A change of Direction

Hi All,
I have been working so hard this past year to establish myself as an artist. I have gone through so many phases and spent so many hours on the net surfing, reading and learning as much as I possibly can.
Living in a small country town in South Australia doesn't offer too many great real life art classes, so the net is a blessing. Without the knowledge of thousands of other artists willing to teach their skills, I wouldn't be anywhere closer to my goal in such a time.
I guess like many of us 'arty types' when we first begin, we really don't know what direction to go and we basically start where we feel most comfortable.
For me this was whimsical style drawings and paintings. Here is an example of how I begun.


The Queen of Hearts Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'

I have always wanted to paint portraits, but found I just wasnt ready for that type of skill, so I started with several lessons by Adriana Almanza at www.dolldreams.ning.com practising how to achieve whimsical style paintings with big heads, and big eyes. Lots of fun, and I learnt what I needed - how to shade a face with light and shadows and the basics of how to make hair come alive.
This is a fun site and a great lot of ladies there all willing to give praise and advise and regular swaps of art is always on the agenda.
However it was time for me to move on.
I finally took the plunge and painted my first 5 HUGE portraits. The first two were of my two daughters and although they have a nice resemblance, I'm just not happy with them. The next was my best friends daughter, Madeline, and it was the best portrait I had achieved so far. Everyone absolutely loves it and I'm quite happy with the finished result.
Next was my husband, I knew this would be a hard one, as he is very judgimental on himself, however surprisingly he absolutely loves it and I have had numerous great comments on his portrait that now sits above my art desk.
After a few more portraits, one of myself in watercolor in my last post, a couple of more whimsical paintings with mixed media, a couple of landscapes in oil paints, I feel that I have come a long way...but... where do I want to go?
Well I dont know if this is where I stay but I have to say I have begun a cougar painting in oils and a cat painting in colored pencil and I am having the best time ever! I am really really enjoying animals. I love painting the fur which some people would find absolutely monotemous (Hope I spelt that right LOL) but I find it calming. The cougar I am painting at the moment has taken me the most time I have ever spent on any painting. i work on it everyday and so far its been about two weeks.
My ultimate goal is achieving realism and to do so it takes many many layers of painstaking little hairs one at a time basically. As the days go by slowly  my cougar is jumping off  the canvas and into the room.
As I look at him, I feel I may have finally found my destination as an artist.
In this blog i will try to keep uptodate with his progress and all my other art in future as a jounal of my journey to becoming what I call a real artist. Its funny because when I sold my first painting I was so excitied I straight away telephoned my best friend and gushed, "Im finally an artist I sold a painting today!" and her reply was, "Sonya you already were an artist". Its so hard to call oneself an artist without ever having other artists recognision or ever having sold anything, so to hear it from someone elses mouth other then your own was lovely to hear.

So from now on this blog will be changed a little, to more of step by step recording of my paintings. I hope you still come here to visit and watch my journey to see where it brings me.

Cougar Progress:

In the first stages. Pictured with my reference photo. I signed up for a course with this one, but its taught in acrylics not oil paint like mine. I took a rundown of the tips etc but have given up on the lessons and am going with my gut feeling and painting in the way it suits me. I just cant work step by step following instructions, its too frustrating. Im going out solo with this one.
 Just working in the undercoat of lighter and darker fur. No real hairs as such. Very rough so far.



Here you can see Im starting to put in individual hairs in various colors to the upper cheek and i have added another wash to his eye to make it glassy looking and added the highlights. I have also added the soft fur for his eyebrow.

More hairs have been added to his muzzle area and I have worked on his chin area. You can see the difference its making from the body and upper and right hand side of the head which still needs doing. Many more layers of paint still need to be applied when dry to achieve the realism I want to achieve.

The nose is still in the undercoat colors as well.

What are your thoughts of my new direction in wildlife realism? i would love to hear from you and where is your art taking you?



A new find -Watercolor

Im always searching for new techniques, styles and things to paint. I guess that is what keeps me going. If I get bored with one thing, I try another for awhile. It works for me to keep my creative juices flowing.

Lately I discovered watercolor. I was not too sure at first, but as soon as I put brush to paper I fell in love.
Painting was so relaxing, I felt so calm and it was so much fun. for some reason I didnt feel a great pressure to produce a great portrait. It actually turned out better then I ever thought possible.
I LOVE WATERCOLOR PAINTS!!

I managed to finally do a self portrait and my very first still life painting.

