Ode to Ms Moss...

Added a tiny bit more colour. This is actually inspired by a photo of Kate Moss. It looks nothing like her, I know, I didn't want it to. I just liked the pose and the mask. It's been interesting working on this as the reference was a quite grainy black and white photo so I have had to use my artistic license with a lot of it. I have noticed before that I often am a bit of a slave to the reality of my references and this can get in the way of developing my art the way I want it to go.  I'm still not sure what background to do, I'm thinking a nice pink at the moment, inspired by a Damien Hirst butterfly painting I saw at his exhibition at the Tate Modern. I love this pink, to me, it's not girly or sickly, it's kind of soft and vintage. I think I might have trouble mixing this colour.



 For Boys and Girls - Damien Hirst

Some progress........

Adjusted the shoulder, dress etc. Added tone and detail to hair....don't know whether to keep it simple in the background so that I actually get this one finished! 

Started a new piece.......

I have such a bad habit of starting work and never finishing it. I just seem to lose motivation for particular pieces but I know this is mostly down to not planning things out first in my sketch book! Something i'm always telling my students off for! It's just I get excited for a new piece and I just can't wait to get started! I'm keen to resolve the issues I had on previous pieces, with new pieces. So it will be interesting to see how far I actually get with this. I think part of the problem is never having enough time to have a good run on a piece...sometimes it takes a good hour or two to get into the artistic groove, if you know what I mean, and then when things are just starting to flow, I realise its gone 11pm and I know I will regret staying up longer when the kids are up and about at the early hours......3.30am this morning with Edward for example!

Finished DNA.....maybe?

"DNA" Oil on paper

After drinking a glass of vino quite quickly last night, I threw caution to the wind and slapped the paint on, I am much happier with this now, it's much closer to my original vision. I feel that I have learnt so much from this painting by seeing it through and I am excited about starting a new piece using what I have learnt. I may even contemplate entering it for the Coventry open....I hate rejection though!

Doodles, doodles, I love doodles.......

Today I enjoyed myself doodling, inspired by my lighthearted paint splattering doodles yesterday. It's so therapeutic and addictive but I also think it is really helpful at seeing your work from a new direction. After doodling these birds, I'd quite like to study painting and drawing these in more detail by getting some reference material.

Face over stripes = like!

Hand sketched below was drawn in the car on the way to a soft play-centre. Hands are something I want to sketch more regularly as they are so difficult to draw, and as they say, practise makes perfect.....or better at least!

Pirate (WIP)

Pirate (WIP)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I feel as though my work is starting to progress in the right direction and it is definitely becoming less of a struggle. My main problem is just finding enough time to spend on it. I discovered instagram a while ago and was finally able to download the app today without breaking my phone. I took this photo using the instagram camera and it looked quite nice on my phone but now that I see it larger on the computer, it is a bit blurry and the colours aren't as rich as they looked on my phone. I'll have to keep on experimenting. I've still got some bits to work on with this piece, mainly the eye patch and the bubbles, but I am really bad at going back to things once I've worked on them for a day, I find I'm itching to start a new piece instead! There are a couple of exhibitions that I am hoping to submit work to soon so I suppose this is something that I'm going to have to tackle.

Lovin Graphite

Always Remember, Pencil study

Since becoming a mum of two i've had to really consider how much time I have to spend on my artwork. Graphite has become my new best friend again. Simple to use, cheap, quick and effective. Then when they are both in bed I can play around with adding colour to a few.

Always remember (adding colour)

To-To's Dream

To-To's Dream

A new WIP. Based again on Esme. This photo shows work in it's very early stages, the first wash has been applied, I worked loosely with this, using acrylic like watercolour. I also thought carefully about the colour palette I wanted to use. This piece explores ideas of children's imaginations. I wonder what Esme will think of all my paintings of her when she's older?

Butterfly....new beginnings

So this is my very first post, which I'm hoping will encourage me to do more art, more often! We'll see. I do have a lot of other things to contend with at the moment, being in my last trimester and having a 2 1/2 year old to entertain. But it's the summer holidays so it's as good a time as any.