A sudden urge to paint...

I was in the middle of writing a post earlier and I suddenly got what I can only describe as 'the itch' - that really strong urge to pick up a paintbrush, and a picture forming in my head. It's not the most technically perfect or accurate picture but I am pretty happy with it anyway and I thought I'd share.

Happy Friday! 

Love, 

H
Xxx

Drawing and painting

Something I really enjoy is creating little pieces of art for friends and family. I love trying to catch the play of colour and light, and when I paint or draw, I tend to be totally in the moment, losing track of time and frequently ending up covered in ink or paint to boot.  I don't notice when it starts to go dark, or my fingers go numb, or I've missed a meal.  It's the one creative hobby I have which totally engrosses me to the point I can't even manage to converse - not something I normally have a problem with, as any of my friends would tell you!

I've never had much success selling my art, although I have had one small commission (cost plus a notional payment - they used the images and I kept the paintings) from a poultry group we used to attend in Llanfoist (if you live nearby and keep poultry, they are a lovely, welcoming group and I totally recommend popping in!) to create images for notelets - a bit more about that later.  

The great thing about this is, as I have a job, I can just create things that I like, that make me and my friends and family happy, and develop my technique in the direction I want.  And if I am lucky enough to be asked by someone I like to create something special (sometimes at cost, sometimes for gifts) I can take my time over it.  As we don't have a lot of wall space in our little house, the pieces I keep tend to languish in my portfolio - but I enjoy getting them out and looking at them from time to time...

My normal media are pencil, pen or ink and brush on paper, or acrylic on canvas.  I adore (and prefer) the texture, look and feel of oil on canvas - but I just find that by the time the layers have dried I have had to put the painting aside and they never seem to get finished, whereas acrylics suit my reasonably quick way of painting.  You can see one of my acrylic paintings on this post.

 Working in pencil is one of the things I find both easy and difficult.  Graphite is really tactile and flexible as a medium - not to mention familiar, as a pencil was (for me) the first artistic tool I ever held.  Even before I knew I was interested in art or in creating it, I knew how to hold a pencil steady.  I think this is why I find it easiest to get a good finish with a pencil rather than a paintbrush.  

However, the flip side of this is I do tend to go for quite a realistic image when I use pencil which means focussing on detail.  I like to reflect the quality of light and textures - not that I am any expert at this - I still have an awful lot to learn.  One of the things I love about the internet is being able to see the work of people all over the world who are kind enough to share their technique and provide tutorials and information about how they like to work. The above portrait is one of my favourite pencil drawings, which I did about 3 years ago.

The same principle of familiarity applies to working in black pen.  I tend to opt for pen when I want quite a realistic image with lots of detail. I am really comfortable with a pen, having spent most of my school days with one in my hand - and as I doodle constantly I have to keep scrap paper near me at work, to stop me from doodling all over anything important!  When I am thinking, drawing just helps me get my thoughts in order.
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I mentioned earlier that I had a request from a poultry group to create images to be used on notelets.  I did four sets of images - and the pen drawings were among my favourites.  Here are two (apologies for the less than ideal photos!)  These were drawn from photos - mainly because it's pretty hard to get birds to sit still to have their portraits drawn.  

The above picture is of a gosling in a teracotta bowl, and the image to the right is of a silver Sebright. I thought the black pen would be ideal for picking out the detail of down on the gosling, and the beautiful laced feathers of the Sebright.  I was really pleased with the results.

The other medium I tend to use is coloured ink, applied with a brush.  I quite often paint with ink, and I love the way the bright, easily blended colours that go down quickly on paper, reminding me of stained glass, and simultaneously of cartoons and comics.  I also enjoy being able to use a slightly more stylistic technique.

This rooster is based on a photo in a poultry magazine.  I know from keeping chooks myself that every bird has its own personality, and I loved that this little guy seemed so sure of himself and stood in such an interesting pose.  

I also thought that the colours of his comb and feathers and the sheen on his wing and tail would really lend themselves to being painted with the bright colours of ink.  

The rooster was one of the early images I did in this style.  It isn't the most perfect image I have ever created, but even now I really enjoy looking at it.

