experimenting

i love all these accidental marks. 

working with them brings me such inspiration. 

the unpredictability of the ink takes me to places i would never have discovered.

on my easel

at the end of last week i hit a wall with my big painting , 

i know it's not finished but i do not know what my next step is. 

so this weekend i decided to take a break and do something else. 

i stood at my easel and played with marks, 

ink, charcoal, pastel... 

i made pages and pages of those little faces, 

some good, some mad.

i'll share some more in the next few days. 

practice makes progress

i am loving playing with charcoal at the moment. 

quick practices.

some better than others. 

trying to stay unattached to the outcome

and to say more with less... 

sketching

one tool, 

one subject.

keeping it simple 

transition...

i am not sure where i am heading with my art...

i'm in transition, not here not there. 

but i'm making marks. 

surely that is good enough? 

sketching

i had a delicious arting weekend! 

a few projects on the go, 

one of them being hand studies. 

it was cooler here, overcast and rainy.

 after the "baking" several months we've just been through 

it came as a relief! 

and it means i can spend more time in the studio.  

procrastination

this is the state of my desk at the moment 

i'm busy writing my artist statement... 

clearly the words aren't flowing as easily as the faces

obsession

making marks, doodling, can't get enough.

i'm starting to understand that each mark 

informs the next one, whether it's a doodle, a drawing, a painting.

each mark inspires another one and slowly builds my own style.

i loved Diane Culhane's class Doings of a Doodle. 

i haven't managed to finish the assignments but it has made me 

look at doodling in a different light.

in a "practice makes progress" kind of light, 

as long as i am a making marks i am learning

and i am developing a style. 

first sketch

i'm getting ready for this weekend 

Portrait Boot Camp. 

with Dee's help i've chosen the little pineapple lady.

that will be her name for now because i've forgotten

her real name and she sells pineapple near the beach 

during the holidays. 

here is the beginning, first sketch onto the canvas 

i'm inspired by Benjamin Bjorklund's work,

i love his floating portraits...

let's see where it take me. 

Preparing

this coming weekend i'll be doing 

a "portrait painting bootcamp" 

with artist Dee Donaldson

she requests that we take our own photographs 

for reference, 

if possible of someone we don't know at all 

or 

at least not well. 

i decided to work with this photograph.

this is Stan, a gentle homeless man 

who lives around this area

Dee also requested that we do a charcoal 

underpainting in preparation for the course

on a big canvas, 

mine is 80cm by 100cm.

this is my sketch ready for saturday,

Stan looks a little rounder than in real life.

it might just be me trying to ease his circumstances...

we will be working on that one painting for 3 full days

and i can feel i'm going to be pushed way out of my comfort zone...

can't wait

;) 

weekend play

i've been on a roll sketching and painting faces. 

i'm inspired by the hype on instagram about 100 faces

(from what i understand this is where it started) 

of course i am tempted to jump in but i don't feel like 

that kind of commitment right now, 

so i'm playing from the sideline. 

here a little evolution of another of my hooded girl, 

acrylic on paper.

trying to stay loose in my mark making and color choices.