Day 79: Rock Llama

Today was the day I thought I would get ahead a little and maybe make two things...Before I spent half a day on FB. Anyway, I often make things I see, this little lady comes from Mollie Makes craft magazine. But even though I am making something using someone else's idea I try and put my own spin on it. Hence instead of pretty pastel colored fluffy llama I made a fuschia rock llama sporting an earring. Still very cute though.

While I was stitching away my husband went to the garden and made THIS!

I could have cheated there and just pretended I made that too, but that would be only flower arrangement I would have made so clearly suspicious. I can't put any flowers together. Please observe how it hangs over on one end to create a pretty spread :) 

And below is just a picture of my one-eyed cat Poppy, who is usually creamy white but from now until autumn rains will permanently be dirty grey due to her love of rolling in dirt :) Also she is not allowed on the bed when that dirty but they obey as long as I am in the room. As soon as I turn my back the rules are scratched out and we start from zero, me going no, no, no and they looking at me like I'm crazy...

Day75: Oil painting Thursday

Today was THE day of fur painting and that went nowhere...I tried a bit on back paws but everything I got is fuzz so I sort of gave up on that point. My painting tutor didn't really know what to suggest either so it will be another day with youtube learning. First I will have to get back definition I lost by my failed attempts. Hopefully I can do that and shrink it back a bit as everything tends to get bigger and bigger with more layers of paint. 

Having made a bad job on that I went on to my second painting - the Queen, as archetype rather then a particular person. I am following advice from a book on old painting techniques so I am adding colors one at time. The face is now ready for skin tones while the collar, the part I really like I am trying to build up from light and shadows. This, by the way, is a fashion photography I am painting from. I have another two photos and if everything goes well i would like to make three paintings.

Day 68: Oil Painting Thursdays

Really had good fun today with my painting, it os getting on. Today I have worked more on surrounding, putting in dark shadows for the grass and stones. Also worked on far back so it is more interesting. I get stuck every now and then and think omg I just don't know how to do this but then I get going again and it sort of sorts it self out. Fur is next on the list and then finally the grass and then it should be finished. My first oil-painting:)

Day 61: Oil Painting Thursdays

Day 47: Oil-Painting Thursdays

All my previous attempts in painting oils have turned into mud so I decided to go on a course and learn properly. This is my take on a cheeta that has been painted by a canadian artist who's name i cant remember. 

I will be doing this every thursday for several weeks now, plenty of time to make a mess out of it :)

Day 37: Cat for the girl

Liked making my art doll that much, I decided to give her a little friend; cat.

Day 27: Drawing on the right side of the brain

Once I was talking to a friend of mine about drawing and happened to say that I think that any artist should be able to draw. What I meant is that an effort is needed in order to make some sort of representation not that it needs to be a wonderful drawing. A lady that happened to overhear what we said  turned to me and said that she can't draw and what I was saying was rubbish. Well, each to it's own.
I am not  great at drawing but I do enjoy it and I am trying to work on my drawing skills. I have been following Betty Edward's technique on drawing with the right brain.
Basically, it is a technique that gets the left brain to finally shut up and stop rushing and judging and let the right brain draw what it sees.

I am showing my attempts here in order to share the fact that drawing does not come down to talent but hard work and understanding of what we see. While I am good at drawing and painting my inner world, I hugely struggle with perception and lines as well as shadows and light. I see my self as 'straight-line dyslectic', understanding straight line as well as numbers poses a challenge for me. It takes me a lot of working out in order to be able to put it on paper while other things I breeze through. But in order to be a complete artist I need both so I there is nothing to it then try and improve.

I am particularly pleased with the chair as it was a real challenge to get it together. I started with the small space between chair rest and seat and worked my way out from there piecing it together. The portrait of my cat Missy was much quicker as she moves all the time. I managed to catch her shape on my plastic viewfinder (basically a plastic overhead sheet that I draw lines on while looking through it and it makes 3d into 2d) and then photographed her while she still sat there. From those two items I produced a much more realistic drawing then my previous attempts. This is also first time I have successfully used erasing technique to create highlights.

Day 20: Inner child satisfied - check!

Some of you might know, some of you don't, but when I was 12 years old, my family and I had to leave Croatia and flee to Sweden due to the war. On the way, we stopped in Germany for three months to catch a breath so to speak. 

Being from an ex communist state, we weren't used to consumerism of Germany and especially as a child my eyes didn't know what to do with themselves from amount of toys and art stuff they were seeing. Of course we couldn't afford to spend one single shilling as we didn't know what lay ahead. So looking was about it. 

At that time or maybe later, I have seen one of those Scrapefoil Gold engravings and thought that was amaaaazing art :), as kids do, but my parents could not afford it. Years passed by, we arrived to Sweden as refugees and had to scrape on the bottom of society as it is common. Things improved, and thanks to my husband's never-dying optimism and encouragement I have a lot of art stuff now. 

So the other day I saw this tiger and all these things came back to me so I thought, damn it, I'm having it, silly as it may be. So here it is...one scrapefoil tiger to satisfy inner child. 

Day Nine: Catapoodle

A cat knitted with some sort of shaggy wool that is like a poodle fur equals Catapoodle. Made from 50g Noro Silk yarn, which is really expensive but this particular skein comes from a charity shop. It sort of knitted a bit like a rug but the colours turned out nice. This cat is really easy to knit but as the face was a bit flat I did some needle sculpting to bring out features. It's funny how it turned into a male cat.

 For all of you who would like to make on, it only takes one evening, here is the link, beware of foul language though: http://geobabe.livejournal.com/227621.html