Catching up!

I knew I needed to get caught up here but I didn't realize I hadn't posted since October. Most of what I have painted since then has been for the monthly challenges on wetcanvas. If you ever have trouble getting motivated to do something, try to find a good challenge group. I find having an objective and a deadline can help me get started.

The theme for the acrylic challenge in October was autumn. I painted this view from the hydro line in the Duck Mountains. In the distance you can see the grain elevator in my home town. 14x11"

The fantasy/sci-fi challenge was Halloween and I painted this dragon carving a pumpkin. I believe I used Procreate on iPad for this. It still needs some work.

The November acrylic challenge was to paint something inspired by the Hudson River School. They often painted grand landscapes with a lot of distance framed by strong verticals. I wanted to use one of my own references and chose this scene. I don't think I really captured the feel of the Hudson River paintings though but then I also made it more challenging by painting it very small, 2.5x3.5".

I did another digital painting for Resource Factory Tycoon. This was a limited time painting available in the game in December.

In December I took part in a gift exchange in the fantasy/sci-fi forum. Names were drawn randomly and I painted this for a guy who had been a member in both the sci-fi/fantasy and the acrylic forums for some time. While thinking about what to paint for him I thought of a painting he had started of a lady in front of a swimming pool. I thought he might enjoy my version of  a lady by a pool. This was done in acrylics, 7x5".

In January the challenge in both forums was to paint something inspired by a song. I didn't come up with something that would really fit the fantasy/sci-fi forum but I did do something in acrylics, just a little 4x4" painting for fun. Can you figure out what the song was?

If you haven't guessed, keep reading. And yes, I own sparkly gold shoes.

The February acrylic challenge was fun with vegetables. Something made me decide to paint an owl made of fruits and vegetables. 5x7"

In March I did two challenges. The acrylic challenge was to paint something based on your favourite quote. I thought of something Monet said... I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
10x8"

The fantasy/sci-fi challenge was to paint your true self. This is me, head in the clouds and clouds in my head. Done with Painter 2017.

In April I was doing some beadwork, trying to make beaded eggs. It was difficult because it's hard to find instructions in English and everyone else uses slightly bigger beads than I have. I just wanted to try it out though. The first one really took a long time.

This one was quicker but I ended up covering an egg with clay to make the design fit. 

Also did a quick sketch for the fantasy/sci-fi challenge, which was historical monsters. I prefer to do something cute so I drew Cerberus as a puppy.

And this month I did both challenges. The theme for the fantasy/sci-fi challenge was nature. I have been playing a game on Roblox called Fantastic Frontier which has some interesting plants, usually quite blocky in shape, and I thought it would be fun to try to paint some of the mushrooms in the game in a more realistic shape. Done with Painter 2017.

The acrylic challenge theme was Vermeer. After someone found a painting of a meerkat with a pearl earring I got my inspiration.. Dachshund With a Pearl Earring. I used my dog Diamond as the model. The hardest part was getting her to post just right. After many tries I finally got a decent reference but she was looking away so I had to make some adjustments to the eyes. This is 3.5" square.

This is how it looks in the frame.

Oh, and the song was Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes by Paul Simon.

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.

New Year, New Desk!

All I wanted for Christmas was a corner computer desk, the kind where you actually sit facing the corner. There doesn't seem to be very many like that but I did find one on the Walmart site. It just fits in the space I have, after removing a few things. Then I gave my son my old computer desk and was able to take out his little table, which is now a Lego table, and this opens up a lot of space in my room.

Also, my dad built some nice shelves for my bead containers, which is much better than the big shoe rack I was using.



Before:

After:

Before:

After:

The only thing you can't see is my over-stuffed closet.

Now to get back into creating more. I feel like I have been really slacking off for some time. As a warm up I did a quick little painting for the Different Strokes Project at wetcanvas.com, the theme this month being favourite childhood toy. I chose this stuffed lion cub that I still have and added it to my art journal, using paint and stencils to fill the rest of the space.

I also finished a digital piece using Procreate on my iPad. The reference was a photo of vegetables from my garden. Not sure how I really feel about it, but it was good practice anyway. I don't really know where I'm going in terms of style except that I want to move away from realism, but not too much.

 I nearly gave up on that broccoflower thing, lol. It tasted good but is a pain to paint. And this was for a digital challenge where the theme was colour.

My First Mixed Media Canvas

The nail polish picture is painted with acrylics on a 10x8" canvas and then I added texture around it with stencils and modelling paste and also just paint. Then I started adding things like metal flowers, painted fabric flowers, buttons, resin pieces with the actual nail polish in them, a watch face, a mirror pendant, and some beads. Then I decorated a 14x11" wrapped canvas and put the 10x8 canvas board inside the back of it to frame it. It took quite a few days to put it all together.

