Free Your Art – Challenge 3

Click on the picture below to join our Facebook page to participate in this challenge.  It runs from 6 July to the 6th of August 2012.

(written by Vanessa Marais)

The Artful Cartoon

Our third online assignment will test your creativity in your chosen medium and encourage you to think outside the box

Gavin Marais won the vote in the Tree Challenge and he has chosen the next topic to be ‘Simple Toons to works of Art’.

He had this to say,” Sounds silly as a topic, but it could be anything from disney to cartoon network, print-based cartoon or comic book characters to a block buster 3d animated movie character. In essence, I’d like people to have fun interpreting a typically ‘childlike’ genre into an artwork worthy of any wall.”

Choose any cartoon character you like, but make it your own. Who’d expect to see Garfield in Charcoal, the Simpson’s in Pastels, or Goofy in Oils? Bake a cake, embroider, make a mosaic, form a sculpture. Go mad and have FUN!

 

Guidelines

• ·         Cartoons are the theme.
• ·         They must be a personal expression in your style and chosen medium
• ·         Reference material is to be sourced individually
• ·         Medium: Open
• ·         Size: Open

Timeline:  

• The assignment runs from 6th July to the 6th Aug 2012.
• Final photographs must be uploaded to the appropriate album by 6pm GMT 6th Aug 2012.
• There will be no time extensions, so don’t procrastinate
• Please upload progress and reference pictures to the appropriate  albums. We want to hear from you and see who is taking part. So keep in touch

This challenge may sound confusing to you as it did to me at first so Vanessa has put together some examples so that you can see what we are looking for

We are looking for as many participants as possible. Beginners to  experienced artists are all welcome.  I hope you will join us for this challenge.

A lazy painting day

Sundays on the farm are my best days.  All the housework is done, and I get to do as I please.  I normally take it slow and fiddle in my veggie patch and take Cleo for long walks or I paint.  Today, I have been lucky enough to do all three.  Our weather is beautiful, with the temperatures around 26-28 deg C (not bad for mid winter).

On the painting front, I have been working on painting a collection of fruit and veg for my kitchen wall.  Today I was able to paint two more to complete the collection of four, but now I think I am going to keep going and paint a whole pile of them as it seems they will sell off rather fast judging from reactions I have had so far.

I was really not sure which to paint for this collection but I think my choices have worked reasonably well,

What do you do on your lazy days?

End of the “Still life with eggs” challenge

Our first group art challenge is now over.  Thank you to everyone who participated. We had great fun.  Heather who I wrote about in a previous post was voted as the favorite.

My personal favorite painting was the one done by Vanessa.

Isn’t it beautiful!

We are now talking about our next challenge on our Facebook page.  If any of you who do not have facebook would like to put in some suggestions as to what we should all be painting next please leave a comment on this post.  Suggestions should just be whether you are interested in painting a landscape, still life, portrait, wildlife etc.  Once we have finalised this we will be looking for specific pictures.  Please post your suggestions.

Painting challenge – Eggs: Update

If you would like to know more about our painting challenge please click here to read about it

 

Below you will see some of the pictures already submitted for our challenge.  Some have done a quick colour study before starting their main painting and others have been submitting progress pictures as the go forward.  Some of these artists have either never painted before or last picked up brushes many, many years ago.

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I would like to encourage those of you who have not started yet to pick up your brushes and get going.  That includes me. I start in earnest tomorrow.

I have also heard via the grape-vine that my Dad MAY just pick up brushes for the first time and try this challenge.  Wow – I would be so thrilled if he does.  Come on Dad!!

Related articles

• Our first group art challenge is launched – Free Your Art (slowvelder.wordpress.com)

Our first group art challenge is launched – Free Your Art

Why the Egg?

Being the first online challenge, we thought that in order to see the various mediums and skill levels at play we would begin with something basic. Don’t be deceived however, as eggs can be rather tricky to get right. They can easily end up looking like potatoes. I am sure it will test your tonal skills, drawing skills and patience levels. Neither of us has ever painted a still life with eggs, so the task will be worthwhile. Starting with eggs will give an appreciation of form and tone (shadows-midtones-highlights), and how the two go hand in hand when creating the illusion of depth and dimension.

