Thursday 27 August 2015

Portugese Man o' War

I would not consider myself "lucky" in general, I usually don't win draws or lotteries. But I am a very lucky person regarding the wonderful people I trade art with over on http://www.atcsforall.com. There is so much talent floating around there I can hardly believe it. I am also very lucky, because I am doing monthly trades with a very special person in Texas, she likes unusual things, fungi (that reminds me, I have to get back into making Shrooms), weird sort of stuff. 
The art she sends me is outstanding! This also motivates me in trying to find unusual themes for what I am sending her, and when I came across creatures called siphonophores I figured I was onto something. They are colonial beings, one organism made up of lots of different specialised creatures, all so interdependant they can not live without one another. One of these is the Portugese Man o' War, also known as floating terror. So I painted one for her, polyptych style since I could not get all the detail on a tiny ATC card.


Wednesday 19 August 2015

Butterfly Rolo

I was wondering what kind of arty thing I could do today. Something I could start and finish more or less quickly due to the time restraints put on me by my kids. So I went over to atcsforall.com and had a look at a MMH (make me happy) Rolodex thread. This lady was looking for -among other themes- Butterflies and so I mailed her I would make her a card. And for the first time in a very long time I just went ahead and added colours without preplanning shading and such. I really like how it turned out, I hope she likes it, too.




Tuesday 18 August 2015

Polyptych Style Zentangle inspired art

I was working on this piece for a few months already and I had not yet found the right tangles to finish it. But I finally sat down and learned a few more awesome tangles, filled any empty spaces and added the colours. But something was still missing and as I had just bought a huge amount of gel pens I decided the picture needed some (a lot) of glitter...

I then cut it into 6 ATC size pieces (2.5" x 3.5") and I am trading them over on atcsforall.com.


I had a 2" strip left over on the right hand side and decided to keep it and use it as a bookmark.




Tuesday 11 August 2015

Griffon ATC

I have recently entered a personal trade with a fellow artist on ATCs for all, and his request presented me with a real challenge. He was asking could I draw him a Griffon, the mythical guardian of the sun and protector of the innocent, a creature with a lions body and an eagles head, wings and claws. I have never before drawn an eagle, a lion or even a chimera (creature made from two or more different species). It was a bit tricky as I wanted to put emphasis on the protector of the innocent aspect, but he looked as if he was about to eat all his protegés. I made him pose in front of a radient sun instead.


Sunday 2 August 2015

Shroomlings

Hi, all. Today is Shrom posting day! And today I have something new to share. I was captivated recently by some very beautiful watercolour pictures over on Atcs For All and since I bought a basic pallet of watercolours while I was away I thought I would give it a try. Of course I took no lessons beforehand nor did I watch any tutorial videos, my motto on these things is usually "Why go the easy way if you can have it complicated?". I just never go easy on me. Anyway, here is my first watercolour painting...


Since I didn't watch any how to's my colours bled into each other but I managed to hide most of the blotches with the background. And then I thought these look kind of boring and I really think I should get my head and hands around drawing freehand without pencilsketching first. A Lady I trade with regularly on Atcs For All has made a few cards with a technique called "Start With A Blob" and I was trying to find something about this online without luck so far. Well... Remember my Motto?
I just went ahead, took my trusted marker and...

Voilá, Shroomlings.



Hmmm, they are kind of freaky...