Sketches

Last week I started a new online class, the She Art Workshop No. 3 with Christy Tomlinson. I did a few of Christy's online classes including She Art No. 1 and 2. So far I have liked all of her classes and I have always learned something new. She Art No. 3 doesn't seem to make an exception.

For this first week, one of the assignments was to sketch different girls and women - from images we found on the Internet or in a catalog etc. I first was very reluctant to do this, because I am not good at sketching from images, but after I did get started I actually liked it.

I chose a catalog from one of my favorite clothing companies, the Swedish Gudrun Sjöden. I had written about her fabulous clothes and her even more fabulous catalogs here. I knew I would find some special models among these pages and I wasn't disappointed. However, my girls and women turned out quite different from the images in the catalog.

There is the lady with the hat...

... the one with the umbrella and another one with a big scarf and winter coat....

... the two women who were looking at each other - darn, I think sketching a face from the side is really difficult. The one on the right wasn't looking that mad, honestly!

Do you see the model on the right in the image on top in my sketch below on the right? Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm talented.

However, the more sketches I worked on the more confident I grew, and that is good. I guess as the class goes on we'll probably have to turn at least one of these sketches into a mixed media painting... At the moment I am creating backgrounds. More on that later.

Are you taking any online classes in the art department?

Enchanted

It's Friday again - we're ready for the party!

Paint Party Friday!!

So this week I did something similar as last week - I made a sketch first of this girl with the flowers growing all around her. Then I took the sketch and transferred the girl onto my canvas that I had covered with papers and then painted over with fluid acrylic paints.

Although it is the girl from the sketch, she looks different on the canvas, especially after I filled in her face with watercolors and pastels. I am currently working on the flowers and see what else I want to put into this painting. I've called it "enchanted".

This weekend you can see lots of art made by wonderful artists - all you have to do is going over to Paint Party Friday where you'll find a long list of these talented people. It's always worth a visit.

Three Mermaids

For some time, a mermaid was wandering through my mind, with long beautiful hair and a bit of a melancholic expression on her face. I wanted to paint her, but as usual I felt a bit intimidated, thinking I can't do it.

So in order to get things started I thought I just do a sketch first, for my eyes only. I got the idea while reading "Daring Adventures in Paint" by Mati Rose McDonough (highly recommended). Mati Rose writes about making a sketch first and then transferring it to whatever you want to paint on. I was hoping that this would take away some of the fears I had - and it did.

So I first made a rough sketch of a mermaid - just drew it on regular computer paper (this is how I use up paper that is printed only on one side).

Then I transferred it into my art journal. I didn't transfer the face features, I wanted to create a new face because I didn't really like the sketched face. The background in my art journal is painted with acrylic paint, and the mermaid is mainly made by using watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons and pastels.

Finally the mermaid turned into a "real" mixed media painting on a wood panel. As you can see I used the same sketch, but attempted a different face, this one being my favorite. I think she has the slightly melancholic expression I wanted to achieve. Her mermaid tail is at a different angle and looks much more natural. Again, the background is painted with acrylic paints over torn book pages and the mermaid is created with watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons and pastels. All in all I am quite happy how this painting turned out.  It made its way into my Etsy store.

If you want to see more great paintings please check out Paint Party Friday for a gathering of wonderfully talented artists.