Thursday 8 December 2011

old dusted stuff

Hello there. It is very windy in Scotland today. We are experiencing a storm-according to news. I have to say it is very very windy indeed. My older girl stayed at home, schools and nurseries were closed. People had been warned not to go out and travel unless they really had to, and most of them had at least a half day off from work :))
But I had a great day at home, I got very excited as I have received my very first comment from lovely Julie Clay. Thank you! Comments give you wings and energy to do more, to push yourself even further knowing there is someone who actually read this and sees your work, and this in the end - gives you a smile. I love comments, especially if there is some constructive criticism from more experienced fellow artists, so feel free to leave one! Probably it was my lucky lucky day today as I got my first (hope not last:)) follower as well! Welcome Marti Gill, hope you will like it here and you will find my work interesting enough to stay for a little bit longer!

I was quite busy lately. I was working on illustration project, but I have decided it is too early for me. I felt  it became too big for me. I got really stressed, couldn't think about anything else and this was just the beginning! It was the first stage, and I wasn't even choosen yet to be the main illustrator for the upcoming book. With no regrets I stop working on it and got back to my drawings and small experiments.
For last couple of years I was mostly dreaming on becoming an illustrator. I have purchased a bunch of lovely books on how to become one, and I have collected a great amount of artistic equipment to do so (I love the smell of pencils and crayons) but I was working mainly behind a computer screen doing web design and multimedia presentations. It wasn't until this year I have decided to have a go and first of all- have fun.

Despite the fact that so far I have made just six watercolors in total and all of them I did at least eight years ago I am quite optimistic because even in just a few I can see a clear progress. I am wondering if you can see it to.

I can say I made this one ten(!!!) years ago...Time really flies.


This one I made the same year as a previous one, and these are my only versions, without any other watercolors or anything in between. I literally haven't done anything else..


And this is my latest attempt made four years later, and five years ago from now!


For the last two I made an awful, I mean really awful black border around, so I cut it out. Well, it is not much as you can see, and my way of thinking about the color and how I would like to apply stains has changed as well since I made those three...
Now I have to jump deep in, have fun and start using COLOR again. Play with it, with the textures, bold stains, lines and collages.
I know there is a great mismatch between what I have in mind and what I can produce at the moment and it is sometimes frustrating but at the same time this is the part of the process and the fun, isn't it?

And these two prints I really love. I brought them back from Poland. I dug them out from attic when I was at my parents house during the summer this year. I made them eleven years ago! WOW! I am going to frame those two and hang on the wall.Yea!






I've never framed and hang anything I have made. I think I have never really appreciate any of my works and for a long long (too long) time didn't even think about myself as an artist really...
So here they are, my old stuff, now it is time for NEW!

2 comments:

  1. I like your prints too, are they collographs? Thank-you for visiting me too! I think you have good drawing skills, the girl/fairy on the butterfly is well done. I'm not sure what medium you use mainly, but I would recommend a little book, 10 minute watercolours by Hazel Soan, if you don't already have it? The thing about this book is, she mentions the colours she uses, which is a big help. When I look back on my work I can see where I've improved, 10 years ago, wow, I was rubbish! Keep at it, and enjoy it as much as possible, it can get way too stressful.

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  2. Hi Julie, thanks again for stopping by. The prints are graphic mo. You have to cover a piece of glass with printing ink, than you place a sheet of paper on top and draw on it. The print emerge on the other side, so you have to be careful with the pressure and lifting paper in the end. This technique gives you great results and effects but unfortunately (or not) you will get just one image, there is no way you produce two identical. Talking about the medium...I can't really say I have one yet. I would love to explore watercolours, I love drawing as well as collage, but as I wrote in my post-those few works (believe me or not) are my only attempts in illustrations so far....I own Shirley Travena's two books, which are great inspiration for me. At the moment I just have a vision where I would love to be. I have started this blog mainly for my Creative Lab illustrations projects from the other book I have bought recently - "Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun" and I intend to follow them. I think this is a good start for me, will see.

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