The Wedding Dress Original Mixed Media Painting

"The Wedding Dress" - Original Mixed Media Painting

I have a new painting to share today, "The Wedding Dress".  I created it using leftover pieces from my wedding veil. The tulle was a little finicky getting onto canvas, but I got it on and it created a beautiful dimensional aspect to this painting. It is similar to my wedding dress, not exactly - once I got playing with some textures, the painting took on a life on its own.

Here are some detail shots of all the wonderful textures in this piece:

It is available, here.

Floral Work in Progress Part 2.

I've been working on my floral painting a bit here and there, but it's been developing well. I had some issues building up one of the flowers, and ended up just completely redoing it - and I'm very happy with it! I'm glad that I've been actively making time to paint - it feels nice getting into it all again. I didn't realize before how much planning a wedding last year took away from my creative time!

You can see from the above picture that I have lots and lots of layers of paint, and I have even done a bit of sgraffito (scratching into the paint). Here are the remaining progress images, with where the painting stands (still not done), at the end:

Finishing up the base layers in the background really brought it together - gave the whole arrangement shape. I love how I was able to utilize the initial background layer so much with some negative space painting. Still lots of work to do on it...but it's really starting to come together now.

You can see the beginning of this painting, here.

Floral Work In Progress

I started a new, very large painting this weekend - this painting is 2'x3'. It's so much fun working on a large scale - but also very intimidating. I've never really painted florals like this, but I've been feeling more drawn to flowers lately.

It started off with a roughly painted background, and then I loosely drew my composition with some pastel - it will wash off easily when I'm done, or mix with the paint and disappear.

And then I started colour blocking with bold, short marks to start defining some areas.  How you see it at the top is where it stands right now. Still lots to do, lots of experimenting and lots of mess making on this canvas.

I must say, after working on the large commission that I did for the hospital, I am really enjoying working large scale. It definitely take a different mind set - that all the little details are no longer "little", and you can achieve fine details with more ease.

Acrylic Landscape WIP (work in progress)

 

Last Saturday night was my 'change over' night - when I stay up as late as I can, because the next day I begin my night shifts at the hospital. I was trying to think up something to do as the night progressed, and inspiration hit me. I began a landscape painting on a longer canvas that I have. 

 

I really like how this piece started to come together quite organically. The drips from the sky shaping the tree line and giving hints of trunks.

 

I wasn't such a fan of the hard line separating the land and water, so I softened that up a bit.

 

The water still needs some work to create a sense of depth. I'm thinking pondering what to do there. I have definitely hit a 'block' with it. But hope to come back to it once all these tiresome night shifts are done. :)

In the Art Studio

I've been working evenings this week - a 3pm-11pm shift, getting home usually just after midnight and right into bed. So my mornings have been spent working on various commissions (most of which I cannot share until they're done, and I've asked permission from those who have ordered them). 

 

I've found time inbetween paintings drying, and waiting for email responses to paint some of my own thoughts as well.  I love painting commissions, but I do love putting down all my ideas on paper. And right now, my brain is focused on the spring in our -30-something degree weather (Celsius folks!).

My super large commission is coming along as well. I'm at a sort of crossroads with it, so I thought I would ponder it for a couple days - make sure it's going in the direction I was hoping. 

I hope everyone is staying toasty warm!

Painting Progress III: White Cloud Island

 

Another update on my, very large, commission. It doesn't look like too much was done, but more transparent layers were added to the islands, as well as the water and lower foliage started. You can see my 'mock' watercolour painting on the floor to the left - so, so tiny in comparison! 

 

An up close picture of all the layers in the islands. So beautifully colourful. I can't wait to be done and apply the final clear finishing product to it - it will make those colours so lusciously rich!

For those wondering the brand of paints I am working with - it's a mishmash of everything :) I've purchased acrylic paint tubes based on certain attributes that I am go after at that moment: transparent vs. solid, ect. So you end up with a couple brands after awhile. I figure since they are all artist's quality with wonderful light fastness ratings, it's not a huge deal :)

Painting Progress: White Cloud Island II

Today I'm sharing the progress of the largest painting I have ever attempted to tackle (and I am willing myself to make it a beautiful, shining success). It's loosely based on some photographs I took of White Cloud Island. This painting doesn't have to be a perfect representation based on where it's going after - but I do want it to look wonderful. And I know that it was originally based on local landscape. Mostly, I just want it really colourful to light up an area.

