Two new art works.

 

watercolours, acrylics.

'This way to the den.'  Watercolours, 9 by 12 ins., paper.

g up th

'Climbing up to get a better view'.   Acrylics, 12 by 16 ins., paper.

I've been working on these 2 off and on. 

Life has been eventful recently, to say the least, and fitting in some art, and getting into the mood to paint has not been easy, but I feel as if I am getting back into the swing of it gradually.

Bye for now.  I will re-publish my blog when I am fully back in the swing!!

Wanna help me fly the pink balloon?

 Mixed media.

'Wanna help me fly the pink balloon?  Mixed media, 12 by 12 ins.

Here is White Rabbit and her friend Gorilla, playing  with a pink balloon, in wonderland!

Have a good weekend.

June.

Painted wild dog.

 Acrylics.

'Painted wild dog from Africa'.  Acrylics, 12 by 12 ins, paper.

'2 birds in the bush'.  Acrylics, 12 by 12 ins, paper.

Returned to working in multicolour for these two works this week.

Doodle sketches. We squeeze into the picture.

 Pen,

'We squeeze into the picture.'  A6 sketchbook, pen.

'The alpaca kid.'   A6 sketchbook, pen.

'The big cat.'   A6 sketchbook, pen.

'Pet dog.'   A6 sketchbook, pen.

A few doodles from my tiny sketchbook.

This weekend is the UK's ...Queen Elizabeth 2....Jubilee celebration weekend.  Platinum Jubilee...celebrating 70 years as Queen of Britain.

Have a great weekend.

Bye for now.

Feed the birds. Watercolour art.

 Watercolours.

 

Fantasy.

'Feed the birds', Watercolour on A4 paper.

Realism.

'Gone fishing,'  Watercolours, Paper 7 by 11 ins. approx.

Some watercolour practice this week.   

Birds seemed to want a showing this month  It is Birdtober apparently, but I'm not following along with this project.  Coincidence only.  I only just found out about it!

Birds look deceptively easy to draw or paint.  But they come in an assortment of colouring and patterns, behaviour and poses, which  can be a bit overwhelming for the painter.  I bought a bird identification book this week so hopefully that will help with painting these wonderful creatures well.

My fantasy work is from imagination, where anything goes, and my kingfisher was from a photo reference on PMP-art.com.  They have an excellent array of photos on many subjects, not just animals, which are free for artist members to use.

Here's a link.

PMP-art

Have a lovely weekend.  Do some art!!

Bye for now.

From Susie and June.

P.S.  She likes to sit on my knee when I am painting!

Hold on tight. Animal mother with baby. Watercolours.

 Watercolours, graphite, photo.

'Hold on tight', watercolours, 7 by 11 ins. approx., on paper.

'Walking along',  graphite, A4, paper.

'Hello October'  photo.

I was interested in the giant anteater from South America, this week.  Mainly because I have a plastic toy anteater... and also because it is a very unique looking animal.

It has so many unusual features: like that long nose with a long tongue for licking up insects, and that huge tail, which it uses as a blanket on cold nights, and also,  the mother carries her baby on her back.

In my watercolour sketch, I experimented with my new  Daniel Smith watercolours, using moonglow, french ultramarine, burnt sienna,  and black for the dark coat of the anteater.  Myrmecophaga tridactyla.  

And last, but not least:.

Hello from Susie!   Here she is hiding behind the mirror.

Happy October...its Inktober, if you like to draw ink art!!

Bye for now.

Animals, watercolour experiments.

 Pen, watercolours, gouache.

'Old yella.'   Barn owl.  Pen and wash, 10 by 12 ins., paper.

'White hare.'  Pen and wash, A4, paper.

'The lemur gang.'  Pen and wash, 7 by 11 ins., paper.

I am using inexpensive paper and paints to create these animals in my colourful watercolour style.  By using inexpensive supplies, I feel free to experiment with my supplies so that I get better aquainted with watercolour for future final works.  

That's the plan, anyway.

Paints used here are Japanese watercolours which seem midway between English watercolour and gouache, so I think you get the benefit of both in one paint supply.

Kuretake Gansai Tambi is the make of the Japanese paint I use, which I buy from Amazon.  Lovely rich colours, big pans.

We are having some sunshine after a grey week.  I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Bye for now.....

Gorilla and friends.

 Mixed media.

'Gorilla and friends.'  Mixed media, A5, cardstock.

A mixed media card with animals.   Seems to be my theme recently. 

I am enjoying making them and so I am neglecting my more realistic portrait studies.

Fun or work??

Have a good weekend.

June.

People mainly. #inktober2020.

 #inktober2020.  Pen, markers.

Day 16. Cat and dogs.

Day 17.  Me and my cat.

Day 18.  Marigold.

Day 19.  Elegant beauty.

Still managing to keep up with the #inktober challenge.  It is day 19 and here are the last 4 days of doodling-drawings,

Bye for now.

Painting intuitive animals.

 Acrylics (mixed media).  

'Lamb'.

'The proposal'.

'In the red mountains'.

Three animal paintings ....painted using intuitive painting technique.  All are around 8 by 11 ins on paper.

Basically, created using layers of paint and water soluble crayons. You can use as many or as few layers as you want to get a painted surface you rather like.  Then stop to see if any animals are suggested from the abstract painted shapes on the surface.  

