Princesses, Roosters and Dancing!

At last!  I can do art again, albeit mainly with my left hand.  Below are my efforts of this week.

While I was laid up I took the opportunity to search out all those blogs I had heard of but never had the time to visit.  I discovered some awesome artists. Two were so inspiring that I had to attempt some of the lessons learnt.

First of all Teesha Moore.  I sat and watched her videos yesterday morning on journaling.  Last night I sat in front of the TV and cut merrily bits out of magazines.  Sometimes things are meant to be.  In the weekend I was given sacks of glossy magazines by my friend who is selling up and with her husband they are buying a giant caravan and  are going to tour NZ for a couple of years.  I was to pass them around my friends!  Somehow I don’t think they will get a look in!

I managed to stick some bits on two journal pages that i already had painted a while back.  This morning I was going to look for a face for my Princess but gave up when I realised that I preferred to make my own face.  So after Physio, this morning I painted her face and added the houses.  I did the text as well, not happy with it.  But, not too shabby considering I was using my left hand.

I looked at the page above and it came to me I want there to be a rooster, think I will have to draw one or cut out a rooster head and put it on a human body.  The idea is to have text with the rooster crowing about all the blessings it has.  I couldn’t resist the gnomes.  They are slightly sinister and I thought they could represent the negative thoughts we have about ourselves.

I am happy with these but conscious that they scream Teesa Moore!  I think as I do more of them my style will emerge.

The other art that blew me away was Flora Bowley.  I have heard many of you mentioning her so googled her and found amazing art.

I watched her video last weekend and it really got me out of my pity party.  I thought I could do that with my left hand and first thing on Monday got out an abandoned canvas and started.  I didn’t do her dance, I would have tripped over my crutches!  But I let my hand dance with the paint.  Below is about three to four layers of paint, It is a reasonably large canvas 30in x 24in, and I got really messy doing it, some tell-tale paint on my sling too! Hehehe. 

 I was really happy with this and then fear set in.  What shall I do next I will ruin it etc., etc.  

Eventually I got my courage up and drew a dancing girl and cat and started to add paint.  It is what I call at the ugly stage and I wasn’t going to post it till it was at a better stage.  But I stopped myself and told myself, who cares! I think because I am getting to the stage where I want to add detail, I am finding my left hand is not capable of doing what I want, I have frustration.  But that will end as my right arm gets better.  As surely it is.  I can hold scissors and cut out, I can type now and hopefully next week I will be paint to do some painting!  But, I won’t push it, as being without its use has taught me how much I value it, so I won’t stuff the healing up.

Great to be back, and have a awesome Paint Party Friday weekend everyone.

Linking with

Paint Party Friday
Art Journal Every Day

Paint Party Friday

This week has been a watercolour week with a bit of digital art thrown in.

Our autumn has been crazy, maybe because of the drought which broke last week, bushes are flowering that should not flower until spring!  There are camellias, magnolias, daphne and even blossom on the fruit trees.  Of course I had to pick the daphne as it has an amazing scent.  In this picture I used gouache as I wanted to use white to give that translucent waxy feel the flowers have. 

   

This painting is a watercolour abstract; I did after a painting I did earlier in the week.  I tend to mix up too much paint as it can be difficult to get the same tone if you have to mix up some more during the painting.  As a result I have lots of abstract watercolours, which often turn into pages for my journal.

In my digital work I have been carrying on with my theme of behind the lace series and it is evolving quite well. I am quite pleased with the one below, this beauty I found on the web and I used brushes from http://www.annikavonholdt.com/brushes/ as well as a photo of an old window with overgrown scrub outside.  I think it gives as feeling of times long gone.  For my ladies I have decided to use a mix of images from free copy right sites and my family and I am going to experiment with drawings or paintings of the ladies concerned.

I won’t be posting for the next few weeks, as I am having surgery on my shoulder next week, but I will visit!  Time to catch up on my reading hopefully!  Perhaps, I will do some drawing with my left hand!

Have a happy Paint Party Friday

10 Minute Warm Up

Today I am trying to work on some illustrations for a story I wrote about a girl called Lucy who wants to fly.  My normal children illustration style is quite detailed.  I have done a couple in my usual style but something tells me it is not right for the story.  So, I thought I would try a more childlike style in Painter.

Here is one of the illustrations in my usual style.  The story is a picture book for 3 - 5 year olds. An age group which is out of my comfort zone!

What do you think; the childlike style would be quicker as the story needs 17 – 20 pictures. Lol.

Linking to Diana Evan’s 10 Minute Warm Up

Silver Fern

For  Diana's 10 Minute Warm Up I have painted a Silver Fern.  In fact it is yesterday's entry as well as it has taken two days to do.  I find greens quite a challenge; they can look quite harsh sometimes.  But I think I succeeded in getting a softer look.  I used gouache it seems to be softer, I think because it is opaque.

Silver Fern

I love silver Ferns, they are our national tree and the leaf is our national emblem (see my welcome badge on sidebar), not the Kiwi.  In certain light, the underneath of the fronds are silver, and that use to fascinate me as a child.  My Dad’s bush farm had hundreds of them and some were giants and pushed through the canopy of the bush, creating a wonderful texture.  There are not that many in the region that I am living in, here in the Wairarapa, it is mostly cabbage trees!  Yes cabbage trees, they are like giant dracaenas.  Perhaps I will paint one next week as there is one across the road.

Linking to