This was done with my daughter's $2.00 paint box! It's the only watercolor I have at the moment before my new
Windsor Newton paints arrive.



Stilllife- Mandarin Orange -also with a $2 paintbox.



Glass is so hard to photograph without reflections!Urg.

SOLD!

I am so absolutely gobsmacked to have found out my painting `Carefree` sold within 6 hours of listing it in my new store. I could'nt stop smiling all day long. I dont think I could have ever have dream't of a better outcome.
It has really given me a great big boost of confidence as well. Amazing...
I have also just listed another painting I have been working on the past 2 weeks, called Remember me.
Here is a sneak peak at the making of her.

Here you can see I have done some stencilling texture in green, red and orange and added some printed papers.

Now I have begun the face and arm using water soluble oil paints

My inspiration came from a vintage postcard. I just love these style of vintage little girls!

Here she is all finished with her pretty little birdie!

whimsical paintings on the go

Great day to you!
As writing this I am listening to Dog Days are Over, sung over by The Voice Australia star, Lakyn Heperi.
The lyrics read "The dog days are over, the dog days are gone"
Well I am starting to feel this inside myself. I have been slowly tugging along with my painting and feel like I have finally found myself. It's taken some time and practise, practise, practise. I can't emphasis that enough!
I have been painting daily, for hours, for the past 6 months. My journey has had its ups and downs, times when I have felt like giving up, and definetely times when I have thrown works away.
Today I woke up and finally realised I am where I want to be.
I mean I will always have works of art that Im not quite happy with but for the first time I have realised I REALLY like what I am producing.
To celebrate with the back up of my family and dear friends I have opened my online store on the
Madeit site which is an art and craft handmade store. My actually shop is here:
                                                      www.madeit.com.au/artbysonya
I am so proud to have listed my first two canvas paintings.
So here is a sneak peak of them and if your interested further please check out my new shop!

Carefree - 19.5" X 15.5" Canvas

A mixed media canvas using acrylic paints, papers, napkins, paper doily, textures, and ink pens.

Out in the poppies - 16" x 16" canvas

A mixed media canvas using acrylic paints, paper napkin, stencil texture and ink pens.

If you would like to see more photos please visit my online store where both are available for purchase.

Portraits

Hi all,
I have been so so so busy and amazingly happy painting portraits. I have completed my three huge paintings of my daughters and a family friend. I am so amazed at how much better I seem to be getting with each painting. All I can say is the internet is an amazing world out there with fellow artists, teachers, books, everything is at your finger tips to learn any new skill you ever dreamed of. I have never ever had a traditional in class art lesson in my life, everything I have learnt and am still learning is all from the world net.
Life is great!
Well here is my eldest daughter's portrait. She is 13 years old ..going on 20... you know teenagers.
This is done on the biggest canvas I have ever attempted painting anything on before, so I guess it took alot of guts. She is painted with acrylics and I just need to add the sealer, before hanging her in out family room.

Next is my other daughter, who is 11 years old. Same size canvas and also in acrylics.

my acrylic canvas portrait

In the past couple of weeks I have been trying to perfect my painting skills, especially in shading skin tones.
Many wise teachers have said "practice, practice, practice" and believe me I have been trying.
I have also been desperately searching for my own style, or signature look, which as some of you might know is so very hard when just about everything art wise has been done out there!
It can be very daunting trying to create something that is your own.

Eventually, something has came to me, with the help of my 13 year old daughter who loves to zentangle.
I found out that I can have the patience to zentangle as well, if I set my mind to it. Then it dawned on me, why not use my new inproved acrylic shading skills and my new skill of zentangle and create a style of my own. Of couse the photos just don't do her justice as I can't seem to pick up the depth of her skin tones and highlights.

After a quick tester piece of art with my daughter, I was quick to see a new love developing. I rushed out and bought a big canvas and set to work, this time on my own.
Here is the results. What do you think? The piece measures 35.5 by 23.5 inches and will be hung in my family room near my art station. Everything always looks better in real life. I guess I will never be a photographer... anyway I hope you get the general idea.

Hard at work.. I love every minute of it

All ready for my husband to hang on the wall of our family room near my art station.





