Just Do It

I am going to borrow the phrase from Nike today. I was looking at Dj Pettit's blog and she has these darling painted birds on fabric. I thought I have always wanted to draw and paint birds. Now why haven't I done so, no reason so I decided then and there I was going to paint a bird. I didn't have a model or anything just decided I would paint a blue bird and it was so much fun. I know I will be dong more now. Its funny how we put off so much for no real reason either. Is there something you have been meaning to try? Why don't you give it a go today.





















The texture on this page was done with gesso and a texture tool and a stamp. Bird was painted with Golden fluid acrylics.





















This on also used a gesso technique which didn't quite work out so I covered it with one of my spray painting experiments. I liked the idea of using the branches of the tree to list things. What would your tree look like.

Getting back to Art

in my attempt to come back to normal i took my sketchbook to town with me. i sat along the river and sketched this lady. it was really satisfying to do and reminded me that i love to draw and need to work it back into my life.






















... later that evening i decided to try painting on fabric. in kelli rae's book Taking Flight she does a little exercise on this in her section featuring dj pettit. earlier i had taken muslin and fused it to some interfacing to stabilize it. i added a layer of clear gesso and let it dry.
my first attempt was just sloshing paint on the fabric in a random matter. i trimmed the piece with pinking shears.



















and here i decided to try a face. painting on fabric is different for sure. i was using golden fluid acrylics and perhaps heavy bodied would be better. i will try that next time. i used titan buff as my skin tone base and i liked using it instead of titanium white. it gave a different shade to the skin, i will play with this some more. i am not sure what i will do with her, perhaps make a bag with some fabrics around the face to make the panel bigger. i know she was fun to do and i can't wait to try some more fabric painting. sometimes trying something new will get you back in the groove.