Week 25 - Weekly Art Challenge - Old Paintings

I'm going to post a couple of paintings that I did some time ago for this week's challenge. Babysitting grandchildren keeps me busy and leaves me exhausted, so I do not have as much time for creating as I would like to. Also, since I'm behind due to life and computer problems, this is an easy way for me to work on catching up with where I am supposed to be (I believe on Week 27 - so I'm getting there!) Thank you for your patience!!

Grandchildren - 14" x 20" colored pencil on hot press illustration board. I drew this for my mother-in-law of all her grandchildren. The seven older children had spontaneously posed themselves for a photo that I used for the drawing. I added the 2nd youngest working from a photo of her standing against her grandfather. Before I had the painting completed, the youngest grandchild was born. I rearranged the arms and had one of the girls hold the baby. It was fun to have everyone ask me how I managed to get all nine grandchildren posed at the same time!

Grandparents - 11"x14" unframed colored pencil drawing on hot-press illustration board. I worked from a photo of my grandparents taken when my grandfather turned 90 years old. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away the following month. I painted this for my grandfather as a surprise. I had never seen him cry, until he unwrapped this painting. I am so glad that I made this for him. 

Carrie, 11"x 14" unframed hot press illustration board, double-matted and framed (14" x 20"). This is a black and white colored pencil commission that I did for my husband's cousin. He surprised his wife for her birthday with it.

I enjoy working with colored pencils. They blend nicely and can be layered many times. They are transparent, so layering adds a richness that is hard to achieve with paints. I love the challenge portraits bring. However, I would like to improve drawing portraits without working from photos. 

Keep creating!

Lynnita

Week 24 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces

This week I continued working with Jane Davenport's Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces,  This week the exercise worked with "latitude and longitude". Davenport treated her simple faces (or Draw Happy faces) as globes with latitude and longitude lines. Using these as guidelines makes it easier to draw faces that are tilted, rather than looking straight on. These are my results, with the "globe" I used as a guideline in the lower right-hand corner.

3/4 view - 4"x 4", Pencil on mixed-media paper.

Tilted up, 3/4 view - 4" x 4" - Pencil on mixed-media paper

Tilted down-3/4 view - 4" x 4" - Pencil on mixed-media paper.

Tilted up - 4" x 4" - Pencil on mixed-media paper.

These has been an eye-opening experience for me. I had never thought of thinking of the faces as a globe and using latitude and longitude lines to determine the placement of the facial features. Even though these are fairly rough sketches, I learned much creating these. The next section of the book starts working on the details of facial features. It's exciting to think I can start getting a fairly realistic looking face without working directly from a photograph.

Keep creating!!

Lynnita

Week 23 - Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos

I blended photos this week using my favorite photo-editing app, Pixlr, to create these compositions (except for the first one).

I bought a new Smartphone - my first one - Whoo-hoo!! In taking photos of my granddaughter (4 months old in this photo), I found this photo in the gallery! I don't know how I managed to get a double exposure without trying! But I love the way it turned out, so I had to share!

This photo is the brick work of our walkway beside our driveway, covered in Mesquite tree flowers and leaves. This is one of the original photos I used to create the blended photos this week.

I used filters in Pixlr Express to create this collage of the brick work.

My friend, Lynn, took this photo of wood in their barn.

I blended the original brick work photo with the barn wood photos.I added a green overlay. I think this would make a wonderful fabric for quilting or a background for mixed-media artwork. 

Another photo of the brick work and barn wood blended, but with an ombre overlay. Again, I think this is a great starter for mixed-media artwork or for digitally-printed fabric for quilting or fiber art.

I enjoy exploring photography editing with the Pixlr app. I love to see what I can create!


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 22 - Weekly Art Challenge - Cactus photography

I'm still trying to catch up on my weekly art challenge posts. I'm at week 22. An online art group I belong challenged us to take photos of something close by. I chose to photograph the cactus garden in our front yard.

