Penny for Thoughts

Nail polish, is very much like oil paint. Right when you think it's safe to touch, it isn't. Nail art takes a lot of patience, this, I do not have.

Book Crafting; My Precious!

Did a bit of crafting this afternoon. This is my 5th book I've made using the tutorial by TRANSiENTART on YouTube. I think it's one of the best I've made so far.

Commission

A commission from a friend for her sisters birthday. (There was a bit of a boo-boo but she didn't mind. I do though...But the client still loved it and that's the main thing...)
Acrylic on canvas.

Games and Babes

"Peek-a-Boo!"

Illustration & Photoshop CS5

I started this either at the very end of last year or the very beginning of this year. This probably requires some explanation.

There are two influences to this creation. The amazing works by Pin-Up artist Gil Elvgren and the game Portal 2. Admittedly, I haven't played any of the Portal games, but I have watched a fair bit of game play-through videos on YouTube and wished I had the game. 

The reason I love Gil Elvgren's pin-ups so much is because the women are simply beautiful, and in a way idealistic, but not unrealistic. And they always seem to be caught in a slightly embarrassing situation so they always have that surprise pout expression. 

Elvgren's paintings were so realistic they could almost be photos. Clearly, my drawing is not very realistic, but I wanted to keep it a bit cartoon-y and rough, because I prefer the look and the Portal games have 3D animated graphics.  

I drew a collection of game/'nerd' influenced Pin-Ups and hope to complete them by the end of the year, and if they prove to be good enough, have them printed into a calender. I mean, why not?

Epic Illustrations of History

Another creation from Mary Doodles (I'm just a little obsessed with watching these videos). Some of her fan art of Epic Rap Battles of History (YouTube channel). Here is the video of her painting it, and the video of how she went about creating the drawing.

'Run Red'

'Run Red'

Photoshop CS5

Spent the afternoon making this today. I realised I haven't really uploaded much photoshop work even though I create a lot of (or most of) my art using this program. It's a bit more macabre than other artworks I've uploaded, but I used to do a lot of art with a rather grim twist, so it's not very new for me, I just hope it doesn't creep anyone out TOO much.

Creative Hault

I feel bad for not continuously updating my blog, but as of late I haven't been feeling very creative. Normally when shit happens that fuels my creativity and all I do is draw. But things are very much at a stand still. I'd like to know if anyone would like to comment, what do you guys do when you feel a lack of creativity?

Spilled Rosé

 "Spilled Rosé"

Little bit more rose photography.

Same roses from my previous "Fallen Roses" photography.

More helpful drawing tips

Realistic male eyes to accompany the previous female eyes. I'm quite liking the tutorials I'm finding on youtube. This one isn't too great a quality with lighting (white balance is too bright at some points?) but it's still really good when it comes to technique and is full of handy tips along the way.

Drawing lesson

While looking for tutorials on how to draw more 'realistic' cartoons (eg. MARVEL Comics), I found this tutorial on drawing female faces, and I found it to be quite useful (at least for what I need anyway).

Autumn [Impressionism]

 Autumn [Impressionism]

91cm x 61cm

Acrylic on Canvas

I apologise for the lack of updating, but with the slow set up of an art studio I've had little time to do any art, except this painting project I spanned out over 4 days. Experimenting with colour blending and testing out my new fan brush.

Fake Wine 101

Ok, it's not really a tutorial, or art, more..craft? But it's always fun to share tips and tricks if you have them. For my last major Photography collage project I needed one of the photos to depict a glass of wine. Now we have wine in the house, but I didn't want to use it as a prop because the wine drinker of the house probably wouldn't be too happy. So, to make FAKE red wine, I filled the glass prop with water, then added pink food colouring and coffee essence to make a dark red wine colour. Pink and brown, who knew? Here's the end result. Any thoughts feel free to comment below.


                                            Before                                                    After

 

Creativity VS Reality pt.2

The construction of my own little art studio is slowly under way. I spent from the hours of 9:30am to 4:30pm today cleaning and clearing space for me to work in, down the back of the house (behind the bar, lovely). More or less all my art supplies have been organized and are out of everyone's way. Now all that's left is the furniture to sort out...

