Saturday, September 29, 2007

Coffee pot


One day my Mom and I were in an old house where a friend of hers used to live, now long abandoned. We found an old coffee pot inside, and my Mom gave it to me to paint. So, of course, I knew I would make it a gift for her. After some thinking, I decided I would put a pink rose on it. And then it just happened that the September "Different Strokes" project in the acrylic section at wetcanvas.com was a picture of a pink rose. It was just what I needed and I painted the pot and gave it to my Mom to thank her for all the help she has given me this year.

Also, the voting was done for the Dragon Project at wetcanvas, and my spiral dragon won for most unusual.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Long time, no post




Finally, an update. I was very busy with packing, then painting, then moving, then trying to settle in. This house is supposed to be bigger than the last, but I'm having a hard time finding a place for everything.

I have done a little painting since moving in. I did two 8x10s, but they will be part of a series and I will post them when it is all done. But I had to put that aside for now.

I also did some digital work last week for a bookmark project being held by the Manitoba Arts council, where you submit 3 bookmarks, then each artist will receive one back from another artist, and the other two will tour libraries and then be sold to raise funds for the arts in Manitoba.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Spiral Dragon


I haven't had much time for artwork lately. I haven't even been cross stitching because I've been playing Final Fantasy 12 in the evenings. I thought I had lots of time because we were supposed to take possession of our house on July 14, but now we get it on June 26. So I guess I will be busy with packing and stuff, and then painting the new house. All I have done lately is this Spiral Dragon, just for fun. Drawn with pen, then scanned and played with in photoshop.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Pencil attempts

For practice I did this bird one afternoon from a picture from the Birds and Blooms calendar. This bird was just begging to be drawn. I did the outline without a grid, I just compared proportions, and it came out pretty close.










Then I spent a few afternoons on a Ukrainian still life, well, about 5 hours all together. I drew from the actual objects set up on my table. I used a ruler to hold up and measure things, but I still had a hard time. The designs are off in places, and in the end I decided to skip a lot of the design on the candy dish. I guess any time I really need to be accurate, I need to use a photo and the grid method. I'm not sure what I will do with this drawing. I may paint it over on the computer later.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Squirrel

Over the last couple of weeks I worked on a painting of a squirrel. It was a bit challenging because the background in the photo was very blurry but I didn't want to paint it that way. I also haven't done very many animals, but I like the way it turned out. You can see it on my website. http://www.forest-of-dreams.com/squirrel.html

Now I plan to spend some time with my pencils. Perhaps I will do something for the Ukrainian festival in pencil this year.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Thai Eggplants-Flemish technique









Imprimatura (mid-tone wash)








Umber layer








Opaque highlights









Dead layer









Colour layer

These are the steps involved with the Flemish technique. This was really interesting for me and I enjoyed most of it, except for that jug.

Thank you to Maverick at wetcanvas.com for showing us this, and to 'mprince' for the photo.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Painting Dragon and Snowmelt


Two new digital paintings are done, including my dragon which you can see at my website.

I also completed the painting posted here, Snowmelt. It was an experiment in painting digitally all on one layer. I almost did it, exept that I had started by outlining the main trees, and I needed to copy those outlines to a new layer where the water is so that I could paint under them. I don't know if I would ever want to try one layer again, but it was an interesting experience. I think I picked a good subject for it, and I would have hated painting this picture with acrylics. Even on the computer I was starting to get a little tired of trees. It took about 28 hours to do.

Now I am working on a small acrylic piece. I have been doing a lot of reading at wetcanvas.com and one member is teaching others the Flemish technique, so this week I started following along. The painting will be a Mother's Day gift along with photos of the stages involved, which I will post here when it is done.

As for the house, we're not buying it after all, and we're not sure what we're going to do at this moment.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

New tablet!

I finally got a new tablet on the weekend and have gotten back to work on my latest digital dragon picture. In the meantime, I had done a little doodling with coloured pencils. I just have some cheap ones right now though.

Feeling a little stressed out about the house. We don't know what will happen until the appraisal is done. And if it does go through, a lot of work will have to be done to bring the house up to code. I'm starting to think that we should have just built a new one. Oh well, what's meant to be will be.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

The roller coaster ride continues



I still don't have a new tablet. I was hoping to get one when we traveled up to Thompson, but Staples never heard of one and I don't think there was any other store there that would have one. On the bright side, I finished my second sock while traveling.