I began working on the landscape of this painting in greens - but it just wasn't cutting it. It wasn't as dramatic, and it wasn't as colourful as I was hoping. I was getting disappointed and discouraged. In my mind - it was typical and dull. I felt I hit a wall. There wasn't even much spark in the colour. So I started creating some dramatic contrast, and layering on bolder colours - I thought: if I don't like it to begin with, I can't really mess it up now, can I? It was the best decision. Below is how it was....I think the painting above it an excellent step away from that.

 

 

 Oreo, of course, is always hanging around while I'm working in my art studio. I've been fortunate that he never has the desire to rub his head - and long fur - into wet paint....yet.

 



 

He often sleeps on his back with his paws pulled up all cute like that. Oh, what a sweetie pie! A fluffy, soft sweetie pie :)

Painting Progress: White Cloud Island

I've begun work on a new, very large commission. This will probably be the largest painting I have worked on to date - and honestly, it's very intimidating. It was easy to sketch out what I was going to do - I had worked everything out loosely with a watercolour painting. But it was actually applying the paint, and deciding the colours and moods that was a challenge. I started once, and then stopped - not liking where it was going. This is my second start, and it's coming along much better. 

The biggest challenge so far, is making sure the colours match along the three canvases. I thought about implementing some mixed media. But based on the size, it might not work out so great - trying to ensure that everything flows properly over the three, and that edges match up. Also, where it is due to be displayed, I think a more traditional approach was called for. 

Art Journal: Sweater

The quote I'm featuring in today's art journal page is from Lana Del Rey's song, 'Blue Jeans' - "You fit me better than my favourite sweater." I've been listening to her music consistently for the past few weeks while creating, and love, love, love it so much!

I wanted to experiment with masking fluid and acrylic paint on this spread. Masking fluid is typically reserved for watercolour paint, but it worked alright when I watered down the acrylic paint and took special attention to be sure it wasn't too thick over the masking fluid areas. Acrylic paint dries to a sort of "polymer film", and so if it's too thick, it won't give way to the masking fluid when you try to rub it off. There's is definitely a fine line, and it was a very enriching experiment.

The reason for doing this page with acrylic paint over watercolour was simple: I wanted the translucent layer effect that thinned down acrylics give. Had I completed this page in watercolour paints, the colours would have bleed into eachother more - which would be a beautiful effect as well; but just not one that I had wanted.

Reworked

I got some new fun products on my last large art supply order. I usually like to purchase random things here and there to experiment and learn about new products and companies. When it comes to art - you don't know anything about a product until you have actually put it to paper or canvas. I will be sharing these products on another date - but they included some acrylic paint markers and some new acrylic paints, as well as some brushes. 

Above is where I left this girl sitting - for the better part of a year. She has been 'reworked' once already. With all the new goodies in hand, she sort of spoke to me to start working on her again. I have all of my 'works-in-progress' up against one wall - always staring me down, so that if inspiration can strike with them again one day. That was how it was for this piece - I looked at my supplies, looked at this painting - and then went to work. 

It is still far, far from done. And although it is reworked, the true aim and idea of my initial concept is still in place - I just have new tools to carry it out a bit better, and more like I wanted. Her face still has many layers to go - and the background has many layers and small details I want to include too. My main goal is to create a sense of depth around her. Lets see if I can achieve that!

Abstract Apple Tree Progress

With all the 'snow-days' we have had - where there's been no where to go, because the roads are all closed - I got to dabble in my art studio and work on a painting that I've had brewing in my head since the fall. It's a sort of abstracted mixed media tree, with lots of delicious texture and vivid colours.

As you can see below, Oreo cannot resist stealing a warm chair when one's back is turned...silly bugger!

There is still a long, long way to go. Above is a quick peak at my desk with my paints, mediums and tools that I've used. As well, as my reference photo that I took of an apple tree in the fall. I love, love love the acrylic glazing liquid by Golden - I always have. I bought that huge bottle ages again, and I must use it in every acrylic painting I've done and there's still stuff in it! I have also been growing quite fond of the M.Graham & Co. acrylic paints. They have a wonderful smooth and buttery texture to them, and they paint so smoothly.