Guidelines

• The reference image is provided. Feel free to adjust the image if need be.
• Eggs are the “star” theme and if possible stay true to the general layout as far as possible. We are not looking for carbon copies, but rather expression in style and medium.
• Any medium is acceptable, although some sort of colour and brush work would be ideal for this challenge. Art apps and digital art or photography are also welcome, but please start from scratch i.e. don’t trace or digitally copy.
• Size guideline  A4/A3

Timeline:  The challenge runs from the 25th of April to the 20th of May 2012. Final paintings must be uploaded to the appropriate album on our Facebook page by 8pm SAST 20 May 2012 or emailed to me by 12h00.

Feel free to upload your progress pictures to the Facebook page whenever you wish. We would love to see how things are going.  If you get stuck, upload a picture to the page wall and ask your question. We are all here to learn and help.

Credits:

Thank you to Dale Tyndall for taking the photo, and to Vanessa Marais for choosing this challenge, photoshopping and for telling us why we should paint eggs.

Let’s get painting!

Click on the picture below to join our Facebook page

Art challenge – Final reveal

Firstly Vanessa and I would like to thank all of you who have followed our art challenge and commented here and on Facebook.  We have really loved this process and although we had moments of stress and panic it has been exceptionally rewarding working together and sharing with you.

I finished my last strokes on my painting at 7.33 this evening and as I type this up, Vanessa is in a final flurry of paint and brushes.  By the time I finish this post she will have emailed me her picture. I think with hindsight we should have made our cut-off during daylight hours when it is easier to photograph wet paintings. My apologies for the glare on the pictures.  Once they are drier we will do a follow-up post so that you can see them in a better light.

So without any further ado here is the reference picture that we used to paint from

and the reveal…….

Painting 1 by Vanessa

and Painting 2 by Jackie

Congratulations to all of you who guessed correctly – most of you were right.

A little about our process:

Vanessa

1.  Adjust the reference photo to fit my canvas, and minimally adjust tones highlights and layouts on my pc. (If I am doing a real life study then I adjust the still life to be correct)
2. Print a couple of reference pics
3. Grid the reference picture on my print out. I do this when working from a reference photo, especially when it’s a bigger painting in order to get proportions correct.
4. Tone my canvas in acrylic (I don’t like to paint directly onto white). I tone according to the reference. Either warm (Burnt Sienna) or cool (Payne’s grey).
5. Draw a layout to the canvas, either using a grid or straight from observation. This can be rough or detailed depending on the complexity of the subject matter.
6. Paint in the tonal values using either warm or cool palette (I do this in acrylics as it saves on drying time)
7. Start adding the first layer of basic colours to all areas. I paint in oil using Winsor & Newton Artisan  water mixable oils, starting with darker values working to lighter areas
8. If I have time I usually oil out the painting after each layer, this helps with building depth. In the painting challenge I never had the time to wait for this to dry so I omitted this step
9. I then build up on each layer with more colour, adding depth with glazes and adjusting tones. Each layer gets heavier, painting fat over lean. Trying not to lose track of the density of the paint is quite a challenge.
10.  I leave the focal point (little girl) until close to last, along with the details and any deeper tones that need adjusting. I like to introduce and work on these at the end to tie in the painting
11. The very last thing I did was work on the white light and intense highlights
12. Wait 6 months for painting to dry and varnish. During this time it’s good to re-evaluate the painting or add/change any areas.
13. Shew 7 days to do all that…not even close. Dave is spot-on, we are never quite done!
14. (Total painting time 24 hours.)

Jackie

Firstly I must say that I have never really investigated my process, and I think that it is quite different each time depending on the picture I paint.  I have learned so much about planning and process while working with Vanessa on this project.

1.  I avoid drawing as much as possible and if I do it is normally just a basic outline to get placement. With this picture I did not feel the need to draw first.

2. I start directly using the colours I see on the picture, often mixing my paint tones directly on the canvas.  I always do this using acrylics

3. I just keep on going like this leaving the focal point and the highlights till last.

4. On this painting I did my final coat in oils to get a smoother, brighter finish.  This way I don’t have to wait too much for the painting to dry as acrylics dry really fast.

5. I like to live with a painting for a few months after I finish it and can sometimes fix it up, up to a year later.

5. My total painting time on this picture was 6 and a half hours. – 5 in acrylic and 1 and a half in oil.

Discussion is now open in the comments section of this post – please ask as many questions as you like and Vanessa and I will try to answer you.

Art challenge – day 7

We are both now painting furiously with our deadline of Sunday 8pm looming over us.

I think the biggest hurdle in this challenge so far is getting the layers of paint dry before starting the next one. We are discussing our pictures with each other constantly but also only see each others paintings as these posts go up.

