2013 Oil Paintings

A LOT of paintings for me this year! Quite a nice steady flow of them.

I managed to create fourteen oil paintings in total in 2013 so yes this will be a fairly long entry. Feel free to skip past the text and just look at the pictures if it pleases you :)

The first two I made were created early on in January and March while the rest were completed later in the year.

Sunlit Woods – 8 x 10” Oil on stretched canvas.

First painting made in January this year - the above was created on a gifted canvas that already had yellow and copper streaks painted on it as a background when I received it. Since the background was set I tried to imagine what kind of subject would sit well on top. I rarely paint impressionistic landscapes but decided to let the brush strokes speak for me; bending loose trees, plant dots and dappled shadows seemed fitting.

It turned into an interested piece that has an iridescent sheen in all the right places when the light hits it. Of course it is nigh impossible to scan or capture iridescent reflections in a photograph. Still it was a good experiment that got me out of my comfort zone.

Red Lion Fish - 8 x 10” Oil on cradle board

Call this experiment number two for this year. Not very much iridescent so this one doesn’t shimmer in any light but instead is translucence in places. I created the blue background first using thin layers of oil to allow some of the wood grain to show through and create natural patterning. Painting the fish turned out to be a rather delicate procedure of layering very thin washes. Now I work flat and in thin layers to begin with so trying to make those layers even thinner to make translucency was no easy task! Still I think I achieved my goal in capturing the ghost-like appearance of a see-through fish.

Cherry Blossom -  8 x 10” Oil on stretched canvas.

The above was an unusual and specific commission that took longer than I expected. I walked the buyer through every stage of the painting to ask what they wanted. They sent me several random photographs of blossom and we outsourced what type of bench should be presented. I sent the composition before paint was applied and then kept them up to date until we reached a point we were both happy with. It certainly taught me a few things! I think it turned out rather lovely even though this isn’t an atypical subject for me to paint. The best news is that it was a gift for someone other than my client and the report back was that the new owner loved it :D

Young Snow Leopard – 16 x 18” Oil on stretched canvas

Well the beauty above spent many years as a WIP waiting in the wings. I started this painting in 2011 and by 2013 I pulled the confidence to finish. Yes, that’s quite a long time to leave a piece sitting unfinished, it even travelled all the way from England to Canada in its raw unfinished state! Still it ended up being a great finish. I guess good things are worth waiting for after all.
As always there are many things I want to change but I was so relieved I managed to get it down and that the cool colour balance I planned from the start actually worked!
I put the green plant on last and I recall I was so afraid I might mess up those slender lines and have to try and fix the background my hand was shaking!! Painted those plant lines about three times to try and shade them and phew what a relief I didn’t have to correct any shaky hand errors. ^_^

For comparison below is a blurry photograph of the 2011 version I worked into for those of you who like WIPs (stop giggling at the pun you!!)

Next up in order of creation date we have a piece I titled Courage.

Courage – 12 x 9” Oil on canvas board

The above is one piece of art I love and hate simultaneously. If 2013 taught me anything it is that I really dislike working on canvas boards and that purple is the worst colour to try and mix from your basic set of colours. I painted the rocks here with relative ease but that pretty flower took more than a few re-paintings and I ended up having to borrow a purple from someone else because I just couldn’t get the shade I wanted from mixing.
I have since purchased Dioxazine purple for my paint set and even named a purple-haired character Dioxa in honour of my struggle.

On the plus my persistence paid off since many people seem to really enjoy this image and I was personally pleased with the final too. This painting has also served me well in various print formats so I’d call that a big win :)

Below is another example of me not quite learning my lesson when it comes to canvas boards and flowers.

Valentines in October – 12 x 9” Oil on canvas board.

This was a hugely experimental piece for me and aptly named because I literally painted the dead flowers that my husband gave me in February in October. I seem to have a thing for dead flowers, I really love the way they curl up and preserve. Those interesting shapes were the reason I kept the flowers for so long and why I wanted to try and paint them. Adding my new knowledge of translucency, I thought I could apply it to the glass vase and the faded flowers.

As usual I made the background first and was enamored with the idea of the dripping paint look. Sadly, I forgot to realise than chucking a whole lot of water onto something that is essentially cardboard beneath the canvas might have a negative outcome. So yes the board warped under the amount of water I used to get the stressed drippy background – gah!
Some acid free paper (to protect the art) a heavy book and a wet cloth are required to unwarp it.

I was aiming for delicate again but different and decided to have the vase ‘float’ rather than have a hard surface for it to sit on. I also wanted to aim for a watercolour look.
As read I probably should have known better, last time I tried to paint dead daffodils I ended up with two perspectives in one image – now that is a feat I couldn’t do again if I tried!

