Damaged Mandala Love ;)

A little over a month ago I posted a process picture "here" on my Facebook page of a mandala that I was working on. (Below, with one of my lil' chihuahuas Midge, is the last process pic I have before yesterday) I really liked it, the colours and design were coming along quite nicely, then I discovered a little snag on the edge of the wood where it was coming apart - of course I tugged on it thinking I could just pull it off but I ended up ripping an entire strip from the surface of the wood! :'( There was already a line through the surface as well so you'd think I would've been a little more cautious! (In this pic you can see the damage in the top left corner - even lil "Midgey" looks sad about it, LOL) But I decided that rather than toss it, I'd continue to work and experiment on it - after all, everything has its flaws! ;) ;)

Below is the rest of what I painted yesterday on my deck in the sun...still really enjoying this little project!

I haven't quite finished all the water shading (just put the colour down with watercolour pencil) but I am already mulling over ideas for this lil piece... possibly as a background for making bookmarks and postcards, etc with text... I really like it and don't want to waste it! :) We'll see what happens with it!

Above is an example of one of the possibilities I was considering...just a wood grain filter put over top of the image - I thought it went really well with the damaged area! ;) Might as well go with it! :)

Thanks as always for popping by! :)

My First Buddha Painting :)

This is a little painting I did a couple of weeks ago that I posted to the facebook page here. I took some process pics of it though so I thought I'd post them in the blog for those of you who may not have seen it yet :) For those of you who have - here's the process pics! ;)

This piece was done on a left over wood panel that was originally supposed to have a print of mine mounted to it but I messed it up and had to tear it off and mount it to another wood panel :( Luckily I saved the original piece of wood though, I totally forgot I had it!

Below is the beginning of the painting - creating the background - always my favourite part! :) Plus a bit of the under drawing if you can see it...

This is the completed face using watercolour pencil and gold acrylic ink... the next step is the lotus flower...

The lotus flower is done with acrylic ink and grey water colour pencil for some of the shading. I also added a little more detail with the hair - also shaded and outlined with brown water colour pencil...

It's pretty much done in this pic, I added the stem to the lotus (water colour pencil only) and rubbed some burnt umber around the corners and edges with a dry cloth for a slightly worn/vignette look :)

After a lil' more definitive tweaking and shading (hair and facial features mainly), voila! The finished piece... :)

I really enjoyed painting this one, it was such a calming subject to paint and everything went so smoothly, no big mess ups and I was generally satisfied with how the face turned out! One of my fave's for sure! :)

Experiments With Crackle Paste and Faces

Hello Guys!

It's been a few months since I last posted I know! Time has just flown by!  Though I have definitely neglected my poor blog, I have not neglected my art...(yayy!) I've been experimenting like crazy with different mediums and trying out different styles. One of the things I've been trying to work on is the incorporation of faces into some of my work. I always find this challenging as I've probably mentioned before! Here is a glimpse at some of the awkward stages of one of the recent projects I've been working on :)

Stage one :D
I had a nice little vision in my mind of what this would look like but of course it turned out nothing like I imagined, I almost didn't want to post it because I was so dissatisfied with it!

Acrylic and Watercolour on Wood

Right after this stage, I pretty much plastered the whole thing with Golden's "Crackle Paste" - a white, mousse-like substance that turns very chalky and dusty when dry, I actually had a sneezing fit! This is a totally new medium for me, I have used crackle finishes on wood before but never a "paste". I'll probably finish this jar to add texture to pieces but I can't see myself buying it again any time soon. It is incredibly fragile and almost immediately requires a protective finish to stop it from chipping and crumbling.

Anyhoo, I painted over it non the less, giving up on facial features completely and going back to abstract. This is what I came up with...

You can kinda see some of the "crackle" parts but mainly the medium just gave it some interesting background texture, which I loved. You can still see the flower outlines as well through the paste - more texture - yayy! :) But of course, I wasn't satisfied with this painting either... just wasn't feeling it at all.  Totally at a creative block. So I decided to go back to the original plan of working with facial features again, this time I was inspired by a Buddha face, even though the face itself turned out to look somewhat more "Egyptian" in appearance rather that Buddha-like, I still like how it turned out...much better than the previous two attempts! ;)

In the first pic, you can see some of the cracks a little easier (toward the bottom of the painting, chin area etc.)  You can also see a bit of the dust and chunks of the dried crackle paste scattered around and on the paintbrush to the right... messy stuff! (You can also see how disastrous my work space is - a 3ft x 5ft desk and that's the only open space I have - HAHA! Yikes)

I like that you can still see remnants of the original flower outline, I think it adds a little more to the image. I definitely learned a lot with this little experimental project and I'm glad I'm still pushing myself to incorporate faces even though it is uncomfortable for me. No other way to learn! :) I will most definitely be finishing this piece with a resin coating to seal and protect it. I think it will help bring out the colours a lot more as well. :)

 Mixed Media on Wood

10"x10"x1"

Thanks as always for popping by and having a look at my work :) Always appreciated as well as your comments and feedback!

Good Night Everyone! :)