I'm an idiot!

You might have noticed that I haven't written a blog post for quite a while. I took a long break from the web starting in February because I was feeling directionless and overwhelmed by too much imagery and information, unable to concentrate. I wanted to spend some quiet time, to think about my art and what I wanted to do with it. I had also decided, for a lot of stupid reasons as it turns out, that I was going to learn to paint with oils.

But, y'see, I have a watercolor brain. Years and years of working with my W&N paints and I know every pigment in my palette like the back of my hand - which ones stain and which can be lifted out; which ones granulate, which ones streak; the opaque; the transparent; the best mixes. I know just how much water to hold in each brush. And I know which brush strokes to use to create the effects I want. When I look at one of my drawings on the paper I know how to start painting it. I'm by no means a master of my craft but I'm fairly proficient, I think.

When it comes to oil painting however I know very little. I did a couple of oil paintings when I was in high school - they were terrible - and in the following twenty-odd years I've never used them again. But, undaunted, driven by all the wrong reasons, I started finding out about oil painting. It has RULES that I didn't know about before, rules you can't really ignore unless you want your paintings to crack, dull and yellow in a few years time. And you have to plan your work. Oil paintings take a long time to dry. You can't just keep noodling away at them or you'll end up with a smeary mush of color. Which means waiting for days for layers to dry before moving on. My watercolor brain isn't used to that. It isn't used to any of it.

But despite returning to Deviant Art and announcing (rather prematurely as I since realised) that I had found my focus again, I was determined to perservere with this new oil painting thing. I cut and primed some boards and began a series of four little paintings. But I had to let the backgrounds dry before continuing. 2-12 days it says in the books, depending on the pigments used. So what to do in the meantime? I turned to the acrylic paints I have stored away, thinking they would be good practice for me in blending, getting used to the consistency of the paint, working with white as a pigment. For a week I worked and worked every spare moment I had. I must've painted the sky six or seven times. Once or twice I thought I might be getting somewhere, most of the time I just despaired of ever figuring it out.

Then late one night, trawling the web for tutorials, I found another artist's blog, an artist who does the most exquisite acrylic paintings, and began reading. But it wasn't advice on technique that I found. Instead I read her story of dreaming of being a successful artist, her struggle to find her way and the advice given to her by one of her friends. That advice was quite simple - learn one thing well. Those four words got stored away in my brain as I went back to the painting, to work on that damn sky for the eighth time. They took a few days to really sink in but then the full force of them hit me.

So you see, good people of the blogosphere, I am an idiot. I mean, seriously, WHAT was I thinking. I've invested years in learning to paint with watercolors and I was going to put it all aside to start at the beginning again for no other reason than because I'd seen some artworks in oils that were so enchanting and beautiful, created by artists who no doubt spent at least as long as I have learning their craft. The little trickster voice that lives in my head had whispered to me, "You could do that. You could learn to oil paint." This is the same voice that is now laughing at me. "It was only a suggestion," it tells me. "I didn't mean for you to get in such a mess with it. You didn't have to listen."

The acrylics have now been consigned to a drawer, where they belong. The oil paintings are still unfinished and drying. I haven't decided what I'll do with them yet. Perhaps I'll photograph and post them one day so you can have a good laugh. And if you ever see me threatening to divert from my beloved watercolors again you have my permission to yell at me and call me an idiot.

Because that is what I've been.

As a result of all of this stupidity I have no finished pieces to show you so instead I urge you to visit Ravynne Phelan's website and emmerse yourself in her beautiful art and wise words.

So here comes 2013. Where did last year go? I think I said that already, didn't I? I had to wait until the cats had worn themselves out battering fabric baubles up and down the hallway to get some peace to finish the Three Hares but here it is with it's digital background - the original, in white looked okay but I prefer this one:

3 Hares - © Shona M MacDonald 2012. All Rights Reserved

There are lots of 'how to' books and tutorials out there in book and on the net full of great information and techniques for artists, but few people write about the thought processes behind creating a painting. So I  thought for the next couple of posts I'd talk a bit about what goes on in my head when I'm starting to work on a new painting. The inside of my head isn't always a good place to be but I'll try to keep to the stuff that might be useful :)

Sometimes ideas, usually the simpler ones, arrive in my head fully formed, sparked by something I've seen, a few lines in a story or a poem. But at other times an idea will grow more slowly, building up from a sketch, to become something I had never imagined when I started doodling. That's the kind of painting I've just started working on so I thought I'd take you through the thinking process I went through to get to the final drawing stage before I began painting.

