X-wing Box

This was done in August, again in response to online challenges. This time I was able to combine two into one. A fantasy/sci-fi challenge was the theme of technology. An acrylic challenge was to choose an art movement that we like. As I looked through the long list of movements, I saw space was one, which went perfectly with my idea. I used a photo of a nebula as inspiration for the background and the x-wing was my son's choice since I was I painting the box for him. It was also a fitting subject because this year my son and I watched all the Star Wars movies and the Clone Wars together. He was six at the time and it was his first time watching them.

This month I painted a picture for one of my favourite Roblox games, The Resource Factory Tycoon. The game has a painting factory and I asked the creator if he would add one of my paintings and he agreed. Then I decided to paint one especially for the game based on a scene in it. This one was done in Painter 2017.

Here I am all dressed up for Halloween with my painting in the background.

More Challenges from June and July

I took part in one challenge in June where the theme was based on the old wedding verse:

Something old, something new
something borrowed, something blue

We didn't have to incorporate every part of it into the painting but I thought it would be more interesting to try. After some thinking I came up with this - the old pyramids painted to look new with a borrowed business cat (aka Sir Meowsalot) and a blue sky, and some blue on the sphinx as well. I created this with Painter and printed it and gave it to my son who loves Roblox and YouTuber Denis Daily. I kept it pretty simple because digital paintings always take so long for me, and I also moved a pyramid to make it fit my vision.

In July I took part in two challenges. An acrylic challenge was to paint a bucolic landscape with our non-dominant  hand. It wasn't too bad but I wouldn't want to do that again. I also recorded as I painted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXnVN6qQf5k

The fantasy/scifi challenge theme was magic. While thinking about it and looking through my reference photos, I thought weddings can be magical, especially when the reception is decorated in a Gothic/Victorian style. I used a photo I took of the head table as a reference and painted this in acrylic on a 14x11" canvas.

Challenges

One of the things that keeps me painting is the acrylic challenges at wetcanvas.com.

Back in January the theme was skies, and we were supposed to paint three different skies, but I only managed to get two done, a sunrise and a sunset.  I have always wondered if there was an observable difference between sunrises and sunsets. One web page I looked at says there is basically no difference so I could tell you that this painting is either a sunrise or a sunset, but I choose to call it a sunrise.

In this one, though, anyone local would know the direction we are facing. And for those who don't, this is a sunset.

February's challenge was opposites. I went with soft and hard and painted paws holding a rock on a wooden circle which I later turned into a brooch with a polymer clay bezel.

The March challenge was tonalism, spring, and a big brush which was interesting but, well, you can see how that went in my video. https://youtu.be/Nd1Liyq-F7I

April's challenge was to paint in the style of Moriandi and keep it very soft and pastel. This was an introduction to Moriandi for me and it isn't easy to paint in a different style but I think I managed to get some of his influence in this.

And in this month's challenge we were given a few very vague and blurry images to choose from as a starting point. I chose this one:

Here is my first layer of paint:

And this is what I came up with:

RPG Themed Shadowbox

It has been a long time since I last posted. I'll admit to not being very productive over the past year, though I have done some painting and crafting. Some of it was just for fun and some I will get around to posting online eventually.

I was also working on this project on and off and it is finally finished. It all started with the blue bottle charm which made me think of potions in video games. The idea grew to create something around that theme. When I found a set of old cake pans at a yard sale it didn't take me long to realize they were just what I needed for this project.

This is not based on any specific game but I will say my biggest influences would be Final Fantasy and Blade of Darkness. If you play these types of games you will recognize many aspects of them in this piece. I especially wanted to focus on the exploring and finding things that help you in the game... weapons, armour, potions... and the excitement of finding a new place and doors that open.

There is a mixture of handmade and bought elements in this. The backgrounds of the larger boxes are acrylic paintings and the smallest is simply painted to look like wood grain. There are some handmade polymer clay items; the decoration on the side, treasure chest which opens and has glass jewels inside, sword, shield, round and oval decorations, bricks, stones, apple, candle, and a small silver box. The book is also handmade and can be opened. And then there are some resin pieces, charms, beads, and fabric flowers.