Miniature Abstract

Hello everyone.

It’s been a little while since I checked in, so thought I would share this little canvas with you all.

I was brought four really small canvas’ this Christmas and it’s nice to have been able to finish one off.

It looks a little messier than I was hoping, but I think that’s because of the challenge that painting at such a small scale presents.

I’ve a few more in the works already though and I am looking to see how i can improve from this one in making them look a lot cleaner and more controlled than this. One of them, I like as it is, so might just add a signature ‘dribble’ and my signature to it and call that one done – so expect another update soon.

❤
Jenn

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A lot of WIP

I spent this morning in the studio while listening to VNV Nation – I find that VNV Nation as a group speak to me above all else. They help everything to make sense and with their help, I feel that I can sort out and express some of my more difficult feelings.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get these more raw emotions that cause me to overthink everything out of my head and into the canvas. Yet, I am always filled with hope, hope that the emotions change and what causes me the pain will get better.

I wanted to share the picture of my canvases above, to show, when I am inspired and everything is working, how much I have on the go at once. I feel that when I get into the right frame of mind, I need to hold into it and do as much as I can before it fleets away again.

 

 

Above is an underpainting that I plan on using soon to do something similar to another image I created, because I feel that this was one of my more successful paintings and a part of my journey is looking back over what worked for me and I feel like the black, beige and red did. Repeating

 

old steps feels like a positive way of affirming if something is ‘me’ or not. So I am looking forward to cracking on with everything that I have going on at the moment. I’ve also finished a picture today and I’ll share that with you as soon as I’ve been able to photograph it properly.

WIP – 060118

I had this small canvas sitting about the house for a while now; originally it has something else painted on it which was an experiment that went wrong – I was attempting something that wasn’t ‘me’ on the canvas originally and as such I got into a bit of a negative spiral with it and put it on the shelf for a good few months and didn’t go anywhere near it.

I plucked up the courage to paint over that I had originally done with Gesso and start over again – what I did like was how the small stones and the Gesso worked together, giving a great under texture for me to paint over.

Using the colours I originally had in mind, I thought of a different approach to what I was originally trying to achieve. This time I am a lot happier with how things are progressing. Which just goes to show even our ‘lost causes’ might not be as lost as we thought they were.

Bike Chain Update

I just wanted to show an update on one of my bigger paintings that I have going on.

My first showing of this image was purely a bike-chain on a piece of wood and me expressing my woes on being unable to get the chain to properly stick to the wooden surface correctly. I think in part this was due to my own stubbornness in cleaning the chain before I use it; but I would like to get some of the dirt and grease that’s been left on the chain into the painting too – I’m not really sure why!

I am happy to report, smothering the wood and chain surrounds in PVA glue worked a treat and I have little worries that the chain will be falling off (again) any time soon!

Today I managed to get the rest of the wood covered in Gesso for some texture and I shall be starting the painting in the near future – so all is good going so far. As always, I am looking forward to doing a bit more work on the painting and seeing what happens next.

 

WIP – 040118

I managed to get a bit of time in the studio today, which was great as I’ve not been able to get up there to check on how things dried after my last update, let alone to do any painting! I don’t know where the time goes!?

These are four really small canvas’ that I was brought as a present for Christmas. I’ve painted some backgrounds on them and am looking forward to playing with them some more. I think that’s the key point at the moment in finding my creative signature; playing. Seeing what works and what doesn’t. There is only so much ‘prep-work’ that can be done without just delving in and seeing what happens, right?

Which is where this canvas comes in! I saw this in Hobbycraft the other day and instantly had the basic forming of an idea for it – I am nowhere near my vision yet, but it’s a start! It’s also fun working on such a different shaped canvas. I am just hoping that I can pull off my idea without getting disheartened part way through – which is something that seems to happen a bit with me; maybe because I’ve not been at this style of art that long. I get to a certain point where everything seems to look a lot worse (to me) than when I first started, so I feel like giving up and a whole wave of “What’s the point?” comes over me. It’s a feeling and thought process that I am trying to overcome as over-thinking it generally damaging to the creative process. Does anyone have any thoughts on this particular topic in the context of artwork?

2017 Art Summary

I think a part of moving on from what I’d been doing in 2017 art wise is saying goodbye to where I was.

As you can see I was mostly doing Character based Illustrations and Anthropomorphic artworks; as well as a bit of Space Marine fan art. While I can see merit and ‘talent’ in these sorts of artworks since having a bit of an internet break at the end of the year, I’d really like to try my hardest to move away from this sort of work.

Whenever I talk about artwork with people I always feel utterly embarrassed that I draw ‘animal people.’ I have found it really difficult to keep inspired with a lot of this work as well, due to the amount of drama that surrounds it and makes it feel really draining.

I think my real aim for 2018 are to see myself as a credible artist not just some average hobbiest that draws furry people. Looking back over 2017, July was the month where I felt most ‘alive’ with my art and not just going through the daily motions of sketching and sitting in front of my PC colouring in. Going around looking at different ‘found objects’ and seeing if I could use them in my artwork somehow.

It’s not an easy decision for my to make however, because I have known some wonderful people through my character drawings; so I do feel sad that I am having to let go of all the positives, but seeing as the character art feels like it is shackling me to the internet and I feel that now, it’s finally time to let it be and grow beyond it – so after this post goes out, I think I’ll be deleting my other places I have inhabited, why not break free from it all in the new year?

New year.

New beginnings.

WIP – 301217

I found a bit of time this evening to get into the studio and actually start a few things off. Nothing to serious, as I had a bit of prepping to do of the Canvas’ that I found and were brought for Christmas.

