Mountains, in oils

When the assignment to paint a landscape or nature painting arrived, I thought at once of two places - Gotland and Scotland. Therefore, I duly painted both.
The first painting to be started on and finished, is an oil painting on a 38x46 cm (or F8) canvas on a frame. The reference photo was irresistible, providing me with challenges as well as speaking to some of my strengths.
I started out by sketching the outlines, managing reasonably well, and then began by painting the mountains roughly. I couldn't resist spending quite some time on them, before moving on to the grasses. A lot of raw umber and ochre colours were used. The sky was what I painted last, technically at least - I then went back and touched up both here and there, first and foremost in the area of the dark hills that actually had, as I noticed, a few flecks of sunlight in spots I hadn't hitherto noticed. And so it was out with the ochre again, and both working in almost-dried paint, and drybrushing.
I allowed this painting to dry for a few days during one stage, and left it alone for short periods of time too. I do love working wet in wet, but it needed to be left to dry for some details.
I am very pleased with the snow on the mountains, but it was very tricky to get the snow amongst the grass quite right. The photo doesn't do the painting justice, even if it does manage to catche some of the suble colour change in the sky, for example.

The reference photo is of the mountains of An Teallach (meaning, most likely, "Forge" or perhaps "Anvil" in Scots Gaelic), in Dundonell, in Scotland. They are very beautiful.

But this painting does not end there, I'm afraid. As I painted, I knew I wanted to incorporate something of a slightly more fantasy nature, and indeed, it would have felt unfinished had I neglected to do so. So there, in the left side of the painting, there is a someone and a horse, walking along.
Therefore, the painting is called what it is called - "Ered Luin, or An Teallach with a visitor." For what would that pointy-hatted old man do there, in Scotland? Not that I'd mind meeting him, of course.
The Ered Luin are also known as the Blue Mountains, and once stood east of Beleriand, though where that lay is now only the sea. Instead, we must look to the east of the Ered Luin, and notice, perhaps, the river Lhûin which flows into the sea at the Grey Havens, Mithlond.

"Even as the first shadows were felt in the Mirkwood there appeared in the west of Middle-Earth the Istari, whom Men called the Wizards. None knew at that time whence they came, save Círdan of the Havens, and only to Elrond and to Galadriel did he reveal that they came over the Sea." ("The Silmarillion", J.R.R. Tolkien, p 359)

And so, the parallell was an easy one to draw upon. But most of all, I am plain happy with a very good nature painting, which conveys some of the incredible beauty of a land I love.

An oil painting long in the making

This oil painting was long in the making because of that which so often happens - life. It was near finished when something interrupted, and then had to wait for two weeks until I could give it the last few hours it needed. It might have taken anything between fifteen to twenty hours to paint, I am not certain.
For the background, I chose a photo of the Grampian mountains in Aberdeenshire, with a view that, on a clear day, allows you to see as far as out to sea. I thank Yiling Wang, my friend on that particular roadtrip, for her help in taking that photo. From it I used the background colours and the general proportions of the lady, but not the lady herself. She is from my imagination only.
I especially liked painting the dress, and the lower part thereof. I am not entirely happy with the area around her bust, but I had been working on it for too long, and decided I needed to let it be and work on something else. The hair, also, was a joy to paint. I have never tried making hair quite as detailed with oils.

In conclusion, I am happy with the painting and I think it shows that I have progressed in my painting, when I compare it to other paintings. There is still a long way to go to make it as photorealistic as I would like it, but that is what practice is for. I am, however, not entirely happy with the picture you see here - I had to opt for a somewhat reddish-grey tint to the originally white sky, in order for the photo to better reflect the true colour of the dress and the stone wall. I suppose I shall learn how to fix that in Photoshop, but for now, it is not too important.

The painting is called "Grampian Sidhe", after the mountain itself, and after the Gaelic word for Fair Folk (please note that this is what she is - not a fairy, the diminutive), or elf.

What do you like the best with the painting? What do you think could have been done even better?

