  My spatters aren't perfect by a long way. They're not as easy as you'd think they are. It's all about getting the paint to the right, consistency, and then having the courage to shake the brush by tapping it against your hand over the painting to get all the lovely spatters. It's also all about knowing when to stop. I'm getting there.

Next I did, in the style of Toni Burt, "Memories". I enjoyed this immensely and took what I learned from the lesson and applied it to one of my favourite arch combinations in the Bishops Palace, St Davids. Drawn from my own original photograph.

Then began the dry spell and nothing grabbed my attention in LifeBook for a few days. All the lessons were way too long for me to think about doing. I was given a big bag of pumpkins the other morning. So inspired by one of them, this is my art for today.  Acrylic "watered down" with gel medium.  I really should have put something in to give it a bit more context. But I was tired. And ready for bed.

Something I'd like to share with you is the importance of lighting in your photography. This is the first first photograph I took of my painted pumpkin.  It's hard to think that the photo above and the photo below are of photographs of the same image.

It was taken in the evening under electric light with a flash. The one above was taken the following morning in daylight with no flash, the difference is incredible. The one taken in natural daylight without the flash is by far the better photograph and represents better represents the pumpkin painting. The second one taken under electric light is flat and the colour is completely different. It is nothing like the original painting. The following photograph closeup shows the shading. There wasn't a lot of shading on it in the original reference photo, and this is reflected in my painting as I tried to remain true to the original photograph.

Reference photo.

This is as far as I can take Andrea Gomoll Wunsche's lesson "In Tune With The Moon" because I don't have a printer and her finished piece includes printed text. At some point I can handwrite everything out and finish it. I found it didn't work out well using acrylic paints but it was a decision made because I have a lot of white acrylic paint, and I'm getting low on watercolour. However, it was drying out far too quickly and didn't blend as good as I would like it to. Still, it's a learning curve.

Song of the Selkie in the style of Lucy Brydon I really got a lot out of this lesson. Painting skin tones in greens and blues was quite a challenge as I've only just started painting portraits a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed this lesson immensely. I've learned quite a lot as well.

At the moment I'm at a grinding halt with LifeBook, which in general is not appealing to me at all. I have enjoyed doing the pieces that I have shared in this blog. It is my intention to pursue those further. I have seen two other guest lecturers work that, again, I would like to pursue but each one will take me a full day of sitting at my art table, and at the moment I just don't have that kind of time to spare. It is a shame they are presented so intensely for a taster session. Speaking to my fellow artists, there are many of us who share this opinion.

I still have lessons by the following artists that I'm hoping to complete. Melanie Rivers. Ida Lang Anderson. Tiare Smith. There are two or three others, but I can't remember their names right now. We also have another the week to run on this taster session, so I'm sure there will be a few more names added to my list.

!!!NEWSFLASH!!!

I am hoping that I have found somebody to come in and help me with the garden. We have a volunteer group here called the Befrienders who help people who need help They might do things like shopping, or they might do telephone befriending, or they might just pop in and have a chat and a cup of tea You put your request forward to them, and if they've got somebody interested or able to help you, they come to your aid.  I asked them if they had anybody who might be able to come in and help me clear and tidy up my garden, because to be honest, since my diagnosis, the garden has run away with me. I am quite ashamed of the state it is in and hope that with the help of these kind people I can get it back in some sort of semblance of order, if nothing more than getting it tidied up to put it to bed for the winter. And productive, of course.

 

Until next time.

Stay safe. Stay well.

Debbie. xo

ICAD part six

Hello friends

You may be relieved to learn that this is the last instalment of index card art for this year. It's taken me awhile to share it all because I've been so busy with all the other art I've been creating.

I've put three photos. For this first image, because the paint is so shimmery, it just doesn't come across with a straight facing forward photo and I really wanted to try and show you the proper full effect of the shimmer.

The rest of these photos are all mixed media.

The first two are working dry watercolour crayons onto a wet background and letting it all bleed out.

The rest are all mixed media collage. Mostly based around one large scrap of tissue paper, which I managed to stretch over almost all of the cards. 

Many of you know that I take part in this index card art challenge every year. However, this year has been very different. There was no big index card art group on Facebook. However. I joined with a very small number of fellow artists. And we shared our work within our small group, which was very nurturing and supportive. We've helped each other along the way to learn and explore new techniques and new ways of creativity. It's been great fun, and we've stayed together since.

Show my friends that concludes index card out for 2022. Thank you for looking at the mall and thank you for your kind comments and support.

Until next time 

Stay safe. Stay well.

Debbie.