I’ve not always been sure on how to get texture onto my canvas, even though I have tried a few things, nothing seems to have worked for my yet. So when I read about something called Gesso in The Artist Unique the other day I thought I should try it out – it might be the obvious choice to other artists but if you don’t know, then you don’t know.

So this evening was mostly spent splatting it onto the boards and canvas that I had and seeing how it turns out!

On my search I also remembered this board; which previously had a layer of blue and yellow on it with some small stones from the seaside; but it was this particular failed experiment that had me lamenting and cursing art! So I was more than happy to layer Gesso over it, mixing it with some PVA glue to see what would happen and rather then feeling like I need to have a good cry, I am excited to see how it turns out and what I can do with it.

The last of my WIP’s to share is this one; which has been a bit of a tricky customer too. I found a snapped bike-chain down the street earlier in the year and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use it for something.

I’ve been struggling since trying to get it to stick properly on the board, so tonight I smothered the surrounds in PVA glue in the hopes that it’ll finally hold!

My plans are then to use more Gesso (which I feel a bit obsessed with now that I’ve found it) around the rest of the board and see where it takes me.

Also tonight I sorted out my paints into two boxes; one for my ‘Primary Palette’ and the other with my ‘I’ll use these once in a blue moon’ paint box. Building up on the idea of having my own personal colours that I touched on here.

Colours

As per the suggestion in The Artist Unique, I took a trip today to the local DIY store and swiped a heap of colour swatches that stood out to me. I am rather surprised by some of the results because I noticed that there is a colour that is quite obviously missing from my selection – not a colour that I have always found myself particularly fond of I must admit – but I am surprised I didn’t pick anything up with it on. (By the way, it’s green) especially with having expressed my desire to paint more with an influence of nature; maybe that’s not the avenue for me after all?

Maybe that’s just a contrived way of thinking that’s what I should be painting about rather than actually feeling it? Having said that, I did get a lot of enjoyment going out and finding objects to use in my paintings while walking and had a leaning towards natural objects – leaves, sticks and flowers – so maybe that’s where the nature aspect should come from rather than the colours?

I don’t know. Is this exercise meant to limit me initially, find a part of my personal, creative style, that I can then expand upon later? I’m not sure, so I may have to go back and do a bit more reading on what the real point of this was; maybe I missed something big and important about it somewhere.

But I got a little sketch book to paste these swatches into as well as some other colour images. No point in over thinking it all now that I have started. If nothing else, it’ll be a good sketchbook to look back on in a few weeks or months time and see how I have developed just from this first step. I am just glad that I am feeling a bit of a buzz to be doing something artistic again and not just facing the drudge of every-day drawing.

A return to my path

I’ll be completely honest with you.

I strayed so far from my artistic journey and path, I don’t even know where I went; only that it led me back to that horrible mixture of feelings that I wanted so much to avoid. That feeling of hating everything I did and that what I was creating wasn’t worth my or anyone elses time, but it got me enough attention to feel some sort of gratification for it; so I kept on doing it. But I know it wasn’t my calling, just something I had done for so long that it was easier to slip back into doing, rather than feeling something moving deep within my core – which is something that I feel art should be. You should be moved by what you create, rather than have cheap emotions of swifts satisfaction.

I feel a deep connection to some of my paintings as they’re far more personal than a quick sketch of digital image of an anthro character (which is what I always resort too and always feel hollow doing)

I took a small internet break before Christmas and this is something that came out while I wasn’t just ‘keeping myself distracted.’

I feel like I lost a part of myself to the strangeness of the internet and several social media sites that I promised myself I would give up and “never again return too.”

I think in journeys it’s fine to have a relapse into old, bad habits as long as we become aware of them and do something about them. Especially when on a journey of self discovery – like I am here. I do feel bad that it took me so long to realise that I was on a very wrong path though, as I feel it has done a lot of harm to people close to me. (I don’t want to dwell on it too much, just repair, recover and move on.)

I’ve already started putting myself back on the right path however, the path that feels a lot more exciting; already I am eager to start painting and creating again.

I brought myself a few books for inspiration for re-finding and redefining my creative path, they were just from The Works. So they probably won’t be the most profound pieces of literature out there, but I think if they spark off some desire to create then they’ve done their job.

The first book being ‘The Artist Unique’ Which I am looking forward to reading a bit more of. Especially if it’ll do as promised – help me find my own creative signature; as I feel that what is really lacking in my artwork is me. My thoughts. My personality. My real influence. So, if this book can set me on the path to really helping me to discover who I am and how to bring that out in my creativity, I’ll be really indebted.

I’ve only read a few pages so far, but I like early ideas in finding out about my creative signature. Collecting images and colour swatches that resonate with me; it’d be interesting to see if I am using colours that ‘speak’ to me in my paintings already. So I’ll have to take a trip to Homebase and see what I can find.

It looks like my initial hesitations and fears about returning to this blog after a 6 month side-track we’re unfounded!

Water Colours – 280717

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to write a quick blog post and share a I know up card with you all. I had some miniature success over on Instagram when I shared the images in my previous post. 

I expressed my interest in making some greetings cards out of them and have a few positive comments. I’ve ordered a few different style cards from Amazon, but seeing as they’ll take a while to arrive and I was enthusiastic and excited about the idea I popped into town today and found a stall on Bury Market that sold what I was looking for in the ways of card making. And here we are! 

I’ve not set up a store or anything yet, as I’ve only got this one finished (my other paintings were too big for the windows, unfortunately) but as soon as I have a handful finished I’ll get something set up.

💕

Jenn