New Work In Progress: Wolves

For the last few days I've been working on my second piece in my Abstract Illustration Animals series, the Wolves. 

The four photos show the progression so far: I started with a blank canvas which I slathered extra gesso and a couple of texture mediums. I then poured ink over it, letting it run in some places and using my hands to rub it in in other places. 

For this piece I was aiming to have the colours be reminiscent of the Northern Lights because I knew I wanted to have wolves be the focus of the work. Once the ink was done, I used oil pastels to create the colours of the lights and also added some colour into the base of the image. 

When that was done, I was pretty happy with the top half but felt that the lower half needed something so I added some white paint, just a little bit here and there. After analysing it for a while I decided it needed more white, so I used more white ink and rubbed it in with my hands. Then I was much happier with it!

 

I played around with quite a few images of wolves until I found the ones I was happy with and collaged them on. Now all that's left is to draw them with ink to finish the picture. What do you think?

 

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New Work In Progress; Sneak Peak at a New Series!

Last night I finished (bar the edges) a new piece. I have to say I'm kind of in love with it. A friend and fellow artist said that it's a requirement to be in love with your own art. But sometimes you aren't. Sometimes you are just ok with it. And that in itself is ok I think if you are trying to make a living as an artist, because the object is to get art out there, right? You don't necessarily have to love each and every piece so long as you like them and are happy with them overall.

But this one, I love. And I've figured out what this year will be, art wise that is. I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to focus on in terms of creating art, only knowing that I want to create lots of it this year. I'm applying for my first artist residency next week and while thinking about what I want to say in the application it got me to thinking about the direction I want to go in.

I love my wax paintings, and I know I want to continue to do more of them. But I also love the idea of still creating landscapes because artfully speaking, they're my first love. I do love abstract work and have been playing with the idea of abstract work but up until last night had no clue as to how to keep it 'me.' So for this year, I am going to work on three series' of works. My wax based works, with collaged images over the top, then I will also be working on what I am calling abstract illustration works for the other two series. One will focus on landscapes, the other will be animals.

You know when you make a decision and you just know it's right? Doesn't happen too often for me, but this time I know this is what I want to focus on. I watched an amazing Youtube clip the other week that talked about being successful as an artist and the one thing above all else that was reiterated through the whole clip, was to find and stick to your own style. Work in series and commit to it. That's me for this year. As I said to another artist friend the other day, 2014 is going to be the year of awesomeness and I for one am excited to get started!

On to my current work though, the one that has inspired all this excitement within me. This is 40 x 40" mixed media consisting of gesso, ink, collage and oil pastel. There are actually several layers of built up texture and colour which I think contributes to the overall feel of the piece.

My current plan is to have quite a few in this series: next up are a wolf and lion in two separate paintings, and after that I'm still thinking. What do you think?
Remember that if you'd like to learn how to do paintings like this you can sign up for my online workshops starting in March, and be sure to put your email in below for my once a month newsletter full of awesomeness.

It's super duper hot here currently and I know it's super duper freezing in other parts of the world, so wherever you are today I hope you are keeping cool, or warm as the case may be and are having an awesome day!

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New Work; Playing with Ink and Wax

While it's been pretty hectic here getting ready for Christmas, posting out orders from Etsy, shopping and wrapping presents, I have managed to find a little bit of time to work on some new mixed media pieces.

I've got two pieces on the go and ordinarily I would have them done by now but I guess even when you're WonderWoman you get tired and run out of time sometimes!
Anyway, I figured I'd share what I have done with you, with a little bit of an insight as to where I'm going with these pieces. Maybe I'd get some feedback as well.

 This piece is a wax based piece with collaged vintage book papers over the top. I have just begun using oil pastels to add colour to the papers as you can see in the above pic. My plan is to build up layers of tonal variations in the grey oil pastels, then Liquetex over the top to seal it. After that I will apply India Ink in black and white to create the illustration effect that I have pictured in my head. (Unfortunately I can't show you what that looks like because a camera that takes pictures of what you are thinking has yet to be invented....). If you look at some of my recent work you'll probably get the idea though.

 Melting the wax onto the canvas is so much fun, but so time consuming! And it tends to roll once you put the hairdryer or heat gun on it, so it can be a little frustrating to say the least! I love how it looks though; it reminds me of lava the way it liquefies and moves across the surface of the canvas. I also love the way it instantly stops when you take the heat away!

This next piece is smaller - the canvas squares are only 8" x 8" each. I have since added more vintage papers, kind of like eyelashes which I think works really well. My next step with this piece is to add more ink, some oil pastel and gloss, and to figure out which way up I want it to be!! What do you think?

So hopefully I'll have these pieces finished before Christmas; with the kids on school holidays it's still undecided whether that will help or hamper my efforts to get more art done!

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