I also recently finished a digital painting of a polar bear. Prints are available on Fine Art America and Pixels.com. This is one of the polar bears that live in the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg and his name is Storm.

http://pixels.com/featured/polar-bear-michelle-moroz-chymy.html

My Dragons

Many years ago I painted a couple of dragons on the computer and then decided to make an illustrated book with them. I haven't worked on it very regularly though, so it still is not done. And then I had a big setback when my computer crashed in the fall.  I was behind on backing things up and lost a few pages.

Over the last few months I have been redoing what I lost, and reviewing the previous pages I had finished, discovering changes that had not been backed up and had to be done again. I'm finally caught up and I got one more page done. I plan on doing four more pages for the book. For anyone not familiar with digital painting, you might think it is fast and easy, but it is not. The way I paint these pictures takes a long time so I hope to get the last four pages done by fall. Plus, I like to take my acrylics out once in a while too.

Here are a few crops for a peek at what I have been doing:

Some recent paintings.

I haven't posted for a very long time but I have been painting. I have been slowly working on a digital book, and also taking out the acrylics or working on other digital paintings as well.

Many of my digital paintings are posted on fineartamerica.com
http://michelle-morozchymy.fineartamerica.com
Some of the newer ones being the Old Green House, the Little Frozen Waterfall, and the Easter Egg card.

Recent acrylics are the Museum Trio  and a sign I made for my basement:

Also a mini, 2.5 inches square, of Lake Okanagan.

Site problems

I've been having trouble with my Forest of Dreams website, but I hope to get it fixed soon.

I have done some more painting since my last post. I've been in a digital mood lately and I finished a knitting dragon for my creative dragon series. I hope to put these in a book someday. Currently I am starting a sewing dragon.

I also painted a picture of some raspberries using Twisted Brush. This was done in one layer, which is unusual for me. It is available as a 5x7" print.

Solstice at the lake

The weather has really warmed up now! Saturday, the 20th, we were camping and it was a warm, bright night. We went for a bike ride with friends around the campground and I think it was close to midnight when we went to the beach. If I had thought of it then I would have been more observant, but yesterday I used my imagination to do a quick painting with Twisted Brush of the lake that night.

Steps To Twilight

I finished my latest cross stitch project, which I believe I started last June. There is one more picture in that booklet which I have already started.

I have also been doing some digital painting. This iceberg painting was done in Gimp, the reference was from wetcanvas.


For my dad's birthday I bought a toy car and painted a picture of it, and gave him both the painting and the toy. This was also done in Gimp.


This next one was also a reference from wetcanvas, this time done with Twisted Brush Open. I wanted to practise painting foliage on the computer but I think I need different brushes and I have decided to buy Twisted Brush Pro.


And today I painted an ATC of orchids, but I haven't scanned it yet. It will be posted on my website eventually.

Cardinal

I was finally able to get back to digital painting this week and completed this picture for a monthly challenge at wetcanvas. It is to be printed 5x7" and was done in Gimp. I didn't keep track of the hours but it took a few afternoons.

Kira, etc.

At the end of September I did a digital painting of an orange rose.


In October I painted a portrait of my dog Kira. I also did a haunted hospital for fun. It is based on an old hospital that used to be in my home town.



I also made myself some jewelry lately.


And I have done two more ATCs.



And I finally put my rainbow series on my website.

Back again

It has a been a few months since I last wrote here, and I haven't done much crafting either. To make a long story short, in October I was having some stomach pains. I went to see a doctor and ended up being admitted and they took out my appendix and told me I have Crohn's disease. After a few day I went home but was in a lot of pain. A week later I went back with an infection where the incision was. They had to drain it and then I stayed in the hospital for another week. When I went home again, I still had an open wound there and every day had to go to the local clinic, and sometimes into the city on weekends, and get the dressing changed. They have to pack the opening to make sure it doesn't close from the top first. It hasn't been painful since the infection was drained, but healing has been very slow because of the Crohn's and I still have a small hole. I hope it will close up soon. I am also on medication for the Crohn's and it seems to be under control.

For a while I couldn't do much of anything but over the last few months I did do a little painting and have started making art trading cards (ATCs). So far I have four done but still haven't put them online. I will make a page soon and then I hope to find other artists and crafters to trade with. I also did a quick little Christmas picture on the computer, just for fun. And I painted an old guitar.

And, the other day I started working again on a mural which I had started in October. It's actually on masonite because I think that's safer than putting all that work on a wall. But I'm still calling it a mural. It is 6x3 feet. I started putting work in progress pictures in a webshots account.

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.