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Scotland Highlands Painting, Part VI

As I mentioned in my previous post, the water had me challenged.  I made several attempts to fix it, but it seemed it was one step forward, two steps back.  I finally had to take a break from it around Christmas.  When I finally went back to it, I ignored the funky water strokes I'd made and moved onto the rocky shoreline.  

I painted the rocks while my youngest son was home with the flu, watching 3 movies!  The rocks were actually fun to paint!  My fear was knowing I'd have to go back and finish the water (eek).

Scotland Highlands Painting, Part V

I've made lots of progress since last month.  I painted the water not once . . . not twice . . . not even just five times (more on that later).

I blocked in the left side with brown so my eyes could balance the future color there.

Several more tweaks went into the water.  Sometimes my colors were off, other times my lines were too curved.  My eye knew something was fighting, but it took several weeks before I figured out how to get my brain out of the process.  

More later.

Artist Profile: Eric Carle

Eric Carle, a famous children's book author and illustrator, has a new book out named The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse.  It's about doing things your own way, coloring outside the lines, and encouraging kids to just play.

 

Horse Painting gift

1. My mom's birthday was coming

2. I had been sketching horses a lot

3. I told my mom I would make her a custom iPhone case (months ago) from a piece of artwork I made

SO . . . 

I got this idea to do a practice painting for my daughter's bedroom (see previous post) and make something for my mom.  My acrylic painting class instructor showed me photos of other artists that had added color into animal paintings.  My favorite artist was Laurie Pace. I was instantly hooked and had to try it. Here are some of her paintings.

I chose my favorite sketch and drew it over and over until I had it the way I liked it.

Then I cleaned it up in Photoshop, printed it out, and used my projector to make it the exact size I wanted it on my piece of plywood (w/ 2 coats of gesso).

I wanted my personal touch on the background, so I did my tradition steps of paste texture and added some drywall and masking tape.

I started with some typical shade of brown that you would see on a horse.

Then painted my background shade of blue (my mom's favorite color).

Here comes color!

And here is how it ended up online, as the iPhone case was in progress!  I have uploaded several jpegs of artwork for custom cell phone cases and Case-Mate does an awesome job!  

 

Then I played around with some close up shots, using my 50mm 2.8/f lens.  

I love the short depth of field it will give me.

This might be a new favorite painting style - I got to combine drawing, texture, bright colors, and I learned a lot!

 

Sketching Horses

Sketching at the beach . . . ya, that didn't suck! : )

Right behind me is my son's middle school and I had been there doing a photography workshop.  It was my day to carpool, so I had an hour to kill and took my sketchbook.

My daughter is a horse LOVER!  She takes riding lessons once per week and it has become her passion.  We re-painted her bedroom this summer and rearranged the furniture.  She and her dad are off to pick up her new bed as I type.  

So, above her bed, I told her I'd do a painting for her if she wanted one.  She said, "A horse!"  

Naturally.  I knew this was coming, but was kind of intimidated by it also.

So I began with these sketches.  I haven't drawn a horse since high school art class, so I needed some practice.

I printed some pics from online, ripped a page from a magazine, and used a horse coloring book my mom sent to my kids years ago.  

And I drew horses.

Art with Kids

I homeschooled my kids for the last three years . . . until this year.  They are in Montessori school and it's going well . . . but there are days I miss them.  I miss the time we used to spend together, the discussions, the stories, the laughs.

So when my 9 yr old son is home sick with bronchitis and wants to do art with me, I love it!  I think once a month, I should make each of them play hookie so they can do this! : )

While mom plugs away on the Scotland painting, he draws Mark Kistler style (3-dimensional cartoon drawing).

Bliss.

 

Scotland Highlands painting, Part IV

It was about this point in the painting that I was ready to throw it out the window!  I just couldn't make myself work on it.  I made several other art pieces just to avoid working on this one! LOL

 

My painting instructor says if it isn't frustrating and hard that we aren't learning and why bother?  It reminds me of the part in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where Clark is trying to get the outdoor lights on and they won't work.  His MIL says it's a waste of time, so his daughter tells her, "He worked really hard, Grandma".  And she replies, "So do washing machines!"  I'm beginning to think she's onto something.  Why am I torturing myself?  Oh ya, to learn and grow.

 

Enjoy the process, they say.  

I'm . . . trying . . . very . . . hard.

I feel that I'm about to round the corner.  Let's hope so!

Artist Profile: EcoPSYCHOlogist

Check out this real SCRAP HOUSE, made in California: an entire house built from things we throw away.  The creativity and resourcefulness definitely qualify these people as artists!

 

Photography of Scotland

Since I'm painting a photo I took in Scotland, I thought I'd share some of the pics I took while we were there.

The movie theatre in Edinburgh, where we saw Harry Potter 7, part II.  So exciting to see it in the city where she wrote the books!

Little bistro/deli where we had lunch the first day.

Edinburgh Castle

 

A mountain in Edinburgh that we hiked up.

Church ruins of Holyrood Palace . . . amazing carvings and detail here.

some detail of the Rosslyn Chapel . . . where Da Vinci code was filmed.

the castle where we stayed one night.  it was so fun.  we had dinner in the old dungeon!

one of my favorite memories of Scotland was the coffee we drank and reading my book, "The Winter Sea" while we were there and finishing it when we got home.  It's about a writer who went to the Highlands of Scotland to write a novel and her experience while there.  such a treasure to me now.

We rented a car and drive up to the Highlands (like what we refer to as "going to the mountains").  It was soooo beautiful up there.  we could have stayed a month up there.  so many lochs (lakes) and beautiful scenery.  

look familiar?

view from another castle (we saw 6 total) . . . American! LOL

a few pics of the scenery along the road

heading out on another hike

another castle, out on its own little island

I think this was my favorite castle . . . it is in ruins, but still so beautiful!

same castle, view from high inside it

some panoramics I made in Photoshop with photo merge . . . this is a view of Edinburgh

another of Edinburgh

and a view from Stirling Castle

 

It was truly an amazing trip.  I would go back in a heartbeat!!!

 

See the photos section (right column) for more photos

Journal Pages

Not all days are happy days; therefore, not all art journal pages are happy pages.

Sometimes, they have to be dark and messy . . . and therapeutic.

But through all hurt feelings, we eventually come to terms with the situation and make a decision on how we are going to handle it.  So I decided to make the other page about that.

I blurred out the words so you don't have to read my temper tantrum . . . but it just talked about how we try to forgive, but never forget how people make us feel.  I think there's a similar quote by Oprah or Maya Angelou.

And my decision to accept the things I can't change, forgive the ones I can, and let it go.

Thanks to Zac Brown Band for those lyrics.