My attempt at abstract painting : Anything But A Card Challenge #49

Today's project is my DT project for Anything But A Card Challenge blog.The current Challenge... is OPEN! We all love a good prompt to inspire us and let us stretch our creative muscle. With summertime in full swing... we want to see what you're creating.Do visit us to see the inspiration projects from my fellow DTs and do play along with us.

I have been meaning to try my hand at abstract painting for a while and since we have and open theme this time, what better time to experiment. I wanted to created an art piece for my guest bedroom, so my colour choices are determined by the dominant colours in that room.

I also am fascinated with all the gold leaf projects that seem to be very popular nowadays so I experimented with faux gold leaf. I have to say, I love it.

I had thought that doing an abstract would be pretty easy, but I have to admit it took me a while to figure out if I am done with the project. I am so used to putting a focal point in my projects that leaving just a bare background was surprisingly tough. I am still not sure if I will change it up later, but for now this remains as it is. What do you think?

Cheers
Pals

 

Lifebook Week 1 : Beacon of light

This year I am taking a year long art/mixed media class called Lifebook hosted and conducted by Tamara Laporte

The first lesson of the Lifebook was creating a  character who will symbolize a beacon of light or a guiding angel for the rest of the year.

We were taught how to create a big headed whimsical angel in Tamara's signature style.The themes are always open to interpretation and many an established artists gave their own spin on the project. I ,however having no experience in working on faces, followed the instructions pretty much to the letter. It's surprising though, how in spite of trying to follow all instructions, everybody's creations are a tiny bit different from each other.

As far as my artwork is concerned,I am sure there are many areas of improvement,but I love how serene her face is ,even if I say so myself.:-)

I stuck to the fairly monochromatic theme as followed in the tutorial but used some textued elements on her dress.

I think after I am done with all the lessons,I will go back and create my own versions and hopefully I would have learned enough to do so successfully.Wish me luck!:-)

Cheers
Pallavi
 

Lifebook Week 6 : Seeds of Love

In my first post on this blog, I mentioned my deep desire to learn and focus and improve on art this year. As I have no real experience in art  and had no clue how to go about it,I decided to take advantage of the immense amount of information and instruction available through online art classes. I am hoping this will provide some structure and rhythm to my learning.

One of the classes that I am taking this year is the Lifebook hosted and organized by Tamara Laporte which includes a year round mixed media instruction. Each week we have a new lesson and a host of very talented instructors.Till now I have been suffering from serious bouts of self doubt and fear and did not attempt any of the lessons, but the atmosphere and the gentle encouragement from all the teachers and the community has slowly convinced me to give it a try.

I also was not sure whether I wanted to follow the lessons to the letter or take my own individual approach. I have still not decided, but for now I am going to focus on imbibing the lessons as they are and then who knows maybe one day I will be confident enough to give these my own spin.

Having said that ,I am not really following the exact sequence of lessons.My first art work is based on Week 6 lesson by Tamara. This was called Seeds of Love and was a wonderful exercise in learning about colour and contrast. I am not into really bright colours but this was a lot of fun.

And just for fun, I played around in Picasa and created this.:-)

Hope to be back soon.

Cheers
Pallavi

Submitting for Paint Party Friday

Anything But a Card : Out and About

This month's challenge theme at Anything But a Card Challenge is Out and About.

Use the great outdoors as your inspiration to challenge your muse; celebrate nature, your favorite place; World Environment Day June 5th; the seasonal colors at your place; or just having fun outdoors. Summer time is here which is everyone's favorite time of year - time for vacations, camping and cookouts!

My project this month is some botanical sketches I did in my sketchbook.I had gone for a mini vacation to the beautiful mountains in the North of India. Since I was "out and about", I decided to try my hand at nature journaling. For my first spread I decided to focus on Pinecones and trees which are in abundance there. All the sketches are done with a drawing pencil and Pigma Micron pens.

I did take some help from Google to study the structure and the lifecycle of a pine cone.:-).

After a while I decided to attempt to colour my drawing and promptly made a mess of it.I don't know why I find water colouring so difficult.I am hoping that with time,I will get better or maybe I will find out that it is not meant to be.Either way,I am going to keep trying.


Please do join us at the Anything But a Card challenge.

Cheers
Pallavi



 

Sketchbook Stories :Degas Inspired

If I had to choose, I would say that Edgar Degas is one of my favourite artists. I love his work and I am totally smitten with his ballerina paintings.

As part of our design team assignment on Anything But a Card challenge in May, we had to create a project inspired by the masters and needless to say I chose Degas..

While researching for my project I came upon some rough sketches of ballerinas done by him and that is my inspiration for this sketch/painting.

I used a photo of a real ballerina for reference.This was done on book paper using Pigma Micron pens, Gesso and coloured pencils. I know that I have a long way to go with regards to my art, but I was pretty happy with this one.

Cheers
Pallavi

linking to Paint Party Friday week 15 year 15 check in.
Art Journal Journey -Masculine/feminine

 

Brand Spanking New!

This blog is meant to record my experiments with art and art journaling. Even though I started out as a paper crafter, I have this deep yearning for learning and experimenting with paints, art techniques and journaling. If you follow my other blog, you may have noticed that I take every opportunity to add some painterly, mixed media touches to my projects,but I have never really dabbled too much in art journals per se.

This year my deepest desire is to make art an integral part of my life and open myself to exploring, experimenting and playing. I have joined several online classes and hope that they push me in the right direction .This is where my attempts and projects will be chronicled.


Cheers
Pallavi