New growth from old. The texture the dying cactus arm captured my imagination.

The main trunk of the cereus cactus died, but new branches have sprouted.

The red cacti fruit  contrasts nicely against the green branches. 

Water trapped on petals of a Wandering Jew plant.

 The bright green of the philodendron contrasts nicely with the dark
purple Wandering Jew and it's delicate pale lavender flower.

I'm trying to improve my photography and composition skills.  Digital cameras are a god-send, since I can take as many photos as I desire without worrying about film and developing costs!

Keep creating!!
Lynnita

Week 21 - Weekly Art Challenge - Other Artwork

For Week 21, I didn't get anything new completed to post. So I'm posting a couple pieces that I finished some time ago. 

Dad's Hunting Dog - 20" x 16", oil on canvas

 This is an oil painting I did for my father-in-law of one of his favorite hunting dogs that he lost too early. He was very pleased and it hangs in the dining room of his home.

Mom and Dad - 20" x 16", oil on canvas

I painted this portrait of my parents from a photo I took of them when they stayed with me in Florida one year while I had surgery. My parents had fun figuring out when I photographed them in the clothing they are wearing, as they couldn't remember having any such outfits! I had to laugh and tell them it's artistic license! (Mom is an artist, so she should have guessed this!). Dad had a white T-shirt with a wild print on, so I painted it as yellow. Mom wore a bright, printed button-down shirt. I painted a plain blue jacket over her brightly-colored top. They were very surprised with the gift and it has a prominent location in their home, overlooking photos of the rest of the family.

I no longer work in oils very much, as the smell bothers me more and I'm starting to react to the oils if I get them on my hands for any length of time. It's a shame, as they are easy to work with and so forgiving if a mistake is made!  However, water-soluble oils are now available. I don't know if I would react the same to these, since I wouldn't have to work with solvents. I might have to give them a try.

Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 20 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces

For this Weekly Art Challenge, I worked on the next exercise in  Jane Davenport's Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. (See previous posts here). Jane described drawing and shading spheres; then explained how the face can be represented by spheres to help create dimension with shading. Working with the "Draw Happy" faces, she added spheres for the cheeks, nose, chin and lips.  These are the two faces I did in this style. 

"Baby face" - 4" x 4" - charcoal and 0.005 black Sakura micron pen on mixed-media paper.

In this sketch, I started with the guidelines and eyes. I added spheres for the nose, lips, chin, and cheeks. After adding the shading, I saw a baby's face, so added just a few tufts of hair.

"Young girl" - 4" x 4", charcoal and 0.005 black Sakura micron pen on mixed-media paper.

Again, I started with the guidelines and eyes, adding spheres for the various facial features. This young girl still needs work, but I think I got the concept Jane was illustrating with using spheres to help add dimension to a face.

I'm enjoying Jane's book and learning more about how to draw faces. However, for me, it's tough to get a good face without a photograph.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 19 - Weekly Art Challenge - Patt Blair Retreat

I'll be trying to post the last few weeks art challenges in the next few days. I'm running behind due to computer issues and life (especially babysitting three grandchildren that range from infant to toddlers!)

For the last three years, I've been attending a quilt retreat in May with Patt Blair at Vina de Lestonnac in Temecula, CA. It's an awesome time, with many of the same people returning each year. So it's more like catching up with old friends who all enjoy the creative process as much as I do! These are a couple of bird quilts that Patt showed.

Another bird quilted and painted by Patt.

This is a small bird quilt that Patt painted.
I love the detail and the quilting Patt
chose. She is such an accomplished artist.

I didn't take as many photos as in past years (see posts here).  I really enjoy the Vina de Lestonnac's grounds. They are beautifully manicured with many roses and other flowers, bushes, trees, and grape vines. They are located close to several wineries and horse ranches. Love the country!

One of the beautiful rose plants in the garden. 

