Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Latest Commissioned Portrait - Loki


Loki
5x7 inches
Acrylics on Claybord
This is a commissioned portrait, and my first attempt at airbrushing and also using the claybord. I love the effect of airbrushing - although I know I need a lot more practice. In this case I used acrylic inks when airbrushing, but I notice they wash off quite easily, so would probably stick to watered down acrylics in future, unless anyone has some hints. The Claybord is beautiful and smooth to work on, however, the portrait has scanned badly, with all the highlights being over exaggerated (pinks and blues) and I would imagine this is due to glare. Back to the drawing board - but oh what fun it is to experiment!!!

10 comments:

Debra Keirce said...

Karen, this piece is amazing, like all your works! One thing I like to do with clayboard - and the technical artists will probably cringe reading this - Where there are white highlights, like the whiskers on this kitty, I like to use an exacto knife and actually cut them into the clay support. In some cases, it's fun to dig them deep so you actually get a bit of a shadow in your white highlight...a different effect.

Unknown said...

Thankyou Deb, for the wonderful hint - I suspected that I might be able to do that but didn't want to take the risk on a commissioned work in case I stuffed it up, but will definitely give that a go!!

artbykarieann said...

Loki is beautiful Karen, I love your work, I've been nosing around your website and there's just so many pieces I like - I want them all!

Unknown said...

Thankyou Karrie-Ann - a lovely compliment!!! Your work is gorgeous also!!

Daniela said...

Karen, I love all your work and this one is another fantastic job!!!
Thank you for your nice comment on my blog. I appreciate it :)

Unknown said...

Thankyou so much Daniela - you are very gifted yourself, and it is inspiring to see what other artists do!!!!

yui said...

Hi! I'm behind you.
Good luck!

Unknown said...

Thankyou Yui!!!

Carol Andre' said...

Another beautiful piece. You can use the white clayboard like scratchboard. Have you done any scratchart? Be gentle when scratching, and don't paint thickly with acrylics or you will be "fighting" it. Thinly you may just fall in love! I did a number of large pieces, unfortunately my wrist (carpal tunnel) didn't like the motion and rebeled. :-(

Unknown said...

Thankyou so much for the hints Carol. I have done one artwork way back on the black scratchboard, but wasn't that happy with my efforts - but I may dig it out again and have a play. The only problem with the claybord, is the difficulty cutting it to the right size.