Watercolor and Ink Paintings

Arts and Drafts festival went really well, it was fun as always. I've painted a few small painitngs specially for this occasion and these two watercolor and ink paintings are the last two from those paintings.

I especially like the profile, it's an experiment gone right. I did enjoy doing other paintings with these lines, but lately it just wasn't cutting it. I wanted to use them for something new and so I did. I haven't even hoped that it would end up as well as it did, but alas.

While at an art show I have talked to a few people that inspired a couple of Tatyana skids, so the insanity of that character will continue.

You can enter to win prints of both the flower and the male portrait.

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Bonus entries (bonus entries will not count unless you have done one of the above) are:

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Flower in the Wind, Abstract Painting

Flower in the Wind is a watercolor and ink painting. It was inspired by music I heard. Simple line patterns I originally imagined took shape in this flower. What I wanted to show is a cool breeze on a hot summer day. Cool colors used for the flower were chosen this intent. For more information about this painting you can watch this YouTube video where I explain it a little better.

   Original $100

  8.5x11 print $20

I just finished this painting this morning. There are times in life when I have no time to paint, this week was one of these. I went crazy about having it finished today because I wanted to keep on posting a video every Tuesday, so I had to finish it. Little challenges like this make it easier to keep on painting no matter what. 

In the Middle of it all is Love, Abstract Watercolor Painting and Crazy Kitteh

 

Here comes my second video, In the Middle of it all is Love, plus a little bonus kitty love.

I wanted to poke fun at putting cute adorable animals in the videos and using sex just to get more views. In order to make fun of it, I went ahead and filmed my little kitty friend. He tried to eat me in the process, but it ended well. I ended up getting a lot more views in the first day then I did with the first video. Somehow I think it's because it had "cute kitten" as one of the tags. Surely after Monkey was done trying to kill me, I went ahead and talked about my art, to be more specific, about one painting about love. 

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Apocalypse update: Oh, yes the Jews never had those who enslaved them as slaves and there are people living on the land that used to be Babylon. Since the bible predicts these things and they haven't happened yet, there can't be the end of the world just yet. Interesting, I totally forgot about all the predictions the bible made that haven't come true yet. Well, we have a little over 5 month for it all to happen. If it all does happen and the end of the world will come, well... I guess I'll have to accept my defeat. If all these predictions don't happen and the end of the world comes, then God is a liar and I would still have to accept my defeat because I really don't like the end of the world idea. And if the end of the world never happens at all, then I'll go ahead and scream into the faces of everyone who believed in it "I TOLD YOU SO!!!"

Work in Progress, Abstract Watercolor Beach painting

I finally got a chance to put a few more hours into this painting. I'm actually almost done with it, just have to do the water swirl. Today I finished the palm tree and the sand swirl. You can see some of the details of the palm tree here as well as a part of the swirl. This painting is coming out way better then I expected. The added benefit is that I'm trying new techniques on it. I was watching a youtube video yesterday about this guitar lesson. The guy was basically showing that you don't have to always follow the rules, play the same things everyone already have played. You can find your own way. If it sounds good, why not do it? The example he was showing is called "triangles" where he literally was forming triangles with his fingertips while playing the guitar. It sounded great, but you will never find "triangles" in any book or guitar lessons. This is my approach to art. Some of the best artists I've met are self taught. They always stand out, because they do something different from every other artist. They don't use the same techniques. Instead, they develop their own techniques. This is the route I went with this painting. I didn't use watercolor the way it's taught. I used it in my own way. It actually turned into a combination between watercolor, marker and inking techniques. You can clearly see the inking techniques in the was the leaves are colored. What I did was basically mixing paint a lot thicker then you would normally mix for watercolor painting. With a very thin brush I applied it as if I was using a pen. As a result you have these thin ink0like lines on the leaves.

Every form of art, be it performance, fine art, craft or any other form is based of imagination, expression of an idea or feeling, innovation. If we always walk the same walk, nothing new will ever be developed. The techniques everyone is using now have been discovered some time long ago by some artist who was thinking outside the box. Art has no rules, it has no boundaries. Why do we keep on putting those limitations to the way we express ourselves? Do an experiment, do something completely different. There is a good chance you will find a new way to improve your skills through this experimentation. The amount of new recipes I came up  with by accident, the amount of new cool discoveries I've made by messing up what I was originally intending to make. Don't be afraid to do something unusual. Break those boundaries.
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Apocalypse update: When am I ever going to get tired of making fun of people who believe in this nonsense? Oh, I don't know... when the lobster will whistle on the mountain. Or at least croak a few times. Anyway, it cooled down to comfortable temperature here, the air is great, no humid. I think Yahveh is loosing the battle. Hopefully it will stay this way because I really want to go to the beach tomorrow. Get away from the computer so that I can get more drawings done. I might even dress up as a pirate to pastafarians my support. They are doing such a great job. Who cares about football and baseball when you have such epic battle going on? GO PASTAFARIANS!!! GO FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!!!

Palm Trees, and Monkeys. Painting of a Beach

In one of the art teams on etsy we have these challenges. We pick a topic and try to paint it. This time the topic is beach/ocean. Well, I must admit, this was actually challenging. Mainly because of all elements in nature, I never got special attachment with the beach. I lived most of my childhood ether close to the forests or mountains. We had rivers and lakes, but they were small and never inspired that great of an ow in me. I only saw sea for the first time when I was in my teens. The earlier memories were much more important to me as far at loving elements in nature goes. Plus, I'm really not "painting the beach" kind of girl.

After thinking about this challenge for a few days, I finally figured out how to combine this topic with my painting style. I finally cracked it, I'm doing it and I'm loving it. This picture shows it as it is so far, I have to put another day into it before I can say I'm done, but so far I think it's going well.