The rabbits are cute and often out in the early morning and evening.
They will pose for photos if one doesn't move too quickly.

Looking out over the neighboring winery and country.

I mainly worked on my project (plus it rained the first two days!). Patt teaches wholecloth painting on fabric with Tsukineko inks and how to quilt the resulting painting. I enjoy portraits, which I have done in colored pencils and oils.  I had never used Tsukineko inks for portraits and wanted to pick Patt's brain on how to accomplish this. I combined a couple photos of my 4 month old granddaughter and am adding fairy wings to her.I didn't get finished, but will show what I have completed so far.

Line drawing of granddaughter. Haven't combined the two photos of her yet in this line drawing. She was about to cry in this pose, so chose another photo for her face. In the 2nd photo, she is cooing and has her lips puckered. I also moved her right arm up towards her face as it is in the 2nd photo. Added wings to make her a fairy. She was blessed with long hair at birth, which is wild as it stands straight up! 

In progress painting of granddaughter. Still have more work to do on her eyes and hair. Need to add background color and wings, too. 

 I did figure out how I'm going to do her hair by practicing on a scrap piece of fabric. It came out great. Can't wait to add it, once I get the background color painted. I also plan to add beads and crystal to the fairy wings.

Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 18 - Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos

These weeks seem to be going by quickly with having our daughter, her boyfriend, and our granddaughter living with us!  I'd rather hold Lydia and care for her than do much of anything else!! She's so adorable, tiny, and a good baby. Also, I'm the taxi to take her to all her doctor appointments of which she has several due to the congenital heart defect. Making time for art can be daunting sometimes!

This week, I played on my tablet some more blending photos with the Pixlr Express app that I've mentioned in previous posts.

Floral Garden Sunset. I blended a floral garden ZIA that I created (see post dated Mar 12, 2015) with a sunset photo I had taken a year ago. This is the "difference" blending. I added some doodle stickers to complete the photo. I like how the garden color changed when blended with the sunset.

Floral Garden Sunset #2. This is the same floral garden ZIA and sunset as in the first photo. This time I "added" the two photos. This blending created a whole different look. The mauves, purples and blues of the sunset were kept. I added an bubble overlay which created an interesting texture.

Floral Chickens. I blended a photo of two of our Americauna chickens with a flower photo
I took in California last year. I like how the color of the flowers affected the chickens coloring!  

I'm still learning much about blending photos in the Pixlr Express app. I've made some blended photos that I did not save as they look terrible, but it's fun to experiment and find what I like and don't like. It's helping with me understand composition and design better, too.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 17 - Weekly Art Challenge - Painted Canvases

This week for my weekly art challenge I started a couple of canvases. I had planned to use them for April's Design Team project for Blue Twig Studio. Once they were dry, I just wasn't sure what direction to head, so decided to do something else for the review (see upcoming post, dated May 7, 2015).

For the first canvas, I drizzled several acrylic colors onto the blank canvas. Then I took a piece of plastic wrap and placed over the canvas. After smooshing (very complicated artistic technique!) the paint over the canvas, I allowed the paint to dry with the plastic wrap still laying on the canvas. This is the result after peeling the plastic wrap off the dried, painted canvas.

Textured Abstract, 8"x10" board canvas, metallic acrylics in blue, peacock, lime green, yellow, pink, wine, and purple.

I love the texture the plastic wrap creates. Surprisingly, mud isn't usually created when mixing the paints in this serendipitous manner. I plan to add more layering to this canvas to create a mixed-media painting. I'm just not sure what direction I want to take, yet.

When I peeled the plastic wrap off the above canvas, I noticed that the paint in the wrinkles of the plastic wrap was still wet. So I took a 2nd canvas and laid the plastic wrap on top of it, smoothing the wrinkles out. Again, once the paint was dry, I peeled off the plastic wrap, resulting in this canvas.

Ink Blot, 8"x10" watercolor canvas. Wet paint left on plastic warp.