When I set out to start my (less than successful) August Sketchbook Project last year I'd gathered together a bunch of images I thought might be helpful - stock photos, magazine clipping that might be starting points for drawings. I picked a stock photo by kebehut-stock that seemed to suggest some possibilities but with no real idea of what I was going to do with it. I just liked the pose:

After quickly drawing the outline of the basic pose I began changing some of the facial features. Although I didn't quite know where I was going with it I at least knew I wanted it to be some kind of faery creature. As often happens I hit a point of a sort of auto-pilot while I was scribbling away. I LOVE auto-pilot. I do my best stuff when my conscious brain is worrying about other stuff and lets my sub-conscious have a go with the pencil. So it wasn't an entirely conscious decision to make it a woodland spirit but that tends to be where my brain veers off to when I'm not concentrating. I love the intricacies of branches and twigs tangled together. As I was drawing I was already looking forward to the pleasure of painting those strands of twisted bark.

The one entirely conscious decision I did make was in choosing which type of tree she would be. This wasn't, at this point at least, anything to do with the pose but more because  I love painting those little berries, so she became a Hawthorn. I noodled away a bit longer on the drawing, shading, adding detail and filling it out. As I was doing this the lines of Kipling's poem from Puck of Pook's Hill came into my head:

Of all the trees that grow so fair,

Old England to adorn,

Greater are none beneath the Sun,

Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.

Sing Oak and Ash and Thorn, good Sirs

(All of a Midsummer morn)!

Surely we sing no little thing,

In Oak and Ash and Thorn!

And that was when the idea for a much larger painting started to form.

Next post I'll go through the next phase of the process - working out the other elements, lots of staring into space and the drawing of a hundred leaves... 

 Snippets - bits of things I'm working on

 

 

 

Yuletide Greetings!

Just wanted to send my best wishes to all of you for Yuletide.

Thank you for visiting and commenting on my site/blog over this past year. I had hoped to have a new painting to show you - a festive version of the ancient Three Hares symbol - but my cats had other ideas. It's hard to concentrate on painting while the Christmas tree is being demolished in the corner and there are baubles flying past my head.

So, another year almost over. I don't know where the time has gone, I really don't. It doesn't seen all that long ago I was starting the paintings for my Enchanted Alphabet project. It doesn't feel as if I've created a lot of art this year. I have to keep reminding myself that, if nothing else, I published a book!!

Here's to next year and (hopefully) lots more art!!

Shona

The Crafting Bug

It's been a while since I posted anything because, well, it's been a while since I painted anything. It's that time of year again when I catch the crafting bug. It happens every year, a bit like the flu but far more pleaseant and colorful. The shops start to fill up with shiney, sparkly things and I get distracted by them all, glittering away on their shelves and shop displays. I must've been a magpie in a former life. It didn't help that Kirsty is back on the telly doing her vintage craft thing, nor did a trip to the MADE Cafe in Whitley Bay and the local sewing shop, both full of lovely crafts and supplies. So, out come the fabrics and the beads and the ribbon. I rediscover treasures I'd forgotten I bought, stashed away for safe keeping, waiting for the right project.

If I'm completely truthful, I have to admit that I bought a lot of the stuff over the years because it looked so pretty. I can't resist all those lovely colors - did I mention I used to be a magpie? But my workroom is full to bursting and I made a solemn promise to myself a couple of years ago that I would not, under any circumstances, buy any more fabrics, beads, ribbons, buttons or fancy threads until I had made use of what I already have (unless it was an emergency, you understand. I had to buy some Christmasy fabric this year to make Christmas stockings for my cats).

This year I had to delve into my scrap box for most of my Christmas fabrics because last year I made geese:

and birds:

and cats:

and hearts:

oh, and bunting. I thought that lot would've finished off my Christmas fabrics for good but I can't bring myself to throw out even small pieces, hence the scrap box. After a good old rummage, I found enough pieces to make some baubles and I really did throw away the scraps that were left this time...well, most of them.

The baubles are basically fabric beach balls - six leaf shaped pieces cut from different fabrics, sewn together to form a ball, with a loop of gold thread secured at the top.

Pattern pieces in three sizes

Six pieces sewn together
 



Ta'dah! A bauble!

I think they need jazzing up a bit with some beads and ribbons, but with two boisterous young cats meeting a Christmas tree for the first time next month, I think I'll be replacing my glass ornaments with some of these this year.

