New Year (nearly), New Update

I can't believe how quickly the last year has zoomed on by, and it's amazing how different things are to how they were at the start of the year. The last 3 months have pretty much been dedicated to decorating my new apartment, which has taken an epic amount of time - turns out I'm more of a perfectionist than I'd realised, which isn't a good thing when every other wall is a different colour! Sadly, whilst my inner interior designer has been powering along, the practising artist has been put on hold again, aside from a small commission for some glass goblets - in my haste to post them I forgot to take a picture of the 2 together, but they arrived safely thanks to the never-ending layers of packaging and were with their new owners in time for Christmas.

As soon as I am settled into my new place I fully intend to take full advantage of the new space I'll have, and perhaps even get that Etsy shop on the go at long last! Until then, I wish everyone a happy new year! Caroline

Caroline VS The Canvas

I can't believe it's been nearly 5 months since I last posted and therefore last worked on my painting. For one reason or another, whether it be work or life, I've gone slighly (read completely) off track with my creativity and only now feel that I can get back to it. Every time I've walked past the canvas or even dared to stand and scrutinize it, it sat there quietly mocking me with its unfinished layers of green paint, daring me to try again, knowing full well that I wouldn't. But this weekend was different, it was me against the canvas...it, armed with nothing but a few layers of dust, and me, a microfibre cloth in one hand and a paintbrush in the other - there could only be one winner...

...and the winner was...

...haha no seriously, here's the finished painting (I won of course, although unfortunately the wrist strain is for real):

And just to keep track of the progression of the painting, here are the step by step photos:

Saturday 22nd June - 4 hours

Sunday 23rd June - 6 hours

No doubt that when I look at this again in the next few days there may be some extra little tweaks to be made, but for now I'm happy with the progress I've made in the past 2 days!

Caroline

Update 4 - Painting in Progress

Sunday 27th January - 2 hours

A few weeks after last working on this painting I decided to start work again. I wasn't entirely feeling in a creative mood, however as it had been such a long time since I last worked on it, I thought I had best give it a go and hoped for the best.
I'm not sure how I feel about the additions I've made to the painting this evening - trees have never been a strong point of mine, so this was never going to be easy, but I think I'm going to have to revisit these areas later on and make some amends/additions. Whilst I think it is always hard to start again on a piece after a long period of time, sometimes I think it is best not to push yourself when you're not ready to continue, and maybe tonight's progress is proof of that...

Previously:

Work from this evening:

Those trees definitely need further attention!

Caroline

Update 3 - Painting In Progress

Sunday 6th January - 2 hours

Here's a quick update on the painting as it is after a few hours work today - you can see in the photo that I still need to add a lot more depth and tone to the waterfall, so my next painting session will be working in some darker areas in an attempt to show the motion of the water falling.  Once I'm finished with the water I can then move on to the foreground and working in a lot more detail.

Starting point today:

After several hours:

Caroline

UPDATE 2: Painting in Progress

Monday 31st December - 5 Hours

What with Christmas and all the hectic drama that comes along with that, today is the first time in nearly a month that I have had chance to work on the waterfall painting. After spending 5 hours painting in the foliage today, I sat back and looked at the painting and felt completely dejected - to me it looked exactly the same and I felt like I had wasted the entire afternoon.  However, after comparing the picture I had taken of the painting prior to starting and then the picture of where it stands now, it is incredible to see the difference between the two:

Before:

After:

The colours have been slightly distorted by the photograph, some of the greens are closer to that in the first picture than the second, but the difference between the 2 pictures has really shocked me. The picture overall looks a lot more realistic, and  whilst there's still a lot of work to be done, seeing the progress definitely helps to keep the motivation going!

I will hopefully have time to work on the painting tomorrow so there will be another update coming soon, but until then, I hope everyone has a great New Year!

Caroline

UPDATE: Painting in Progress

Day 3: Sunday 9th December - 3 - 4 hours

Since the last update to this post, this was the first time that I've felt ready to continue working on this painting.  I've spent a lot of time thinking about exactly how to add detail into the painting without it looking too odd, which is why I haven't achieved that much today considering how much time I actually spent working on the painting.  It is slowly coming along however, but there is still plenty more to do!

In the above photo you can see I've started to work on the background trees and also added a quick layer of dark tone to the foreground.

Working out where to add in the branches

Check back for more updates soon!

Caroline

NEW: Painting in Progress

It only seems like yesterday that I was in Canada exploring the sights and scenery the West Coast has to offer, and yet already several months have passed!  I've finally made a start on some new art work, which for one reason or another has been put off several times, and I've been really eager to start again.

I have a new painting in progress based not only on photographs that I have taken but also partly from imagination, which in terms of composition and image detail, doesn't normally play as large a role in producing my work as I find it much easier to produce a piece from an image I already have.

As well as this, the painting is somewhat of a challenge for me due to the subject matter, as from previous experience my patience for painting foliage and plant life is somewhat limited, so it will be interesting to see the final result. For this painting I have chosen to depict a natural waterfall after seeing so many in different forms in Canada (see previous blog post for one of the photographs that I am using for inspiration).

Here is the progress of the painting so far - I will update this post with further images as I continue:

Day 1 - Saturday 17th November - 5 hours

Day 2 - Monday 19th November - 1.5 hours

This is currently how the painting looks after 6.5 hours of work:

Below is a photo taken with the flash on - it isn't an accurate portrayal of the painting but I thought I would include it as, in terms of shadows and depth, this is where the painting is headed towards, particularly with that section at the base of the canvas:

More to come soon!

Caroline