Amongst the Waves and other things!

Had a little virus or something on my computer this week so I haven't been able blog anything! So I have a lot to talk about this time. I finished the painting for my brother and sister-in-law for their wedding present. They had left the design mostly up to me, so I went with a wave painting. My brother had been eying off mine for some time now, so I made theirs similar colours but a different design.

Acrylic on canvas

I was really happy with the way it turned out - I used Atelier and Matisse acrylics with the Atelier interactive medium. It's a liquid you can spray onto the semi-dried paint to reopen the layer and blend wet into wet, similar to oil paint but without the messy clean up! It's great to use on wave paintings because it lets you create such a liquid feel without losing the intensity of the colour.

Also this week I worked some more on my transcription painting of The Theorbo Player. I have changed him a little - I switched his collar to a hoodie to suit the style I am aiming for, and I worked on the main guitar and his clothes. There's still a fair amount of work to do, despite what I thought last week! He is certainly getting there though, and I feel like I've bonded quite a bit with him!

 

Add caption

Finally, today I put the second ink colour on my lighthouse linocut print. I think the red looks fantastic, and when the rest is cut away and the black is inked up, I know I'll be happy with it. I was a little apprehensive when it came time to put it back through the press, worrying that I hadn't set up my registration properly or that somehow it would look terrible, but nope! Once I pulled the paper back, I was very happy. It helps that I have an awesome print teacher who is very inspiring, but also very reassuring that all will be well!

Blue and red done, only black to go!

This is the original ghost print, with a second ghost layer of red.

This is just the red printed as another ghost print but with no blue underneath.

I think all of the prints so far would be able to stand on their own - the multiple colour, and the multiple colour ghost print both have their own merits as a print, as do the single colour blue, and the single colour red. I can't wait to see it finished next week!

How to make a reduction lino print

Today I got to work on my reduction lino print! I had already cut away all the areas that I wanted to leave white, so I got to ink up with blue straight away. I made a lovely purpley-blue by mixing ultramarine blue and white together. I have discovered that lino printing is actually very satisfying! Carving away the harder top of the plate to reveal not just your design but also the softer part, hearing the 'squish' of the brayer on ink as you roll across the glass and then your plate...and then pulling up the paper after rolling it through the press to see the backwards image from your piece of lino appear as a beautiful print on paper! It's all a rather exciting and satisfying process, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

As you know, this one is a reduction linocut, which means you progressively carve away the areas as you print. So today I printed blue, next week after cutting away all the sky, I'll print red! Then I'll cut away everything else except what needs to stay black, and I'll ink up black and it will be finished!

First inking of my reduction linocut print.

The first image is the paper after inking with blue. The second image is a ghost print. That's where you put another sheet of paper over the plate without re-inking it up, and put it straight back through the press. The result will be an image that is considerably lighter than the first one as there is less ink on the plate.

Ghost print of the same lino.

 I actually really like the ghost print, and I think seeing as I have enough to play around with and still get my edition of 5, I'm going to leave one exactly as it is, and I'm going to do a reduction ghost print. That is, using one of the ghost prints I did today as a base for a ghost print of each other progressive colour. It will be interesting to see the three prints together after they are done.

Cape Leeuwin - this painting will be on exhibition in March/April at Red Rock Gallery!

On another note, I found out yesterday that one of my paintings has been accepted into a gallery showing! My Cape Leeuwin lighthouse will be exhibited at the Red Rock Regional Gallery and Theatre in Corooroke, just outside of Colac in Victoria! This is a very exciting day for me!

Next time I post, I'll hopefully have another painting finished - I've been working on one for my brother and new sister-in-law as their wedding present! It's almost done, so stay tuned to see it!

That's it for today - see you next time!

How to paint faces in oil

Well, it's Monday, and that means it's painting day! My painting class is on Monday morning, and so that meant today  I got to work some more on my transcription of Grammatica's Theorbo Player. I have never done people/portraits in paint before, I've only ever drawn them. So this was a little daunting to say the least. I'm very happy with how he's coming along though! We are allowed complete freedom with how we paint these, so long as the basic composition stays the same. So I am going for a 'sketchy' look I guess with the paint. I don't want anything overworked, I want it to have movement.

My Theorbo Player, except he's playing an electric guitar!

