Green Woman, self portrait..

I suppose it would happen. I decided to do a self portrait….. I seem to do them once in a decade. The last one was a drawing about ten years ago.

I’m not sure if painting myself as a Green woman will work, but hopefully it will compliment the portrait of my hubby as a Green man. I’m thinking of offering to do them as portraits for people who are interested in the pagan world.

I’ll share more as it progresses. X

Painting upside down.

Sometimes it’s hard to see whether something looks right in a painting. Then I try turning it upside down. It really does give you a different perspective. In the case of the painting I’m doing it also allows me to get closer to the top of the picture as I’ve got it propped up on a chair.

Eyesight is another problem. If I’m staring at my phone looking at the image it’s hard for my eyes to accommodate (called presbyopia) where the lenses in your eyes get stiffer as you get older, so they don’t focus as well.

I’m now starting to paint the cracks in the window frame paint. I may come back to the clouds (thanks Martha, a bit of finger painting helped).

I’ve rotated the photo back to the vertical on my camera so I can look at it without moving the canvas. Eventually I will turn it back the right way so I can paint the bottom half. It’s going to take a while…..

X

Progress?

I’m having a rest and trying to decide whether I’m happy with this. I think the width of the frames of the windows need widening….. Also I’ve been using quite a thin white paint which does not have enough pigment in it. I think I will need to strengthen it. At the moment I’m just using cobalt blue, titanium white and a black. I don’t know whether to add a bit of yellow into the sky and window  frames, or some violet. But that will happen as I build it up. The image is slightly stretched horizontally. I’m wondering whether to strengthen the blue.

Dragon eye

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Tiny painting for the craft fair. I’m experimenting again. I’m doing normalise things but also things to catch the eye. Tiny paintings need tiny brushes, and my eyesight is not as good as it was. Shaky hands, holding my breath. Sometimes it’s hard to get the effect you want.

X

Run out of red

I want a light red

Not a pink

Not orange

Crimson?

Perhaps,

Maybe vermilion,

Something punchy,

Not magenta,

Not alizarian

Not a deep cadmium red (hue)

So many names

But which one will be right,

What is the correct tinge?

Works in progress

Paint laid on paint,

Building up layers,

Blood red?

Maybe if I put my heart into it.

 

Painting again

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I’ve just started this poppy painting. It’s on a black canvas about 12″ square.

I’m hoping I will be able to build up a depth of colour and detail  because of the dark canvas. It’s acrylic on canvas and is going to be big and bold. I need to work on the colours in the poppy but also in the greens of the foliage. I should finish it in the next few days. This is like a practice piece as I have another two black canvases to work on. Not sure what the subject will be.

Busy painting

My friend took these on Friday. I was busy painting a willow pattern background for the penkhull mystery play.

I’m hopefully finishing it next week. I’m about half way through so it should be done on time. It’s a painting on calico that had been primed with white emulsion so the paint does not go on easily and it’s a bit wrinkled where the emulsion has dried. Anyway I will persevere. Then I’m hopefully getting some new paintings done for a craft fair and an exhibition in September. It’s all go!

Owl

 

 

I started a new painting last night. It began as a spiral, but then I found a photo of a great grey owl so it’s morphed. I’m quite happy with it as it is as a sketch, but I will finish it. I’ve got a few half finished paintings but I haven’t had the energy to do them over the last few days. Anyway the background is going to be of acer leaves, the ones that look like fingers, because I want to give it a feel of autumn.

Might do a bit more today. I usually do a lot of things on a Thursday but I’m not up to it._20190516_205231

Done some more x