Moving onward then, I had several of those canvas boards left that I wanted to put to use.

A glutton for punishment maybe but I had also been working on some ACEOs (small art cards 2.5 x 3.5” for those that don’t know – and yes that will be my next blog post shhh don’t tell) based on a starlight theme. Since I enjoyed doing the smaller set of star-scapes I decided to create larger versions.

Orion – 9 x 12” Oil on canvas board

Orion will always be my favourite go-to choice of constellation. It reminds me of home because in a soft romantic Disney-esq type of storytelling ‘I can always look up and know that my friends and family can see the same constellation, no matter how far apart we might be.’

It’s a very easily recognised constellation that also happened to be the one I could see from my bedroom window as a child.

Well of course I had to attempt this in oils. I used a wet-on-wet technique for the darker foreground and again tried to let my brushes make the marks of the silhouetted trees.

The next two I will put in tandem follow this theme of star-scapes.

 

Northern Starlight – 9 x 12” Oil on canvas board

I love the idea of the aurora and made a pretty good smaller piece based on this.

I don’t personally think the above painting captured what I wanted to show but I’m glad I tried and it also shows my love of reflections. Reflections or mirrors in still water is a theme I am still working on. Speaking of reflections in still water:

Another Starry Night – 12 x 9” Oil on canvas board

The third in this set was just that; a mirror of sky and silhouette.

After such a foray into landscapes and sky I decided I should do a little fantasy.

Serv Eye – 6 x 6” Oil on cradle board

The above piece sold – woo – hoo! It is named ‘Serv Eye’ because this is one breed of dragon in….yeah you guessed it, my story. I based this painting on earlier drawings of one dragon in particular. This wonderful and huge dragon was named Fao. Write his name backwards and be amazed at my literary skills when it comes to names :P

Back again then to more ‘serious’ paintings I give you my second large piece of the year.

First Autumn – 16 x 20” Oil on stretched canvas

This was difficult in terms of pose and colour. It’s much easier to work in one colour theme and much harder trying to make those complimentary shades match. Also pointillism isn’t a technique I was familiar with so it took me a long time to try and ‘pointillism’ the grass backdrop with my brush.

A much smaller piece below that involved ink and paint.

Ivory – 3 x 4” Oil and ink on cradle board

I’d call this one a study. It also involves those reflections I seem to be inclined toward.

I stained the wood block using ink and then added the painted skull and candles. It was interesting to see how the two mediums worked together. Also without sounding too morbid I really enjoy sketching/painting animal skulls.

Last two oils for this year were both animals.

Autumn Wolf – 10 x 8” Oil on stretched canvas

 This was great because I got to throw ‘all the colours’ at the backdrop and then make them muddy. I also very much enjoyed making a different type of grey for those rocks. I should have written down the combination I used to make that one.

Tiger Eye – 8 x 6” Oil on stretched canvas

The above tiger eye is another piece that found itself a new home – hooray!

The best part about this one for me was the unusual cropping. Seems I really do like cutting my pieces in odd ways. I guess if it works then don’t knock it!

Well that's all for this round. Catch you on the next post ^_^

2013 Illustrations (Part 1 of 2)

2013 really was a very productive year for me art-wise so gear yourself up for a fairly long post because I have plenty of illustrations to show!

Actually I am going to split this post into two sections. Two parts will be easier for you to digest and for me to write about.
This first one then will show all the animal study illustrations I made in 2013 - part two (coming soon) will detail the fantasy pieces I created.

Animals

I experimented with drawing on top of ink stained backgrounds with black Micron ink and Sakura white gel pen which made for some quite striking images. I wanted to try and hone down a realistic illustration look without losing the artistic factor. I think I achieved that fairly well and certainly had some fun with my chosen subjects. 

Yes a lot of my chosen subjects were cats but I tried to pick expressive poses that I hadn't tested before and to work into the colour of the background.

Considering I am not a fan of very bright colours I was pleased at how well the ink staining married with the final illustrations. Pink is not my go-to choice of background colour!

I found the above tiger cub pose a very difficult one and ended up making an art card, this illustration and a painting with this same expression just because it was a challenge!

Brown ink stains worked well for me, also I love the patterns in big cat fur. The above ocelot is a smaller 'big' cat but I enjoyed incorporating those shiny eyes and that fur pattern in one image.

I love foxes as much as cats. I'm not sure how successful the above illustration was but I sent the original off to the Papergirl 2013 event. This event hands out art for free. I hope someone out there has this fox illustration with the message I put on the back! 