I enjoyed focusing on making textural marks in the paint in this process....using scrapers and combs and other mark making tools.  I don't usually emphasize texture and so this aspect was new for me.

I had a happy time and I hope you like something here.

Bye for now.

 

Painting project- imaginary animals.

 Mixed media.

Set of 4 imaginary animal compositions. 12 by 12 ins., craft paper.

'The happy alpaca'.

'Hare under moon'.

'Bush baby has a Beau'.

2 dogs and a bird.

The abstract, or doodled, beginnings.

A mid-week project inspired by a tutorial from Traycee Alane.

On  a course by 'art is magic' studio.  Link below.

https://www.artismagic.online/

Bye for now.

Doodle animals.

Watercolour, acrylic inks

'Frog swims towards lily pad,' watercolour, 6 by 7 ins.,paper.

'An apple for the teacher,' acrylic ink, 6 by 8 ins., paper.

Journal page, colourful sheep, 7 by 10 ins., approx, paper.

Some doodle animals in colour for this week.  I used watercolour and gouache for the frog, FW inks for the Koala, and magic colour inks for the sheep.

Today, the sun has decided to come out ...it has been playing hide and seek all week.  I had my heaters off and on and off again!

Susie lies most of the day on the window ledge so she is warm enough whatever the weather.

Here she is on the chair.  Just waking up.

Bye for now.....

Linking to Paint Party Friday this week.

paintpartyfriday

White owl.

Acrylics.

'The white owl', acrylics, 12 by 12 ins., paper.

This painting reminds me of New Zealand,  Aoteaoroa.   Probably because NZ is the land of the long white clouds and rolling green fields,  where I lived for 13 years.  However, I didn't intentionally depict any NZ imagery.  Rather, I used the method of finding imagery in a gelli-printed base, blocked in a background around the figures which appeared there, and hoped there was some kind of story...even if a bit surreal.

That's all for this week due to a sprained wrist.

Have a happy weekend!

Link to Art bloghop at PPF.


paintpartyfriday

Bye for now.

Animal tamer

I painted imagery that originally turned up on an art journal page.  This is pen and acrylics, 'The animal tamer'.

'The animal tamer', pen and acrylics, 12 by 16 ins., Murano pastel paper.

I used a stencil in places on the background to suggest grasses, seeds, flowers.  Its a fanciful scene, taking place in an imaginary landscape, enjoyable to do.

Toby managed to walk all the way to the park this morning but I had to carry him part of the way back...he is getting too elderly for long walks so I will take the trolley next time to ferry him back home.

Bye for now....

Green iguanas sunning

There was a lovely photo of a green iguana in the WDE at wetcanvas this weekend.  I did a quick sketch in watercolour and then this morning I did a pen and wash painting.  Here is the pen and wash.

'Green iguanas sunning,'  10 by 14 ins., pen and wash, Arches paper.

I have signed up for the 100 paintings challenge and so I think I will do animals in watercolours as my challenge in order to get some practise and learn more about watercolour and anatomy, etc.

Here's the challenge link:

100 paintings challenge

That's all for now!

Animal-tamer, journal pages

For the DLP project, the theme this week was 'layers'.

'Animal-tamer', mixed media, DLP journal pages

I used mainly stencilling and some pen and some paint glazes on this page spread.

I started with tissue paper that had been painted in horizontal stripes, pasted that to my journal, and saw the animals and figure and so I emphasized them with pen and some paint glazes.  

If it was to be a painting for the wall, I think I might darken the creatures and/or lighten the background for better contrast but for journal pages and to get the idea down, this is OK for me.

It is easier to see the figures IRL.

Bye...

Good news Stork- acrylic painting

'Good news Stork', acrylics, 12 by 10 ins approx., card.

A scene in 'fairyland'.

I tried out a new thickener for acrylic paints in this painting...mainly for the landscape background colour.  It was very thin watery stuff in the bottle but it thickened the paint so well when mixed. It is called 'verdicker' and is by a company called  Rubens, a German supplier. I loved this stuff and will use it again..

Mandrill, coloured pencils

'Walking along the path', A4 size., cp on black canford paper.

I decided to use my coloured pencils for a change.  I don't use them much.  These are Derwent studio pencils.   This is a male Mandrill from a photo reference (creative common/wikimedia).  I tried to convey the bulk of the animal.  He has wonderful colourful facial patterns.

Diana monkey with figurine

'Diana monkey with ancestor figurine', acrylics, 9 by 12 ins, Murano paper

Diana monkeys are beautiful but they are endangered.  I was in two minds about whether to do this  painting with arbitrary abstract colour or with realistic colour.  In the end, I did a mid-way colouration. IRL the monkey is black and white with rust-red hind legs. 

In the ATC 'zone'

'Found dogs', ATC, mixed media

I was trying out a bit of printing using an overhead transparency sheet as my 'gelli plate'.  It worked OK for a make-shift printing plate.  And continuing the theme of 'found' animals; these 3 dog images appeared to me.  

1. Ready to play

2. Hairy dog

3. Don't chase ducks

I ordered a 'real' gelli plate as a Xmas present to myself and I am eagerly awaiting its arrival.  I think the printed patterns will be great for backgrounds for paintings and for journalling etc....