🎵 Whisper Words of Wisdom

 

032 'Whisper Words of Wisdom'

from the 1970 song by the Beatles, Let it Be

🦒 Create your own African Savannah!

      

031 African Savannah

To create this project I used the following:

• A 8" x 8" Canvas Panel.  
• Acrylic Paints (Violet, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Mars Black, Brick Red and Titanium White).
• Masking Tape

1. First of all I prepped my Canvas Panel by mounting it onto a larger board with Masking Tape which will also leave a nice crisp, white edge to the picture when the tape is peeled away at the end.
2. I then needed to mask where the sun will be so you can find a sticky white dot to put in or do as I did as I didn't have any sticky white dots in my stationary drawer so I had to make one.  I took a piece of masking tape (measuring about an inch and a half long) and I stuck it on to a plastic board temporarily so that it would not lose it's sticky-ness.  I then drew around a 5 pence piece and carefully cut it out.  I then stuck this to my bare canvas (where the Sun will be).  Make sure the edge is pressed firmly down.  I positioned mine just off centre.
3. I then started to paint the background.  Try to line up the Yellow area around the Masking Tape Dot (This is really important as it will be the main focal point of the Picture).  I put a wash of Violet along the top, then I worked my way down, cleaning the brush when changing colours.  It would be fatal at this point to mix all these colours to make one all over grey colour.  That would not be a nice effect at all.  So working from the top, I used Violet, Brick Red, Cadmium Yellow Hue and Brick Red again.  Let this dry.
4. While the background was drying, I cleaned up my brushes, palette and refreshed the water.  
5. Acrylics dry pretty quickly but I left it for well over an hour as I had some jobs to do around the house.
6. Once it is dry it was now time to peel off the Masking Tape Sun Dot.  As it was stuck down pretty firmly I got the corner edge of my paper knife blade and gently lifted it up, slowly, as we want a nice clean white circle.  This should then expose the bare white canvas underneath.
7. I then got the Titanium White and a fine paintbrush and carefully painted the circle white.  I then waited for this to dry.
8. Next I got the Mars Black pigment and painted the plain at the bottom of the canvas.  For the Animals I used my usual technique.  I found some Giraffe silhouettes in a Google Image search online and printed them out.  Cut them out to make a template and stuck down with bits of tape and drew around them.
9. I then peeled them off and coloured them in Black.  I did the same for the tree too.  This was a little more awkward because of all the gaps between the branches.  I cut these out using a craft knife.  Some of the tree branches were hand drawn in and the canopy of the tree was created with a stiffer brush and using stabbing motions to create a leafy effect.
10. Remove masking tape from edges.  Picture is complete. 🙂

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Donnington Castle, Newbury

030 Donnington Castle, Newbury

I have finished my Local Landmark Challenge.  I'm quite pleased with it and I think its a good effort but not my best.  It frustrates me how cartoony it looks, like it is an illustration in a children's history book.  It is intriguing to me how some artists make their pictures hard to distinguish from a photograph and so lifelike.  How do they do that?  Maybe it is something that gets better with practice. 

  © Rosa Foulger 2020

A New Challenge. I want to paint a local landmark as my subject.  

Donnington Castle near Newbury, Berkshire was largely destroyed in the English Civil War and in 1646 was demolished leaving only it's Gatehouse standing.  This was restored by John Packer and has for many years remained a very popular destination for local walks.

  I am using my usual technique.  

An 8" x 8" canvas panel, framed with Masking Tape and first of all painting the sky and background and then using one of my own  printed Photos on A4 paper that has been cut out to get my proportions and shape correct. I then will draw around the template and go from there.

The original photo was taken in January and the sky is probably at its most boring so I may well try to liven it up a bit.

Let's get on with that background right now.

template is cut out to give me an outline

I have painted a base 'wash' sky to start with and I can add more detail in later.  Then I took my template and positioned it where I want and taped it gently so there is no movement while drawing the outline.  

Template is ready to draw around 

After drawing around the template I free drew the rest in.  

and this is how it looks so far.

fig.1

Artist Notes:  So today I started off by giving the whole area of Castle stonework a medium to light grey wash as a base colour.  I then envisaged building up layers of different colours.  (When you look closely at the Stone-worked walls there are actually many varied shades of Grey, Beige and Orange).   On these first three sections of the left tower I started off too light and redid them in darker greys.  

On this particular project I did need to keep standing back and observing from a distance to appreciate textures and the colours of the walls.  It is not an easy thing to achieve.  

When people say 'Less is More' I think that most certainly applies to painting, and has done on most if not all of my pieces.  With this piece there was a definite tendency to put in far too much detail.  I was almost painting individual bricks at one point.  If you try to add in too much the painting is far too busy and cluttered. I know from experience that is when I will give up on a project. So try not to add in too much.

Once I was happy with the first three sections (fig.1), I carried on with the rest of the sections in the same way and making sure that any unique characteristics of the building were included.  

🔺 Geometric Rainbow Pattern of Triangles

 

029 Geometric Triangles

I have finally completed this bright and colourful experiment.  I love how such a simple design has made such a colourful impact.  The colours and brands I used are listed below, starting from the centre.

