Watercolour abstract art for 29 faces catch up - face 16, 17, 18 and 19

Unfortunately my daily posting was interrupted by having to give into my cold.  I decided the only way to get rid of it was to get to bed and rest up.  Well I did that on Friday and Saturday and so by Sunday I was feeling a lot better and more able to art.  I did a few catch up one after the other in the same style and medium.  I love working with watercolour and thoroughly enjoyed working on my Jean-Luc Picard However, I have always fancied trying my hand at a little more abstract art.  So I figured why not, "how hard can it be? Right?" Well, I can tell you it is not as easy as artists who produce fantastic work make it look.

This was the first painting, done on 'The Langton' hot pressed watercolour paper by Daler Rowney 140lbs 12"x 9" There was no pre sketching done it was totally out of my head and spontaneous.  I wanted to experiment with dripping, it always looks so good on other artists work.  I faffed about with this a fair bit and I felt I was still being a little precious with the detail.  I needed to let loose. So I tried again .................

This one I switched to bigger paper as I figured it might help me to just "let Go" and try big bold brush strokes.  I used 'The Langton' hot pressed paper 140lbs 16"x 12" again by Daler Rowney and just went for it.  I liked the overall outcome, yes I can still improve but I was beginning to really enjoy this process/style of working.  Of course the downside is I now want to purchase more watercolours lol oops 

As I felt more confident I had a thought in my head, an image of a painting I wanted to do so I attempted it.  I say attempted it as it really did not quite work out how it was in my head but then as artists do we ever get that? This is what I got instead........

Again like all the other paintings I did not start with a pre sketch. It was painted on the same type and size paper as the previous painting. I actually do think it is a fair representative of what I wanted it to look like and it covers two faces so lets me catch up with 29 faces (woohoo). I am just not sure about this one being display worthy.  I feel I have kinda messed up the eye area of the male face I was trying to hint at an eye and ended up with the darker area in the wrong bit so tried to fix and just made a mess. Also as a kiss it is not as sensual as I wanted it to look.  At least that's what is in my head, that is what I see.  So what do you see? I would be interested to find out others opinions of this very raw painting.

oh I nearly forgot to say, all paintings were done using Windsor & Newton 12 half pans travel set with graduate round size 10 brush and System 3 round size 6 both brushes by Daler Rowney

Anyway Thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog :) Have a good day/evening bye for now T x

Day 12 of 29 Faces challenge 2016

Well, here I am on day 12.  Despite a few delays I am almost at the halfway point woohoo.  I really was not sure I could even get to here, what with all the other things going on in my life and projects on the go.  And today has been no different.  I do have a face to share but  I have also been moving furniture around in my art studio to try to make my space a little more inspiring.  I moved into my new house in June and have not really focused so much on my art space.  Well today it was my studios turn.......

that point when you think "why did I start this again?" lol 

It is starting to look a little more worth the effort.

It is still not quite finished but I decided I would stop and take a break, so I could come online and post in my blog.  And share with you the face I quickly sketched for day 12 of the 29 faces challenge.

I was attempting to be more loose and going for that artistic effortless sketchy look.

So there you have it a little glimpse into my day 12 efforts.  Thank you for stopping by.  I plan to do a full studio tour once I have it looking more inspirational rather than just a room with furniture dumped in it lol.  So watch this space for that.  Thank you for stopping by.  Have a good day. T x

Day 6 29 faces challenge

Well today I completed a face.  It did not quite turn out how I hoped but it is still pretty cool.  I hope you like it.  It is a face coloured with pencils (mostly polychromos with some Spectrum Noir.  It did not cover the background quite as well as I had hoped.  Oh well never mind.

The background is a combination of gesso, buff white and pans pastel dusted on using a brush then wiped with the paint brush to get the texture in the background.  I then drew and coloured the girl using pencils.  The hood and dark neck was painted last with acrylic paints.  Even though it did not turn out as I expected it was fun to experiment.  Perhaps next time I will draw the face before the background and do the background around the face, see if that gets a better result.  Thanks for popping round.  T x

day 3 and 4 of 29faces challenge

Oooops  I forgot to post my face I did yesterday. What can I say, I am human after all lol So rather than just missing a day out (after all I did do the sketch) I have decided to combine both days into todays post.  Call it a weekend post lol

Saturdays face, drawn in colour pencil.  I have sketched an idea for a bigger picture but I am featuring the face for day 3 in my 29faces challenge.  Which is proving to be more difficult than I thought even at this early stage.  Perhaps I just need to get a bit more organised.  hmmmmmm I can but try lol  As the pencil is a light colour and I have drawn on white sketch paper it is rather difficult to get a decent picture so I hope you can see these ok. My idea for this sketch is that the girl is being comforted by her angel.  I am sure in the future this will become a fully realised bit of art :)

Sunday day 4 of 29faces challenge.  I have managed to complete a quick video to demonstrate how I used my gelli plate to start a journal page with a background.  The purple/blue colour was already there.  I had previously cleaned off brushes over the top of some tape then took the tape away (I will use the painted tape in another project).  I rolled white gesso thinly onto my gelli plate firmly pressed the stamp onto the gelli plate then took a print off the plate onto my page and was left with the background as pictured below.  I just filmed the process of how I printed the girls face onto my background using the gelli plate.  Thanks to Andrea Mercier who gifted me my prima face stamp a couple of weeks back, I have a few ideas on how to continue to make use of her in the future.  

