Leaping Silhouette

I still haven’t gone back to my nude.  As much as I really want to finish him I keep putting other paintings ahead of it.  The fact that it’s so close to being done scares me a little bit.  What if I sit down to finish it and completely F it up?!  The thought makes me feel slightly ill.  No wonder Van Gogh went crazy.  Lol!  So, for now it sits on my shelf so that I can look at it and build up the confidence to get back to it. 

In the mean time I’ve completed another painting.  This one is another figure painting but with brighter colours; I needed a changed from the grey scale of the nude. Using my Anatomy for the Artist book as a reference I decided to make my figure more of a silhouette than a detailed individual.

Getting the basic silhouette painted was relatively easy.  However, when it came time to add the bit of highlighting I wanted, well that took more tries and more time than I would have thought.  In the end I realized that less highlighting is more for this particular piece. 

The bold yellow, orange & reds were the fun part.  Again it took me a bit to figure out the best technique for what I was trying to achieve, but I got there (mostly).  With each painting I learn something new, what works and what doesn’t, what I’m good at and what I need to work on (quite a bit).  It’s a fun learning process and each painting leads me somewhere different.

The acrylics were calling

My apologies for not posting in the last few weeks, but there has been quite a bit of reorganizing going on in the craft room as of late.  I made a decision back in May to end my time as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and I have been slowly going through my supplies, deciding what to keep and what to sell, and then planning my final card class.

I have had 4 great years as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  It is a wonderful company and I have met some lovely creative ladies during that time that I will continue to stay in contact with.  However, right now, my head and my heart just aren't in it from the demonstrator stand point.  I will definitely continue to make cards and scrapbook, but I'm going to take a bit of break.

So what am I filling my craft time with now you ask?  Painting with acrylics!  I am totally obsessed at the moment.  I have been wanting to do this for quite a while but did not have the time, until now.  About 4 years ago I took a 6 session night class at our local community center on beginner acrylic painting and I really enjoyed it. The class itself wasn't a great learning tool as the teacher was more about letting us just express ourselves than teaching us the basics of acrylic painting (which is what I wanted), but I enjoyed it none the less.  At that time I painted a couple pieces and basically tried to figure it out on my own, then I got into stamping and put away the paints.  Then three years ago while I was pregnant with K I decided to pull out the paints and bring them to the cottage for the weekend.  That weekend I started my first nude painting based on a photo from a book 'Anatomy for the Artist'.  I made a good start but once the weekend was over I found I didn't have time to work on it and put it away.  Now three years later I have finally take out that nude painting and am working on it again.  Here is a sneak peak of the work in progress.

 

 

In my quest to learn how to paint with acrylics I came across a wonderful guy named Will Kemp http://willkempartschool.com/ who has these great video tutorials on how to paint with acrylics.  In addition to having great tutorials he also has a tonne of information on painting with acrylics, oils and drawing.  Seriously, this guy is awesome!  Not only does he provide very easy to follow step by step video instruction but he has a great sense of humour and is cute to boot.  ;)  Plus I love the music he uses in his videos.  So, if you have ever thought of painting with acrylics or already do, this guy is the place to start.  I'm not kidding, go there, right now.  :)

 

Here is the result of the first tutorial 'Cherry still life' I did from his site.  My painting is on top and the photo we use as a reference is below.

 

 

Now I just need to finish my nude.