Changing Directions

Painting in progress - mixed media acrylic.

Sometimes there is a piece of art that I'm working on that just isn't going as I would like. The process might flow along, but there is just an 'essence' to the piece that is missing. An emotion or a feeling that I want the painting to emit to the viewers. For me, this will eventually lead to me not working on the painting and having it sit in the corner collecting dust until I can figure out a new game plan.

 

Luckily, for my red-haired girl, I had a sudden 'light-bulb' moment yesterday on how I wanted to continue. It was a major, major change in direction from where I started. I was initally thinking a happy girl with a wreath of flowers in her hair, spilling out...but after working on it awhile, and fiddling with the painting a lot - it just wasn't working for me, especially in the face. I knew that I still had many layers to go, and that it might still turn out how I wanted, but it was no longer a direction that I felt I could carry this painting to. 

 

The painting before I changed directions

So, last night - after pondering my new painting-plan and direction - I took the major leap of completely painting over the face. All I left were remements of the mouth, and the lower part of the nose, which I adjust both later. But I painted away the eyes, and all shading, and then started anew.

It might have seemed a little drastic, but I needed a fresh start to the face. And yes, it was chancy (if that's even a word, hehe). I could have not been able to illustrate what I wanted to in the new face, and had lost all my previous painting labours on the old face. And I thought long and hard about that. It was truely an artist's gamble. But then, I decided that I knew I didn't like the current face and that I was pretty confident that I would not be able to bring that face, in it's current state, to a point that I was going to be pleased with.

But isn't that what is so great about paint? If you don't like something, just paint right over and start fresh. I'm sure tons of artists out there have done that, and I know when I was a 'fresh' artist, I was always skeptical about it...but it makes you commit to an idea; and it makes you grow and gain confidence in your decisions as an artist. (Or, so I feel).

So now I have a more realistic, and less illustrative, painting. The brush strokes are way more loose and a lot more painterly, which is what I prefer. I think getting caught up with trying to fix something that I wasn't happy with made my painting just too 'tight' with the other piece. There is still tons of work to do on her, but - for the most part - I know what steps and which direction I am taking.

Have you ever completely reworked a painting, or painted over part of a painting to make it work better? Did it turn out?

LifeBook Week 20 - Cherry Blossoms Tree

Here is Week 20 from my Lifebook class. It sort of revolved around the making of a tree - and everyone here knows how much I love trees! 

With spring here, and all the cherry blossoms blooming, I thought it would be completely appropriate to pull from that inspiration.

The quote came to me while I was listening to a song, to which the lyrics were doodled behind and then painted over top.

I used my gold paint, and added shimmer to the pink paint to give a nice glow to this piece (as shimmery tools were used in the lesson, I thought it was appropriate to pull out - especially since I rarely use my shimmer medium...I have a huge bottle that I've had for years, and there isn't even a dent in it!).

I am obviously behind in these lessons, and some I skipped as they didn't quite appeal to me at the moment. Some are half started, waiting for the next bit of inspiration to continue. Mostly - I have been busy with commission paintings and work - summer is crazy hectic for shifts at work at the hospital - I have an 8-day stretch coming up, with a half day off, and then three more. But when fall / winter comes, we will be ready to hibernate...maybe fly somewhere south and warm for a week or so :)

Painted Mailbox and May SMAK kit

It's been busy in the art studio working on commissions this past week (and into this week!). I finished up a large custom wedding invite order - and now I'm working on this mailbox (for the same wedding - for cards). I haven't ever really painted a mailbox before, but so far so good. The curve at the top throws for for a loop sometimes, but I have found that working on the floor with it makes it easier.  Also on the go - I tend to jump back and forth between projects as they are drying - are a couple watercolor painting commissions. I finished two up two watercolor paintings last night, and might share with you later this week if their owners are okay with it :) I'm also working on a pig 'lawn ornament' that I'm painting - except I will not be sharing on my blog, as per request...but it is fun and different to work on!

