Barefoot Wanderings

Sketches & Watercolour

Some doodling and playing with watercolour paints.
Each page was done over a few days, snatching moments to create!

 

Lion and an Update

Oil on Canvas Board- 40cm x 30cm

This lion was another exercise from the book "Oil Painting for the Absolute Beginner" by Mark & Mary Willenbrink.

I mixed too much of the green:

Windsor & Newton Cad Yellow
and
Lefranc Bourgeois Phthalo Blue

and so used the excess for another background, will be interested to see where this leads.

and here is an update on my other creation

What a beautiful smile! He is such happy bubba.He's a good eater and sleeper, I am not saying he's perfect but I'm not complaining. These photos were taken a month ago (which proves I need to take more). He is now almost three months old!

Sunsets & Pears

Sunset
Oil - 25cm x 30cm

This is my first completed oil painting from an exercise in the book
"Oil Painting for the Absolute Beginner" by  Mark & Mary Willenbrink.

With the Background dried I painted the tree and grass using Windsor & Newton Magenta.

The background from the last post, created from cleaning my brush, has turned into Pears....

Pears
Oil - 20cm x 22cm 

I used the following colours on the pears:
Windsor & Newton - Cerulean Blue, Cad Yellow Hue, Burnt Umber and Titanium White

For the blue background I used:
Windsor & Newton - Cerulean Blue and Titanium White

Oil Painting

I have wanted to try painting with Oils for quite a while, more than a few years, but the only steps I took were to buy a few tubes of basic colours and some brushes. 

When I found this book (the same time I bought the colour pencil book) I thought for some reason that now was the time!

"Oil Painting for the Absolute Beginner" by  Mark & Mary Willenbrink.

This is a good book if you all looking for some direction. It is step by step but by no means does it include every detailed step.

Here is my first attempt, this needs to dry before adding the next details.

Oil 30cm x 25cm (10 x 12 inches)

I used the following oil paints either mixed or on their own:

Windsor & Newton - Cad Red Hue, Cad Yellow Hue, Titanium White and

Lefranc & Bourgeois - Japanese Yellow Orange (in place of Cad Orange Hue),  

I had quite a lot of paint on my brush and so cleaned it off onto another canvas board creating this background.

Painting with oils is quite different to acrylics and it is going to take some getting use to. I think it will get easier when I stop trying to paint with them as I do acrylics. 

Zentangle, Copic & Music

Some other little pieces that I have done that are quick, simple and fun.  

Zentangle 

I was given this beautiful box of goodies as a Christmas present from my wonderful friend Megan. 

The little booklet gives some great patterns to choose from, there's a 20-sided dice with a corresponding chart if you don't want to think of what to do next or you can just do you own thing.

It is a lot of fun to do, and the whole family has had a go.

These are some tiles I have completed.

and here are some little gift cards
 

For Mother's Day I was given some Copic Marker, I haven't had much of a play except to do this flower.

 

Listening Pleasure:
Two CD's that have had a fair amount of play time are "Science & Faith" -The Script  and  "Wonders of the Younger" - Plain White T's

"Rhythm of Love" -  Plain White T's

 

Quick Update

My Internet connection has been playing up a little so have not had a chance to post. I also now have Photoshop Elements 9 for my MacBook so have been busy loading and tagging photos. The fun (and probably pulling my hair out) is yet to start.

I have completed a Colour Pencil picture over a few days.
Here is my Giraffe ... 

This is from the same book as mentioned in previous post. What I find amazing is the name of coloured pencils. I don't have all the colours that is suggested but I find a close match and even in this case 'mixed' colours to match those listed in the book. I use Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils. The colours I used are as follows:
    Light Ochre, Ochre, Deep Cobalt, Terracotta,  Van Dyke Brown,
    Cedar Green, Bistre, Burnt Ochre, Dark Orange and Black

I have also done a couple of little watercolours in my journal....

.... not thrilled with result as I had imaged something much better but glad to have created.

 

Small & Simple

Keeping things small certainly makes creating easy to achieve, and making it simple also helps. I have taken to using my Watercolour Travel Kit that I put together for GPP Crusade 17 but never used.

Here is the compact kit......

The journal is only 9.5cm x 7.5cm when closed.

Here are two pages I have completed...

Poppies and Pears:

 

Small Scale

Because of the new man in my life I feel limited in the time I have to create.
When I actually manage to go into the studio I am a little overwhelmed by anything big or even reasonable in size, and feel I can't commit. As much as I desire to smoosh some acrylic paint around I hesitate thinking as soon as I get going I'll probably have to stop having no idea how settled he'll be. I have resisted starting anything. 

So I decided my acrylics will have to stay where they are for now, my best bet is to go small and with products that can be left at a moments noticed without perishing or ruining anything.

Solution: Drawing, Coloured Pencil work and Watercolour Pans.... I do not have strong skills in any of these.

Here are some previous attempts at Coloured Pencil Work....

Getting the blend of colours right isn't as easy as it looks.
Along with the fact that it is probably not the best time to learn new tricks, because of the tiredness, I went looking and found a book that gave good guideance and templates so the thought of What to create was also made easier.

I found this book..... 

Colored Pencil by Eileen Sorg for Walter Foster  and I liked the price tag too!

These are the pieces I have done so far......

I used Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils.

As I said before, I haven't done a lot with Coloured pencils or Watercolours but keeping things small and easy makes the task easier to start.... and eventually finish!

BTW - I also found a great Oil Painting book for beginners that also gave instructions and projects to complete. I have wanted to try this medium for a long time, and am waiting for the day things 'settle' down a little. It will be a while but in the meantime it makes me smile when I see the book so that can't be wasted money!

My Latest Creation....

 

Introducing Nicholas
Born 6.58pm on Monday 7th March 2011 
Weighing 2940 grams & 47cm long.

 

My other two were excitedly awaiting his arrival and have really fallen in love with him.

 

In A Scrape - GPP Crusade 44

It's been a while but I thought I'd play along in this months GPP crusade.
This one is all about scraping the paint on and not using brushes.

Here's the final result:

 

Technique:

Step 1

Square Journal with Black Pages 

Paint: Matisse Off White

Tool: Used plastic Gift Voucher (similar to Credit Card)

Straight from the jar take paint with card and scrape vertically down the pages.

Allow to dry.

Step 2:

 

Paint: Matisse Southern Ocean Blue (Phthalo Turquoise),
Brilliant Allizarin (Crimson) and Off White

Randomly scrape Blue & Red over page.

I then scraped some Off White over the top. 

Then added a little more scrapings of blue & red.   

The paint was quite thin and dried very quickly so there was no muddy colours.

Step 3:

Paint: Matisse Carbon Black

Stamps: Fancy Flourish Set - Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous

Using a brayer, I applied paint to stamps and randomly stamped the images over the back ground.

I stamped the wording on a manilla tag. 

I then added fibres to he hole in the tag.

I then selected the Collections image of the woman, cut it out and scraped the edges across a black ink pad.

 I used mounting tape to adhere the tag and double sided tape to adhere the image to the pages.

For a slightly different take on this challenge see my previous post Autumn Dancing.