☆ Winter Princess WIP [Friday Art]

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Week 28 - July 2014 

This painting is one I have been thinking about for a while now, (you may have seen the beginning + in progress shots over on Instagram or Facebook over the weekend), and my inspiration this time came from author Kristen Ashley.

It is no secret that I am a huge romance novel junkie. HUGE. (I totally blame my 94 year old nan for this addiction - it was mills + boon over the summer holidays at her house when I was 14!! I was an impressionable teen!! - I have no responsibility for this....)

And it shouldn't be a huge surprise that the genre I am particularly fond of is the paranormal/ fantasy one.

Hello. Mermaids? Princesses? Stag Girls? Yup reading is a huge source of inspiration for me...

Anyway, I was reading Kristen Ashley's Fantasyland series + there was a passage that described the heroine from the first book and as soon as I read it I knew I had to paint it.

So this is the beginning of the 'Winter Princess' painting (not to be confused with, by the way, the Frozen princess Elsa, who Bean excitedly asked me if I was painting for her....)

This was the third/ fourth sketch I did.
 It took a while + some awkward selfies (did you see them on Facebook?) to get the pose right... 

Here I have transferred it onto my gesso panel, using carbon paper from the newsagents. I haven't been able to find graphite transfer paper here, but to be honest that carbon paper works well enough.

I don't often start with the back ground, but I wanted to start with the elements in the background first

Which as always lasted a whole five minutes before I was compelled to start her face...

And Yah - my favourite part her eyes...

And this is when my brain shut down. Being it was close to 1am,  I couldn't make any more decisions, so I have decided to leave it for the night. 

So where has your inspiration come from lately? What was the last thing your created inspired from? I would love to hear where your brilliant ideas have come from! Feel free to share below.

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☆ Tea-Cup Pirate [part Deux]

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June 2014 - Week 25

So last week, I showed you some in progress shots of the 'Tea-cup Pirate' painting I am working on + asked for some advise here + over on face book about what colour hair to go for.

I had some awesome suggestions + am probably going to steal those ideas for other paintings, but a couple of people suggested red, and my instinct was all like 'absolutely red, red is perfect for her' so I decided to go for it.

I decided to do a water colour wash first, I decided that if my intuition was wrong, I could alway paint it black later....

But in the end I loved it so, I started with the acrylic. I used a mixture of Heritage Red (matisse brand), Jo Sonja's Titanuim White + Yellow Deep and Golden Fluid Acrylics Cobalt Turquoise. (that and goldens Teal are my favourite, FAVOURITE colours just now!) And some black paint - I am not sure which brand I used, but since I always use black you can be assured it was in there...

And this was where I left her on Saturday night, after my big painting session. I was surprised, that once I was in the zone, I spent about three hours doing her hair. 

Last night I picked up again, having mulled over the tea cup + back ground a bit...

And I have to say I didn't get very far...

Feral children a cold studio, general tiredness, and I packed up early instead of finishing it like I thought.

So I have another question for you all, the background - should I do a soft grey or match the colours with the cup?  I was just going for a soft grey, but now I am thinking other wise. 

What do you think?

Have a great week end 

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☆ 2013 Calendar + W.I.P's [AEDM DAY 27]

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I am in the middle of a couple of projects right now. And I am pretty excited about them all! 

So I haven't any completed paintings to share with you today, but I have a few works in progress + bits of bits.

I grabbed one of the back grounds from yesterday, and...

... I started my painting for this weeks Inspiration Avenue prompt Angel.

But then I realised that today is the 27th, and I needed to start my Christmas Tag for my swap, so I pulled out everything Christmassy from my stash...

....and I started playing.

But this is all you are going to see until I my swap partner receives it, so it will be a surprise for everyone.

It isn't to late to sign up, so if you would like to be included in my very first Christmas Tag Swap just click on the image below for more details.

I would love it if you joined us.

I was saying to some friends, that I wanted to do something a bit special with my art from AEDM this year, to celebrate my creativity, and that I thought that I would create a calendar. 

They thought it was a great idea, so I decided to go for it.

This is the cover page. 

It seems there are a few artists who are doing AEDM, who are doing this, but if enjoyed my paintings from this years AEDM, you can enjoy it through out 2013. 

I am so very excited about my first calendar, and I have already bought myself one + some for my family for christmas. 

Click Here to see more

Have you thought about how you would celebrate your creativity this year? Do you make a collage, a calendar, a tribute to your work? Or look over all your pieces + celebrate the achievements in each one? I would love it is your shared your stories - I would love to hear how you celebrate.

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☆ Work in Progress

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Not much happening this week at Casa de Mac, with day light savings and a snotty head cold knocking all of us around. I used to enjoy turning the clocks back, I would pretend that I would wake an hour early and exercise, but in reality I would just enjoy the extra hours sleep!

However when you have two little girls who are used to waking at 7am, and sleeping at 7am, turning the clocks back is a recipe for cranky, tired and grizzly little girls. Throw in a cold and I am ready for the weekend!

So I thought I'd share the drawing I am currently working on....

My Sky Blue pro marker ran out half way through the colouring, so I had to do an emergency order from  Letraset - but who knows how long it will take to get here from the UK, and I am slightly stumped with colour choice for her top, but I am, so far, please with the progress!

Til next time.

x♥x

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