Elena's Portrait Stage 6

This is the portrait so far after a couple of afternoons work. I have been working on the horse's neck, blocking in his nose a bit more to get the shape and cover the pencil marks. I worked on Elena's neck, chest and t-shirt today and I think they are just about finished.

Basically it is the centre of the picture that still needs work - the horse's nose from the eyes down and Elena's other arm and hand. Once that part is more or less finished, I will look again at the surrounding areas and alter/touch up anything that needs doing. I've been a bit all over the place with this one, but it seems to have worked. Usually on an acrylic animal portrait I will start from one eye and work outwards on a kind of circular motion. As this is really two subjects, it was not possible to do it that way this time and I have had to be a bit more 'painterly' in my approach to it. It has been a matter of keeping it balanced and making sure the tones and colours are consistent. Wow, it almost sounds like I know what I am talking about! I am self-taught, so whatever I know about painting has been picked up over the years from experience and a lot of reading!

Once again, this will have to wait until later in the week as tomorrow I have to teach thirty 7 year olds about Chinese brush painting - wish me luck!!!

P.S. Notice I have given you a glimpse of the chaos in which I work....

Bit of a Change!

We went to the Make It Show yesterday, which all in all was a bit of a disappointment as it centred around card-making and scrapbooking, but I did pick up a few bits and pieces including some brass chain. I've been wanting to have a go with chain for a while, just to see what it is like. My first experiment was the above, interspersing it with porcelain fish and hanging little AB beads every few links. It looks nicer in real life than in the photo! £12 + p&p
Then I went a bit bananas making a dangly mix of glass flowers, leaves, brass leaves and mother-of-pearl birds. I'm really quite pleased with that - no space left and it's a real crowd of beads but they look like a very small jungle together and make a very satisfying tinkly noise. I just love noisy jewellery! £16 + p&p

This is not a style I would make a lot of, but I was pleased to have a go and see the end results. I find that experimenting with a known method leads to other more imaginative ideas in the long run.

I did pick up some rather nice filagree butterflies and am brewing up a crochet wire necklace - needs a bit more thought though!

Elena's Portrait Stage 5

I have been working on the horse for the past 3 days - off and on! Trying to find the time to paint at the moment is very hard - life keeps interrupting! Still got an awful lot of work to do on the horse - none of it is finished yet except perhaps the eyes. Looks better now I have them in though - seems to bring it all together somehow.

Back to Beads...

Thought it was time I did a bit of beading - not touched my collection since Christmas despite having lots of new ones to play with! The above is a bracelet that I have had in my head for weeks and finally got around to making it. The beads were from a bargain bucket at the Big Bead Fair last month and the zebras were kindly given to me by Emma at My Vintage Charms. Bit of a disaster though - she gave me four and I can only find three - so I have to turn out my bits and pieces and search down the side of the sofa as it can't be far away......then I can complete the bracelet which would be £15 when finished!
Grumpy monkey earrings - not more to say about them than that! £5 + p&p
This is a double necklace made from natural hemp, varnished wooden parrot beads, AB green glass beads, small round wooden beads, some rather lovely leafy ribbon - and a nut! I can't get it to lie flat to photograph as the hemp is new and a bit curly - when hanging the weight of the beads calm it down a bit. Very natural and pretty. It was nice to make something like this again - I am very fond of making necklaces that look like a little piece of nature! £16 + p&p
This one is just for me - how kitsch can you get! It is a large cabochon with bright pink raised flamingoes and some palm trees. I've hung it on some simple grey suede thong, as the pendant is so over the top it needs nothing else - I love it!

The painting is coming along - been working on the horse but I am not putting a picture up until after a bit more has been done. There's an awful lot of brown base paint to be covered!

Break for a Bear....

Very small crochet bear in spicy coloured random yarn, with an orangey scarf - he's abut 4 inches tall. £6 + p&p

Elena's Portrait, Stage 4

Today I worked for two hours, mainly on the face. I'm pretty happy with it now, but it still needs a bit of work, but that can wait until the rest of the painting is done and I can see it all together. I also did quite a lot of work on the hair, but then discovered that I can't do the bottom curls until I have painted the t-shirt as they overlap. So I put down a base layer of pink with some simple shadows and highlights, which will be worked upon next time after which I can return to finish the hair.

I have to take a break from this for a day or so - I am at the day job all day tomorrow so will not get a chance to paint. Probably not a bad thing, as I will look at it with 'fresh eyes' come Thursday.

I have painted Elena before, several years ago, just a simple head portrait which I feel was one of the best portraits I have ever done. If I get time I will dig out the photo and post it here as a comparison.

In the meantime, the evening crafting has taken a bit of a back seat - I'm knitting myself a lacy sweater which is quite complicated, and also crocheting a small bear. Nothing finished as yet though.

Elena's Portrait, Stage 3

Worked on the face some more today - not for as long as I'd like unfortunately, as I had other family commitments plus a very long drawn out chat with my sister on MSN - her first ever. Bless, she doesn't do technology and waiting for her to type her side of the conversation was like watching paint dry, but not the sort of paint I was wanting to watch! I'm not very happy with what I've done - it looks like someone but doesn't yet have the likeness of Elena that I'm after. There is always this middle stage where you feel like throwing the whole thing out the window, but you just need to work through it - think I'll do a different part of it tomorrow. I'm quite drawn towards the hair, I like the way it shines and has little wispy bits standing out against the dark background. You see, you are not only getting the practical process but also seeing the angst that goes on behind the scenes!!