I also found a few half finished bits and pieces, so with a craft fair at my local community centre looming in a couple of weeks I've finished some fabric brooches:

and some more cats:

Cat egg cosies



Phew, I think that should be all for now. The anti-crafting drugs should be kicking in soon and I can return to normality. I've got one very large painting that I hope to be starting work on soon and may well end up being part of a series of tree-spirit pictures, if the sketching goes well.

Oh, and just a final reminder for anyone who has book-marked pages on my old website - only five days until it disappears and this site takes over as the-wild-wood.com. After I've swaped URLs I'll be adding a links page to this site, so any artists or crafters out there who want to exchange links, please get in touch.


Work In Progress

As you can see I've made some major changes to the appearance of this blog. I'm in the process of transferring a chunk of the content of my Wild Wood website to this one, so that, eventually, this blog will become my site. Please bear with me while I make all the changes.

Thanks

Shona

Ta'dah!!

So, I was watching Labyrinth last week. All those fabulous Froudian creations. And it got me all fired up to finish my troll. I'd been working on a few bits and pieces over the last few weeks - creating little polymer clay troll buttons for his shirt, rune-sticks to hang from his belt and a few 'carved stones' to decorate his hat. The last thing to make was the sack of stories I wanted him to be carrying on his back, full of old scrolls. So with the help of a pot of tea and some coffee (for the scrolls and for me :) ) I got everything finished. And here he is:

Sceop, the Library Troll

As you can see, in the end I had to make some shoes for him. With the best will in the world, he was never going to stand up properly with those lumpy old feet so I cut a couple of matching pieces of mount board, place one under each foot and wrapped them with strips of hand-dyed muslin.

His clothes were made by adapting and enlarging some basic clothing patterns I had created previously for teddy-bears. You can't see them too well under his coat, but he's wearing grey linen trousers and an Indian cotton shirt (cut from an old shirt of mine). His two-tone coat was the biggest challenge. I only have a limited supply of this gorgeous silk velvet, so I made the coat in calico first to make sure the pattern worked. Jeez, that velvet may look nice but it's a bugger to sew. His hat and his back-pack are hessian, lined with calico and all the little rune stones and knotwork stones were made from polymer clay. The scrolls were simply torn sheets of cream paper, rolled and dipped in tea, then, when nearly dry, the ends were dipped in the dregs of a pot of filter coffee.

And here he is. After consulting the members of The Mythic Cafe with Charles de Lint
 their vast knowledge of all things folklore suggested the name Sceop - an old Anglo-Saxon word for 'bard', which troll seems very happy with.

So, what have a learned from the troll-making process?

#1 - build an armature that will actually be able to stand up when it's covered in clay. Sounds obvious, and it is, but I got a little carried away with the tin-foil...

#2 - 20 minutes baking time per 1/4 inch of clay may sound simple enough but it's not. Not when you're making something with thick bits and thin bits and trying to bake it all at the same time.
You need to plan the sculpt and build it up in layers.

#3 - making one complete armature for the whole model might not always be the best way to do it. It would've been much easier to work on the head, hands and feet separately, but I got a little carried away with the tin-foil...

#4 - if I'm going to put sewing holes around the ankles and wrists to secure a fabric bodyto  (and I'm not convinced it was worth doing at all), then at least angle them so I can get a needle through them easily :-|

#5 - I won't be making clothes for anything, anytime soon, from silk velvet.

All in all, it's mostly been a fun process - except when fingers dropped off - and a worth while process. I think I've learned a lot.

Will I be making anything else???

My mum's buying me a pasta maker for my birthday and I have no intention of using it to make tagliatelle  ;)

The Great August Sketchbook Project!!

Well, I have made a start but, as usual, I've been a little side-tracked by other things - wrestling with CreateSpace, making miniature bears for an exhibition in September, the seemingly perpetual re-decoration of my home, a painting for an art competition on DeviantArt ... I know, I know, I said I was going to put my paints away and just draw for the entire month but my brain just doesn't work like that it seems. I hop from one thing to the next and back again all the time. When something gets into my head I have to start work on it there and then. I'm hopless, really I am. :-|

But the sketchbook itself isn't going too badly so far. Rather than just fill it with quickly scribbled stuff, I'm taking the time to work on each drawing, re-working and re-working again when things aren't quite right, resisting the temptation to give up on an image too quickly and not allowing myself to tear out any pages.

Finally, a quick Troll update: - sculpey troll now has a snazzy little hat, a shirt and a pair of linen trousers; measuring a troll's inside leg - that was a first! Just his coat, shoes and a few accessories to go...