Art - Trial and Error

Joan Bakewell in acrylics 🤗 Hanging onto the Portrait Artist of the Week paintalong for a while longer thanks to the facebook fan group!
Such a lovely face to paint. Finding dark eyes a bit of a challenge, and couldn’t help but include the teeth - even though artists often say not to - as Joan has such a lovely smile!

Hilltop! First attempt at rolling hills and distant landscape in acrylics. The fan brush was very fun to use for the grass 😃 My clouds are getting a leeetle bit better each time!

“Tiny Hero” in acrylics. This gorgeous little lass is a cheeky daredevil ❤️ So much fun to paint!
The best part is the little cutie recognised herself which was a great relief 😂😂
Worked hard trying to capture a likeness this time by detailed sketching on the canvas first then blocking in the lights and darks. An interesting article by Maas says that positioning on the face is more important than the features themselves when capturing a likeness - so the wrong nose in the right place is better than the right nose in the wrong place 😜

“Siblings” in acrylics, a surprise for my mum! Toned down the contrast on the faces a little this time so a little bit less cartoonish 😁 Very happy with how my youngest furriest brother turned out - a few highlight dabs on the top of his head helped a lot! My jumper was cream in real life but it meant the puppy was “floating” so had to make it darker - reminded me that a lovely painter Joel Kirk once taught me that light colours “knock back” features (makes them look more distant).

This one is still my favourite seascape. Soft pastels and a view of Southend (spot the pier). I like the sense of light in this one. Sadly haven’t been able to replicate that again but the search continues! 🤗

Landscape in acrylics. First one that is starting to look like my previous pastel work rather than big blobs of “cloud”! A lovely artist on Instagram very kindly gave me some pointers when I asked about her beautiful soft atmospheric clouds in acrylics. Tip - use a round brush and less paint than you think you’ll need, then build them up slowly. Long way to go but improving!

Today’s attempt at a skyscape! Trying some new acrylics techniques after watching Dave Usher’s tutorials on youtube.
My ultimate aim is to paint in a more impressionist than literal style. Still a long way to go but I like this one more than last week’s travesty - where what looks like a mountain is supposed to be a stormcloud 😂
The wispy white clouds are easier, but that will only take you so far with the sea in Southend!

I am an amateur artist learning how to draw and paint 🎨 🖌
Self taught so very much trial and error!
Would love to hear any tips, ideas and suggestions 🤗

First portrait I attempted for Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the week - and the second ever portrait painting! Not a great likeness - I tried to paint from “life” (online streaming) which was very hard as the sitter was moving around a lot 🤗
All portraits since then have been from a photo, but using the real person as inspiration for the photo selection and background colour.
A couple of basic things that are obvious now but but weren’t at the time - face needed to be much thinner on the right hand side, forehead needed to be higher. I have now started sketching on my canvas in pencil before painting which has helped a lot!

Professor Green in italics as part of Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Week. Still my favourite of the handful of portraits I have painted so far. The professor had lovely steam engine green walls behind him but they seemed a bit stark when I painted the background, so went for a pastel shade instead.

The first drawing I made in soft pastels - I started with oil pastels but found that I wanted to be able to blend colour more easily.

A brief fast forward to today - 10 months into learning to draw and paint. Here is today’s entry for Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Week - Mary Beard in acrylics.
Looking forward to the next project that Artist of the Year come up with!

I have always adored landscapes and seascapes... I was lucky enough to see some of Monet’s early work in pastels at the Royal Academy and the light effects were amazing! I knew then that was how I would like to paint, if I were a painter 🖌🎨
https://www.theguardian.com/arts/gallery/2007/mar/14/monet

The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings Preview the Royal Academy's The Unknown Monet exhibition in our gallery.

One insomnia-fuelled night I stumbled across a wonderful painting show hosted by Jeremy Ford - such lovely drawings in pastel, and it seemed so accessible! The “art” began for me then...
Here is a short version for inspiration 😁
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CSTs8f_1HFg

Preview | Painting the Seasons in Pastel with Jeremy Ford Subscribe and watch the full video at Artist's Network TV: http://bit.ly/1UbllQy Purchase the video download at North Light Shop: http://bit.ly/1XYtUVp See m...