Easter report.

 

We've had the most beautiful weather

 

sun, sun, sun and clear blue skies. Well, and frost. Some guests the first days and Sandra now. Still I've found some time to make another cat. I made it rather fast, so it's not well planned. Very relaxing to make though, and it gives me time to practice patterns. 

 

 

I hope you have beautiful days too.

Back to normal

 

Today I felt for painting something new.  For awhile now I have been thinking of drawing quick faces, max 15. min. Today I did that, and did the painting very quick too, I want to make something that looks less overdone. And I could use the practice to loosen up a bit.

Today's painting is "good" when it's about loosing up, and I like the way it turned out. The background was another test, it could be worked alot more but I saw what I wanted to see.

 

 

Do you often feel the need to change the way you work? I have been collecting alot of different faces lately, to use as inspiration photos for these quick drawings. I also need to convince myself that less perfect can be just as interesting  as a more perfect work. Todays work is a page in my art journal.

In fact, I like this one better each time I see it. What's on your desk right now?

Still in photomode.

It's so amazing, all my old art are coming to new life these days.

I just know I have to take this further, so I'm going to meet with a professional printer, to hear about ways of doing things, what amount of prints it takes to keep the costs down and things like that. The last days I have done nothing else than working on old art in picasa, and it gives me a whole new world of possibillities. Below you see an old painting coming to new life.

 The originale can be seen here.

The next is a face cut out from a larger work. A tiny little square, becoming this beautiful piece, if I might say so myself.

The original can be seen here.

The last one I'll show you, represent my state of mind, when things won't work as planned. This last one is more a fun product, but I kind of like it.

The original can be seen  here.

Can you tell I'm having fun? I never thought of this as a way for me to work, but it sure is.

Weekend already here, have a NICE one!

The dreamer.

Awhile back

I sketched this face, it's done on a medium quality sketchbook paper. I left it and forgot about it till yesterday. I have been trying to work on faces in picasa, but find it difficult to get good results. All the faces I've tried to work on have become weird and nothing to use.

During my work with the coming series I've learnt alot about manupilating my pieces, also a bit about what it takes from the original piece to get what I call a good end result. That's what made me so happy when I found this one. I strongly believed this could be the one to give a good result.

 

 

 

 It sure did!

This is even more than what could be expected from that simple sketch. I love it, and from now on she is called: The Dreamer.

I simply have to print this one, she could easily be a front cover on a book, don't you think? I was so happy to find that deep blue color and the softer green in the background. The moment when the magic happens is indescribable. Instantly, you know it won't be better no matter how long you try. Small moments containing huge amounts of happyness. Give it a try, I say no more!

 

It's far from the best face I've drawn/painted, but it holds something special which the bright blue color underline in a good way, I think. 

Alot has been done.

 

I have made a deal with myself

 

to work on my series each weekend. This weekend was a good one, alot of work was done.This morning I felt for doing a little experiment, I took a photo from my spiral series and started working on it in picasa. Below is the actual photo, remember?

 

 

After an hour or two the result is nothing like the original photo except from the motif of course. I am becoming more and more greatful for taking the job to understand how things work on this computer. Why on earth didn't I do that earlier!

Now I plan to print this testing photo, to see how well it transfere onto different types of paper. I'm especially interested to see if it will work onto a 300 gr. uneven watercolor paper, because I like that surface. Would you say this is digital art? I do, but it's handmade to start with. That's the most pleasant thing, to feel the ownership of it all, to have done the whole process.

 

 

 

It's such a thrill to learn new things and especially when one learn something one has been searching for. There are still alot more to learn on how to manipulate my artpieces and I'm on my way.

What have you been up to lately?

Still here

 

We're still here, both I and king winter.

The frost has eased up a bit and the result is more snow. I wonder whether we'll ever have summer again. Right now I've had enough of winter and long for warmer days.
I have been  very busy this week making art for my coming series. Now I look forward to start publishing it all. First post will be on April 12th. That first post is an introduction, a bit background stuff.

