Merry Christmas!
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11
Last year I had the pleasure of designing the wedding invite for friends of mine. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I’d share a little bit of the process of making it.
To start with I was given the theme of succulents and hexagons. It was fun trying out different compositions, some more traditional and some less so.
I also quickly realised that a sketchy succulent (in this case a Mexican Gem) can look very similar to a sketchy rose.
I started with quick sketches exploring the theme
Once the preferred designs were chosen I painted some quick mockups using digital watercolours to give a feel of how the final image would look.
Rough studies of the selected designs
At this stage preferred fonts were selected, and I began painting the final design. I discovered that painting a pale succulent onto a dark background gave a kind of ghostly image which didn’t work very well. The design was reworked to feature a single plant.
In the final stages I created mockups with a kraft paper background to match how it would be printed.
Mockup and final design
It was a lovely project to work on. Plus, I got to see my work in real life when I received one of the invites through the post!
I struggled with this one. Choosing the colour and getting the texture right was difficult, and I don’t feel I’ve completely succeeded in either area. This was a study of a canvas bag. I guess I need to paint more cloth!
While on a walk with the dog this afternoon I looked out for interesting things to draw and decided on this juxtaposition between snow, ice and water.
If you’ve been following me for a few years you may remember that back in 2015 I drew ‘Pieces of Sky’, small squares of the sky I saw that day. (Here’s an example.) I’ve been thinking about starting to draw small colour studies again, as I enjoyed the challenge. However I feel only drawing the sky is perhaps a bit limiting, so I’ve set myself a new goal within the same guidelines of a 500×500 pixel canvas. I’ll continue to take inspiration from life, but it will now be from anywhere.
It’s been a very grey, snowy day so unfortunately there is very little colour anywhere. Today’s ‘Study Square’ shows some of the snow piled up outside my window. I like how mountainous the shapes are despite the fact it’s only about a foot in height!
It’s been over a year since I last updated my portfolio and showreel so (thanks to the prodding of others) I’m finally sorting through my work. In doing so I uncovered this painting of Glencoe. From what I remember I abandoned it in frustration, but I quite like it now! It’s loosely based on a photograph I took the last time I was there.
New Profile
When I drew my previous profile picture back in February (!) I thought I’d try drawing a new one each month. Let’s see if I can get the next one done by December …
Landscape 01
I’d like to get into the habit of drawing daily so I’ve come up with a list of short exercises to do, one each day. Today’s was a landscape study.
Mountain landscape 478216 from http://wallpaper-kid.com/mountain-landscape-backgrounds.htm
I did a B&W study first to try and understand the tones in the photograph. In my sketch it’s difficult to distinguish between the mountains and the rocky formation in the foreground. In future I’ll allow myself to play with more values of grey. It also took me a while to realise that though the shadows on the mountains were dark they were lighter than the shadows in the foreground.
For this exercise I took the colours directly from the photograph. I plan to build up to the point where I choose my own palette, and work in real paint, pencils, pastels etc.
Profile
I decided I needed a new profile picture and thought I’d draw one! This is referenced from a photograph my sister took.
Alp
Three sketch studies and the finished painting, created on commission. Though I like the looseness of the quick studies I really enjoyed spending time adding detail into the final picture.
The pink sketch I rejected for being too pink, though I used some of the light suggested by it in my final composition. I still like the blue one above, but it feels very cold and this painting was intended to hang in a living room!
Mount Hood
Using some family holiday photographs for reference, I painted Mount Hood (vaguely based on it) for my father’s birthday present. I used gouache and a stencil made from paper which gave interesting gloopy results, especially each time it was reused. Here are the final results below, in the order they were made.
A close up, below: a wet wash underneath created these wonderful splodges. This is the painting I chose to give to my dad.
At this point, the stencil began to disintegrate.
Here I flipped the stencil over and used it to print with as well.
Dunes
I got some new paintbrushes for Christmas, so I played around with gouache this morning!
Close-ups below.
Gouache II
I had fun painting with gouache last night! I bought three more tubes of paint as last time I only had yellow, red, and blue. Also I planned ahead a bit more, taking some designs from my sketchbook to paint instead of attempting to make them up on the spot.
Since I began playing around with digital gouache brushes I wanted to try out the real thing. I bought some paints today and smudged them about in one of my sketchbooks. I like how they’re a combination of acrylics and watercolours! And yet, unlike either, gouache keeps its richness even when a little watered down. When painted without any water at all, it dries completely differently from acrylic. I like it!
One of my frustrations with painting has been with my dislike of paint. I’ve always found watercolours too pale, acrylics too thick when dry and too pale when wet, and though I like oils they’re a real hassle. Here’s gouache, a real thick paint that I can easily clean from my palette!
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