Draw it Again: Revisiting Old Art

I did the following painting in 2013 – I had only been using watercolors for a year or so, and this was the first big portrait I did in them:

Print Sale and New Originals on Etsy

I’ve finally gotten around to updating my Etsy page – there are tons of new originals and to top it all off, all prints are on sale for only £7.

Some of the new offerings:

Inktober 2017: Victorian Gothic

This year I thought I would give inktober a try. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a challenge on Instagram to produce one inked piece every day in October. I knew going in that there was NO WAY I’d finish 31 drawings. In the end, though, I did manage 8 large and ‘finished’ pieces, and 8 smaller sketches, which isn’t too bad!

I wanted to experiment with ink a bit more, and to attempt some more complete ‘compositions’, rather than just portraits. So, the goal was to include backgrounds/full bodies. I don’t really feel like I hit my stride until the very last piece, but still – a month to feel comfortable in a medium I don’t often use isn’t too bad!

Below are the more finished pieces:

Painting Process!

I’ve been working in gouache lately, which requires a bit of a learning curve after using nothing but watercolors for a few years. To get the hang of it, I’ve been doing some small portraits.

For this one, I took a number of pictures during the drawing process, so I’ve made a progress gif. The first sketch for this painting was one of my WORST ever – I don’t know what was wrong, but I just couldn’t figure out the shape of her face. Luckily, I figured it out in the end.

 

And the finished piece:

Experiments in Framing Small Paintings

I recently did a couple of tiny watecolor paintings, mostly so I could have the satisfaction of finishing something quickly. I was happy with how they turned out:

 

But then I was left with the problem of how to display such small pieces (2×2″, 3×5″, and 4×4″). So, I experimented with a couple of different options.

Mermaids, ahoy!

Those of you on instagram may have noticed an onslaught of mermaid art this past month – @tombancroft1 came up with the idea of “mermay”, a challenge to draw/paint one mermaid for every day of May.

Now, I didn’t QUITE manage 31 of them, but I’m pretty happy with the five I did finish!

Pre-Raphaelite Influences

In my professional life (where I’m a lecturer in English literature), I work on the Pre-Raphaelites. My specialty is poetry, but I love the art, as well. So I thought I’d do a painting inspired by Pre-Raphaelite art.

Now, PR art is defined by a few key features:

Lots of new embroidery!

I started a new job in September, so the autumn was a bit too hectic to make much art. 2017 has been far more productive!

All new pieces are available in my etsy shop!

Christmas Embroidery Projects

I made two new pieces of embroidery to gift this Christmas:

Both pet related! I now have custom orders available on my Etsy shop for pet portraits like the top image: £30 for a 10″ custom piece.

Watercolour: Seaside

More holiday paintings!

9×12″. Keeping on with the swirly, slightly impressionistic style. This piece is available on Etsy.

I just got my first gouache paints, which i used for all the foreground detail. I really like them so far!

And just for reference, here’s the photo I was painting from: