Fixes and Freak outs

Ok, I'm a little bit late with this one, but it's still Thursday in some parts of the world!

So, after this artwork ended up being damaged upon it's return to me, I decided that the only way to try to fix it was to add another levelling layer over the top of the whole damaged area, to try to hide the bubble-wrap texture. This is how it looked when I'd first layed it down, and plenty of people thought that I'd painted smoke over her to make it look like she was a genie emerging from her teapot 'bottle!'

The levelling medium dries clear though, and I used the same product that I always have, and have never had a problem with it, until this time. I left it to dry overnight, but we had our coldest night of the year for our area (0.6ºC) and that was apparently too cold for the medium to cure properly without disaster:

This is the point at which I taught the studio pup some new words. The cracks were so deep and sharp, that it looked like they'd cracked all the way down through the paint. Luckily, luckily, luckily this proved to just be an illusion created by the shadows on the cracks, and I've been able to 'fill' them with more levelling medium, and they've all but disappeared. The bubblewrap texture that I was trying to fix in the first place is completley gone.

Now, I want to add some extra details and change a few little areas that have been bugging me. I won't be able to get to this for quite a while, as I've got a few other pieces I need to finish first, but I'm anxious to get to it! I'm also going to be testing some alternative levelling mediums, so I can hopefully avoid this whole awful scenario in the future!

Gears

My trusty postman delivered a new batch of clock parts on Friday, so I had to see how they'd go used as tools to create another textured background.

It still seems impossible for anyone to actually clean the gears they are selling before they send them to you, so I spent far more time cleaning than art-making, and that's never a good thing! (I share the same sentiment about vacuuming. And weeding. And grocery shopping.)

This is a nice little 6x6 inch panel. I'm planning on painting a crazy-detailed pocketwatch/still-life floating over the top.

THIS LITTLE TEAPOT

The show opening is happening right now!

Here's my artwork for it:

16x20" Acrylic on custom textured birch panel, and teapot!

HUGE thanks to Bec Murphy for including me :)

Saturday morning painting....

For once it's not raining, so I will have some better light to paint by this morning. 

I'm still finding this piece super-challenging, but super-fun to work on too. 

Nearly (sort of) finished!

Earlier today...

These are the two artworks I've been working on... A teapot and a textured panel.

But now, back to it!!

Finished for now.

These little 8x8" panels are so nice to work on. Especially for experiments - which is what this piece started out as, before I decided to make a proper go of the face. There's still one more thing to add to it, and no doubt I'll mess with the face a little more, but I have other things that I need to get to before I can come back to this one.

The textured surface is extremely challenging to work on. And extremely hard to photograph ( - I just seem to kill all the subtleties). At times I was wondering if it was all worth it, but I'm happy with how things have turned out in the end, and I've figured out what I should and should not do next time.

So I hope I've learned a lot from piece number one. I'm still getting my head around painting, but I'm hoping I'll get used to it with a bit more practise.

 

I'm also hoping I'll learn not to paint in my "good" clothes, and that resting your hand in your palette, and then resting the same hand on your artwork, is not a good thing.

We can only hope.

Waiting...

I completely wrecked the first clear coat that I put over this panel that I've been working on lately. Luckily I could get it all off before it dried, ready for a re-do, but now there's the WAITING part all over again. I can't start painting on it until the clear coat is completely, well, clear:

And the waiting makes me so nervous!

I almost don't want to paint over it...

But that's what I'm starting tonight!

Many layers later...

This is how things look tonight, studio buddy and all...

AND a slightly better photo too:

Lots of sneak peeks in this one! 

Tonight: Slow Progress

I'm still finding this surface oh-so tricky to work on, but I still oh-so love the texture. 

The face is at that stage where the details are only half done, so it's looking a little strange, but I'm hoping to finish it tonight!

Textured Surfaces

I am having a ridiculous amount of fun playing with these. Ridiculous.

I kind of want to attack the walls of my entire house with the stuff....

Sneak Peek:

I've started working on my textured background from a few posts ago. It's very tricky so far. I already know what I'll do differently next time, but you can't learn these things without trying. Plus, this is my 'trial' run for a bigger piece which I plan to start next week.

Faces always look so strange in their earlier stages... Hence the crafty angle and convenient reflections. Hopefully the photo of the finished artwork won't need either of these!