The colors are not reading accurately in the image above, just FYI. The background is a robin’s egg light blue–which you can see at the very top of the painting. And her hair is not as red as it looks in this photo–it’s more pink and white with some red in it. But hopefully you get the general idea. I had such fun painting her. I think she will have some fairy friends in the future!

I’m still getting used to working with acrylics, since I’ve been an oil painter most of my adult life. Even in high school I gravitated toward oils. But my goal this summer is to keep stretching my creative skills and working outside of my comfort zone–and I’m determined to keep moving forward. I like how this turned out, but I don’t ‘love’ it. I did enjoy the process the most though! And it’s given me ideas for other things.

I’m really just trying to find my own creative voice. I don’t think I’ve ever had a creative voice that is uniquely me. You know, where you could look at my artwork and know that Tina Grimes painted that. It’s frustrating. But that just makes me more determined than ever to find it. I wish my Mom was here to help me. She always had the best advice, creative or otherwise.

Also, just so you’ll know, my blog/website was hacked recently, and I’m still working to get that fixed. [Thanks, Michael for being an ASS and proving that you never loved my mother.] So if my blog disappears briefly at any point in the near future, please don’t give up on it. It’s just part of the process of fixing everything. I basically have to delete everything here and reinstall it all. Assuming I don’t screw it up in doing so. Please hang in there with me during this process. And if you don’t follow me on Facebook you might want to, because I will post updates there if the blog will be down for any length of time.

Thanks a bunch!

An epic moment from the Black or White short film…with a little digital magic thrown in.

Only a couple more episodes until the season finale. This season has been such a journey–lots of ups and downs. And the season finale is supposed to include a “declaration of love,” destruction, tears, and someone taking the cure, according to producer, Julie Plec. Wow. I can’t wait!

I actually hated this painting a little ways into it. I almost gave up on it. But then I got some ideas going in my head and just kept plugging away at it–mostly because I love the drawing part of it and I didn’t want to see it wasted! So even though I still don’t love it, I don’t quite hate it anymore. And I am going to see it through to the finish…love it or not. After all, this is about getting outside of my comfort zone–learning new things and trying new techniques, right?! I can’t grow if I don’t try new things, so I must keep going! The next photo I post will likely be the finished product (I hope), so stay tuned!

I’m still Team Delena…all the way to the end!

The top photo is the beginning stage of the background. Right now it’s a mosaic on canvas made from scrapbook paper. The bottom photo is a drawing, done with prismacolor pencils, that will become the focal point of the painting, my “beauty.” I look at her as a stylized drawing of my daughter (and I say ‘stylized’ because really it doesn’t look a lot like her–but that’s what artistic license is for!).

I will be building up the background mosaic with layers of paint, texture, ink, and whatever else that inspires me during the process. When I created my Poppy Painting recently, it really made me want to do more mixed media. So I started checking out the work of mixed media artists online, various art books, and so forth…and that was enough to fuel my creative fire. My favorite sources of inspiration were found here:

Diane Salter

Tracy at Thru the Attic Door

Book, Mixed Media Girls

I probably won’t be back in the studio until next weekend, but will post more photos as I progress with this project. Stay tuned!

]]> http://www.artchickstudio.com/wip-sneak-peek-beauty/feed/ 0 http://www.artchickstudio.com/maple-tree-in-blue/ http://www.artchickstudio.com/maple-tree-in-blue/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:27:21 +0000 ArtChick http://www.artchickstudio.com/?p=1229 I was snapping some photos of one of the maple trees in my yard yesterday. Then I decided to have some digital fun with it. This image is the result.

I’ve always been fascinated with trees. I think they are so beautiful…so they always inspire me one way or another. Whether it’s in photography, digital art, drawing, or painting, I can never get enough of trees!

The flowers are robin’s egg blue (even though the color isn’t as pretty in this photo as it is in real life) and are attached to the canvas with antiqued copper brads. Then I took some rusty wire to create stems, and added just a bit of blue paint on the wire too so they’d pop out more. This is a 5″ canvas, just something cute to hang on the wall somewhere.

OK, so, some things I learned from this project:

1. I really like doing mosaics!
2. I don’t like doing mosaics on rocks.
3. I should have a more definite plan in mind when creating a mosaic (the “cross” was not planned…it just sort of happened).

So next time I do a mosaic I’m thinking it will definitely be on a flat surface. I had fun doing this, and I am excited to do mosaics again in the future. I’d love to do something large scale someday…like a garden path or something! It would take awhile, but it would be fun! My daughter will be getting this rock mosaic because I’m just not in love with it. Next time, I plan on flowers…or trees…anything in nature!

Mostly I used cut glass pieces for this mosaic, along with some glass circles (whatever they are called) that I got from the craft store. They are really more of a deep purple color–the photo doesn’t do the colors justice at all. Since I do stained glass work from time to time, I have lots of cut glass–but used some pre-cut glass I’d found at the craft store too for this project. Next time I will be trying to incorporate mostly scrap glass pieces in my mosaic. Reuse and recycle, as they say!