Garden Adventures Part 1

A fun, impromptu family day in our garden that started when Jeff, my brother and my nephews cut down two palms near the house in preparation for the replacement of our back deck and green house.

Some serious cubby house building took place with the downed palm trees.

Hearing about all the action and not to be left out, my 'favourite' brother-in-law turned up prepared for action.

He brought my other nephew and my niece who joined their cousins for some wonderful, wild, gardeny adventures. For the first time they were allowed through the fence and down the 'far back' of our yard (we have 1/4 acre of wild bush and dam full of wildlife). 

 Lots of fun was had exploring the dry dam bed. 

A week later some nice rain filled this to almost 2/3 full. 

The girls had to stay on the other side of the fence.  They had tick collars on but we were making sure they were as safe as can be. As it was at the end of the day there were a few ticks pulled off the humans. I had 5 with four of them being paralysis ticks. Luckily they don't affect humans like dogs.

Open Studio weekend cancelled and garden plantings.

Just a quick note to let you know that our Open Studio event scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled.  After a busy week where I have found myself feeling like running to catch up all the time, I now suddenly find myself with an empty weekend stretching before me.  I might start it now!

Business attended to we shall now see what has been going on here at home.

I've been playing in the garden adding flowers to make me happy and lift my spirits. Lots of daisies.  To quote Meg Ryan, "Daisies are such a friendly flower."  Some pansies, roses and some startlingly red geraniums.  These are just some of the beauties that have come to live in our garden.

So much more has been happening in our yard and garden but I'll save that for another post!  Happy, happy, happy.  Flowers make me so delightedly happy.  Sigh.

Portrait update for Viv!

This is how my portrait progressed on Thursday afternoon.  Here the jawline has been reworked as has the mouth.  I've also started to fiddle with the skin tones, trying to make them more real to life. Remember you can click on the images to enlarge them.

Below you can see I have been starting to intensify the shadows around the jaw, mouth and cheeks.  The mouth has been widened too (I did this NUMEROUS times and then accidentally cut it back too far each time I cut back into it with the skin tones....doh!).

Here I have somehow managed to ruin the right eye so it looks too open yet droopy at the same time.  I will need to fix this on my next paint through.  I have aslo started to rework the hair which was fun. 

For the next paint through

• rework right eye (her left)
• start to resolve her wrap and hand - gulp. The hand gives me mild heebie jeebies.
• continue work on hair after working on bottom third of painting.

Making Progress

With limited time this week I have only made a small amount of progress on my portrait.  This is where I left it today.

I moved the eyes further apart and reworked, the mouth has been further defined and I've fiddled and faffed around with the right hand side of the face.

I thought you might like to see a compilation showing how the painting has evolved so far.

Don did a demonstration in class today and painted a portrait alla prima which was very interesting.  One BIG thing that I picked up - even though I watch him paint every week - was the way he held the brush at various stages of the painting.  I had a pen on hand so took a photo to remind myself and then put it into practice during my own painting time.  It felt very uncomfortable but I must admit that it made a significant difference to my application of the techniques I've been trying as well as the result.

Just so I have a reminder....here is how to hold the brush....

It helps you have a very light touch and enables you to manipulate the brush into a wide variety of positions very easily. So I will be trying to get used to this over the coming week and hopefully develop some proficiency and greater comfort holding the brush this way.

Portrait Update

I squeezed a small amount of painting time into my day today and managed to practice some new techniques that Don showed me in class last week.  I gave myself over to the techniques and didn't worry about  getting it right as I develop my skills.  It was fun and interesting to be brave and try a new approach that was more 'painterly'.

You can see where I have added some colour to the background and changed the horizon line of the lake so that it is no longer competing with the eyes and face of the portrait. I may move it further yet as it creates quite a visual line right across the painting with the folds of the shawl.  I have cut back into the hair reshaping it and will rework it so that it has whispy bits going back over the background if that makes sense. I rendered the left eye in using the new technique and have yet to refine the shape and size.  I have also moved the mouth to the right and have yet to paint over the original position which you can see showing through like a black smudge at the side of the present mouth.

