Shifting into Digital Mode

As I was setting up my new site and selecting images to include (which I am still slowly adding!) I realized how long it had been since I’d created any art using digital tools. Shortly after my son showed me his sweet new tablet with pen and I was drooling. Fast forward a month or two and I’ve jumped in with both feet, purchasing a new tablet to replace the almost nine year old one…along with one of the fancy pens. Of course an art app and some downloads to beef it up came along in the process! I’ve been creating off & on for probably a month now and really enjoying being able to be creative while I’m in the house, not just while I’m in the studio. I’ve created several landscape style pieces, lots of abstract art in different shapes and sizes and even some faces, which I’ve affectionately been referring to as my “Hippee Chicks” as they all have a very Boho vibe. I’m adding a few samples below, which one(s) are your favorites?

A very early landscape piece, currently untitled

“Full Moon Rising” digital landscape

early abstract work, currently untitled

“Playful Thoughts” abstract digital painting

“Hippee Chick” #1, Digital Portrait

Many of the newer pieces have been added to my print store online and can be ordered as photo prints, fine art prints, metal prints, canvas prints, prints on wood or acrylic prints. I am more than a bit haphazard about posting here on the blog but I do send out weekly newsletters to keep my art-loving friends in the loop about upcoming events, special offers and new creative pursuits. While you are visiting my site would you take a moment to join my newsletter list ( there’s a link at the bottom of every page)? I’d appreciate it!

I hope you have been able to spend time creatively too! I’d love to hear about what you like to create – it’s inspiring! Thanks for reading…I’ll pop back on when I can. Love & blessings….

Your randomly creative artist friend, Lynne

The last of my Grands…

If you’ve been following the last couple of posts then you know I spent some time doing a series of colorful/fun portraits of my seven grandkids this spring. Today I’m sharing the last of those, my twin granddaughters. I worked on these at the same time, adding to one as the other dried. The process began with a sketch and proceeded from there with black & white underpainting, backgrounds and the final layer of color.

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The image I was work from had Miss A’s hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She did NOT care for the look, feeling it wasn’t “girlie” enough so during a visit I sat with her and changed it to her natural, gorgeous, head of curls. I have to say, it captures her much better! Below are the two final images of these beauties:

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I still haven’t figured out where I’ll hang all these fun pieces together, right now they are placed across the side of my desk and I’m enjoying seeing them each day. Next up? Well, firstly I decided to go “old school” artist and do a self portrait, which was an interesting experience. I also received a commission to do two more adorable “Grands” which will be fun too!

Hope you are enjoying the onset of summer and keeping yourself safe, healthy and well. Love to you from your randomly creative friend,

Lynne

More portrait fun!

So my latest endeavor has been making creative/colorful/fun portraits of my grandkids. Today I’ll share the process and finished images of two of them – our oldest grands – who happen to be siblings. I haven’t been creating in chronological order exactly but thought I might share them that way anyhow!

I’ve found it a much different process to create female vs. male portraits, although I’m not exactly sure why. It’s not the facial structure so much, although that does differs, but I think maybe with the added color/highlights on their faces I tend to be more sparse with the splashes of color when creating a girl vs. feeling bolder with a guy? Or perhaps since we have five granddaughters and only two grandsons I’m just not getting as much practice on the guys? Not really sure! Here are some of the progress images of our oldest grandson:

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  rough sketch

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  black & white under painting

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  underpainting & reference photo

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  adding detail

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  adjusting proportions

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  background added, ready to apply finishing colors

I fall in & out of love several times during the process and, at least once, want to chuck it and forget trying but after several of them I’m realizing that’s part of my process. I struggled with the shape & proportions a lot during the first three or four of these but it’s gotten easier. Is that why they always say “practice, practice, practice”? Here is the finished image of his painting:

The work on my oldest granddaughter’s image went through the same process, there were times it just looked horrid but, in the end, I finally loved it. Here are some progress images:

I hope that sharing these rough images I will encourage you to not give up on your artwork, even if you feel like it’s not going well at all! Keep persevering! (Although I did paint completely over one piece so that’s also an option – do overs are always allowed!) Here is the final image:

As far as media I used graphite for the sketch, lots of acrylic paint, stencils for the backgrounds and a generous amount of acrylic paint pens as well. These are all on 9×12″ canvases…once I’ve done them all I am going to hang them all up together and have a “grandkid gallery” to enjoy!

I hope you are enjoying your creative time! With love,

Lynne

Adventures in Portraiture!

Late last year I purchased an online class titled “Adventures in Portraiture” by Dana Bloede. Although no one is exactly enjoying this pandemic, I did find that it freed my schedule up enough that I had the time to actually sit down and start the lessons. So, bonus points for that anyhow! It has been a lot of fun, and I still have a couple lessons left to look forward to! I thought it would be fun to share what I’ve done so far, here are final images for the first lesson:

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Lesson One

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Lesson Two

What fun! I was picking up some techniques along the way but still felt like I was very much trying to follow right in her footsteps with the composition and brush strokes, if not the colors. Something else I noticed now though, when I was watching television or looking at images online I was really paying attention to the shadows, darks & lights and how they played on different peoples faces! After these two lovely ladies our third lesson was to create a male portrait with a limited color palette. I like that the faces that were chosen to use as models were all so different in each lesson!

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Lesson 3

I will post more of these “adventures” as I continue the lessons. Most of you who know me won’t be surprised that after getting a taste for this process I have got “rogue” for a bit. 😉 But that’s for another day!

Stay creative my friends,

Lynne

Altered Book/Art Journal

As part of my “Creative Every Day” challenge for this year I’ve been working in an old book that was cut down and had a hole punched through the edge so it can be clasp shut with a chain.

Here are a few of the first projects I’ve done in it:

Opening Page

Pen, pencil, colored pencil

Front cover art

I also did a two-page spread of this lovely lady and her funk and funky hair:

Beginning design, ink & colored pencil

Design finished, ready for color!

Color added & complete

I have done a few other things since then but I’ll save them for another post. Have any of you been following the “Creative Every Day” challenge? What have you worked on?

Lynne