Paint Party Friday Week 48 and #4 to #7 for 29 Faces in February

I have continued working away at Martha's/Ayala Art's challennge 29 Faces in February. So far so good! I decided to switch from using last week's watercolour crayons to my paint pens (using the newspaper for facial inspiration...) I always find male faces especially challenging so I am trying to do a variety of sexes and ages. (Of course the older ones look younger and the younger older... unsure how to rectify that...)

#4

#5 - He definitely looks younger than the photo...

#6 - She is/was a child so somehow I have aged her...

#6

I have also started painting again in 2013 but am only making slow progress. These are my 4 abstracts/works-in-progress...

Abstract WIPs at the UGLY stage...

For Christmas I hung up the Nutcracker paintings I did last year. After undecorating all of the house but these, I decided I wanted to try to create some abstracts to hang in their place the rest of the year.

I hung the painting using these:

and thought it might be easier to substitute different paintings than pull the hangers off... Has anyone used either strategy?

Anyways - lots of work ahead on those abstracts!

Looking forward to (slowly) visiting you all over the weekend! Happy PPF everyone!

Paint Party Friday - Week 14 year 2 - Rainbow Sherbet WIPs

The ice cream flavoured Summer of Colour has started and inspired me to take out my paints and see what rainbow sherbet creations I could come up with. I had hoped these would be complete in time for Paint Party Friday... Alas no. Time slipped away from me again! (Where the heck does it go?)

So here is what I have so far - hopefully by next week I might have finished these and started on Chocolate Mint!

WIP #1

Mostly finished... I think it need some black accents.

WIP #2

I see a bird...

WIP #3

I tot I taw a puddy tat...

Maybe.. 

What do you see here?

Kristin's colour inspiration for Week One. 

Does this look yummy or what! Perhaps part of the Summer of Colour should be going to Baskin and Robbins and having a scoop of each flavour we work on? Sounds yummy to me!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and Happy Father's Day to all the Dads in your life. I look forward to dropping by when I can and seeing what you have created.

Paint Party Friday - Week 41 - WIP - Nutcracker

Sigh. (Do you ever do that? Say "sigh" when you are sighing? Or am I as tired and weird as I think I am?) Christmas is almost here and I feel totally out of control. I'm probably not but I need to write a few lists to see what is left undone - and do it! Then I may feel like it is Christmas. A little snow would help too.... very unlike us to be almost snowless.

No more painting got done this week, sigh (lol). I was hoping to show you a finished painting but can't.  :(   Instead I am going to show you my WIP! This is my nutcracker painting where I left off...

Nutcracker Work In Progress

He needs another coat of paint in most places and needs his body widened and his hat narrowed. I'm not sure what to do about the background. He will probably hang against a cream coloured wall in a room with lots of browns and blacks so I was trying to match that somewhat. Any suggestions?

I also did a little bit on painting #2...

the beginning stages...

I want to wish all of my friends at Paint Party Friday a very Merry Christmas!! Happy Hanukkah - if that's what you celebrate! Or a happy holiday season if it is neither of these. 

However you celebrate, I hope you have a great time this week. Please help yourself to some eggnog while I am in the kitchen. I will stop by to visit you when I can!

After Christmas, I will have more time to visit. I hope to stay in my pjs for a few days, see all your artwork, do a puzzle, paint and read. Hope your post Xmas week is happy and relaxing!!

Paint Party Friday - Week 37 - New Header! And W.I.P.

Hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving Thursday and have a great long weekend! 

I was working on two things this week - a watercolour pencil and paint play on the word THREE for Creative Tuesday and a notebook cover. I had so much fun creating this silly piece that I have decided to use it as a new blog header. My little robin has been wanting to fly south and seemed sadly out of season at the moment.  I'm not sure how long my jazzy blind mice will last until they are replaced by something Christmasy. (Hmm - I just gave myself an idea - I love it when that happens! Maybe by next week we'll see if it works!)

