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Beach Babes Acrylic Paintings

I have only recently begun to sell my art and have been flattered and honoured that so many people like what I do.
I found that my Beach Babes series of acrylic paintings have been proving very popular and I just can’t paint them quickly enough.My good friend Karen (and my mentor) advised me to try having some gicleé prints done. So I have been making enquiries. However, because the initial cost is a little expensive I thought I would just try out having some prints of just one of my paintings. But, which one to choose???? I kept procrastinating and changing my mind when I suddenly came up with the idea of posting pictures of the originals on to different Facebook Art Groups that I belong to plus my own Facebook page asking for people’s opinions. I must say I was overwhelmed with the response. In two days I must have had over 200 comments and endless likes.

So, what was the result? Well I am pleased to say that it was this one that proved overwhelmingly the most popular. 

And this one came a fairly close second. 

I was actually very happy with this result as I had favoured the purple one myself.

I should point out that my first ever Beach Babe was originally inspired by the artwork of Carol Carmichael who seems to paint a number of beach scenes. As I have progressed through my paintings I have found my own style and learned a lot about painting the body and movement. As the purple and orange ladies (the one chosen) was my latest painting of six paintings that I have done I feel that this is more me.

So where do I go from here? Well next month I plan to have some gicleé prints done and will see how they sell.

I would like to thanks everyone who commented on my paintings which was a huge influence on my final decision. I had such lovely comments from you all. And lots of advice too. A few had suggested I have them made into greetings cards and I will be looking into that too.

If all goes well I hope to have them for sale here on my website soon. So watch this space! Or sign up for my newsletter updates (top right).

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Acrylic Painting of Beach Babes – More Quirky Ladies

I have just completed a new painting. It is an acrylic painting with a collaged background. This is branching out for me as I usually do faces not bodies. But I must say I did enjoy it and I am pleased with the final result.

The idea for the ladies just sprang into my head and I couldn’t wait to make a start. I wasn’t sure if they would be a success. It was a little out of my comfort zone. I often find that the ideas in my head do not generally turn out the same in the end result. But I was splendidly pleased with the outcome.

First I sketched out a couple of Quirky Ladies in my sketch pad and once I was happy with them I drew them out again on my 12 inch square piece of wood that I had previously gessoed in preparation.

I collaged the background areas avoiding the drawn centre area. Then I painted the ladies and the background with acrylic paints.

 

Lovely ladies I am very happy with you. I may have to paint another.

 

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New Quirky Portrait

I do love to paint Quirky Portraits and every so often I have to get one out of my system. And today was one of those days.

I have named her Patty. Mainly because her plaits gave me a bit of a problem but I couldn’t call her Plaity. 🙂

Here is the process of how she developed.

First I sketched out my idea.

I decided to use a 12 inch square wooden board which I painted with white gesso. I collaged on some papers for the background. There is no plan here. I just randomly paste them on but I do try to leave a space in the centre for the portrait.

After this I sketch out my portrait on to the prepared background.

Sometimes I paint the face first and sometimes I paint the background first. On this occasion I painted the background first using acrylic paints.After this I went on to paint the face.

Finally the hair, hat, body and finishing touches.

And voila, Patty was born!

I hope you like her.

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This Quirky Portrait Needs a Name

I have finally got around to finishing another Quirky Portrait today.

I started her in October. Here is her sketch drawing.

Then I prepared her background.

And here is the sketched girl drawn on to the collaged background.

So today I had some time at last to take out my paints and finish her off.

She is painted in acrylics on 10″ x 10″ fibreboard.

Now I am presently calling her Library Girl, because she looks to me like she would be very happy swotting in the library but I am hoping someone can come up with a name for her. I would really welcome your suggestions in Comments please. A quirky name that sounds librarian like. Ha ha!

Sketching Quirky Portraits

I am still away from my art studio and only have limited supplies with me. So, I am having to console myself with sketching quirky portraits with pencil in my tiny sketchbook. 

Now I can’t wait to get back to my art supplies so that I can collage some large backgrounds and transform these gals with some paint and colour.

 

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Blind Contour Drawing

With very little supplies and limited time it was fun to do a blind contour drawing. This was a photo that I found on the internet that I used as my inspiration.

Then with pencil on paper and only by looking at the reference photo and not looking down at my drawing I placed my pen on paper and drew. Then a little bit of colouring in with my Neocolor 11 crayons.

Then I painted on a little water to activate the crayons. And voila!Great fun to do and lovely quirky results. And fulfilled my yearning for a quick fix of art.

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Painting Quirky Portraits

Today I have been painting more of my Quirky Portraits and I have finished one already. The background I had already painted with acrylic paints back in April last year. That’s more than a year ago! I had prepared these three 10″ square canvases which were sitting on a shelf in my art room and to be honest I hadn’t known what to do with them.

So I took them off the shelf and decided they would make great backgrounds for one of my Quirky Portraits. It was a different way of working for me though. Normally I have decided what I am going to paint before I prepare my backgrounds and then the background is prepared accordingly. So this was a little scary for me and I was very dubious that it might not work out. But in fact I am very happy with it.

I chose to work on this prepared background first.First of all I painted her face.Then those white fanned brush marks above her head appealed to me so I added more to give the appearance of a headless.Then I added a Cleopatra inspired hairstyle.I have named her Cleo (for hairstyle reasons).

I thought you might like to see the sides of the canvas too.As you can see I have used a deep edged canvas and I take the painting around to the sides, including the top and bottom. I like to do this so that a painting can be enjoyed from any angle.

 

 

 

So now I need to work on the other two of these prepared canvases. Let’s hope they work out for me too.

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Quirky Portraits

Today I am back to painting quirky portraits. I do love painting these. They are such fun to do and there is no pressure because I can just use my imagination. It is particularly easy with acrylic paints because it is easy to correct things when you change your mind.

In fact I decided to correct part of the last quirky portrait that I was not happy with.I had originally written headache above her right eye, but I decided I didn’t like it.I had already prepared the background some weeks ago for my next Quirky Portrait. So today I added her face. I am very happy with her.These portraits are both painted on a 12″ x 16″ deep edged canvas using acrylic paints on a collaged background.

 

 

 

 

 

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Abstract Watercolour

Yesterday I had an idea buzzing around in my head to paint an abstract watercolour in a minimalist style. First of all I decided on a colour scheme and played with my watercolour sample swatches until I came up with the right colour combination.

I worked spontaneously without any reference photos but just had a picture in my mind of a landscape skyline. I dabbed on colours, dripped and splattered until I was happy with the result. Then I added a few scribbles with a very fine tipped pen.

I decided it needed more definition so added some heavier scribbles with a 1.0 mm pen and a hint of other scribbles in different pen colours.

Finally to give a little more interest I added some threads.

 

I was happy with the outcome. For me it suggests a landscape. What do you think? Does it work for you?

Watercolour painting practice of a camel
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Watercolour painting practice

Today’s watercolour painting practice. A4 size on watercolour paper.

Watercolour painting practice of a camel

I have decided I need to do more watercolour practice!

It is strange, but when I work in acrylics I think acrylics are my favourite medium. And then when I work in watercolours I think no, watercolours are my favourite medium! And vice versa.

But I do know that watercolours take a lot more practice. If only there was more time!

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