This left a lot of white still on the canvas (although it looks pink in the photo), but the texture and abstractness of the paint is unique! It's almost like an ink blot. What do you see? I found a horse grazing in a field and also a dragon soaring in the sky, looking down at some interesting speck on the ground. This reminds me of looking at clouds to see what shapes they make and creating stories about them. I'm not sure what I will create with this - the horse, the dragon, or something else entirely - but I think it's a great way to start a painting.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 16 - Weekly Art Challenge

This week for the weekly art challenge, I chose to work with digital art again. I tried a new photo app that Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio introduced to me. It's called SuperPhoto. These are the photos I created with the app on my Android tablet.

Mosaic filter on a hedgehog cactus in bloom photo that I took while taking a walk. 

A dragon I drew and painted was encapsulated in a melting ice cube with SuperPhoto. 

I isolated around the eye of the dragon from the above photo and used a graffiti filter.. I love the way this one turned out. It just needs some words splashed on the wall now! One of the other things I really like is that it's black and white photo with just a few touches of color here and there. 

I enjoyed trying out the SuperPhoto app. Not all of the resulting photos that I played with turned out well, but it's a fun app to continue experimenting with.  It is easy to use and has many options/filters to choose fun, even in the free app. It shows many other options/filters that can be used if you are willing to pay for these. Right now, there's enough for me to explore in the free portion.


Have a great week!
Keep creating!!
Lynnita

Week 15 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces

This week for the Weekly Art Challenge, I've been working from Jane Davenport's Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. I enjoy creating portraits and want to be able to create faces better and use them in mixed-media artwork and also to create portrait paintings. I've done a few faces in past blogs posts (see posts here).

This week I did the exercises for "the Hot Zones" and "Jane-style whimsical proportions."  In the hot zones, Jane explains the distance between eyes, the stack of the nose, mouth and chin, how the lips line up with the eyebrows,  how the ears line with our facial features, and finally, the curve of the cheeks. In whimsical proportions, Jane shows how the proportions can be played with for drama and to look for what we find interesting and aesthetically pleasing.

These are the "whimsical  proportions" I focused on this week, while using the "hot zones" to keep the drawings balanced and proportionally pleasing.

Realistic Proportions, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Jane-style Proportions, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Fey, Tilted Eyes,, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Pixie, Large Wide-Set Eyes, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Feline, Large Eyes, Bunched Features, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Hollywood, Large Lips, Small Noses, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

I think I still need some work on the faces, but playing with the proportions and placement of the features is a learning experience. It was interesting to see how varying these elements affects the way the face looks. It also helps me to know that I do not have to have realistic proportions all the time when working with portraits - they just need to be balanced and pleasing. Thanks, Jane!


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 14 of Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos

I've been out of commission for a few weeks now with my weekly art challenges. My granddaughter was born premature the beginning of Feb and spent 3 weeks in the hospital. She along with my daughter and son-in-law are now living with us, so it's been an adjustment. She is a special needs child with a heart defect and Down syndrome. She's a little angel and such a blessing, but she's keeping us all busy with appointments and not sleeping at night - all the things newborns come with!

I've decided not to do the Documented Life Project 2015 by Art to the 5th Academy, that I originally wanted to do. Initially, I didn't get started on time, as the journals were back-ordered. By the time it arrived, my granddaughter had been born.  Unfortunately, I do not have a dedicated studio. I use either the kitchen table or cover my quilting table to create art. I cannot leave all my paints out every where with the kids living with us, like I could when it was just my husband and I. He didn't mind having my artwork spread out everywhere.  It's easier for me at this point to continue with sketching, doodling, or creating digital art every week. So this is what I'm going to concentrate on for the time being to help me get back into the habit of being creative each week and posting a weekly "sketch" each week.

For this week, I'd been working on digital art by blending photos. I used Pixlr Express photo editing software on my tablet. They added blending photos to the app, which I'm enjoying exploring. This is what I've created this week.

