Shhhh.... Stage 1

So, today I decided to just let go and play. I started with a canvas i had painted a lavendery violet, covered with sewing pattern tissue, and then added a wash of liquitex's Irridescent Antique Copper, which apparently they've stopped making. I'm quite pissed about that actually, because it's my favorite color to mix with purples and violety pinks. I have been trying to find a similar replacement color, but no such luck yet. They're all way too orange...this was neutraly brown, almost rosy. It's hard to explain, but it was perfect, so of course now it's gone. Anywho. so I took my willow charcoal and just sketched a quick angel. ugh...she's crappy. she does get better. and then worse. and then, i think, better again. anyway, it's all about playing today! and, fyi. if you've never photographed your progress, it's quite eye opening. I wish i had looked at my photos at each stage before i continued....there are some things that i thought i had done wrong, but looked ok in the photograph, but of course i had already tried to cover over my boo-boo's. NEVER A GOOD IDEA WHEN USING CHARCOAL>>>IT JUST GETS SUPER MUCKY!

Carnivale

Carnivale,
originally uploaded by GlitzInk.

I have struggled with this piece for such a long time, but I think i'm finally happy with the results....I was trying to force a lot of things to come out of it, and trying to force different elements to work together, so I had to leave it alone for a good while simply because i wanted to chuck it in the trash, but now I think I have it it in a better, grungier place, which is what I wanted in the 1st place. I started it in painting class, and my goal was to feature voodoo as part of the cemetery culture here in NOLA, but at the suggestion of my teacher to include architectural elements, I got lost.... This is Carnivale...the pattern in the left top corner is the voodoo veve(or symbol) for this, and i tried to make it reminiscent of the porch decorations so prominent in NOLA. The angel is a sculpture in one of our cemeteries, and the repeated circles represent dubloons, which are left at alters honoring Carnivale....I am also working on another piece that's part of this series.......hopefully i won't struggle with that one as much now that I've let go a little! ; )

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Hot! Hot! Hot!,
originally uploaded by GlitzInk.

I haven't done any still lifes in a while, and I am really teaching myself watercolor, so this was an interesting page to work on. I am so impatient...i really need to wait until some layers dry before i add other washes of color....but i'm learning! ; ) Glass is a hard thing to paint.....so many reflections and shadows...

These are 2 of my favorite hot sauces(i have several)...the Cholula is great on eggs, and the Louisiana Hot Sauce is good on everything, especially red beans and rice!

Strawberries and Crawfish

Spring in NOLA....the absolute best time for local food....crawfish, shrimp, oysters, strawberries. yummmmm! I couldn't resist trying to paint part of my dinner tonight....the colors were absolutely amazing and vibrant! I definitely feel like I could use a lot more practice capturing the colors in watercolor, but hey, who could complain? Extra practice means more seafood and strawberries to use for reference...LOL! I could eat this stuff every day! and definitely, the hotter, the better! I can't wait to draw some more tomorrow! ; ) perhaps some hot sauce?.....

The Aldige Angels

I used a photograph of one of my favorite statuary pieces for this journal page. It memorializes a mother and daughter that drowned in a steamboat accident back in 1848. The base of the sculpture is a boat. I especially love the emotion on the faces in the sculpture. Eventually I'll do a large painting using this sculpture.

a new journal page....

another page using a photo i took in one of the NOLA cemeteries.....I LOVE how this one turned out! I don't know about mixing the Derwent watersoluble pencils with the watercolors....it may be making the drawings look too dirty, which is totally weird for me to say, since i love grungy looking pages...this combo may just be grungy in a not so good way. but good at least for this page! i love the colors...... this is sure to become a bigger painting......

Angel journal page

So I have been working on some larger pieces, and also doing a little more photography lately, and my posts have fallen by the wayside. I did this spread just to start messing with my watercolors..... the colors didn't scan very well. But i like the grunginess of how it turned out....i just like grungy things...and i keep doodling this angel(it's one of my photographs, but i keep grabbing this particular photo out of the pile every time...i must reallllllly like it! LOL) This is in my square hand*book journal....

Pin-Up Study #9

Another study from Taschen's 1000 Pin-Up Girls...proving to be worth every cent I spent on it! ; ) So her head is too big...that, or her shoulders are too small, but I kind of don't care, because her face came out so well on this one...and her hair. I am particularly loving this hair. This one was really fun to do.... I think I need to try drawing the outline with either brown charcoal pencil(although i don't know if I'll get the point sharp enough) or a brown colored pencil....maybe that will help the outline blend a little better...but either way, i don't mind the pencil lines showing through either...i have got to be more patient, though and wait for things to dry before going back into it....ugh! i almost royally messed her up!!! ; )

Product of Lebanon

I found a wine shop that sells this Lebanese wine, so I bought a few bottles, because my Grandmother's dad is Lebanese, so I'm always interested in family heritage, culture, etc. I was hoping the label would come off easily(and, yay, it did!) so i could use it in this spread.

I have all these fabulous photos of my grandma and her friends cheesing for the camera, just being girls. This is one of my favorites, so I painted it here. She loves to tell me that her bikini was red, so I knew it would be perfect with the colors of the label...

Pin-Up #7

Just a little quickie partial gal. I've been working on some other pieces, so these got put to the side for a minute, however, i can't improve if i don't practice, so even if it's little, it's going to get done.

I've been liking how some of the old pin-up pictures have just quick brush strokes of color here and there, rather than coloring the whole thing, so I thought i'd give it a try.