A few little snippets of bits and pieces to show you this time. Having recovered from my acrylic brain fog I completed a new painting in watercolor just to get myself back into the idea of not failing :). It's called The Shaman's Child and is a combination of two sketches. I just love painting rocks!
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| The Shaman's Child © Shona M MacDonald 2013 All Rights Reserved |
Next up is a little bit of scupley-ing and fimo-ing. I bought a big chunk of flesh-colored fimo, hoping to avoid the 15 minutes per quarter inch sculpey complications I had with my troll. But I've found I'm not so keen on sculpting with it. It has a springy-ness to it that makes it harder to shape tiny details so I went back to the sculpey in the end. I'm wondering if a combination of the two blended together might work - that's an experiment for another time. So, anyway, I made a bunch of heads, just for practise really and to try a different painting technique to the 'cover it all in thick paint' method I ended up using on Troll. Using a very watery mix of acrylic and wiping most of it off between layers I managed to keep some of the translucency of the sculpey's flesh tones which made me very happy. I did complete a couple of fimo heads too but I haven't baked those yet
Other things I'm working on include a companion piece to the 3 Hares Yuletide painting I did in December. This one is for Lughnassadh (or Lammas) and celebrates the first grain and fruit harvest of the year. I've sketched out a further three 3 Hares pieces and intend to create 8 in total for the eight festivals of the wheel of the year. Or perhaps 12 and make it into a calender, I guess it depends on whether I can cope with painting 36 hares :D
And finally, the thing that's been occupying my brain for the last week, was the sudden urge to paint some ACEOs (an excuse not to paint another hare, I think. At first anyway.) It started innocently enough. A little 2.5 x 3.5 inch bear on an off-cut of watercolor paper. I tried out some new white gel pens I bought, and dusted off a tube of metallic gouache tempera I'd forgotten I had. One became six and now I'm seriously considering the idea of making an oracle deck - bigger paintings, more details, but based on these little ACEOs at least in part. It's another mad idea that will probably never get finished (I know what I'm like with things like thing only too well), but I always think, with things like this, that while it may start off as a grand 'big' idea, even if I don't finish it, at least I'll probably get a couple of decent paintings out of it...