If you are interested in the techniques I've been using - painting the image rather than drawing then 'colouring in' with paint, I've found two great YouTube tutorials that demonstrate what I've been doing.  Their technique and mastery far exceed mine of course!  Check them out if you are interested.

"Lloyd" by Zimou Tan

Demonstration by Sergey Gusev

Portrait Progress

The rough monochromatic underpainting I left you with last and a little peek of part of the reference I am using for this image.  I am actually using more than one reference for this which has confused me a bit but I'm working it out.

 Today in class I started to add colour.  The hair is intentionally wilder and bigger than it needs to be so that I can cut back into it with the background colours and then work back over it again with hair colour.

Here is Don demonstrating a particular technique for rendering the eye.  I get to further refine this and then use the technique myself to do the second eye.  Will try to remember to take photos to share with you.  If I was very clever I'd make a vimeo or youtube clip for you but that may be stretching my technological capabilities.  Also would put lots of pressure on me to 'get it right' for you! 

 Here the mouth and nose have been moved over to the right of the image as they were a bit off originally.  This is where I left off today.  Lots more to do but it is starting to come together.  Remember you can click on the images to see them at a larger size.

Studio Tour 2 and what's on my easel.

Life has changed quite suddenly and significantly for Jeff and I since my last, long ago post.  My brother and his two little boys have moved in so we've packed and cleaned a house that sold and made space here in our home for the boys.  They live in the rooms off my studio and having new demands on my time and having someone living so close to the studio has changed how I do things a bit.  I'm finding my feet again though and my health has coped really well with the changes which is great.

So, back to where I left off.....

The main wall of my studio which doubles as both display and storage for my art.  Yes my studio is YELLOW!!  Oh so yellow.

During Open Studio's the children's playroom doubles up as my gallery space and we bring tables in for Aannsha's felt and any textile art made by my sister and I.  This room is right next to my studio and joined by an open arch so it flows quite nicely as a viewing space.

As for what is on my easel.....I am studying portraiture at present and continue to be amazed that I quite enjoy it!  I am currently painting a young Merryl Streep in the French Lieutenant's Woman. 

I prepped the canvas in a warm tone and then drew a very rough image on with charcoal.  I was less than happy with this and it sent me into a state of anxiety.  My homework was to complete a detailed drawing to then paint over.  I became so anxious and scared to draw that I threw out my class instructions (sorry Don!) and used the painting technique I use when painting animals....block in large shapes with a big brush and focus on tones.  I rubbed out most of the charcoal and then just went at it with the paint.

I had previously mixed up a tonal run of colour using Burnt Umber and white and used that to just get some paint on the canvas.  I was in such a tizz that I ran out of paint and just kept stretching it across the canvas as best I could.  It NEVER occurred to me to mix more.  What a dill.  As you can see this is very rough and was done very quickly.

 

Starting to refine the image.  Looking at the photograph I see some hard edges and splotchy bits of paint that need attending to.  A lot more work needs to be done to refine and accurately depict the face and hand but I'll get there. She doesn't really look right at present.  I may also change the waterline in the background and move it up or down a bit.  Not sure about that. 

Here is the paint run that I used to work on this tonal underpainting.  I used Burnt Umber for my dark and Tinting white with a trace of the umber for my lightest light. I made a value scale from the two and worked from this.

Here is an example of a portraiture palette I had set up for another exercise.  The image has rotated strangely and I use this with the colours running down from dark to light on the bottom (rotate left 90' in your mind!).  First is a cool run of colours, then bronzes and then warm.  Unfortunately these colours are not quite right for this current portrait so I'll have to work out how to mix the right colours to match the skin tones and hair for this portrait.

I'm off to work on this portrait in class tomorrow so will photograph my progress and post it for you now that I've come back to blogging.  Can't wait to see what the other girls in my class have done. There was some great work last week - I of course am dragging along behind everyone!