New Header (and above)

Old Header (You may see him back again in Spring!)

I bought a new notebook. I really like this brand as they have a hard cover, better than usual quality of paper, and a folding magnetic edge to keep things from falling out (Cambridge Business Notebooks). I wasn't paying close attention though when I bought it (them). I started writing in it as soon as I brought it home and then peeled off the label. I was very disappointed to discover the cover was faded everywhere except where the label was. Ugh. What to do? 

Why not paint it?! So first a coat of black gesso. Then my wonderful friend the Moon. And a dark sky. I know there will be stars... should there be something else?

Work-in-Progress

Have a great time at Paint Party Friday! Looking forward to seeing what you have painted!

Paint Party Friday - Week 28 - Starting a Sea Star

I have been wanting to paint a painting of a sea star to hang in my bathroom for ages and have procrastinated like nobody's business! (Isn't that a bizarre expression.) I finally convinced myself to start this week. Do you ever do that?

It is still very much a work-in-progress but there is a canvas and it has paint on it! Here are a few shots so far:

The background - which resembles my floor tiles a bit.

 

The shadows 

(What colour do you paint shadows?)

A first coat - not quite right

 A second coat and start of texture but it needs to dry more...

Silly, quick, playing-around-with-leftover-paint-in-sketchbook Sea Star

Well, lots more work to do! How was your week? Hope it was productive for painting!

Have a great time at Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday - Week 14 - ICAD and Prepping Canvases

Another week of mostly small stuff but paint and paintbrushes were involved! Therefore I do have something to show for Paint Party Friday - Yay! - nothing major but I do want to participate.

This week (well late Thursday) I prepped some canvases, following Kristin's idea of using black gesso. Very cool!

4 canvases with black gesso - what a neat effect!

WIP -Started painting one of them ... but barely

I also continued with the ICAD challenge I mentioned the past two weeks - an Index Card A Day. 

Inspired by my Sea Thrift/Armeria

Fun with left over red paint

Watercolour inspired by my peonies and bleeding hearts - tied for my favourite this week

 

Acrylic and watercolour tulip - my last this year

 Doodling

Total silliness - my other favourite

And a non painted zen doodle.

More work on my weeding was done until the ants started biting me as I got too close to their hill in the middle of my flower bed! Still more to go, so I will visit all you magnificent artists between my outdoor efforts.

Hope you have a great time at the party! Happy PPF!

Restarting my Stalled Painting for Paint Party Friday - WIP

I admit it - I am a painter wannabe with no clue what I'm doing. But I have a keen interest in dabbling, experimenting and (hopefully) getting better by doing. Sometimes, however, I get stalled. Well, often. But I hope Paint Party Friday (PPF) is going to change all that! I do much better with check-ins. Do you? That's one of the reasons why Kristin and I decided to start this and we are so happy you are joining us!

I found during CED2010 that I wanted to paint. I tried a few small acrylics on canvas board, then months later went big. This January, I started a new piece and have stalled twice. First, I stalled on my WIP (WIP/Work in Progress - I love this term, it holds such a promise of better things to come!) when it looked like this:

(I think painting must be like cleaning/tidying up, it always looks significantly worse before it looks better)

A while later, I started again. I did a sketch to help me plan the painting better...

Painting restarted but life got busy and I stalled again at this point:

And now, because of the PPF check-in, I have an incentive to paint AND some accountability! Yay! (How embarrassing it would be to co-host the party and not paint the opening week! Hmm, maybe I could bring wine and no one will notice the lack of a painting?) 

It felt great to have the acrylics out and to make progress!  It still has a ways to go before it's done (lots more detail and tone needed) and I'm not happy with the background but it is getting closer to the image I started with in my mind.

I am so looking forward to seeing everyone's efforts. I hope you have lots of fun and that everyone will make painting progress and meet new and interesting friends! 

See you there!

XO

EVA