Tree taken on a foggy morning in Ohio blended with a sunset in AZ. Used the additive blending mode.

This is the same blended photo as the first picture. Added a special effect overlay.

The same blended photo with neon light overlays and firework overlays added.

Same photo again but with various light overlays and flower stickers added.

Pixlr Express is a fun photo-editing software with the basic editing features. It also has many added features, such as special effects, overlays, stickers, various brushes to create painting effects, fonts, etc. Right now I'm focusing on experimenting with the blending photos, overlays, and effects features.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 7 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces

Trying to catch up on my weekly art challenge posts. Our grandbaby is home from the hospital, my hand is healing from my hand surgery (my dominate hand, of course!), so I'm trying to get settled into creating again! Although, in the 4 days our grandbaby has been home, we've babysat two days and the other two days, I had to take her or her mother to routine check-ups! I'm not complaining about the babysitting - she is such a joy! She's so quiet, I can almost forget she's here! I'm hoping as our daughter and her boyfriend adjust to being new parents, things will settle down some. However, they may be moving in with us in a month, if they cannot find another apartment! LOL! life is always changing!

This week, I still haven't gotten back to my painting. I did do another drawing from Jane Davenport's book: Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. I had started the first couple of exercises before all the excitement with a new baby (see posts here).  The next exercise is called "Grand Scale". Instead of the small, simple "Draw Happy" faces, this exercise scaled the drawing to a full page. She goes into more detail of placement of facial features and shape of the face. This is my result:

Face, 7" x 10", pencil and 0.005 black Sakura pen on mixed-media paper.

I like the facial features, although the eyes are too large and too close together. The hair and neck need some work, but those weren't the focus of this exercise. I do pretty well doing portraits from a photograph (I've actually done commissions in oils, acrylics, and colored pencil),  but to draw a portrait without a photo to look at is such a challenge for me. I'm hoping Jane's book (and I also bought her video recently) will help me to overcome these difficulties.

I hope for Week 8 to be able to finally start painting in my art journal for the Documented Life Project 2015 (DLP) with Art to the 5th Academy, that I originally set out to do for my weekly art challenge this year! I'll see what this week holds!


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 6 - Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos

I'm late posting my Week 6 art challenge. I'm hoping life will return to a normal routine soon. We finally got to bring our granddaughter home from the hospital on Wed, after spending her first 2 1/2 weeks of life in the neonatal ICU at the hospital. She was a preemie - born a month early. She's doing well now and steals the hearts of everyone who has seen her. The nurses and doctors were wonderful! We are working on a signature quilt for her - the medical staff were so happy to sign a block for her. Waiting on a few more people to finish their blocks, but I'll post a photo of the quilt when it's finished.

With spending so much time at the hospital, I didn't get to do any painting, so worked on blended photos on my tablet. I focused on blending photos of my grandchildren with nature scenes that I had taken. I'm still learning what all I can do with the photo-editing program, Pixlr.   

Photo of a foggy winter morning in Ohio highlighting a bare tree, blended with a closeup of our new granddaughter's face. A heart overlay was added. The face is difficult to see after the blending, but I like the overall effect.

An Arizona sunset with a starry night overlay blended with the same photo of our new granddaughter's face. A border of swirls was overlayed. This blended photo makes me think of her dreaming of  all the possibilities for her life - "the skies the limit"! 

Photo of a palmetto leave taken at a quilt retreat in CA last year blended with a photo of our 9-month old grandson. Added an overlay of  'xoxo' and a border of a key variation. He looks cute peeking through the individual leaves.

Some of my photos came out interesting and some not so good, but it's fun to try to blend very different photos, as well as similar photos. I like the various effects that can be created by blending photos. I still have much to learn, but it sparks my creativity. Eventually, I'd like to print some of the blended photos to use in mixed-media artwork and some to turn into quilts. I have more exploring to do before first!

Keep creating!

Lynnita