Monday 25 January 2010

A lotus for Lita

Yup, that was the intention. But this is another work in glass, with the wrong paint, so there.

Don't you think this would've looked nice with a little tea-light inside?






























Looking in . . . .


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Playing with glass

These are no more :(

Here's the lowdown:

It was Christmas-time, and the time for presents and whatever. And I thought I'd paint something for everyone.

So out come my paints, and this is the result: Daisies for the girls, and plain green vines of leaves for the guys.















Looks a little like a lotus, doesn't it? But it isn't. It's just a purple-petaled flower, with a dark centre.















My first attempt at a sunflower. Sigh.





























Here they are - as they liked to say in the Army - up standing :)

Why are they 'no more'?

Ahhhhh! Well. I used the wrong paint. I needed to use glass-paint for these. And I didn't.

I've since learnt that there are people who do work with these paints on glass, for semi-temporary designs. Perhaps on a window, or something that you'd like there for a while.

It dries to the touch. But when it touches water, it comes off.

So, I soaked these, and they're all washed clean now.

Ready for me to do them over. Another chance to try to get it right, eh?!
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You call these roses?!

I love the idea of tone-on-tone, and this is my first attempt at it. I'm still a little confused - as can be so plainly seen - and I've mixed my leaves up, and my curly-cues are not as curly and as cue-ey as I'd like them to be :(

And of course, I just had to try my hand at roses. I mean, if you watch the people on You Tube, you'd think they were the easiest flower to paint. Just a little shell here, a little shell there, and voila! Roses.

Yah right.

And below is how wrong they can be.

Actually, after miny-miny-miny attempts, I had to leave this to go do something else. Otherwise, this too, would be history!!!

Again on perspex , I have a white sheet in the back so that the piece can be viewed.

Roses are hard to do. See the close up and don't laugh. Please. You should have seen the first ones. Believe me, these are the improvements!

Also, I need to note that rose buds should not be or seem to be as big as the rose itself :(

Every day, I learn a little more!

(click on the image for a bigger pix)



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Wednesday 20 January 2010

A bunch of daisies

Below are two views of a bunch of daisies.

I'd just learnt the stroke - it's called a straight comma stroke - and I was aching to try it out.

If you click on the images, you'll see a bigger picture, and my errors more clearly ;)

Also done on perspex, you'll notice the 'dirty' bits here and there - all testimony to the 'artist' being a lazy so-and-so, and too preoccupied with getting the petals right, to notice she hadn't cleaned up properly! That's the joy of working with the perspex - you can do it again and again and again, and just clean everything off with a bit of damp cloth and water!

Ahhh, if only life were so easy . . . .

(Click on the image for a bigger pix)

The first one

I decided to try my hand at one-stroke painting when the idea was put into my head by my pal Mel.

I'd told her that I'd just love to be able to paint, and loved dabbling with paint, but all I could do was copy. Draw something that was already there, then fill it in with paint. And sometimes, outline it.

I am not good with shading, and pretending the light is coming from there, or there, or there. Because it the end, my paintings all looked like the light was indeed coming from there and there and there, and the rest of it was all one big grey mess!

And then, there's one-stroke painting. I watched the clip on You Tube, and I was hooked.

Line and sinker followed.

So, thanks, Mel.

And after practising my strokes: commas, exclamation marks, shells, and ribbons and little wiggly lines... I have this to show. It's done on perspex (plastic sheeting), that I salvaged from a frame I'd got at Ikea.

The good thing about working on perspex is that you can wipe it all off with a damp cloth and start all over! Which I did, over and over and over, until I ran out of paint on my palette. And this remains - non-determinate flowers on a bed of non-determinate leaves :) (the little recycle-triangles you see are on the perspex :(

(Click on the image for a bigger pix)