1. Winsor & Newton Galleria - Mars Black
2. Pebeo Bottled Matt Acrylic Paint - Brick Red
3. Pebeo Bottled Matt Acrylic Paint - Blackcurrant
4. Pebeo Bottled Matt Acrylic Paint - Fushia
5. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Violet (450)
6. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Ultramarine (123)
7. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Indigo (127)
8. Pebeo Studio Acrylic High Viscosity opaque - Cyan (49)
9. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Coeruleum Hue (130)
10. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Emerald (335)
11. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Leaf Green (355)
12. Pebeo Studio Acrylic High Viscosity opaque - Jaune (48)
13. Pebeo Studio Acrylic High Viscosity Transparent - Magenta (50)

The Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic needed a Flow Enhancer to make it a bit more workable.  I used Daler Rowney's Flow Enhancer and even then it needed 2 coats to give a good covering.

👑 HRH Charles, Prince of Wales

028 HRH Charles, Prince of Wales

Artists notes:  Really very pleased with the outcome of this one.  He was hard work but I think I have got him as good as I am going to get him!

Here's how I did it

So going back to my Heirs to the British Throne Collection and my challenge of painting a public Figure, as I think I'll always need to practice drawing and painting Human Beings.

The beginnings of Charles, The Prince of Wales and first in line to the British Throne.  It is using my usual technique of printing out the photo and then using it as a cutout template.  This photo shows that I have finished the background and I am now ready to work on the template.  Here is the Original Photo.

Stock Photo

Looking good so far.  The darker reds in the face may seem a little exaggerated but that tells me when I am looking at it extremely closely where darker areas need to go.

These are the colours used for facial skin colour.  

From Left: Winsor & Newton Galleria 'Raw Sienna' 552, Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic 'Titanium White' 011, Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic 'Naples Yellow' 634, Winsor & Newton Galleria 'Mars Black', Pebeo 59ml 'Soft Skin' & 'Pink'

I spent the afternoon working on Prince Charles again and it is so close to completion now.    Though in every project there is always a problem area and with this one, it is his mouth.  I keep getting it wrong.  I honestly thought I had finished it today but I knew it needed better inspection this evening.

There is certainly improvement in the rest of the painting it literally is just the expression made by the mouth.  On looking closely at this photo I think I need to start the alterations in his cheek on the left hand side.  I have the smile line going up in a diagonal direction but I think it needs to have a little corner in it.  Do that first and see how it changes the expression if at all.  I think they are really small changes that are needed, but they're the ones that make the biggest impact!

🏡 My Home

 

025 My Home

Has turned out rather well.  Painting buildings has been quite fun.  I love all the straight lines!

I have in the past attempted 3D models and pictures of the house but have never completed them, writing them off as too much of a challenge.  This one however feels quite different.  

I did this using the same technique I normally do.  I printed it off in black and white on A4 paper and cut out the buildings.  

I then drew around it so that I had a very basic outline.  Free drawing the rest in using my steel ruler,

 

✌️Peace❤️Love🎶Music

027 Peace Love Music

My own design and I have proved to myself that I can use any font I like as long as it is installed on my laptop.  I can then print and cut them out to draw round.  That's exactly what I did here.

Here's how I did it

I sometimes like to add words and lettering to my pieces and in this case I wanted a very 60's, hippy feel to the art.  I have a stencil that I usually use but it is not a 60's font (or anything close to one) so I had a bit of a brainwave and it is very similar to previous templates I have used, with the only difference being, its a lot more tedious and time consuming.  It is also very much an experiment to see how well it works.  It also works out a lot cheaper than buying stencils that I will only use once or twice,

So, in Microsoft Paint I set out the words Peace Love Music and chose the font called 'Spicy Rice' to display it.  This font has a funky Nineteen Sixties feel to it.

I then carefully cut out each letter and positioned it where I wanted it on my prepared 8" x 8" canvas panel.  I secured it in place with a small piece of masking tape.  Then I very carefully drew around each letter with a sharp pencil.  See what I mean about it being tedious??

I then felt inspired by my last piece of Art, Psychedelic Swirls.  I wanted this design to be the background of each letter.  Another tedious bit.  So I got my tape reels and pots out and started drawing around them but only within the Spicy Rice letters.

I'm really loving this piece so far.  I can see it with a Pure Black Background and a few bright flowers scattered around.

I have added a Dove to symbolize Peace, Love represented by the hearts and Music Notes and flower power scattered around.  I think the Black background is really making those colours in the lettering stand out.

 

✌️☮ Psychedelic Swirls

026 Psychedelic Swirls

                            

I want to do a few more like this.  I needed to take a break from the house painting and wanted to do something bright and cheerful.  

Inspired by the paint pour picture I did entitled 'Lava Lamp' I wanted to give a mid to late 1960's vibe and I think it works well, some paints flowed better than others and the ones that didn't flow so well are noticeable unfortunately but this is a really nice result all the same.

I need to buy something called a Flow Enhancer that helps with acrylic paints.

Here I drew round a small reel of tape, a slightly bigger pot and then around a reel of masking tape, drew a couple of wiggly lines and chose my colours carefully, all while listening to some funky Jamiroquai!

🔴🟡🟢🔵⚫ Lava Lamp

024 Lava Lamp

Using Violet, Pink and Red acrylics mixed with a pouring medium, this was my second attempt at Paint pouring.  Quite a messy business 😇

🔴🟡🟢🔵⚫ Splodge

023 Splodge

My first attempt at paint pouring using the spectrum colours and black.  Earlier on I put it aside to dry and wasn't that impressed but looking back at it now, its actually quite intricate.  Not bad at all really.  

It reminds me of contours on a map!