Blue (seagull #2) – mixed media, 205 x 290 mm, 2013
Seagull #2 – Akaroa, 2012
I hope you like this week’s Shoot it, Sketch it. The water and the seagull standing on the wall are two different paintings that have been combined in Photoshop. The gull was sketched in graphite and then painted using acrylics thinned with a gloss medium. The background and wall are thicker acrylics that have been applied with a palette knife.
You’ll be seeing a few more paintings over the next month as I come to terms with my new artists’ acrylics and the knowledge that I’ve just accepted a commission to do a large peony rose on stretched canvas! I do love a challenge : )
This week’s Shoot it, Sketch it photograph was taken around the corner from our house last autumn. You can just make out the curve of the little footbridge in the blurry distance. Is it just me or does the light shining through the willows look like fairylights?
Smartlea Street Bridge – ink, watercolour and digital, 215 x 175 mm, 2013.
Smartlea Street Bridge, detail – ink, watercolour and digital, 2013.
The short story ~ the sketch is an ink and watercolour painting that has been altered using a kind of digital-resist effect (a combination of Photoshop filters that mimic the wax-resist technique used in making batik).
The long story ~ I’m going through an experimental phase. I’m curious to see what happens when I venture out of my comfort zone (ink drawings with lots of fiddly details and carefully considered watercolour and acrylic paintings) — I want to explore different ways of seeing things and be less concerned about the end result. What if…? That’s what happened in A trip down memory lane and it’s what happened here. Smartlea Street Bridge began as an ink and watercolour sketch which I then drew over with a brush pen to thicken the lines and make some areas inky black. The final image was created in Photoshop by inverting a scanned copy of the painting and applying various filters. The batik effect was discovered through trial and error.
Being out of my comfort zone does have one little drawback — it’s not very comfortable. I’m having to resist the urge to edit the light and dark areas to make them look more like the original photo. But so far, so good…
I was looking for photographs to put on my new portfolio site over the weekend when I came across an image I’d completely forgotten about. It’s a picture of Press Lane in central Christchurch taken a few months before the September 2010 earthquake.
Press Lane – mixed media, 290 x 205 mm, 2013.
I wish it wasn’t quite so hard to tell what the image is (you’re looking over a flower box, down the lane and seeing the buildings in the next street). My husband took a long, hard look at it and announced that I had drawn a kitchen ― and I can see it too now! It was still an interesting exercise… putting my own spin on the out-of-focus shapes and shadows.
The sketch is mainly ink and watercolour with touches of gouache and graphite. I’m not sure what the splash of orange is at the top (I’m sure the building wasn’t on fire) but it was in the photo, so it’s in the sketch : )
Red Sky at Night – mixed media, 187 x 297 mm, 2013.
Red sky at night, original photo – Christchurch, 2012.
This is my second sketch based on photos I took on my way to LUXcity in Christchurch last year. It is the companion piece to City Lights. The end result is not quite what I had in mind when I started sketching. It’s full of unexpected outcomes — and I’m okay with that.
This week’s Shoot it, Sketch it painting is based on the photo I used for last week’s post. When I decided to paint this beautiful little house, watercolour and ink seemed to be the obvious choice. Then my husband asked for an acrylic version. It turned out to be quite a challenge for me because I didn’t see it as an acrylic painting — at least not at first. But who am I to disappoint my biggest fan?
What a week I picked to use acrylics though! The weather in Christchurch has been rather warm and so the paint has been drying on the palette really quickly. It’s given a whole new meaning to the term ‘dry brush’! Click on the image(s) below to see more detail.
I posted the artwork for Tim Gallant’s business card a couple of months ago but needed to finalise a few details before completing the design. Tim has a longbow-making business and is a talented drum teacher/musician.
The two finger salute included in the design is a gesture sometimes referred to as the Longbowman Salute and may or may not date back to the 1415 Battle of Agincourt. I drew the ‘salute’ as a medieval gauntlet and added a couple of other elements to create a logo that is, I hope, more humorous than offensive. The colours and layout were inspired by the Gallant Family coat of arms.
The background (below) was serendipity at its best. I painted it on a piece of nothing-special cardboard using some acrylic paint left over from another project. I thought it would be quite a smooth surface but, instead, the paint accentuated every little bump and ridge…but it scanned beautifully. I tweaked the colours in Photoshop to better suit the business card and voilà. Where would we be without happy accidents?
Anna Cull ~ Art & Music 