A Portrait of the Artist

I so wanted to be finished with my landscape this week, but instead it's on the naughty step.  It's fine, the composition is good, the work I've done I'm happy with . . . it's just doing my head in!  So it's in time out for a bit whilst I refill my enthusiasm reservoirs.

I've also ordered some finer paintbrushes online which will help with the fiddly bits, the lack of which is probably a part of why I've been feeling frustrated.  There are just so many grasses, and the ferns are so delicate, trying to make a good stab of it with a slightly too wide brush was leaving me feeling clumsy and making it feel like hard work.  I'll come back to it when they arrive.

That's the naughty step, on the wall behind me.  (I do love having a play with image editing apps!)

So in the meantime, I've started another dog portrait:

It's a French bulldog this time - they're such characterful little creatures.  The colour I've put on is a little too yellow I think - it needs to be more of a very pale brown - but I can soon sort that out.  I haven't had an open mouth to deal with before either, but I'm enjoying the mechanics of it!  Not sure what to do with the background yet - I think I'll go a bit more abstract and unfocused as the face will be quite detailed, but I don't think the cloudy grey is quite right.  !sigh!  This is so much more fun though!

Taking myself seriously! Yikes!

It goes against the grain somewhat to take myself seriously and promote what I do - I feel embarrassed, and it feels somehow cheesy and crass to mention that I make things which I think are worth buying . . . gaaah!  But I know I'm good at what I do, and if I want to ever make some sort of a living out of it, I've got to get over myself and just DO the things!

So this week I set up a facebook page to promote my artwork.  My intention is to try to do a WIP (work in progress) Wednesday - so I'll upload an animation of whatever I'm currently working on - and a Throwback Thursday - to gradually add in a selection of things I've made over the years without just doing a massive photo-dump.  I'm hoping that gradually I'll build up a good gallery of photos so folks can see what my work is about, and can easily message me from there if they'd like to commission or buy something.  I should probably start thinking about some sort of digital watermark . . . hmmm . . . ok that can be my next project!

I ordered a set of business cards too, and had great fun with a QR code generator, making links to my facebook page, blog and e-mail address.  I really hope they're at a good enough size and resolution to read properly from the business cards, or else I'll just have printed a pretty design on the back!  Ah well, I'll find out soon enough!

On to the art then - I've been working on a landscape this week (in portrait format, whereas my recent portraits have been in landscape format - nothing like being consistent!), from a photo I took earlier in the spring.  I feel like I'm maybe halfway through working on it:

It's a bit larger than my most recent paintings, and it feels like harder work.  Because there isn't an obvious single subject, I need to bring the whole canvas up to a similar level of detail, but at the same time because of the similarities in colour and tone between the foreground and background, I feel like I need to work across the whole painting at the same time.  I think I'm getting there for the most part - I've blocked in the darkest points now, so it'll be nice and dark in the shadows behind and between the foreground detail.  The little stream seems to read as water (I was worried that would be the tricky part), and the lumpy muddy bits on the path are helping with the perspective.  I'll keep at it and hopefully finish it this week.  I suspect I'll love it more as it comes together - there's something magical about the moment when you fix a little something in a painting and a portrait looks back at you, and suddenly it seems like more than just paint and canvas - will there be a moment like that for a landscape?  I hope so.

My other artwork for the week was a mad last-minute dash!  After school on Wednesday, one of my friends asked if I would be able to make a banner for the school ahead of the country dancing competition on Thursday night.  I love a challenge!

The fabric and the iron-on insects (which represent the different classes) were already bought, so the idea was to have the school's name in the middle (thank goodness for Tesco's sand-play letters - I've used them as stencils so many times!), and a pond at the bottom sort of as a reason for the insects to be there.  Putting the school at the top was my own silly idea, making extra work for myself!  The paint wanted to bleed into the fabric when it was too wet, and didn't want to stick much at all when it was too dry, so it ended up being a bit of a frustrating job especially around the lettering.  I think it turned out quite well though, considering!  There are lots of little bits I'd have made a better job of if I'd have had the time, but then I'm the queen of procrastination myself so maybe a bit of pressure was the best way to get it done.  My friend did some very clever hiding of a couple of my mistakes with the iron on bugs, and the hemming and making of the frame were down to them too - they did a fantastic job, so now the kids have a banner to carry just like all the other schools. 

Commissions for banners also welcomed, so long as I've got more than one evening to complete the work!

Advertising myself! aka "Anyone want a FREE painting for their public space?"

Last week I'd been told by a couple of folks that they couldn't access this blog.  I'm not sure what was going on there! I've sent a message to the help team, but I can't see that they've replied, or where they ought to have replied to . . . so whilst I figure things out I'm just going to keep blogging in the hope that it'll sort itself out somehow (or that I'll figure it out).  Many apologies if this has affected you, dear reader!

Over the last few weeks I've completed a portrait of Eva, a gorgeous rottweiler who lives at our village pub, The White Horse Inn in Soudley.  My cunning plan is to get paintings into as many different places as possible, to try to advertise the fact that I'm here and I can be relied upon to do a decent job, and hopefully by doing this I might get some more commissions coming in.  So here's the FREE bit:

If you have a business and would like a beautiful original artwork on your wall, then for the rest of 2018 I will be happy to complete an up to A3 sized commission for you free of charge.  In return for this you would agree to keep the painting in a space where your clients would see it, and to keep a small stock of my business cards and force them on all your customers pass them out to any interested parties!

I can do pet portraits, or any kind of animal you would like.  I also love figurative work - people - portraits - realistic or imaginary.  I can paint any kind of still life - anything you fancy!  I don't have a lot of landscape type work in my portfolio (it's not usually a subject I'm drawn to), but I'm working on a landscape right now so I'll hopefully have something to show on that front in another week or so.

Anyway, enough of the self promotion stuff!  It feels so awkward!  On to the art!

Eva!

I'm so pleased with her!  It's really interesting to figure out the right shaping and volume to describe how her head works, if you know what I mean!  There are so many little parts of this which, when added, suddenly made the parts around them make sense - her fur looked wrong until the collar was put in, the curve of the front edge of her ear needed to be right, the shine on her left eye . . .

I did a little animation of her progress on my phone (I love these!)

I've given Eva to Suzanne & Mike at The White Horse already, and they have impressed on me several times how happy they are, and I'm so relieved they like it.  I mean - I knew I'd done a good job, but she's their baby so theirs were the opinions that were important.

I guess I just need to get some business cards printed now!