Cling Wrap Creations

I really need to find my camera... 

Instead of studying for my exam some more today, 

I decided I wanted to paint.

I was in a creative mood and wanted to use pastel colours. 

Here's what I came up with. 

The first is a bit more rugged than usual, 

and it kinda looks like it's bleeding at the bottom. 

But it's different. 

The second sort of just looks like I dropped something on it. 

But the colours are what make this stand out for me. 

I love the way the cling wrap literally clings to the paint and draws out the 

bright pigments, while the rest just fades away into the paper. 

It's quite interesting to look at. 

I'm thinking of creating a really large version of this on high quality paper to sell. 

The ones I currently do are only A5 size, so it would be a huge challenge 

going to a bigger size. 

But I think it's a challenge I'm up for on my holidays. 

(Kinda) Commissioned Work!

I've finally been able to put my design skills to good use! 

Since I have my design exam coming up, I really needed a way of studying 

that didn't just involve drawing different shapes with different tools on InDesign. 

My mum suggested redesigning a brochure for her work 

(which is a government organisation, so I won't name names). 

So, I've spent the past week designing this brochure and am 

quite happy with the outcome. 

Unfortunately, I can't show you the final, but I thought I'd 

share the painting(s) I did for the front cover. 

Initially they wanted a blue Forget-Me-Not flower. 

I really liked this one. 

Sadly, although they loved the painting, the organisation's main colours are pinks and purples. 

So, I had to attempt to recreate it, but in pink. 

(I hate pink.)

I don't think it turned out as well, but they seemed to like it! 

I apologise for the crap photos.. I can't find my camera so they were taken on my phone. 

Anyway, I was very excited to have done it. 

I think it was a really great experience - especially since I wasn't able to go off on a 

creative tangent doing whatever I wanted. 

Plus, it will look great on my résumé! 

boring creations.

Since practicing new techniques, 

I've been finding my old styles a bit boring. 

But Anthony's coming over once exams are finished, 

so hopefully some new masterpieces will be created! 

Until then, here's a small one I painted the other day in about two minutes... 

I realised I probably could have used glad wrap to make it cooler, 

but oh well! 

More planetary creations!

"Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of fixed stars." 

-Nicolaus Copernicus 

Yet another painting of the night sky, 

with stars shooting and colliding. 

I can't help but focus on them each night before I go to bed. 

I think this is one of my favourite circles to date. 

(It looks a lot cooler in real life.)

I've yet to come up with a name for this, 

but in the process of painting a very dark sky, 

I created a new planet. 

Or, perhaps, maybe brought Pluto back to life? 

I'll let you decide on a name for him. 

Not quite as cool as the sky above him, 

but next to the write companion, I think he'll fit in quite well somewhere.

white on black, ft. salt

I've had a little bit of an obsession with the moon lately; 

I've noticed a lot of my paintings (although many aren't worthy of being shown) 

seem to be of the moon or the night sky. 

These aren't an exception. 

I tried my white watercolours on black card - this time without using masking fluid - 

and I think they've turned out quite well. 

My circles are coming along without the fluid, at least! 

And, as I've been trying new things, I thought why not combine two 

and see what happens? 

If you look at it from my perspective, 

I think it made tiny little craters in the moon's surface. 

Who knows what's living in them! 

I like creating my own worlds. 

learning new tricks.

I've tried painting with some other unexpected objects lately. 

This time, it's salt. 

I've seen so many people use salt with watercolours and have always wanted to try it, 

and I'm not sure why I hadn't tried earlier. 

It's brilliant! 

Excuse the terrible photos, 

I'll try upload some better quality ones of the next ones I do. 

It didn't take long before the patterns started taking place.

I was seriously in awe of what it did to the paint - 

no two patterns will ever be the same. 

Before 

(I didn't take before shots of all of them, which was a bad idea)

After 

This rainbow one looks awesome in real life! 

I really enjoyed doing these. 

The only downsides were having to wait for it to dry properly - which was overnight - 

and trying to scrape the salt off later without ruining the paint/paper. 

I had run out of my 300gm paper, so these were done on 180gm (nowhere near as high in quality) 

and I think this made a huge difference. 

I'm going to invest in some more 300gm paper and try again. 

painting with unexpected things.

Glad wrap. 

Who would have thought it could do more than wrap up left over food? 

Apparently it works well with watercolours, too! 

To do this, I mixed a couple of colours using the wet on wet technique, 

that way there was plenty of liquid on the paper. 

Then I cut some glad wrap and scrunched it a bit before putting it on top of the paint. 

I pushed some bits down a little and then left it for a few hours to dry. 

Pretty simple, but I love it!