Testing lighting & first step...

Im gearing up for the battle of dust bunnies, junk, paper scraps and trolls {okay, maybe not really trolls, but it sure looks like they lived in my studio space during the winter months}. But today is the day and Im starting to clean up in there and before I face the space of doom and gloom, I just wanted to share this with you. As you might know from my last posts, I have been cleaning out all the shelves at our local library and gone through a ton of different books {art, decorating, felting, photography, gardening and mushroom picking... I know a crazy mix of everything}.

One of the books I read had information about lighting and how important it is when you take pictures of your art work. The pictures however in that very book were less than helpful, matter fact they were all in black and white. So I had to give it my own try out, and here it is.

Or as how my daughter puts it... Taa Daa!!!

 

I took a picture under different light sources and natural light, and I used one of my barn drawing/painting as my test subject. And all happen within a few days apart as we have had very temperamental weather lately {still do} and mostly the grey and wet skies have won over.

1, incandescent light (60w x 3)

2, florescent light
3, natural light by the window indoors
4, natural light outside (no direct sunlight)

I also took a picture of it with direct sunlight on to it, but I lost the picture.

However, with direct sunlight right on paper turns it bright blue. It was fun to test it out and just put it all side by side with each other to compare. And to me and most artists, north light has always been the best bet for good pictures, so number 3 and 4 turned the most alike the original piece.

I do however have one of my own books about how-to photograph your work that I would recommend and it has great tips and techniques to take great pictures of your work, be it crafts or art work. 'The Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photos' by Heidi Adnum

Okay, so now Im of to do my work... No wait, first groceries, pharmacy and then its studio time

All in all, I will get to it one way or the other today. So I leave you with this above, a picture I took last winter and I just loved the shade of teal half painted on that weathered grey fence.

Love it and what an inspiration for my work space : )

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How to draw the little bird and garland...

A dear friend of mine said she cant do this after I happen to say "its easy".  And then I got a few emails asking me how I made the birds, well...  I'm not good at explaining things in words, but I'm better at it in pictures {that goes for a lot of things with me}.  So what better way to do it if not right here and in pictures....  I hope this works!!  
Okay so here it goes, and best of all, all you need are a very few supplies and all can be bought at most craft and art stores.

A pencil and eraser, thin tip marker {water proof}, colour pencils, or water colour pencils, or water colours, or even your kids crayons.  Small brushes if you use water colours, scissors, paper and a few different designs and colours of washi tape {also known as Japanese paper tape}.

For the Bird!!   And you can create this with few lines, if you're still unsure, then draw them first in pencil and practise on a piece of scrap paper.  If you use markers and want to paint them later in water colour, then use water proof markers.

For the garland, you start with drawing a line, in what ever direction you want the garland to go {side to side or from top to side, criss cross} and you make two or three lines.  Then you start cutting out the washi tape flags {cut a triangle} and place it just on top of the line and keep a little bit of space between each flag.   After you're done and happy with your garland, you then draw your birds on top of the lines, you can leave them black and white or colour them in.

Its a fun and easy design, and you can make this for any occasion or season {in my last post I did it for Christmas and used only red toned washi tapes and I painted the birds in to Robins}.  You could for example make light pastel coloured flags and paint little baby birds for a baby card, just an idea : )

All in all, have fun with it!!!

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This is how...

I got some comments and emails in regards to my post of the Queen Anne Lace painting I'm (still)working on, and I'm more than happy to tell you how I paint this way.  And thank you so much for all your words and questions, love reading them all...  One of the questions was "how do I put the outlines in and what colours do I use".  I paint most of these is acrylics, and its all about layers...  In short, I never end up with what I intended in the beginning.

First of all, I never use black, I know they come out looking black in pictures, but they are almost always in very dark blues, or grey.  I mix my own blacks, from mixing blues with browns, and it all depends on what kind of dark grey or blackish colour I want.  There is only one place I use black and that's when I paint the sides of my canvases.

The first step is for my paintings is that I paint on a back ground in a colour (reds, greens or any other colour), and I like to work with a acrylic paint that has dried up a bit, this gives the paint a nice texture on the canvas (as acrylic paint tend to stay flat other wise or without any other extras in it).  Then I again paint another layer (lighter or darker of same colour or something in that same side of the colour wheel, I hope that makes sense).  When I'm happy with the back ground, I then rough sketch (paint) my subject in again a dark blue, green or other colour.  Then I start to work on yet another back ground, now kind of softening the lines I sketched in.  This back ground colour is different from the previous colour, so it has contrast (and I let some show through).
 

After I'm happy with the back ground, I start to work on the main lines of the object (and in this case its the dried up flower head of Queen Anne Lace).  And I keep going on back and forth until I'm happy with it.  Here below you can see more of the back ground colour and the out lines (you can see there is different colours, red, orange and brows, all coming through the blues, teals and creams on top).

And here's another photo of Queen Anne Lace, and its again in the dry winter stage. 
See, Queen Anne Lace is a beautiful delicate white flower in the summer, and it really does look like lace.  And I had questions about the flower I had posted, how could this be that flower (it looks nothing like it does on line if you look it up).  But I live in Canada and like in most Northern snowy lands like Canada.  This flower looks wonderful, white and delicate in the summer months.  But when fall and winter hits, the flower dies down and only the dry seed pods are left.  I find the dried up flower (and so many other seed pods and plants) in winter looks as beautiful, different, yet very beautiful. 

Dan from Dan's Canvas read my post and he used the picture I had left for anyone to use (I wanted to see if anyone else would like to draw or paint it, would be fun to see). 
And Dan did and he drew from the picture.  And he did a fantastic piece and I think he did it in watercolours, check out his link, he's a great artist from Florida (no snow there : ) 
There is a legend behind the name of this flower, and I think its really sweet and I love hearing and learning about these things.  The story behind this one is, of Queen Anne who was very good at needle work and she created beautiful lace.  One time Queen Anne was working on her lace, she pricked her finger with the needle and a small drop of blood fell on the lace.  See, if you look very closely in the centre of all the white flowers, you can find one very tinny single flower that is red (some are darker than others, some even so dark red it looks like its black) and that's her drop of blood. This is the story behind Queen Anne Lace. And so I leave you with that and with this picture below, little different from what I posted last.  But its for you, if you wish you create one of your own, or just enjoy the picture.

Enjoy!!  And try not spill any blood while creating... 


Dried Queen Anne Lace flower, Free image



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