Satin Dress Drawing

   I have been very busy all last week working on a commission. It's illustration work which is all very new and interesting, but more on that later. I did find time to do some drawing for myself and here is something I worked on bit by bit all week. 

'Satin Dress' pastel pencil on paper. aprox A3.

   Another from the series of photos I took of Tabitha. I concentrated on the dress in this drawing and made that my subject. I love the folds and how there is so much reflected light in the shadows. I would like to do a bigger drawing of a similar dress and spend more time on it. My favorite part is her lower foot on the ground and the train of the dress. 

   Today I started a still life painting of my violin again. I seem to enjoy that challenge! It's going really well and I hope to finish it this week. I had a few of those good moments when I applied something new I've learnt through reading and watching other artists paint and it worked! It's encouraging to know that what I want to achieve in painting is possible to learn. Also that all my hours I spend reading about painting and looking at paintings and watching videos of people paint are not entirely wasted time!

   This week again I shall be extra busy finishing my still life, doing lots of drawing, and starting on a new commission for a painting. I'm going to be painting a horse! I've been wanting to do that again lately. Also I hope to go out and get some plein air painting done.

Find me elsewhere!

  Just thought my blog followers would like to know about the other places I haunt on the internet, though at the moment I'm not haunting the internet at all but having a glorious week at the snow away from the computer screen!

• My facebook page: Felicity Deverell Fine Art: I keep this updated with all the things that's going on and also add every drawing from my 365 Days of Drawing challenge to the page.
• Twitter: @FelicityFineArt: Yes, I have a twitter! 
• Pintrest: Felicity Deverell: I find so much inspiration on Pintrest and share my own drawings.
• And of course my website: Equine Fine Art.net: I still have my old name for the website address. I am still an equine artist and accepting commissions for portraits, actually I'm wanting some more work at the moment.
• Google+: Felicity Deverell: I don't know so many people who have Google+ so if you do feel free to add me to your circle.
• You Tube: Felicity Deverell: I have several videos of my art, including a studio tour and speed drawings.

  Wow, I didn't know how many places I can be found on the internet! Here is a picture or two of mine for you to look at! Have a good day.

     

To the Snow!!

    When you read this I will be making my way down south to Mt Ruapehu--to the snow!

    It's something my friends and I have been talking about for awhile, and now we are going! We will be staying in one of the DOC huts on the foothills and have one pair of skis and a couple of toboggans. And are planning a good freeze! There will be eleven of us going in one big van taking a couple of days to travel down. I haven't been down south much and haven't seen much of New Zealand at all really having lived all my life in Northland, the winterless north.

   Where we are staying is apparently near to Gollum's pool which was filmed for Lord of the Rings, so we'll have to have a look at that wont we!

   I'm hoping to get a chance to draw the hut while we are there, and the neighbouring one which is just a short walk away. I also want to take the chance of doing some filming down there for my video promoting The Art of a Hut project. I'm working on setting up a pledge me account to raise money for the project. 

   I'll tell you all about the snow after I get back next Sunday. Hopefully we have lots of snow and beautiful weather and no earthquakes or volcanoes. After all it is an active volcano and one of the most dangerous places to be at the moment, according to my brother. Imagine us sliding down the while slopes of a beautiful mountain under sunny skies -- just like this:

Taking Risks...learning to...

   I finished, pretty much, my still life painting today. My rose had died so I picked a new one, ever so slightly different but it served the purpose. I will add a photo as soon as I have finished and signed it.

   I think I enjoy beginning a painting much more than finishing one. At the beginning I have a blank canvass and many ideas and possibilities in my head. I can paint anything, there is potential in it. But after I have begun I feel as if the further I go on it the more I am limiting myself, I feel as if I am committing myself to every brush stroke I lay down. Then I realized today that that is only because I'm not taking risks, or big changes that I feel that way. I'm scared to improve something because it's already passable and I'm afraid of ruining the little good I have. An artist I admire said, in words to this effect, that he would rather ruin a passable painting by trying something that might improve it than staying with a mediocre painting. That was inspiring to me and so with this last painting I did make a dramatic change that I wouldn't have done formerly. I would probably tried to keep going with the composition that I didn't like while all the time thinking about a painting I would do next and differently. But I changed it and got rid of one of my favorite parts entirely, and now I like the whole painting.

   So I'm learning to take risks and not be afraid (or too lazy) to change something if I think that it could be better. I try to believe that if I can see something that could be better, then I can make it better. And, this way, I will probably learn to like to come back to a half finished painting just as much as I like to come at a new canvass, because when the story is not yet over anything can happen!!

My exciting Monday Mornings, among other things.

  I always start my week of with a bang. I seem to have the most energy and focus on a Monday morning than any other morning, which dose not quite agree with the generally accepted rule! I always begin my most ambitious painting and do the most amount of work on a Monday. Tuesdays are pretty good too, then Wednesdays I begin to lag and usually it goes down hill from there until on the weekends I hardly get anything done painting wise. And then Monday comes round again and I begin with a new spurt of determination and drive.

   I read this short article about weeding gardens yesterday and it has some relevance to this topic. My weeds grow very quickly and are choking me up by the end of the week. From now on I intend to a little weeding every day. It really dose work, chipping away at the old block has to produce some effect eventually. I have always had a time of it trying to get myself motivated to do more paintings and pictures and not just wait for those moments of inspiration. And I have noticed lately that I have come along way for I am working on some picture every day, and even in the weekends I at least to a few sketches! Mum is always saying that good writing (for she is a writer) is %10 inspiration and %90 perspiration and this applies perfectly to the artist, dose it not? Combine this with the saying 'the more you work the stronger you get' and pretty soon inspiration will be a more frequent visitor. It was quite a happy discovery for me!

 Well, I've begun my Wednesday morning with a blog post, that's a good start, now I'm off to finish a painting. I'm videoing it so there will be speed painting video coming your way soon. :) And don't forget to subscribe to my new monthly newsletter! See right to submit your email.

  A small sketch I did in my small A5 sketchbook last month. This is pretty much actual size.

 

A days work..

   I have been painting all day today. I think I painted longer than I ever have in a single day on one painting. I hope that becomes a regular occurrence, but I do end up feeling rather exhausted. Painting can be so tiring - to the brain anyway - so when I finished at five this evening I cleaned myself of paint and curled up on my bed with Pride and Prejudice and read with the last rays of sun flickering in through my lace curtains. Jane Austen is so entertaining on every re-read that P&P is always the perfect book to relax with.

   (I'd like to do a painting like that one day.)  The painting I was working on is one I started this morning and have just about finished. It was inspired by this abstract painting by Osnat Tzadok

 My painting is a little bit abstract but it was mostly the warm and cool contrast of colours in this painting that inspired me. If I can find a camera with batteries, I will photograph it when it is finished.

   And now I've got to scamper to have the dinner ready for the hungry men when they come in from working on boats. I think Pizza tonight. :)