The Hidden Gallery

Or both????

I don't know!  Where should I invest my efforts???  UGH!

Thoughts?

It's hard to be competent in both never mind in just one of them... but...but... I want to get better with one technique at least.

I've been watching really good tv. I finished all 5 seasons of HBO's The Wire and the miniseries John Adams.

The Wire is epic television. It is a commentary on what is happening in our world and has left me with so many questions and some despair.  What an education I got from watching that show.  Season 4 and 1 are tied for my favorite, then season 3.

John Adams is a really great miniseries 7 episodes long with embellishments on one of the Founding Fathers of the US.  who was also their 2nd President. The show is so steam punk.  Very Cool.  And really interesting. I found the world history during that period fascinating. I wish historical television shows would mention that these dramas are very loosely based on historical events. I am watching The Tudors now which is an embellishment of King Henry the 8th's rein. Also  loosely based on historical events.  I will say that it does make me read more about history to see how accurate shows are and how much they go off track from real history.

I finished reading Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game.  I  enjoyed the book and the fictional account of the Glass Bead Game was something I wondered on. I read somewhere that Hesse imagined his story was set around the 25th century. Whoa. Because I used to play piano, I really appreciated and admired the way Music is described and respected in this book. Anyway, I'm still have to read the last part of the book which consists of poetry and short stories.

Okay, now art pimp:

Click to see whole painting.



Monarch Butterfly Fairy

16 in x 12 in

acrylics on cotton canvas sheet

Hello out there?

It's finished!!!  And the colours are so much more brilliant than this terrible and low quality scan.
My favourite thing about this painting is how the mermaid's expression came out so serene...

Thank you to the wonderful and talented Judy Boardman, who is otherwise known as artsygoddess, for her wonderful mermaid drawing!  It's been a pleasure and an honour to have worked with you on a beautiful piece of artwork.  Thank you Judy!!!

I hope you enjoyed looking at her as much as I enjoyed painting her!

Phew!  I can now go read journals without feeling guilty about not posting art!

Okay, I guess I got carried away and forgot to make a scan before it got to this point...These are the very first layers of watercolour paint.  Things look flat at this point.  The colours, the shapes, everything.  I've started shading with cobalt blue and highlighting with some rose dore for the mermaid's skin then washed over everything with yellow ocher.  I've also started indicating some of the background elements with more defined shapes.  Whatever bleed I was losing my mind over has now been resolved.  I've incorporated the bleeding ink into the watery paint.  Thank goodness!  Judy's art looks even more amazing with colours added!

Working through the email i've neglected over the past couple weeks.   I'm down to 56 emails.  wo'hoo... back on track soon I think hope.

Part VI and the finished painting next!

In the past, I've always hesitated to do any kind of artist collaboration because I found that it was filled with conflict but I realize that was a product of our maturity or lack of it...

As with my art, I think I've grown more mature and I think it shows in this collaboration with the very talented artsygoddess  I'm delighted with how it turned out and I hope she is too!



Judy illustrated her beautiful original drawing on a really heavy piece of watercolour paper.  It was very thick like cardboard and was very textured with lots of "tooth".  I've never painted or drawn on such good quality paper before and I think this is why I hesitated for so long before I actually got down to starting my half of the collaboration which is the painting part of the delicate drawing.

I really didn't want to mess this up.  First of all, it's another person's original artwork!!!  I was very nervous that I would "wreck" it somehow with my inexperience.  Second, it's a damn fine drawing!  If I goofed, then the drawing might not even be saved... you can see how concerned I was!  And third, well, it's on nice paper so I certainly didn't want to ruin the investment Judy has put in me.  Both her amazing talent, artwork, generous materials, and most of all her time.

It's hard to tell from the crappy scan but the lines are quite delicate and soft.  There's a lot of movement in the hair and underwater foliage.  I think this compliments her pose very well and I like how her tail's texture contrasts against her figure.  I like Judy's composition too and how the cave's opening frames the whole setting.  Little details like the coral and fish add to the magic and sets the tone for how all the figures relate to each other... it seems like everyone is kinda minding their own business in another lovely day in the underwater fantasy world of Judy Boardman.  All the character's expressions are quite serene and I wanted to evoke that same kind of feeling with colour.  It's like a distant and soft admiration of fantasy.