Photo Manipulation

"La Rose"

Nikon D7000

Photo Manipulation

Photoshop CS5

Illustrator CS5

Model: Adrianna Zenuli

(More from this collection soon)

Reality VS Creativity

I know I'm not the only one who has troubles with having an appropriate space for creating art. My house has insufficient lighting, there is no room to place everything as the furniture in my room is too much bulk not enough storage. And today, when I left the house for one afternoon, my $%^*$@# little cousins came over and decided they don't need to respect other peoples property and went through and played with all my art belongings because my relatives let their kids do whatever the hell they like and don't give a rats ass what they do. Normally I'm home to prevent this, but when I'm not I feel violated because I know the adults think it's 'harmless' to let their shitlings $%^& around because art isn't a "real profession" to them.

So I've used the help of the MOJANG(c) game 'Minecraft' to build a virtual art studio I plan on constructing in the back yard regardless of what my parents say because I'm sick of my art (and art in general) being disrespected. Problem is, I'm not a carpenter or a builder and have very little money. Building an art space, even as small as 3m x 3m is going to be a challenging problem. But without determination and try there is no gain or success. (If there is anyone who knows of a handy DIY videos or articles on how to construct a small art studio please feel free to comment and/or link the information in a comment below.)

The idea of the construction and designing of the layout, all the creative stuff, is far easier than the reality of actually building it. Resources, budget, structure, space, etc. If this plan falls through I'm ditching having a bedroom and convert that into a studio and just sleep on the couch.

But anyway here's what my mind is wanting. (I just wish building really was as easy as plonking down a couple of wool blocks. 3 blocks = 1 meter)

       Padlocks. Need to invest in some padlocks.....

Comic In Progress-'Koala Revenge'

For those of you who don't know, I love comics, and as well as wanting to one day be an artist of all sorts, I want to be a professional graphic novel artist. So here's a little something I drew last year, but only recently started colouring. I will make more sense once speech bubbles are added. I thought of this in true Aussie spirit while watching the news.

Geisha

Apologies for no post yesterday, it was my sisters birthday so not much art was done. My creativity is still a bit thin and in need of recharging. So I've been doing some doodling today. Here's one thing I managed to put on paper. I think this might be good in watercolour.

Work load

It's amazing how many people think that art is no big deal and that there is very little effort involved. When I can say with much relief that the massive workload for semester 1 of tafe is completed. Once I have received my works back I will upload photos of them (I was too busy trying to make sure I had everything done to remember to photograph them). But now it is time for a break from school work, and hopefully more development of personal art. I feel this break will include many paintings, but we will see. And soon to be upload (which I've been meaning to upload for some time) some craft work. Here's a clue; it rhymes with "muishond gored" (well sort of).

Honey Bee; Silk Screen Print

A silk screen print I did for class. One of my original sketches now on canvas fabric!

  I'm very happy with how this turned out. She's a 1920s influenced cartoon flapper girl, also influenced by this song;

'Honey Bee' by Steam Powered Giraffe!

"Everyone is a genius. But you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
                                         -Albert Einstein.

Paintings, Work in progress

Two paintings, one water colour, the other acrylic. Just something I was working while being sick on this miserable day. Hopefully I'll have both done by next week.

Winter Stroll; Photography

 Wanted to test and try to develop some photography skills and understand the workings of my camera more in a completely new environment.

*Note; no photoshop was used to manipulate the image, only to add my name/copyright.

Photography, things in the garden

Again, practicing with the camera. I know this isn't in focus but I like that because it makes this 'weed' look so much fluffier and there's the faintest hint of a lens flair which I thinks helps with the softness. Again, it's not spectacular but I enjoy looking at it. I am still practicing with photography after all. 

DIY Screen Printing

The last project in Printmaking class was silk screen printings. It's really fun and easy, but what if you don't have a silk screen or all the fancy equipment? Well a few years ago I found this tutorial on youtube on a very cost effective and easy way to make your own screen prints. I've used this technique myself and it worked really well, my design was a little bit small and too intricate for it to work fully, but it still worked well. So here's an great way of printing your own designs onto a t-shirt (it works on paper too) by Youtuber Bubzbeauty.

And as soon as I can locate what I created using this method I will upload it to show you!