 

 

 

I'm really pleased on how the art turns out. It's a mix of handmade and digital art. Since I took the time to figure out things in Picasa, I've found a new expression for my art. Perhaps you'll find it interesting too. It's not quite the same to do the research work, much more fun to make art.

That's all for now, I have more art to make. Enjoy your weekend!

Not quite sure I'm finished

 

The handstitching went well and quicker than expected.

When I first started this piece, I had a clear idea of what to make and how to make it. The idea is still there, but the way it's made changed. To make a decission what to express and then do it, is by far the hardest art to make. On the other hand, it's the most satisfying art to make too.

Even though I know what this is ment to be, I have been struggling to find a good title to my piece. I very much want it to be understandable and at the same time make the viewer think. Right now I've landed on the title : Under the same sky. 

If I should start this piece over again, I would not have given the girls headscarves. The headscarves are a pure shortcut instead of painting hair. As it is now, people might think it has something to do with religion which isn't the case. It's about humans, all of us. 

There are many questions to be asked, even for me. Where are the girls standing, is one. I have to put it aside for awhile, to see if I should add to it or not. It's always better to use fresh eyes before the final decission. Do you often go for a predetermined expression?
What would you say this is, is it a painting or an embroidery?  I know it's a mix, but in general what would you say?



 

WIP back on the worktable.

 

Yes, finally I start working on this old piece again.

I'll probably need a week or so to finish it, it's quite a large piece. I would guess it ends up measuring 25.5 by 25.5 inches ( 65 x 65 cm.)

I've done some changes since the original sketch didn't work out as planned. Mainly that was the reason I put it away. It has been sitting in my sewing room, so I've seen it from time to time and thought of continue the work. But somehow I always choose to do something else.
It might have something to do with making new decissions, to rearrange all the plans and find good replacements. But, now I'm ready to finish this one. 

 

There are alot of handstitching to do, and some painting too. I look forward to paint but handstitching first and that is a slow process. Below is an area which is finished, the other photos shows unfinished areas.

 

 

Below is a detail which I'm not sure will work as well as I had hoped for. The stem is too hard, I feel, so I'll probably undo it and use a softer color. 

 

Sorry for just showing fragments of the piece, but I'll save it until it's complete. Do you have many WIPs waiting to be completed? Do you intend to finish them or do you know by experience that it will never happen? I'm good at knowing what to save and what to put in the trash bin.
Enjoy your weekend! 

 



Meant to be a sketch.

 

My first try on collaging. 

Yesterday I sat down to make a sketch for a collage work I was planning to do. We have a place close by here that is breathtaking each time I'm there, and I tried to "copy" that place from my head only. Perhaps I should visit and photograph it a sunny day and try to paint it for real.

I worked/painted rather quickly, just to get an idea of how to build it up. To my surprise it did actually look like something I could continue to work on. Usually I need to make several of these sketches before I think they can be used.
As I continued I got so occupied I forgot what I was doing and out came this piece below.

 

 

I had to continue working and ended up with the one below. Even handyman liked it, he likes what he can understand. This one he understood, and I ended up not having a sketch for a collage but an artpiece of it's own. The sun doesn't look like the usual sun but that's the freedom of the artist, don't you think?

 

 

 

I very much like how the sun has guilded the edge of the mountains. That's a sight I see every day the sun shines. The rest of the mountains are still misty, the part in between is a bit unclair too. And then the brighter colors in front. Well, yes I like it too.

 

It's mixed media made, watercolors, twinks, ws crayons, acrylics and leaf gold. Black and white pens as well. It's A3 sized. I'll probably frame this one.

My friend who was gifted the cats I made, had them framed and that turned out beautiful. It's kind of hard to believe I made it when I see it. It looks so professional in a way, and I don't excactly feel like a pro. I'll have to work on that feeling.