I also attempted painting on fabric again. I'm not completely happy with this one. I like the flower, but I made some mistakes for the background. I will probably donate it anyway.

And I tried doing more work on my picture with the mouse, but I think I need a new tablet before I can finish it. I'm not sure what I'll do in the meanitme. Maybe something for Easter. I'm also feeling tempted to try coloured pencil again.

Things are kind of uncertain with the house now. Our banker finally looked into all the policies for this kind of thing, and now they need to appraise the house first. The whole thing is really dampening my motivation to do anything.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Ups and downs

I was just thinking yesterday morning that if anything happened to my tablet I would cry. Well, I didn't cry but I am very upset. I was working on my latest picture on the computer yesterday and one time when I picked up my tablet, with it being so dry and 'staticy' lately, I got a big shock when I touched the top of it. I think that did something to it because after that it didn't work properly anymore. And knowing the wonders of modern technology, it probably can't be fixed. We really can't afford extra expenses right now so I guess I will have to try to finish my picture with the mouse.

On the brighter side, the first sock that I knitted turned out pretty good. I think it took me almost a week to make but I hope the second one will go faster now that I know what to do.

We also got approved for buying a house. It's an older house, but newer and bigger than ours. We will be moving it here and demolishing this old one. So that means I have to get everything packed for storage. Not an easy job with the two of us being pack rats. Gee, I remember when most of my craft supplies fit into a big box. Now I have a room full.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Painted fabric


I have tried painting on fabric and enjoyed it. I think I liked it because the textile medium thinned the paint and that made it easier to use. I have to try thinning the paint more the next time I paint on masonite. This square will be donated for a group quilt for charity. I'm not sure where I'll go next with fabric painting. I was thinking I would like to so something with beads. But for now I have started on a new dragon picture on the computer.

I have also been knitting and I'm almost done my little afghan. I didn't think I would ever reach the point where I could knit and watch tv at the same time. After this I want to try making a pair of socks. Then I can go back to cross stitching, but I should start a couple more birth announcements before I go back to the house pictures.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Cross stitching done


I don't know when I started this picture, but it has been a few years. It was always being set aside for other projects and it wasn't an easy picture to do. I might try to do some knitting again now, at least make a small afghan for my pets. Then I will start the next picture in that book of cross stitch patterns. There are still three that I haven't done.

I also finished some polymer eggs this week.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Clay Valentine


I spent all day Monday making a Valentine's gift for my husband. It was one of those days when nothing goes right. My plan was to put a heart shaped photo on a circle of clay and decorate it. I tried laminating the photo with iron on stuff, but it turned out all bubbly, twice. And then the clay circle that I made with a mixture of red and black turned out really nice, until I broke a piece off it. I thought about patching it, but in the end decided to cut a heart out of it, and stick it on a black circle with a heart cut out of the middle, and I stuck another photo on the heart, which got ruined in the oven. So finally a fourth photo was used and I finished decorating in the evening with sparkle paint and pre-baked clay hearts. I haven't given it to him yet because he is away at work, but I sure hope he likes it.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Catterflies



Here are the two thank you gifts I painted for friends in the Creative Home Arts Club. I had been wanting to create butterfly wings for a while, and when I thought about what kind of bodies I would give them, I decided on cats since I love them so much. So the gifts were a good opportunity to try this idea out. I'm sure I'll do more someday.

Catching up

I didn't even realize how long it had been since I last posted here. Well, Christmas was good. I did some drawings for a short story I wrote last year and got a new scanner for Christmas, so I was able to colour them. I posted the story and pictures on my MSN group.

Christmas also supported my gaming addiction, and I have already played Destroy All Humans 2 (fun!) and Shadow of the Colossus (ok). In between I painted two 5x7 pictures for thank you gifts, which I still have to get online. This week I'm doing some stained glass suncatchers for gifts eventually. And I have been doing quite a bit of cross stitching. Unfortunately I haven't done much drawing lately, and I really need to get back to that.