Next to cats and foxes I like birds of prey. Eagles, falcons and hawks have always fascinated me.
I was lucky enough to watch many birds of prey in training and my favourite one was always the tiny Merlin. I am not well practiced in drawing birds, the feathers are so much trickier than fur to me.

This one was all about pushing perspective. Foreshortening is a nightmare to most of us artists. Ergo the idea for this was to test a deep perspective.

The above two illustrations were created as challenges set by Coloured Pencil Magazine.
The left Roller bird had so many colours and I liked the idea of limiting my medium to only coloured pencils. The right white wolf came from a photograph that had two wolves in it. I went for a more simplistic impression of fur and the background was a wash of water-mixable pencils. The magazine folks seem to only like photo-realism so it didn't score highly on their site. I personally like the character captured in that wolf even if it wasn't photo-realistic or well received. 

Another bird - oh yes I like the magpie and jay scavengers too. So here's all that trouble drawing feathers I spoke about. Also perspective on feathers. Add on top of that any subject that is purely white or black or in this case both >.<
It all worked out well enough for me to finish and be able to post this but this was a challenge no doubt!

Next up then will be the fantasy illustrations I made in 2013 - are you tired yet? I am certain I must have been by the end of this year!

Sketches and Paintings 2009 – 2011

Well it’s only been *ahem* two or so years since I last made a blog post here – whoops! >.<

I guess I got a touch distracted somewhere along the way…let’s just hope I don’t take quiet as long to blog between this post and the next one!

Anyway, picking straight back up from where I left off, here are my illustrations and paintings from 2009 – 2011. It seems as though I was in a bit of an art lull during those years as I hardly created anything at all.

Starting then with two illustrations from 2009 and one oil painting.

2009

Bonnie

Above is the singular oil painting I created in 2009. This was one of my very first commissions – albeit one I chose to do for free. The little dog shown was named Bonnie and belonged to one of my mum’s friends at work. Sadly, the dog had passed away but she knew how much her co-worker loved his pet. Since he was retiring she asked if I could paint his dog and supplied me with the only photograph she could acquire which was literally the size of a postage stamp – argh! (I have to wonder if she stole the pic from his wallet and photocopied it…honestly)

 I did the best I could with the given image and a bit of researching pictures of similar dogs. Thankfully all turned out well. I wasn’t there when she presented it but he was overcome at the gesture and decided to gift me a huge bouquet of flowers and a nice bottle of scotch. :)

The two sketches.

I decided to call this first sketch, ‘While You Were Sleeping.’ It is a sketch of my boyfriend at the time and little was I to know then that he would eventually become my husband ^_^

I remember I sketched it after he stayed around my house one evening; I woke up early but didn’t want to disturb him so took the chance to do a bit of drawing. I’m certain that sentiment could pass as exceedingly creepy if not for the fact that we ended up getting wed. Oh and I needn’t have worried it turns out that he is a super heavy sleeper and almost impossible to wake!

My only other illustration of note that year was a self-caricature expressing precisely how I felt about Christmas.

Yep I wasn’t a fan.

2010

Zero paintings this year and only two sketches of note. The first sketch below was from a trip to the Botanical gardens in Birmingham, England.

I remember this day quite vividly not because it was sunny and I got to spend the day with my now husband and his family but because said husband somehow managed to brush past a cactus in the hot house and had to spend the best part of the afternoon trying to get super fine cactus hairs out of his coat, gloves and palm – ouch!

This bandstand was drawn in a moment of respite from cactus hair plucking, sat on a long sloping hill that overlooked the green of the gardens.

As for my second sketch …. Well I guess I just really wasn’t into Christmas still.

2011

Three paintings this year, plus one underpainting (I’ll show you later), two sketches of note and a tattoo design.

I’ll start with the sketches this time. First up being a gondola rendered in charcoal.

I recall this being done for a ‘drink and draw’ challenge a friend was holding on Facebook. I didn’t take many of the weekly challenges set by this group but this one interested me and it had been awhile since I revisited charcoal.

This led to a commission from a great internet friend of mine who asked if I could sketch his girlfriend’s cat named Misu. The photograph was again terrible quality but the three of us agree that there is something rather pleasant about this sketch of their kitty Misu ^_^

My other illustrative commission of the year was to design a tattoo for a different friend who is very into his music. He asked for a treble clef with a rose and below is what I came up with.

He seemed very happy with the design and paid me for it however I don’t know if he ever got my design inked onto himself or not.

Of the paintings I made, one was yet another commission (I was popular that year!) to create an oil painting based on the anime Death Note. The customer in question had seen my previous Death Note fan art and had a kid who was also heavily into anime. I created the below 12 x9” of the two main characters for them.