I was so sure to start making collage, but now I feel like finishing a piece that has been a WIP for far too long. Today I'll have a look and see what can be done to it.



I have been playing in Picasa.

 

Have you tried to explore the different tools in picasa?

 

This post will show you that I have, and how many cool things one can do in there. First of all I made this collage, it's slightly different from the one I installed at the sidebar, which, is just me testing.
Have I told you Viva is my favorite doll......? I think she was made to be photographed. She sat on a shelf more than a year before I discovered how beautiful she is. Must have been blind.

 

Below I used the pixels tool. If one have a beautiful photo it could easily be made into an embroidery pattern, I liked this because of it's softness, and because I recognize Viva, of course.

 

How cool is the one below? Look at her shoes, almost like lightbulbs. Perhaps she's magic after all. :)

Right now I see I should have tried the red eye button as well. I really like how this turned out, and I see how useful these tools can become if one want to create something special.

 

 

Look here, can you hear she is saying " TRICK OR TREAT"? With this tool one can choose any color and how much it should fade. Notice the lower right photo here, dosn't it look like she is standing outside and lower left where she is ready to jump. I'm so glad I took the time to figure it all out.

 

As you see I have been adding to the blog too, I don't know excactly how to do it yet but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I so much want to lower the heading text but for now it isn't possible for me. I'm biting it's tail though. Not much art going on at the moment, I just had to learn a bit more about all the possibillities. I hope you are learning something fun too.

The header photo is one from earlier, a day we had this beautiful rainbow. I especially like the birds flying there as well.
That's all, I hope you won't get bored of all this.

Slightly different



 

This spread is made a bit different from the others. 

There is still a circle and patterns but I also allowed some squares and some patterns to run out of their space. In fact that was a must on this one. When I had finished doing the patterns I started doing the surroundings, this time I used some females to stretch around the circle. After doing them I saw how unfortunate it was with patterns ending at their butts. One thing to do about it, stretch the patterns out onto their bodies. Do you often end up like that too? I think it's a result of not planning. If I had been sketching it first, I would have seen it before it was done. Well, no big deal after all. But I had a good laugh when I discovered it.

 

 

 

Now I want to try my hands on some collaging, I saw Julie did some and that led me to believe I can do it too. At least it was done in a way I can relate to. I have difficulties to understand all that random pasting of different papers and stuff. Nothing wrong by doing it like that, it's just me that can't find it meaningful. Perhaps I just need some practice.
Another fun thing I think of doing this week is to make my very first haiku.  Madde has been asking her readers to partisipate making a tiny poem or a haiku, and I will have a go.
I have never done it before so I don't know how good it will be, but it looked so tempting.

Have a beautiful day. 

Airy

 

 I simply love this one.



You know, I'm in the middle of exploring some of the patterns I have collected. The ones used here are airy and with white ink it became excactly what I was hoping for. Oh, don't you just love to play like this?

I now see that it's the black ink that make some patterns a bit too dark/muddy/solid for me. The white ink does the oppopsite and I love it. This spread is made using a tiny nib. A drawback using ink is to have to dip the nib and some times one get a bit too much ink at the first lines.

It had to be a ballet dress, and a person wearing it. I had much fun adding her arms and the one foot.

 

 

I so much like to use a limited space when creating and see how I can use it in different ways. The circle is in focus in one way or other, but I find it's enjoyable to challange myself to break down the limits of my idea and see how it could expand without loosing the main goal. How much variation is it possible to obtain with A : circle in focus and B : collecting patterns.



 

So far I've made mostly flowers, but each one felt new to me while I made them. Always trying something new. I've also seen that it's good to focus on other things beside this journal. I think I'm such a person that needs variation to get the ideas flowing. Right now I'm knitting a couple of shawls in addition to journaling, and of course the daily cores.

 

 

Abowe you see the tiny nib I used to create these patterns. The Micronpen is there just for comparison. I love that tiny nib, it came with its own penholder because of the size.

Enough for today, enjoy!