I hope you have enjoyed this double weekend 29 faces blog post.  Why not come back tomorrow and see what I get up to for day 5 :) 

Day 2 of the 29 faces challenge - a simpler approach - using a stamp is not cheating

Hi folks.  Well after the day I had yesterday (Thursday) trying and failing to get my day 1 face finished.(for details of the 29 face challenge click the button at the side of my blog)  I decided I would take a different approach today and make my life easier.  As I knew I was going to be working on my first face, as well as face number 2, I gave myself a head start (note I did not say I cheated) by using a journal page with a background already done and recorded.  I then used a prima stamp of a face, (donated to me by Andrea Mercier of Anlome you can check out her amazing art here ) and continued to record the process as I completed my journal page.  Perhaps you might like to help me to name this page? If so type your suggested quote/title for this page.
                

You see, sometimes we need a task to be made easier.  Please Stop giving yourselves such a hard time about stuff that doesn't even matter.  Would we call using cutlery or a food processor cheating? No they are utensils that make our life easier.  We do not call using a modern day washing machine cheating when it comes to washing our clothes.  So why do we think using stamps in art are cheating?  Ok if you used a stamp all the time and did no drawing you would not improve your drawing skills. However, you may not want to improve your drawing skills, who are we to insist you do.  There is no right or wrong way to do things in art.  Art is what you make it, pure and simple.  I know when I first got back to art I asked the question would it hinder my progress if I used stamps and stencils in my work.  Well the simple answer to that is not if I continued to practise my skills on a regular basis. So guess what, I use stamps and stencils as and when I like.  I also do fine art as and when I like.  Sometimes I combine the two and sometimes I try something completely different that I suck at doing but enjoy trying.  It still takes skill to colour a stamped image well, a skill that can easily be learned I might add.  All it requires is a desire to learn.  Everyone and anyone can be artistic.  Stamps and stencils are a great way to help everyone to start to enjoy being artistic.  If you are interested in my art process for this prima stamp girl check out my video below. 

So remember there is no right or wrong way to do Art.  Art is what you make it :) Hope you all have a good day and come back to visit real soon.  

First of my 29 faces posts

Well here we are the 1st of September, the first day of the 29 days challenge as set by Ayala art and I am already behind, oops lol. The details can be found on the 29 days blog by clicking here Today I am posting a work in progress rather than the finished article.

 For me this really demonstrates that not everything in art is quick and simple, though it can be.  This face has gone through a couple of ugly phases and I have been filming it as I go.  I do plan to produce a video but for now this single picture will have to do as it is nowhere near finished.  Videos also, like art, take time to produce.  It got me to thinking about beginner artists who start out wanting to produce a lovely piece of art.  There are so many obstacles to get over.  First comes the ugly stage.  I can see how someone would believe they are no good and just stop.  It is so worth continuing, you will surprise yourself.  All art goes through that ugly stage.  The other hurdle is the oops that was not the shade of colour I thought it was going to be moment lol I had a few of them but again just go with it work with it.  You can always either wipe it away if its still wet or simply paint over it, if you are using acrylic paints.  There is also the oops I didn't mean to paint over that part mistake.  Oh and don't get me started on the, ooops I dropped the stupid brush on my painting, as I scramble almost in slow motion trying to stop it from hitting my work, mistake (and breathe lol).  All these can be dealt with in a variety of different ways.  If you are new to painting or you are wishing you could be more arty but are too afraid to try.  Please just trust that you can do it and give it a go.  I, along with many of my other arty friends have youtube videos showing you how it can be done.  The 29 faces challenge would be a great way to just make a start.  You can start simple and if you check out Ayala Art She has lots of hints and tips and how to's to get you started This video is not a beginner tutorial however it does demonstrate how I had to keep going to get a bit of work right.

So you see, when you have a hard time with a bit of work and it just does not seem to be going right, just remember you are not alone.  We all have times like that.  Not all art work is meant to be quick.  I am sure that some of the great artists had work that was quick and took no time at all but then other work I am sure took days.  I hope you will visit me again and see the progress on my work in project and my next face in this 29 faces challenge.