Wild flower Staffy

Every spare moment in the last week I have been working on this painting and today I finally completed it!

I’ve had these long, thin canvas sitting in the corner of my room for over a year. I found them on sale for £3 in home bargains… Had to buy them.. But absolutely no clue what to paint on them.

When cleaning up the other week I also came across some cheap premixed paint from aldi and some wall paint tester pots from Wilko that I’d collected… I just can’t resist art supplies!

I had to use them and what better to paint than my beautiful Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Diesel. I started with a bright, vibrant background and it all just fell in place from there.

I managed to find space to paint in the kitchen. Unfortunately a poorly lit area, but this was now my studio for the week. Each day after work all I had time for was painting.

Luckily I was using acrylics as they dry so fast I was able to paint over any mistakes after only a few minutes. This was incredibly useful on the flowers that I hadn’t really planned out particularly well….that was the time consuming part.

I eventually made it to the top of the canvas and today… Today I finally completed it. I’m sooooo happy with how it’s come out. It’s bright, colourful and actually looks like Diesel.

I think he quite likes it too.

Jeska x

Finally some time to paint!

Can’t believe it’s been 5 months since I posted on here. That means it’s been 5 months since I last picked up a paintbrush!

Things have been pretty hectic but this weekend I finally got round to picking up my brushes and had the opportunity to try out some new calligraphy nibs.

Step 1. I hadn’t touched anything in a while so started with a rough base layer to get a feel for the paints again. I love how vibrant acrylics dry, though they don’t quite have the depth I enjoy in oils.

Step 2. Add some complimentary colour and hope it works!

Step 3. Add an outline as it looks a bit flat….It’s good to embrace it.

Step 4. Finished.

I’m very happy with how it turned out. Bright colours and black outline really made it pop. It’s almost cartoon like and I hope it invites the viewer in with a sense of intrigue.

Pottery Painting trip

Went pottery painting a few weeks back and decided on a tea pot. As I was working on my A2 piece, posted last week ,I had  mushrooms on the brain and went for toadstools as my design. I didn’t really think about the fact there’s a 2 hour time limit to paint these things, nor  the amount of layers you need to do to get the colours  to pop!

Exploring mushrooms

Back to painting with oils and using the deeper colours I enjoy so much. This A2 piece really made me feel out of practice and it took a while to get back to knowing how  to work with the layering of the paints when I had been  using acrylics for a while.

I also realised how much I need to practise people. I’ve got a bit better at drawing them recently, but painting them was a whole other  story and after coming back to them several times and making adjustments that left no real improvement I’ve decided what you see here is as good as they are going to get for now.

In all this piece has given me an idea of what I really need to work on.

New sketchbook

I got a lovely new A5 sketchbook for Christmas. The type bound on the short edge…. Although not usually my thing I thought I’d try painting a landscape as it seemed the most natural rotation to start the book in… I definitely need some practice, but I guess that is the point of sketchbook in the first place. It isn’t for beautiful finished pieces!

As well as going for a landscape I also opened up my tub of oil paints and found my old bottle of white spirit. I haven’t touched my oils in months…in fact maybe not since the begining of the year…acrylics just dry that much faster…but oh how I’ve missed my oils.

Perhaps with going a bit out of my comfort zone and actally liking the first page of my sketchbook this could be the one I actually fill!

Jeska x

 

It’s begining to feel like Christmas!

Presents bought….. Mostly all wrapped….And I managed to fit this in over the weekend! 😀

Not my best but at least I’m making art. The plan was to turn it into xmas cards but I was a bit slow finding time to make it. Also realised how expensive getting prints made is! Something  I’ll work on in the new yeat will be planning what I want to paint ahead of time 😂

🐾 Acrylic pour with dog painting

Bit of a different one for me.  Got bored of doing plain backgrounds and had seen some amazing acrylic pours online. Decided I had to give it a go! I got some cheap paints, pouring medium and enjoyed making a huge mess 😀 I think it turned out pretty well and next time I’ll try some more muted colours.

The dog is supposed to be my lovely Staffie Diesel. I say supposed as it doesn’t look much like him 😂

Jeska x

#Inktober DAY 31

So some of you may have noticed my inktober posts stopped. This is due to recent events that meant I had higher priorities than Art. However I did mange to fit this in at the weekend.

Here is my final #inktober for you all….Some creepy Alien people. I enjoyed the work I did mange to do in ink and am sure I will be revisiting it very soon.

#Inktober DAY 7

Here’s my Inktober DAY 7. Didn’t have much time today as I was baking. So here’s a speedy drawing of a cake! Yum!