I also got May's SMAK kit in the mail from Unity Stamps. I love how big and wonderful they are! I am always just jumping to get my hands on them when they arrive. I still cannot believe how many stamps they jam-pack onto that 8.5x11" sheet of red rubber - literally no waste of materials - which is always a plus :)

I am always eager to tear them from the sheet - I almost always do it right away after opening the package. It's just so much fun! I really don't have a very organized system for these stamps yet, I basically just store them in their respective plastic ziploc bag, and keep them all in a box - it works for me. And the simple storage solution, means I'm more likely to keep it going :)

With all the custom work going on, I didn't have time to get into them a lot. But I knew I wanted to stamp this one in my journal, and so I did - using inks to create a pink to orange ombre effect. It stamped so pretty! I'm using this particular impression for a "grateful" list for the week. 

Mixed Media Flowers Progress - Part two

This is where I left off with this particular piece of artwork in my last post. After waiting over night, it's now all dry and you can see all those lovely strands of colour that I was talking about before. In areas where it's just the clear gel medium (with no colour, or less colour), the paper patterns underneath will be perserved.

Isn't that just beautiful texture?! The thing I like about gel medium too, when working with acrylics, is that if you only put paint on top, you can always use water or rubbing alcohol to get down to the layer that had the gel medium over it (and sometimes past it if you're persistent). It's like a security layer that not many people know about. Once again - it depends on what medium you mixed with your paints, but after a bit of experimenting you quickly get the hang of it. I oftern 'scrub-through' old paint layers to get peeks and snippets of the original patterns on the piece.

Now, because I was just in a gel-medium-lovin' sort of mood, I added some more, but this time mixed in some colour throughly. I also added some water and glazing medium to thin it out a little. Next, I poured some clean tar gel over top to add some clear texture that I will accent later with colours.

Once it was all dry (sped up this time with a heat gun), I used some of my homemade colour sprays and dripped and sprayed all over.

Here's a close up for all the yummy texture, patterns and colour that are now going on in this painting

The layer of brown gel medium works so well on top - it's thick in some areas and scrapped quite thin in others adding so much interest.

And of course, to really appreciate all this texture-goodness, you need an angle shot:

Next, I pulled out some stamps (these are Unity stamps from various kits). I used the woodgrain to stamp around the edges of the canvas, which I will be painting later. The texture is stamped in black though, so it should peak through a little. If not, then I'll just restamp - I have begun to really love stamping, so I'm completely okay with a do-over :)

I used the lace stamp and the words ("life" and "together"), and along with versamark and embossing powder, I embossed the images with white on the canvas. I find embossing really makes the impressions jump out.

Next, it's time to add some paint! I add some white to mellow the edges out, and to give the next colour some sort of base so it doesn't look too crazy when I put it on. 

Next, I add more colour (red) and after that I use some PanPastels to add more colour and some subtle shading / varience in the current colours. Then I sprayed a fixative, and did a quick clear layer (the PanPastel smuges a bit here, but since it's just for added colour, not an actual picture, it's not a big deal).  

Finally, I feel that I'm ready to start adding some elements: the flowers! I have three of them, like I said before, I like odd numbers. I make their stems out of washi strips, and then glue down the flowers once I like where they are.

I add the next set of elements - some premade leaves that came in my mixed media kit in the mail - I altered them by first covering them with a thin coat of gel medium so that the paper leafs wouldn't just "absorb" colour (if they absorbed the colour, it would look more dull, and less vibrant), and then splattered them with colours. I also added two chipboard pieces - an envelope (which I stamped in red a sentiment and words), and a stamp. I sort of wished that I added them earlier, so that they were more integrated, but there's nothing I can do now. So with them, I'll be focusing on making them more a part of the canvas.

I use my faber-castell markers and start adding shading, and using some more paint for more shading. I colour the birds on the stamp piece.

I decided to add two chipboard butterflies. I use paint on them to make them seem more part of the canvas and this painting. I choose two - bringing the total number of 'items' to five - again, this girl loves odd numbers. I add some rub-ons, more dimenstional black paint, some white, more colour to the leaves and stems - right now really just trying to make everything work together, but at the same time, I want the flowers and butterflies (uhm, one's a moth I guess heheh) to stand out.

Not quite done, but so close! I'm going to let this piece rest for a night, and then continue on tomorrow with a fresh look at it. Thinking of adding a word, but then again, I might leave just the sentiment at the bottom to stand on it's own. And, thinking of adding one more pair of leaves to the large flower, maybe.