The In-Breath

Still in the excited phase of my relationship with my new Winsor and Newton Antique White Oilbar.  I used him to paint my girl and her dress, he's just so perfect, so versatile.  I'm beginning to feel a need for his brothers Paynes Grey and Raw Umber. I think I'll be happy with just the three colours because acrylics blend so well with them. But then again I never say never when it comes to art supplies.

I used gesso and acrylics on the background, layered using my paint brush, fingers and palette knife. Her hair was applied with my palette knife and the finishing touches were added using inktense pencils for the finer details.

Really pleased with how she turned out, love the serene look on her face.

Wishing you all a Fantastic Friday x x x

Children's Board Book

I bought a second hand children's board book from my local charity shop for only 99p.  I had to sit and pick the glossy film off of each of the pages (which in it's self was quite therapeutic) and gesso over the rough cardboard before I could begin painting.

It's only 6x6 inches, the perfect size to paint little quirky faces in, to play and experiment in. I don't think any of them took much more than half on hour to paint, but it's just enough to feed my painting addiction on those days when I don't have time to really indulge.

And here are some more pages, as you can probably tell I'm a big fan of Mindy Lacefield and my palette knife.

For the last 2 pages I was so excited about getting my new Winsor & Newton Antique White Oilbar that I didn't even gesso the cardboard before smearing acrylics and oilbar into them with my finger, resulting in a very rough finish and me being totally in love with my oilbar. It's sooooo thick and creamy and acrylics blend beautifully with it 

I still have 4 pages and the front/back to paint, who knew board books had so many pages?  I love my little board book and had already started a new one which is 7.5x8.5 inches, but there is just something about this size that I really love.  So I guess that means another trip to the charity shop, Wishing you all a wonderful day x x x

My Little Star

I painted this for my youngest daughter Holly, who's 12 years old.  Unfortunately Holly developed Crohns Disease 2 years ago and as yet they haven't found the right medication to put the Crohns into remission.  But the good news is that she is starting a new treatment next week which we are all very hopeful for.  Out of my three children, she is the one who has always been the most fearful, she cannot stand any kind of pain, has a real fear of needles and is just very very sensitive.  So you can imagine for her, more than for most people, having Crohns is really scarey and all the tests/procedures that come with it are well outside her comfort zone.

So that is why I was inspired to paint this for her because I think Holly is just so brave, she always trying to put on a happy face and she really is my little star.

I draw my characters outline with my PITT Charcoal Pencil and then for the night sky I used Americana's Deep Midnight Blue.  Once the paint was dry I rubbed in some gesso with my finger.  I was trying to achieve very wispy clouds that had a real translucence to them and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.  Then using a fine brush I added dots and crosses for the twinkly stars.

For the star shape I just used a buttercup acrylic, gesso and then outlines the whole shape with my charcoal eencil.  I wanted it to look very plan, like a piece of painted cardboard a child could just push their face through. 

Her face was painted with antique white with buttercup and midnight blue for tones.  The feature were all drawn back in with my charcoal pencil and I then used my white paint pen to add highlights to her eyes making them sparkle.

Sorry I didn't take any more photos, I was having so much fun painting her I forgo,t oops.  Her body was painted with paynes grey, then gesso and then some more paynes grey on top.  I used my trusty White Sharpie Paint Pen for the writing.

I was really pleased with how she turned out and Holly loves her.

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend

Julie x