Happy Christmas to all and a couple of artworks

 Fatso

8x10 inches

Coloured pencil and Gouache on watercolour paper

 

The Hidden Garden

8x10 inches

Watercoloured pencils, regular coloured pencil and Faber Castell pitt pens on Pastelbord

 

It's been quite a long time between blogs and most of the artworks I've been working on lately have been commissions for Christmas so can't be posted for a couple more weeks.

 

I have an article in the latest copy of Australian Artist entitled You Can Draw on Absolutely Anything which discusses just some of the many surfaces you can use with coloured pencils. You can see my High Tea pictured on the cover of the latest issue.

 

Fatso is a gift for my Sister-in-Law who was devastated when Fatso passed away unexpectedly last month and this was one of the last photos taken of him.

 

The Hidden Garden was done just for fun to try out some different combinations of media. It didn't work out quite the way I had planned but it was nice to try out different subject matter and materials.

 

Hopefully I can get back into some regular blogging over the next couple of months.

 

Wishing all of you a truly wonderful Christmas and a really happy year in 2013 :)

WIP - Heartbreak

This unhappy little fellow is my nephew Jack. The source of his hearbroken little expression? His ride on car had got stuck under the fence. Two year olds have such big burdens to bear!!! His mother, struggling to hide her mirth, managed to capture his anguish and I couldn't resist putting pencil to paper to draw his darling expression. This portrait is being done in pencil on Pastelmat as well, only this time I am using predominantly watercolour pencils. I read of a professional artist who only works with watercolour pencils, as a way of keeping wax bloom at bay. They also have a creamy texture that works really well on the Pastelmat, with minimal shine.

'Tis the Season & Happy Thanksgiving

'Tis the Season

10x9cm

Watercolours and Watercolour pencils on illustration board

Firstly, a very Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends who celebrate this wonderful tradition.

More experimenting with watercolours and watercolour pencils, with the dual purpose of having an image for our Christmas Cards.
I really shouldn't be drawing or painting at all at this crazy time of year with so much to do and so much going on for us at the moment. Apart from a new puppy, which is giving me sleepless nights and has me standing out in the rain with an umbrella waiting for 'piddles' to happen, we have one son in the throws of uni exams (Psychology), one son just finished his HSC and has been enjoying formals, schoolies and the like, the third son is on school camp and just completed his School certificate, and our youngest is busy with all the pre Christmas activites that Primary Schools are so good at organising. Between that and trying to fit in Christmas shopping, spring cleaning and still catching up with friends, I think art really is my sanity escape, rather than simply a source of income!!!

Dancing the Night Away

Dancing the Night Away

8x10 inches

Watercolours and watercolour pencils on watercolour board

I have always loved watercolours - not actually painting them, for this is a medium I never seem to master, but because of my struggle, I have all the more appreciation for those who do master this beautiful medium. My biggest problem is letting go and allowing the paint to do it's thing. I really wanted to do this painting in watercolours alone, but then that need for detail and tightness reared it's ugly head and so I ended up relenting and completing it with watercolour pencils. Nevertheless, I will continue to play and practice and research and see if I can't one day produce a piece that I am truly satisfied with.

One of the things I have also struggled with is using masking fluid. This time, I tried watering it down slightly, and that seemed to make the liquid much more managable. I have read on numerous sites that the masking fluid is impossible to remove from your brushes once set, however I use a wonderful product by Pascoes called Oomph Glue Remover for removing everything from adhesive to chewing gum, and to my delight this liquid removed all traces of masking fluid from my paint brush restoring it to it's former glory. It smells a little like the Zest-it used to blend coloured pencils, so I'm wondering whether the Zest-it might also work for those who have some.