I was worried about getting the right tone on the skin, but I needn't have been. Not trying to make this a picture perfect photo image means I can play around with colour and create something aesthetically pleasing without having to stress over making the skin tone look 'real'. As it is, I think he's definitely starting to look like someone with Mediterranean skin tones! I love how his mohawk looks. I'm planning on adding some blue and pink to the tips of it. He will also have a big earring and an eyebrow piercing as well! His clothing is remaining similar to the original, with some colour changes, and a slight style difference.

The guitar I'm going to try and put some detail on, and I'm also considering giving him a tattoo. I think I'll be pretty close to done next week, so stay tuned for the final product!!

Pearl Jam

I have put up a new print in my store. It's actually not a new picture (I did it a couple of years ago), but one I love. It's a graphite drawing of Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, done on medium weight watercolour paper. The picture has a sketchy, textured look, but his face holds so much expression.

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder c.1992

                                                                           The images I used to draw this picture came from around 1992, when the band was still new, and you would see Eddie standing, looking at the crowds in absolute wonder during shows. It's often been said that Eddie was uncomfortable with the sudden and massive rise to fame that they all had. And in a lot of photos you can see the amazement in his expression. You can see that he is just taking it all in, cause you never know how long it will last. In their case, it's lasted a pretty long time - the band just last year celebrated their 20th anniversary with a weekend festival (which very sadly, we couldn't attend).
Anyway, when I drew this, I just wanted to capture that feeling that you could see on his face. So I found several pictures that had that look, and a few that had him standing in the position I wanted, and I merged them as I drew. In all, this picture took a couple of hours from start to finish, and it ended up being exactly how I saw it in my head before starting.
Pearl Jam has inspired a lot of my work, and the band will always hold a very special place for me, because if it wasn't for our mutual love of the music, my wonderful fiance (very soon to be husband) and I would never have met.
So I guess that makes me love this picture even more.

Lighthouses!

So I'm feeling like a very smart cookie today! I have linked my website and my facebook page as well as my new online store to this blog! Yes, that's right, I now have my very own personal online shop created purely for selling my work!

At the moment it has a few prints in it, but as time progresses I'll be adding other work as well.

Still working on my lino cut for printmaking - as promised, here is the lino with most of the white areas already carved out.

Lighthouse Linocut

And here is one of the first part of my transcription painting. He already has the beginnings of an awesome looking mohawk!

First draft of Grammatica transcription

I'm also working on a series of lighthouse paintings, two are finished, and I am about to start the third. When I get my images rotated properly, I'll post the two I've already done! The third one is going to be of Split Rock lighthouse which is believe it or not, in Minnesota, USA. Now, yes, Minnesota is in the middle of the country and you would think they wouldn't really need lighthouses, being so landlocked. But the state does border Lake Superior, which is one of the world's biggest inland bodies of water I believe. So they DO need lighthouses for the freight ships to navigate the cold and icy waters!

That's it for today I think...see you all next time!

All About Me!

Welcome to my blog! Here you will be able to follow my art journey, find links to buy my work, hear about exhibitions, markets...whatever happens to pop up! 

I am currently studying for my Diploma in Visual Arts through the Brougham School of Art and Photography. When I'm at school, I get to immerse myself in all things art; painting, drawing, printmaking and art history! I absolutely love it, and with a little luck and a whole lot of perseverance, this will become my living. 

So follow my progress on here, I promise I will try to post regularly, and always post informative ramblings! 

So to start with, I guess I'll talk about the projects we're currently doing at school. We are working on a Transcription in painting. My painting to transcribe is The Theorbo Player, by Antiveduto Grammitica, c.1620-ish. This painting is actually a smaller part of a larger original painting, containing other musicians. Originally the Theorbo player was looking at a woman playing a harp.

The Theorbo Player - Antiveduto Grammatica c.1620

 So the idea is to grid up a canvas and copy the composition exactly, yet change it up so that the image is modern. I plan on keeping the background simple, changing the lute (or Theorboed Guitar) he is playing to an electric guitar, and giving him an awesome mohawk! Stay tuned for pics once it's done.

In printmaking we are working on reduction lino cuts. Making lino prints with multiple colours, by progressively cutting away the areas you want to stay the printed colour. Sounds confusing, and at first it really is. But once you get into the idea of basically working backwards, and get cutting, it's not that hard at all!  Tomorrow I'll try and get around to posting a pic of what the lino looks like as you cut it.

That's probably about it for now. Not bad for a first post!