Anyways part II next...

still trying to catch up...

... watercolours or acrylics?  oil or acrylics?  drawings or paintings? big or miniature? paper or canvas?  digital or old skool? I just don't know...some stuff...





Well, I guess I finally finished this abandoned painting.  You may remember this from this post. This painting was based on these reference pictures provided by </a></b></a>magical_krystal in fantasy_models  .  That was a long time ago... I found the unfinished painting lying around in a big pile of other unfinished paintings.

Acrylic on Canvas 12 x 16.


This:

is junk.  Done with very little time and consideration (I know, it's obvious) in Photoshop.

I still don't know how to organize my layers best.  And am still unfamiliar with the different brushes... If you got any advice, or links or anything that can help me... bring it on...  Mucho Gracias!

Sorry if I depressed you with my last post.  We are now returning to our regular programming.


Recently, I participated in a teamwork challenge!  It was very cool.  A group of mermaid artists joined up for artistic collaborations.  One person would do a drawing and another person would colour and paint it.  The results have been wonderful!  It is really cool to see how each artist's style emerges from the art!

Well, I did a drawing and inked some of it.  Then I mailed it over to geckoartist who then painted (and what an improvement!) it.


This was my original drawing.  bah!



This is my drawing enhanced and beautifully painted by the talented Aubry Chapman!



I think she really improved the face.  I like her expression so much more after Aubry painted it.  I love it!  It's gorgeous!  I secretly procrastinated on mailing her my sketch because I was so dissatisfied with it.  WOW!  I think it's beautiful now!

Go visit Aubry's website!

Then you can go check out the art of the Sea Gods group here!

I got into that mood again where I feel like everything has lost significance compared to the crazy stuff happening in the world.  Everything I write  seems trivial. 

Can someone please explain this to me?  WTF is going on?  People buy and wear this?  o___O  Considering how the American government treated prisoners at Abu Ghraib and how the Iranian government treated the British hostages, social commentary such as that makes me want to puke.


Back to my little world.

I never had a fast enough computer to be able to digitally paint with the tablet.  I'd try, but the lag would be so bad I'd give up.  Now I do have a fast enough computer, but when I tried to paint, there was still lag.... until now.

I dunno what happened (well, I did reinstall os x and cleaned up the computer after the nasty hard drive incident a few weeks ago).  Having enough ram now I decided to give it another shot... and photoshop is responding nicely.  There is still tons of lag when I want to use the smudge tool but who cares if the brush is working so wonderfully! (I don't care now, but I have a feeling I will in the future).  These paintings were done with just the airbrush tool.

My first goof off:



Yeah, I know, it was just a quickie.  I had to abandon it because we went to all-you-can-eat sushi for Larv's birthday.

Next try:


Way better I think.  Mostly painted while watching The Daily Show.

Digital painting is way faster than actually painting.  And way cleaner too.  Having control over each layer of paint and also having the "free-transform" tool sure makes it a lot easier.  I haven't decided if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  It certainly makes me sloppy and less accurate knowing I can change the proportions and I can always "undo".  I have to get familiar with the other brushes and tools in photoshop.  Using only the airbrush just doesn't bring any texture to the painting.

The paintings themselves are nothing to write home about, but I am pleased with my use of the tablet with photoshop and for my first tries, they aren't so bad.  This also makes me realize even more that I'm better at painting than drawing.


We played the Wii at Brenden's house this weekend.  I am hooked!  Where the heck can I find one?  I've been faithfully and regularly checking out Zellers, Toys R Us, EB Games, etc...etc... I'll even buy one at Walmart if I have to even though I've been successfully boycotting it for months.

I hate racism, homophobia and misogyny.  I also hate it when people stoop to that level to insult.  Why are those people so evil?  And the phrase, "Compassionate Conservative" is the most ridiculous thing ever.  Compassionate to who?  Other selfish bastards?  (Please excuse my horrid language... I just don't know of a better word to describe these people).

I thought I would try the theme and composition of this aceo again.  But bigger.



5 x 7 watercolours and ink

Been busy because of some good news!  I just can't say until I am 100% sure. :)