Daisies Are Back...

I have finally gotten back to painting those daisies that I started I don't know how many months ago...I think last time we saw them, they looked like this:

Only the stems had been completely painted and a few bits of yellow on the top daisy. Well, now it looks like this:

Got a bit more done on the yellow daisy and started playing around with the orange one.  We just moved again and while I was waiting for a shipment of our stuff with my watercolors in it, I tried using watercolor pencils on the orange daisy. I didn't get too far and figured I'd just wait for my watercolors to show up. So now I will continue to work on these, and keep you updated on my progress :)

Also, over the summer, I also got a new paintbrush! 

I know, I know, you're so excited about it, too! Well, I told you I'm an art supply dork and stuff like this thrills me. I love this brush! It holds so much paint and water and it's ridiculously fun to splash paint around with it. So anyway, back to work!

Inspiration...

These roses grow right outside next to my apartment building and every time I walk past them, I notice just how beautiful they are. Some inspiration for future projects! 

These peach ones are actually in a park:

And this one is my favorite, I'm really excited to play with it:

Time to go get creative! 

The Barn Painting

I finished another commissioned painting about a month ago for my neighbor. (He's my best customer! haha). Sorry I haven't posted in a while, my Painter program where I edit my photos hasn't been working and I just got it fixed today (thank you, Fiance ;-) ) I don't like to post photos where you can see the background of where I photograph my work, it doesn't look too professional. :-/  So, here is the reference photo he gave me:

Here is my finished painting (watercolor and gouache on hot pressed smooth paper, 14"x20"):

Sorry for the poor quality photo. I took all these pictures with my phone and thought they came out fine.  Only when I uploaded them to my computer did I realize some were blurry, and by that time I had already given the painting to my neighbor. :-(  It looks much better in real life, I think. But anyway, here is how I got there:

I had first masked out all the trees and the moon with masking fluid and then painted the sky, using cobalt blue, ultramarine blue and permanent rose (I think those were the colors...). Once I was happy with the sky I started painting the background trees by basically scrubbing some shades of brown and purple into the background and blending it a little at the edge where trees meet sky. I removed some masking fluid to paint in the larger trees and started painting some of the darks in the barn. 

I started working more on the barn using burnt umber, burnt sienna, sepia and ultramarine blue. 

Putting the fence in using similar colors to the barn, burnt umber, sepia and ultramarine blue. 

Working more on the trees...

Pretty much finished with the trees and the fence behind the barn. 

Finished the trees and put all the snow on the branches, same for the fence and painted the snow on the ground (hard to see, I know, it's snow, but in person it looks better haha). All that was left was the shrubs and plants in front of the fence, and we're done!

And there again is the finished painting. 

Hope you like it!

Art Show!

Sorry to have been neglecting the blog again, this has been the most hectic month! First of all, my boyfriend and I got engaged! Yay! So I should say, my fiance... And then my fiance graduated from medical school 3 days later, YAY again! And family came, then we went on a crazy vacation. We were supposed to spend two weeks in Croatia. One week with his mom and sister and some friends, then a week just the two of us. Relaxing, unwinding, etc. Well the weather forecast for Croatia was nothing but rain for the whole time, so we decided to drive down to Greece where it would be sunny and hot. What an adventure driving through the Balkans. Then we came back to Krakow where all our friends were packing and leaving, then we went to Edinburgh to look for an apartment for ourselves, since that is where Fiance will be starting residency. Just got back last night. Whew! I have been working on some art and I honestly can't wait to have all of it done, as I'm pretty excited about all of it. I'm still working on that flower watercolor but I had to put it aside to work on the two other commissions. 

Anyway, I just realized I titled this post "Art Show" and haven't mentioned anything about an art show yet. So a co-worker of mine from NJ contacted me and said her theater company puts up kind of a gallery in June/July and said my artwork, florals in particular, were really fitting with what they were looking for and asked if I would like to be part of it. Sure! But since I am in Krakow, I had to call my mom and ask her to 1) Locate my artwork I wanted to enter (I knew exactly where it was, but still had to talk her through it) 2) Find out where I could do inexpensive framing, 3) Have my  mom take it to the framer and then pick it up when done and 4) Arrange my friend to pick up the work for me. So through a team effort, my work got framed and hung! It is for sale, so if I got a sale that would be so exciting! This is the artwork I entered:

So that's all for now, hopefully soon I can post a new painting! 