Now, here is how I managed to get this to the point where I can actually enjoy doing it. First of all I needed to figure out how to do it in abstract, more importantly my style of abstract. I googled "abstract beach" images and saw how other people did it. This started bringing me in the right direction. I figured out what I wanted on the painting plus I got the boost of confidence that I can indeed do it. Then I remembered all those cartoons I watched when I was little and how small islands were depicted in them. This helped me develop it further. Now add a simplified version of my crazy lines and here it comes. Beach painting that is my very own and that I can relate to. Now I just have to finish and hope I wouldn't mess something up in the process.

The whole time I was painting, Monkey wanted to be close to me. After trying to get comfortable on the drafting table where I was painting, he figured there was too much water and paint, plus I was moving things around too much. He changed his position by switching to the table just an arm length away and of all places, he went ahead and fell asleep on the printer.

-Monkey, can you print out last month expenses?
-Mew, give me catnip

Oh, and the spiders... I hate spider... For some odd reason they seem to like the idea of moving in with us though. Killed one of them myself (after screaming like a little girl) and Vincent killed the other (after I screamed like a little girl.) Now, this is how the conversation went between Vin and I after I screamed
-Vincent, there is a spider in the bathroom, can you kill it?
-Nah, it's going to keep the flies away (he has a thing against killing things, even spiders)
-No, it's going to keep me away
Anyway, after threatening to spray the spider with chlorine so that it would die a terrible and painful death without me getting near it, Vincent agreed to catch it and release it outside. Killed it in the process of catching though.

Don't forget about the giveaway btw, it's still on at http://artofarmadavolya.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-of-painting-joy-and-my-first.html

Apocalypse update: Good news, it cooled down a bit over here. It was so much nicer today, I didn't even have to turn on the AC. Though I still have to water the plants myself :(
Darn, this end of the world is very sneaky, you can't even see it coming.
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Update: 3 spiders... 3... One of them snack up on me while I was typing the blog post for From the World of Art. My arachnophobic mind can't handle it. Perhaps this is the way the world will end... it'll be huge aggressive spiders... they will scare us all to death...
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Another quick update, there is another giveaway I'm sponsoring. If you would like one of my Ancestor's Spirit paintings, I'm giving away the largest, the most expensive and the one I like the most. It's an $80 painting, so don't miss out

Ancestors Spirits, Small Watercolor Painting

I just remembered about this set of small watercolor painting I did last year. I hang them on the wall and forgot all about them. This is from my Ancestor's collection. I have vases, pencil cups, sketch cards, pins, this set plus two larger acrylic paintings all from this collection. Erie Horror fest is responsible for this collection. I was one of the vendors last year for the independent horror movie festival and since I don't really have any horror art, I wanted to have something that would be somewhat horror, but retain my style. I ended up using simplified version of my abstract lines with faces. As a result I got cool ghostly, creepy faces while using more or less the same style. I had a problem finding frames for these, the sizer and shape it too different from what most people work with. My answer to the problem was to make some myself. It's actually not so much a frame as a cool looking back that can be used to hang them on the wall. What I did was basically braided strips of paper from magazines and newspapers into a shape I wanted, and glued the painting onto it. I then covered the surface with a shiny, protective layer of sealant and called it a day. The problem I ended up having though is the price. Because of the braided paper I ended up spending way more time on it and it spiked up the price. Not many people are willing to pay a lot of money for such a small painting. After they weren't sold at the first show, I hang them on the wall to keep them safe and sound and was actually somewhat happy they didn't sell. They look great together, create a larger piece that way. Because I made some of then hang sideways, they look much better when they are all next to each other in a shape they are in on this photo. All good things must come to an end though, I don't like having the same looking walls year after year, I want a change. So, here is what I was planing to do. I'll post them on etsy and if they sell, great. If not... I don't know... I might donate it for some good cause or give them away, or just give them as gifts to my family and friends.

Oh and a quick update, world is standing,  weather is rainy and we got lightning and all, but it's nothing unusual. A few weeks ago we had a roof fly of off a building next to ours, and that was before the end of the world began. From what I hear nothing really changed in the world, just the same old polluted Earth. It's OK though, we have platy of time, the end of the world is supposed to end in 2012 after all. Can't wait to see what happens...

C is for Creativity, Rustic Alphabet

C is for Creativity from the rustic alphabet that I have drawn and colored. I wanted to make the whole alphabet in matching ornate style.
This letter can work on it’s own or can be combined with others to spell out names, words, or quotes.

Pen and Ink Fantasy Drawing, Inner Peace

Inner Peace is done in color ink. I first colored the back ground with watercolor paint and drew everything else with pen. This drawing is the first in a series of portraits of women living under water. In this drawing I wanted to capture inner peace that I myself often feel when drawing or simply sitting in the woods by the river with out a worry or thought. This fantasy drawing started as an experiment and turned into a successful series of drawings. I'm planing on drawing related series of drawings in a different setting, so it was a very successful experiment in this respect. When I sat down to draw all I knew was that I wanted to draw, but had no idea what to put on paper. After looking through magazines I finally got inspired. I took a few references of the pose from the magazine and combined it in a sketch. I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to use my color ink set, so instead of coloring using watercolor I used ink. I decided that for underwater theme wavy line approach to inking would work well. Plus it's not the kind of inking I usually see, so introducing something new in this drawing was an added benefit. The underwater towers were born after I already finished the face. I knew I couldn't leave the back ground blank, so I started brainstorming possible backgrounds and eventually decided old looking towers would combine well with the overall theme of serenity and peace. I decided that cool colors and the peaceful water will help underlining the feelings portrayed in this drawing.

Original Painting $100

  8.5x11 print $20