Our pictures today are taken of wet paint so please excuse any shine you see. Wet paintings are very hard to photograph without special equipment.

Don’t you think it’s amazing how they are starting to come together?

To follow the process see the posts listed below.

• Day 5 – We start the downhill run
• Art challenge – Day 4
• Art challenge – day 3: Progress (slowvelder.wordpress.com)
• The Challenge (slowvelder.wordpress.com)
• Art challenge – day 2 (slowvelder.wordpress.com)

The Challenge

I have this friend, who I have known for about 10 years, but have really only connected with over the past year or so.  We used to live in the same town, and never spent much time together and now we live about 9 hours apart and spend hours together on Facebook and Blackberry messenger.  I often ask myself why we didn’t connect well before, but I guess it is just that we find ourselves in the same space at the moment. She is a mother and a wife, fellow planet-hugger, an artist and philosopher. So extremely confident and outspoken in some ways and yet shy and retreating in others. One of the things she is shy and retreating about is her art, and oh boy can she paint!  I have found myself being led gently through the world of art by her, learning words like ‘plein air’ , ‘hyper-realism‘ and ‘alla prima’, and walking through a virtual gallery of artists to look at how they do it.

Meet Vanessa

In the past I was never really interested in the world of art – I just liked painting and drawing.  My vocabulary consisted of paint, brush, and canvas, so this is all very new and exciting to me.

So anyhow, a few days ago I found a picture I wanted to paint and I had a few questions about how to approach it so I sent it to Vanessa to have a look at and advise me. She fell in love with the picture too and then I got to thinking about how different our paintings would be if we painted from the same reference picture, and so an idea was born.

Vanessa took a little convincing and now we will both be painting a picture using the same reference over the next seven days.

Here is a note from Vanessa on the subject:

A late night chat on my Blackberry with yours truly lead to a painting challenge, that to be quite honest I am rather nervous about. It’s such a beautiful image and we both share a love of art, I could not refuse her coaxing.
Jackie oddly seems to think I am a pro at painting. Snigger! To put the record straight – I am not a professional, I have never painted this type of subject matter in my entire life, … and oh Jackie’s natural ease with her talent intimidates me.
I take months to complete paintings, and we have 7 days (and she calls herself the Slowvelder??).
By the way, the medium I am using is Water mixable Oils on stretched canvas –  hooo boy I just hope I can get this done in time?!

I thought it would be interesting to journal about the process here on my blog, so Vanessa will be checking in here with me, leaving a few notes and also commenting and answering questions in the comments section of the various posts.  I believe she may even blog about it herself, and if she does, I will also link to her blog. (Click here to see V’s Blog and take a look at her paintings)

I hope you will enjoy following the process with us.  We have decided that we will only show you the reference picture after our paintings are complete, and we will NOT be telling you which picture belongs to each of us until the end.  If you have followed my art posts before, you will probably be able to tell,  you are welcome to guess . I will be painting in acrylic and oil on stretched canvas.

We start today and will show you our final paintings next Sunday.  I will try to get up as many intermediate posts as possible showing you our progress.

We would love to get some lively debate going in the comments so please feel free to have your say and invite your friends to join in. (Beg plead! As I would just hate to end up having only one or two comments )

Let the challenge begin……

Modelling clay

Art group on Thursday night was all about clay modelling.  I was caught up in my jackal painting so did not work with the clay which I regret a bit. Everyone was so absorbed with what they were doing and the results were very interesting.  Anne asked the group to use the human form but to distort it.  Here are some of the results.

that’s a bottom….

Nicola’s skinny man

Mark’s second piece

and his first one – lots of laughs with this one – I love the left mans hat

Dianne’s man with kissable lips

Johan’s foot and shoes

and Millie’s dainty lady.

I’m sure you also noticed all the glasses of wine.  We have quite a festive time at these classes.

And finally, here is Alf (who arranged my roofs and my shade cloth house) – working on his zebra.  This man is totally colour blind and paints beautifully.  We just have to tell him which tube of paint to use

Calling it quits

is sometimes necessary when painting pictures.  This still life was supposed to just be a quick colour study but turned into a really fun painting.  The problem is that it’s just painted on paper and that I really rushed parts of it.  I wanted it to have a half finished rustic look which I think I have acheived but the picture lacks depth and dimension.  I could fix it up but because its just on paper, it’s really not worth doing.

Even although there are many problems with this painting, I really like it just like it is – with its half finished and flat look.  I might just frame it and hang it up on one of my rock walls…….