Jigsaw Puzzle Swap

I'm taking part in a jigsaw puzzle swap at the moment. First of all I was going to paint a ballet dancer en pointe, with her long hair standing up and to the edge of the top of the puzzle piece. I drew one in my sketch book which wasn't too bad, but once it got on to the puzzle piece it was horrid.

I then thought I would use an image of a couple dancing, I had an image already to base it on. The idea was to have the female dancer's foot sticking up into the top of the puzzle piece. I had to abandon that idea because the proportions weren't right. If her foot was in the right place, his head was missing!

So, I went to my collage box and on top of it was a Twinings tea box. I wasn't able to use the original image because there are a couple of advertising pieces on it, and also some creases once I had cut it out, so I decided to paint one instead. It is a poor approximation, but if I hadn't fessed up to using an image for inspiration, you would never know! The shiny bits are stickers for decorating your finger nails which I bought from Claire's during the week. They are a great size for art work, I'll have to go and get some more.

This isn't a miracle of miniature painting, these pieces are about 5 inches square.

Willowing Week 5

This week is about embellishments. If you click on the image you will see a much larger version.

Willowing Week 4

Week 4 is about backgrounds.

Willowing Week 3

I am also doing workshops with Tam at www.willowing.ning.com. Week 3 is about shading. I am very pleased with how the girl came out. Her dress is not finished yet. Week 4 is about backgrounds, so this picture will progress then.

Inspired by Klimt

Whilst at Sommerhausen, I used the print gocco to create a silk screen of a copyright free image from Dover. It is part of a picture by Klimt. I believe that it is a portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer. The screen was used to print on a canvas "box".


Once I came home, I decided that I would like to add to it and make it more like the original, and wished that I had placed the image in a different place on the canvas.

The canvas was white, and I painted all apart from the lady black. I then looked for backgrounds that I already had and was lucky to find some watercolour paper painted with yellow and had gold spirals. I have recently started using gel matte medium as a glue rather than PVA. It makes the paper less susceptible to bobbling. Milliande alerted me to this.



I then used some watercolour crayons and thin felt pens to fill up the background. Willowing taught me to wet my watercolour crayons with my brush and then paint rather than drawing with the crayon and then brushing with water. It is surprising how well it works. It is a great way of carrying watercolours with you.



I also stuck some gold sweet papers on to the picture. They form the straps of the dress and the lighter part of the collar. I used bondaweb (wonder under) and my clove iron to do the fixing.



Finally, the collage was "joined together" by some galactica paint from Stewart Gill (it is clear paint with glitter spread throughout it) and my favourite spiral template and bright gold paint from Stewart Gill. There is also some gold embossing powder on it.

It isn't the best painting in the world but given my fear of painting, I am pleased.

Willowing Girl

I have just painted this picture as a result of viewing Willowing's you tube video on face shading.
She is starting painting classes on feburary 28th 2009 and registration opens in mid January. Pop along to www.willowing.ning.com for more details if you are interested.