This was a paid commission and I got told they were happy but I never got to speak to the client or recipient.

Next up is ‘Baby.’

This is one of my few larger oil paintings. With permission I used a photograph that a Canadian friend had posted on her page. I really liked the contrast of smooth and textured surfaces and the stretched out position of the cat. I was told later that the cat’s name was Baby and have been promising a print to the owner since I completed this painting … it’s now 2016, I haven’t forgotten but I still haven’t got that full sized print done. Also in some sad news I learnt that this little kitty passed away a couple of years ago :’(

My final painting from 2011 was a 9 x12” oil on deep box canvas that had no particular inspiration. I guess it was just one of those ideas that spoke to me so I painted it out. Perhaps not the most shining example of a wolf but I was happy with the mood it evoked.

So that bring us up to 2012.

After such a long lull, I was super productive in 2012…so my next post might have to be broken into several long ones, who’d be an artist? :P

2006/2007 - Third and final year at uni - Life drawing

I made it to graduation year!

Now life-drawing wasn’t mandatory in year three of university, specifically, as I mentioned in the previous post, because third year students are extremely busy being stretched thin in all directions by their hugely demanding film projects.

You would think then, with my passionate loathing of the subject that I would choose to opt out. Thankfully, my stubbornness and inherent failure to ever do anything the easy way even when it’s the better choice, actually paid off. In hindsight I am very pleased I attended at least a few of the sessions in this final year and went on one last trip to Marwell Zoo as I came away with some of pretty decent sketches. It was possibly also the last structured life-drawing I may ever do, though as the saying goes, never say never…

  

 So first up, some dead daffs I painted over the summer and later submitted in my folio work.

This piece is interesting on several levels, one being that I never paint flowers because they don't interest me, two being that I never paint in watercolours because going from light to dark is just backwards to my brain and three being there is something strange going on with the composition that I simply couldn't figure out!

To shed a little light on those points: one, painting the curled frozen forms that dead flowers make does interest me, but working on the luminous whorls of living blooms does not, two, yeah I’m still not keen on working from light to dark, three, the problem with composition as spotted by my very clever peers; there are two perspectives happening at once, the upper and lower halves are split to look up at and down on the vase simultaneously…now I really couldn’t do that twice if I tried!

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In the Studio

Pat's back! Also her side, in faithful chalk and charcoal.

Moving away from charcoal, here's one I sketched using water-soluble graphite:

Ok fancy dress sessions were quite enjoyable I will admit, and I remember being happy that I got to sit at a desk whilst sketching this but I somehow also managed to bust my finger open that day...therefore the original has nice russet blood splatters all over the sugar paper, argh! >.<

These last three below are from a day of 'fun' painting during life-drawing, urgh, I can hear me groaning in disdain at the thought through the depths of space and time.

 Though I needn’t have worried, as I ended up having a cracking drawing day, never before or since did I manage to get three images from one session that weren't a total mess!

 I seem to remember we had longer to work on these too, they were perhaps 30 minute to hour long sketches as opposed to the frantic ten second warm ups they often had us do, though seriously, even in a 5-10minute pose I can't get an awful lot down, time constraints just make me seize up.

I was less happy with this last one but enjoyed playing with colour, hmm I wonder if I've always had a penchant for 'blue/grey' people, seems an odd choice since I hadn't dreamt up any of our drow characters at this point. Yep, that's it, I blame the smurfs.

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Marwell (and Portland Bill) 

Only two sketches that I can identify as being from this last Marwell trip but two I will certainly never forget due to the advice of our tutor Peter Symons. I was struggling to draw this sleeping leopard who had at first seemed like the ideal 'still' candidate and easy choice of subject.

I confessed, in my usual grumpy moan-at-pencils manner that the pattern was confusing me and blurring the cats shape, he said in return, 'then just draw the pattern, draw the spots and nothing else and see if you end up with a leopard on your page.'

I laughed at the idea but tried it anyway if only to prove him wrong, and damn if he wasn't correct plus it made a rather nice sketch!

The second method of 'not drawing the subject' was to block out a shape and carve with an eraser, again I was sceptical but again it worked nicely :) Although personally I prefer the 'draw spots only' outcome I was utterly amazed that this could be done - ah the joy of new techniques

This reminds me, we took a short trip to Portland Bill in the second year for life drawing which I think I missed from that blog post as it happened around the same time we were prepping our film presentations and my files got muddled. Long story short I came back with these two beauties:

Cliffs and lighthouse at Portland Bill, rough graphite and watercolours

Very successful pieces for me on any given life-drawing excursion if I do say so ^^