The next ink image for the poultry group was this one of an ex battery hen.  You can see she is a bit bald and only has some feathers left.  This is not un typical for an ex battery bird - I always opted for free range eggs even before I'd ever seen an ex batt.  However, after helping hand out these poor girls to new homes during a day helping out my sisters in law (who volunteer for the fantastic British Hen Welfare Trust) ex batts are close to my heart.

I now try to avoid any product that has non free-range eggs and try never to eat chicken unless I know it's free range.  The group members weren't too keen on this image of a straggly hen for their notelets (!) and voted for other images, but this was based one of the first chooks I ever had, so I love it.  She was called Honey because she was so sweet to us - though she was boss of all the other hens, ruling with an iron beak!  She finally grew her feathers back, and though she never laid had a comfortable 18 months of retirement.

The third is a picture of a turkey which I photographed on a day out with friends. The sheen on his feathers seemed to shimmer a different colour with every movement, and I also liked his solemn, sad looking face and the shy way he would look at me when I tried to take his picture, but at the same time standing between me and his hen to protect her.

The final image I created for the group was of a white runner drake. They have such interesting lines and angular bodies.  This one was a real joy to paint and turned out almost exactly how I imagined it would. I tried to keep it really simple, using just black, blue and orange to give the impression of light, and hint at his downy feathers.My sister fell in love with this image - so I popped it in the post to her at Christmas time as a nice surprise.

 
I also paint pictures of food and a few other things in this way, but I really enjoy painting birds and animals, so the last of the ink images I want to share (just because I like them) are of Canadian wildlife. 

I painted these for friends in Canada who are really outdoorsy and have two little girls.  The Canada goose and a young Arctic hare are in slightly more muted tones than the images above and have a slightly more natural look, though they are quite stylised. 


Well, at the end of this very long post, I'd like to thank you for reading to the end! 

I really hope you have enjoyed the images I have shared - and if you'd like to post up links to any art you may have created, including photos, I would love to have a look, so please do share.  I love looking at the way other people see colour and light.  

Night, lovely followers!  

H
xxx

My favourite project of 2013

Okay, so the title's a bit of a fib. I actually had at least 2 favourite projects of 2013 - though one is currently lost in the mail and I am hoping against hope it will turn up, so I don't want to spoil the surprise - hopefully I will be able to post about that later.  This one was by far the biggest though - it took weeks to complete, but I was delighted with the end result. 

Favourite childhood teddy

I have two very dear friends who are sisters, and the older of them (though she's still younger than me by a little) had a milestone birthday recently.  I wanted to do something really special to celebrate, and she had specifically asked for a homemade gift.  An idea grew in my mind, based on all the memories we shared, and her love of bright colour, cartoons and all things nerdy.


I ended up using 2 double flat sheets, one very lightweight summer duvet, about 3 packs of Giotto fabric pens and a few weeks of my life!

First, I pinned up the sheet on the wall with masking tape and drew out a few images in pencil to give me an idea where to place things.  

I marked off the edge of the double sheet at the width of a kingsize duvet cover so I knew where to stop drawing.  

I quickly realised that the pens would run through onto the wall, so I then took the sheet down and used a book wrapped in a sheet of plastic to draw on.  

Favourite chocolates

I then learned that you have to stop occasionally and wipe the plastic down to stop the colour pooling and transferring back onto the fabric! However, if you do get the wrong colour on, it's easily fixed if the ink is still wet - with about 10 minutes scrubbing (I used wet wipes) and a little sotto voce swearing as required.


I had a lot of help from her wonderful sister (whose present I am already plotting about) who snuck photographs of teddies, gave me new ideas about pictures I could include, like one of a dolphin, and was so supportive and encouraging as she always is - so welcome, as she is an amazing crafter with a great eye for colour and design.


Finally, I finished drawing, and hung the sheet up. But it was missing a little something.  I decided to use her love of astronomy as inspiration, and filled all the white space with little coloured stars.  I ironed it all over to fix the colour, then washed it to get out any pencil marks, and ironed again.

I then pinned the edges together around the lightweight duvet, got out my long suffering Singer and sewed it together.  I overstitched around a few of the items to make them stand out, sewing in the ends by hand.


Finally, I handed it over.  Here it is on the bed (lightness is due to flash, the colours stayed fairly bright), and I have to say, I was pretty delighted with the finished look - and thankfully so was my friend!

Hope you enjoyed - and if you are crafting today, hope you have fun

H
xxx