A month ago I wrote about a very unfortunate accident that occurred somewhere in the depths of the postal system. Two carefully packaged paintings were somehow smashed beyond repair. My customer took photos of the damage and sent them to me so I could start my claim with Canada Post. At first I didn't hear from anyone regarding my claim which made me really nervous but after a few lengthy phone calls and about two weeks they informed me that my cheque was in the mail and I would receive it in 5-10 business days. Which I did! The difficult part of this situation was repainting. Instead of just painting what I thought looked good I had to carefully measure and repaint until it was as perfect as I could get it to the original painting. I was worried about getting the colours right and using similar or the same brushes. I realized part way in that I was missing a tree on the larger painting, which meant that I had to move the trees around to make it fit. After working for weeks and comparing the new paintings to my original photos I finally finished them. I am reasonably happy with the outcome and feel that I did my best to recreate these works of art but it still makes me sad to think of those poor smashed paintings. Monday I get to ship these paintings to my patient customer and hopefully this nightmare will be over!
I love watching artist videos and studying in progress works. I follow a lot of artists on social media and truly enjoy the daily motivation. I was watching an awesome video of Nimit Malavia work with walnut ink and decided I should try out the bottle of India ink I have sitting around. Ink works much like watercolours except for the fact that if it is not very diluted you can not lift it off the paper and fix a mistake... learned that the hard way. I really like ink and I will be using more of it!
When my sister saw "Bliss" (the painting on the right) her comment was "I really like the background and how some areas are dark and splotchy and others are nice and smooth." The reason for the background being the way it is.... I dropped my paintbrush. lol
Both of these paintings are available in my Etsy shop!
One of the perks of being a dance teacher is having spring break off! This blog post was supposed to be all about the multitude of sketchbook drawings and ink work I have been working on this week but instead it is going to be a partial rant about the postal service.
You see last week I sold one of my all time favorite paintings (it might be my dad's very favorite.) It was part of a series I called 'Anastasia' and each painting features a little girl with her back towards the viewer. We were sad to see it go but happy that it had a new home. I wrapped the painting which was done on a cradle back wooden board in paper and bubble wrap and then made a custom box out of some heavy duty cardboard. Some where between here and it's US destination someone smashed it. Someone managed to practically break the wood board in half and damaged a smaller painting that I had wrapped up in bubble wrap and placed inside next to it. The photo shows the painting damage from the back. Completely destroyed.
It breaks my heart to think about it. Some careless person destroyed today a small part of me that can never be fixed.
I drove out to Opus and got more supplies and I am now in the process of repainting these artworks. Luckily I took lots of progress photos throughout the process so I can see my steps and hopefully make another awesome painting. I will write another update when I have more to share!
These roses are pencil on paper and took me about 2 weeks to complete. These flowers are destined to become my sister's new tattoo sleeve. I'll be sure to make another post when she has had the ink done! :)
Luther started out as a quick warmup painting and a test for a future painting. It took me awhile to figure out what I should do with it but I decided in the end that Luther was destined to become a Journal/sketchbook. I glued and sealed Luther to the book board and created an abstract watercolour painting for the back cover to match. I stitched this journal together on a lazy Sunday afternoon using cotton cord and a coptic binding stitch so that the pages will lay flat when you open it. Coloured paper along the spine makes it a little fancier!
Luther needs a home and is for sale in my Etsy shop Das Buch. :)
This portrait was inspired by a photograph of my friend Jane who was a fellow dancer on one of my cruise ship contracts. I have drawn numerous portraits of her before, based on some of her fun portfolio head shots. The great thing about drawing someone more than once is that it gets easier every time. Jane's face is somewhat familiar to me which made the odd angle of this portrait much easier to deal with! I started out in pencil and then added colour and depth with watercolours, finishing off the detail with coloured pencils. I deliberated over adding a background but in the end I chose to leave it white. I currently have lots on the go so I am happy to show this finished product so I can move on to my next project! This video shows the progress from the pencil stage to the finished portrait!
The vision for this painting came to me while driving back from a much needed vacation at my cabin Thanksgiving weekend. The leaves on the trees were so vibrant and full of life, it was all I could do to keep my eyes on the road. Since that weekend I have been carefully and methodically working on this painting. I had already sketched the girl in my sketchbook but decided to do a full sketchbook mock-up of the entire painting which I then painstakingly outlined in pen. Then I redrew it all on watercolour paper and started painting. I quickly became frustrated while painting little yellow leaves for what seemed like months.Well, since it took me 4 months to complete it I guess I did spend months painting those stupid little leaves. I am quite happy with the turnout though and glad that my hard work paid off! Most of this painting is random but the little hedgehog in the center is my prickly friend Robert (who is actually a girl...long story.) I have been taking more and more progress photos to show the progression of my art from the simple sketches to the finished product. I made this quick little video to show some of the steps! This painting is also for sale in my Etsy shop!
The difficult part of this situation was repainting. Instead of just painting what I thought looked good I had to carefully measure and repaint until it was as perfect as I could get it to the original painting. I was worried about getting the colours right and using similar or the same brushes. I realized part way in that I was missing a tree on the larger painting, which meant that I had to move the trees around to make it fit. After working for weeks and comparing the new paintings to my original photos I finally finished them.
I am reasonably happy with the outcome and feel that I did my best to recreate these works of art but it still makes me sad to think of those poor smashed paintings. 
