Double Cello

I was looking for something to draw the other day, in my quest to do a couple of sketches a week, when I spied my nieces cello.  What a fabulous shape! That certainly needed to be drawn.

Cello Sketch pen and water colour pencil. Drawn first with ink.

The first drawing was done in my new quest to draw straight with the pen first, no messing around with pencil sketches, which has been very daunting.  It is a little bit wonky but I am learning to embrace the less than perfect nature of these sketches.  I have to say the it has made me pay much more attention to the object I am going to draw.  With the pencil I tend to gradually manipulate the drawing until I get it right but with the pen I have to work things out before hand and that means really looking at the object, the shapes, negative shapes and how one shape relates to the other.  I realised that I had been getting lazy and drawing what I think is there rather than what I was seeing.

Cello Sketch pencil, ink and water colour pencil. Pencil drawing first

The second cello I draw with a pencil sketch first as I really wanted to emphasis the curves and shapes and not worry overly by the detail, plus I was frustrated with the pen sketch.  To my surprise I find I like the first one better and the more I look at those who draw with pen, the more I like that style of drawing.  There is a freshness and honesty about these drawings which is not there with the ones that I compose with pencil first.

Sketchbook skool has taught me never to give up on a drawing and not to sweat the few wrong lines, just complete the drawing and see what happens, and I have to say I like it.

I would be interested to hear what you think.

Karen

Pattern 4

 

Pattern 4, Paper, coloured pencil and thread. 21 x 21cm

Pattern No 4 is complete.  Well in fact I completed it a couple of weeks ago, but had not got around to photographing and posting it until now.  There is always that pull between making the art and posting it.  I am going to be doing at least six of these for an exhibition in August.

I finally found the work that inspired me to start sewing into paper and another artist doing similar work.

Michelle Forsyth did this great series of watercolours where she sewed lines onto the paper with threads called Dark Watercolours.  I saw the close up below and just loved it.

 

Michelle Forsyth. Dark Watercolor 05 17 x 17 inches

Michelle Forsyth. Dark Watercolors 04 40 x 40 inches

Later in my wanderings around Pinterest I found this other artisit Emily Barletta who does very intricate sewing into paper.  How exciting are these!  Well you can tell I loved them.

 

Emily Bartlett Untitled 73

Emily Bartlett Untitled 57

 

I thought I would get some inspirations from the names these artist had called their work, but no so luck they just numbered them.

I will leave you with a close up of my work and continue on with the next.

Pattern 4 Detail , Paper, coloured pencil and thread. 21 x 21cm

Karen

Revisit and Renew – Grevilliea 2

Grevillea 2 Reborn Sep 13
Coloured Pencil, Ink and acrylic paint 50 x 70cm

This painting was started in early 2012, and it was in an April blog.  I had given it a dark green background and it didn’t work, which made me sad as I loved the grevillea flower, it is one of my favourites.  So I put it away to wait for inspiration.   It was a long time coming, but it finally arrived.

Grevillea 2 Progress Old background

After cutting out the paisleys and raising them up slightly off the painting, I though that the effect would work for this one.  I loved the 3D effect of cutting out the image and floating it above the page.  The shadows thrown by the image are fabulous, or at least I think so.

Grevillea 2 Detail

So nothing daunted I got out the knife and starting cutting into the picture.  I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the ugly backgound drop away the the flower to reappear again in all its glory.

Grevillea 2 Detail

This time I has wised up and used these great little foam, double sided glue dots, which were so much easier to use.

Happy with the result and so glad to have found a resolution to one of the problems in my portfolio.

Karen

Birthday Portrait

Sadhna’s Portrait 46cm x 84cm Mixed Media Collage

It is finally done!  The portrait is finished, it has traveled up to Hamilton and Island and back undamaged and best of all she liked it.  Amazingly enough I am happy with it as well.

Sadhna with her portrait

It hasn’t photographed all that well, but you can get the idea.  It turned into a collage with the paisley design raised up so it floats above the portrait.  It is made in three layers.  One is the background which is acrylic paint with pencil over the top, then the silver ink pattern.  The middle layer is the portrait again acrylic paint, pencil and ink and the final layer is raised 4mm above and they are pencil and ink paisley cut out and stuck on.

sadhna-preliminary-sketch

I have been wanting to try some raised collage for awhile and am pleased to get the chance to use it on this picture and I love the effect.  It brings a new feel to the work.

As you can guess my friend Sadhna is Indian and loves the teal blue.  she is very beautiful and loves the pretty pastels, paisley and bling.  I wanted to show her love of design and pride in her heritage in this portrait and to give her some of the glamour of the vintage posters.  I feel this has achieved it.

Detail of the Paisley 1

I really enjoyed doing this, though you know I grumbled, (see earlier post) it was a different direction but a fun learning curve.  I have another couple lined up by people interested in having their portrait done in this way.  So I am open to commissions.

Detail of the Paisley

But most of all I am happy that I was able to give a great and generous friend something really special for her birthday.

Karen

First for 2013 or last for 2012, whichever a recalcitrant painting indeed

Gerbera

Some painting just flow onto the page, there may be a couple of hesitations as you consider colour, technique or composition, but they just work.  Calm, smooth and satisfying, like good quality chocolate.  Others do not, you struggle with them, you struggle not to throw them aside, you struggle to get them to work.  This one was the latter, and I am not sure if it has worked yet or not, we need some time apart for tempers to settle.

It was just plain recalcitrant, what a great word, I had to look it up before I used it, just to ensure that I had the meaning right.  My dictionary said

“resisting authority (that would be me) or control, not obedient or compliant, refractory.  Hard to deal with, mange or operate”.

It started out so beautifully, a dear friend bought me a lovely bunch of Gerberas for Christmas and they were so fresh and happy I decided to paint them.  Trying to find a different take on them I decided to paint one from underneath.

My major issues were

• Tricky perspective that hasn’t quite worked in the stem.
• Petal Colour, I really wanted to get the clear soft pink, which I think has worked, but I tussled with the difference between shading and the different colours in the petals.  Still not clearly resolved.
• The background had a couple of attempts, happy with it, but not sure if I like it more than the white paper backgound of my other paintings.
• The outline, I used my new Sennelier inks and it was such a gorgeous dark black, but too black and I ended up going over the lines again in grey pencils to knock them back a bit as they dominated the picture.

So I put this one before you, and as I started it in December and finished it in January, not sure were it fits.  Any ideas on it are welcome, we clearly need as much help as we can get to  repair our relationship.  (Or should I not take this so personnally?)

Karen