The Slacker's Guide to Making Art

Hi Everyone,

I'm so sorry I have been slow with the daisy painting demo. I promise I haven't forgotten about it! I painted a little more since my last post, but only about half of one flower lol. I will get it done, but maybe not for a little while. 

Life has been crazy this year, this is my boyfriend's final semester of medical school here in Krakow, he's graduating in less than two weeks!! We are moving to Scotland this summer, where he will be starting residency. Yay to finally making some money lol!! So we've been busy trying to figure out all these details, plus his family is coming to town for graduation, and then we're going on vacation with them. I've been slowly working on the daisies, even though I probably should have been working on the other two commissions I got before I came back to Poland.  I have to admit though, I was a little burned out from all the commissions at home and needed to paint something for myself. But a combination of lazy and other things needing to be done has put my art on the back burner. 

The other commissions I'm starting are for my best friend's sister for her wedding present and my neighbor who I did the dog and horse painting for.  My neighbor wants me to paint his barn, he has a photo he or his wife took just before sunrise with the moon still out.  I got the basic sketch done, and now I need to grid it, enlarge it and get it on the watercolor paper. (I'm doing a watercolor instead of acrylic painting this time).  

The second one for my friend is more complicated. (I won't reveal too much now, in case she's reading this. ;-) She knows it's coming, she just doesn't know exactly what it will look like yet). I don't have a photo to work from, just a theme and setting that she would like. So I have to hunt through all sorts of photos online to get ideas to totally make up a setting and place the figures in it. Then, with a combination of random photo sources, I need to make up the setting, make sure the lighting, perspective and all the figures are consistent and work together in my final piece without looking choppy. No sweat, right? lol. I'm excited though, I have a general scene now and it's going to be fun to paint. Of course I will post when I finish and have given it to her. 

That is about all for now, I will of course post updates on my work as I go. Happy Spring!

Part 3

Still working on this painting, although a bit slowly. Not going for photorealism here, just picking colors and having fun. I finally got the stems painted, and now will be starting on the petals! 

Daisy Painting Part 2

I've finished the background for the painting.  I definitely went a little crazy, and far out of my comfort zone with this one.  The end result though, was worth it and I really like it.  I'm still a little nervous, because obviously it isn't finished yet so it is still kind of in the "ugly stage".  Once I start painting the flowers, I will feel a bit better! 

First, I wet the whole paper with a large mop brush.  Then I picked some blues and purples and just started putting them all over the paper, and since it was so wet, I picked up the painting and moved it around, causing the watercolor to move around. I've never tried that before and it was really cool! The colors run, mix and blend in a way you can't get with pushing paint around with a brush.  So I let it dry, and repeated that process a few times, giving it several layers of paint. 

When I was turning the paper all around trying to spread the paint, it started dripping over my masking and into the flowers.  I decided to keep the spontaneity and let the paint drip through the flowers. Why not?! This is an experiment in loosening up, after all.  The drips and splatters will show through even after I paint the flowers, but it will give it some interest, I think. (Hope!) 

I then decided to add some texture, so using the back of my paint brush I just started scribbling into the paint like cursive writing.  I didn't write anything legible or of any significance, just scribbling because I like like look of cursive writing, but I didn't actually have anything to say lol.

I figured at this point, the masking is pretty irreverent, so I removed it.

After the scribbling, I did more layers of paint and let it dry. Then I started just using a wet brush to move some dry paint around, hoping to cause some blooms in the paint. I thought it still needed something, so I mixed up some very dark versions of the colors already used and started flinging paint at the paper randomly.  Some got in the flowers, but again, so what?! :) Flinging the paint was the most fun!

So now I have this crazy background and I hope it doesn't turn out ugly, but we will find out! The background is done, and onto the flowers! Stay tuned ;-)