In a Wonderland Of My own

Im in a Paper Craft Wonderland.....
I have been surfing the net this morning and have across this wonderful paper art site. The artists there are absolutely amazing. I just had to join up. They do art trades as well, so as soon as I saw that, I was hooked line and sinker!LOL
The site is called Roses on my Table and you can look it up here if you wish to have a peek.
http://rosesonmytable.ning.com/
They have all types of different groups, from ATC's, Paper dolls, Journals,  altered dominoes, accordian books, altered jars, tins and the list goes on.
Of course I had to join the paper doll group first, as it is my latest addiction.
Speaking of paper dolls... yes I have been bust again last night. I signed up for a "Make me happy" list over at AFA.com and the lady requested a Aries zodiac sign paper doll. Ive never made an animal before so I thought why not, Ill be adventurous. Well here is how he turned out. I hope she likes him..

He was also my first fully drawn paper doll. I printed off a picture to inspire me, but I have to admit it was a bit of a challenge to draw all the components seperately. He has 8 joints in all. I used Twinkling H20's for his colouring, which looks great in person. The camera cant quite pick the sparkle up.

I also was happy to recieve an atc I traded for a few weeks ago. I picked out an interesting paper doll, which happens to fold up to a normal ATC, and then fold her legs down and she is a paper doll. She is so cute I just love her.

More creations!

Morning!
I have had a busy last few days now that I am feeling better. I have been stuck in a whirl wind of paper dolls.
They are so much fun. I think the beauty of it to me is finding a head, and then a matching body and different limbs, its so much fun!

I have also been playing around with some new waterpaints I have recieved called Twinkling H2o's. They really are pretty and give a great twinkling glitterey fiinsh. In this journal entry, I used it on my ladies hair, wings and necklace. I have tried to capture the sparkle on camera. Its just so pretty, I really love these paints.

Isn't it so pretty!

Whimsical Paper dolls

For the past wekk I have been so sick with the flu. My daughter came home with it and yep, two days later I was feeling very ill. You name it I had it. Night sweats and chills, vomitiing, coughing, sore throat, head ache and just plain old I feel like sleeping 24 hours a day.
It's hard to be a caring Mum when you feel like that LOL. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who worked all day then made us dinner, fed the dogs, did the dishes and tucked us in. I am blissfully happy with my man.
Well, Im all better now and during my sickness, managed to google a few minutes a day when I had the energy and found the wonderful world of Modern Paper Dolls.
I immediately fell in love with these beautiful pieces of art and as soon as I was better, I was off to my art desk to create my first two dolls.
The first is a mermaid, made with scrapbooking cardstock, stamping on her arms, floral embellishments and some digital images I printed off. I just loved making her.

The second paper doll is made from mainly digital prints. I used a glitter sticker crown for her head and a floral 3d sticker on her dress. Both are jointed using brads.

Im thinking of making a few more and hanging them from my art desk where I can enjoy them everyday. I also thought they would make great tags on gifts, or I could make christmas themed dolls for the tree.

I have also created a swap over at swap-bot where we will be making 1 whimiscal paper doll for one partner.

Here is the link if you would like to join, or I would appreciate it, if you spread the word on your blog:

http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/123137

sign up is by July 3rd and you must send by July 17th.

Swap-bot is free to sign up with and is a great place to swap. I haven't been there too long yet but in the swaps I have participated in, I have not be disappointed and its been only a great experience. Most people have blown me away with their generousity and go way beyond whats expected. It really is a great place and I highly recommend it.

Getting back on track now...

I am just having so much fun with these and they are relatively quick to make once you have all your pieces cut. I back mine with pattererned cardstock, so they are more sturdy and the paper won't wilt over with time.

Have you made some paper dolls lately? If you have I would love to see.....

If your new to the craft, like me, I found this site:

http://www.theenchantedgallery.com/paperdolls.html

There you can find a paper doll template to cut your pieces out as well as some instructions. It's a great place to get you started.

Don't forget I would love to see your paper dolls, so message me okay!

A Busy Night

Top of the morning to ya!
Last night I got busy, with my exciting first swap as a host on Swap-bot. I created 3 vintage circus ATC's and plan to make 3 more, then I will decide which 2 I shall send off to my partner.

Here are the 3 I made last night. They were so fun to make. The one in the middle is my favourite so far. I knew I was going to have to make a few to choose from...Its always hard to part with ATC's.

On another note. I have to admit Ive been a little slack on my journal pages lately. So I also managed to work in that as well, and came up with a 5 minute page which I really love. It has a nice vintage feel to it and has some collage and I used my new twinkling H2o's paints. I f you would like to check it out please visit my Journal Pages Tab up the  top of my blog.