Two possibly surrealist paintings

The assignment to which these paintings belong was one where we had the choice of four styles: Abstract art, Surrealism, Expressionism and Cubism. Regarding these, I'm only friends with Surrealism, but I tried again my hand at Expressionism. It did, of course, fail, being labelled by my teacher as Surrealism anyway.
The picture to the left is not taken in ideal lighting conditions, and I doubt I'll take another. It was an attempt at Expressionism, and I care not much for it. For certain, it does say a little of what I wanted to express with it - spiralling emotions, hence the name of it. Especially the spiral in the hand, holding your feelings in your hand open for all to see, but ready to be squashed. It is made from acrylics, didn't take too long, and was painted on a rather small canvas.
The other, however, is another story entirely, and one I am very proud of.
It is decidedly Surrealist, and incorporates many things of which I am particularily proud or fond. The stylised bird, the sign for the shapechanging ravens, the Corax, from an old roleplaying game called "Werewolf: the Apocalypse". The lady in her Victorian/Edwardian dress and her rose parasol, with no face. The phoenix sun, which was a stroke of genius in my own mind. The blue to the left of the sky, the yellow below the bridge. The rocks, that actually look quite nice, and the strange, rolling clouds, or sea, or grass, below. The bridge, I might come back to and add a few little shadow touches on.
It is painted in oil colours, took remarkably short time from what I was expecting (that's not to say it was done in an afternoon, however) and it was a joy making it. The smoothness of the lower part of the painting took quite some time and effort, yet I did not overwork it, which was nice. I had to go back and touch up some of the white after I thought I was done and had taken some photos, because I had been sloppy with the brush in the white areas up by the phoenix sun.
It is dreamlike, joyful and a little bit disturbing. The way I like to paint Surrealism.

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Oil painting inspired by Mongolia

The last two weeks have seen a flurry of activity from the students in the course regarding Asia. Everyone chose a country to specialise in, and for me, the choice stood between Japan and Mongolia. The latter was my final choice, but despite the two seemingly ample weeks of time, I struggled to meet the deadline. There was simply so very much to write about regarding the art history of that country. The archaeologist in me couldn't skim by the rock art and petroglyphs, nor the way the various religions had influenced artists.
In the end, for my painting this time, I chose not to be influenced by any particular art style of Mongolia, but rather by the country itself. From two photos I mixed up something of my own, and I am happy that the idea I had, and the painting itself, added up. I used oils, which was a relief after time and time again being forced to use acrylics. Nothing bad with acrylics, but I haven't had time or space or peace to give a painting my attention in the same way an oil painting requires. This time, however, I did.
I didn't go haywire with the paints this time either. Mostly I kept to Yellow Ochre, Paine's Grey, Sap Green and Caput Mortuum (reddish brown), as well as Mixed White. There are several others in there, but those were the ones I used the most. I have no qualms about using the white, I need it to dim the colour. The size of the painting was about right (F8), I wouldn't have minded a somewhat larger one, but this did the job.
Painting older people is one of the most fun things one can have. All the lines of the face are a joy to discover and portray. The title, "The Secret History of a Mongol" is of course a hint to "The Secret History of the Mongols", the oldest known written description of the history of Mongolia, and Chingghis Khan, but also to the old woman with her old eyes, a lifetime of experiences behind her, gazing out at the steppes of Mongolia.

Two pieces of "modern art"

To me, a lot of what is labelled modern art is utterly without interest. I am annoyed by tagging and graffiti that serves no purpose but to seemingly try to make the world acknowledge that "I am here, hey, look at me!", abstract art sometimes makes me feel nauseous and I am seldom to never caught by pop-art, op-art and so on and so forth. The assignment, thus, to make two paintings in whatever two styles of modern art that I chose myself, was initially a source of some frustration. But creativity kicked in, and the results were fairly satisfactory. Not much more, but still. My nickname being Ellie, and me sometimes nodding in appreciation at the very best street artists and graffiti pictures (there are a few, I could probably count them on one hand), I thought I'd do something so artsy as to bring "ugly" art, street art, rebellion art, to the respected canvas. Therefore I spent an afternoon putting this idea into practice, and the result can be seen here. I tried my best to think of some of the features of a graffitied name - how do they use colours, what makes the name stand out yet being readable, and so on and so forth.I used Process Yellow, Process Cyan and Windsor Blue. Apart from this, only Titanium White and Process Black were used. The black was spiked with some Crimson, to make it stand out even more, and I added it very conscious of the effect it would have on the painting. The highlights were a tricky part, but the last spots of yellow a thing of improvisation that turned out well. So, it is not as garish and eye-catching as most graffiti, but rather, done the way I would do it. I am fairly happy with it.

The next picture is a digital photo manipulation. Because there is so much digital art these days, and, much of it really is true art in my opinion, I wanted to try and see, could I perhaps do something of the kind? Having no illusions of my skills with Photoshop, I began with a picture of me in costume from a larp - as Dream of the Fair Folk. There used to be a tree trunk in the background, which was when I learned to love the Clone tool (which clones one area onto another).I added the light magic effect thing, and then I used filters to make it look less like a photograph. It was a bit more work than that, but, that was the main process. It taught me a lot about photo manipulation, and some about what a vast array of tools are available for digital artists; also, some of what is required for expertise in the area. Regardless, I am fairly happy with the result, and it was well received by the teacher.

Learning by mistake

The first assignment of the autumn semester was to paint a portrait of oneself from one's childhood, and a memory. For various reasons I had no reference material available, and so had to revert to memory and vagueness. I started out painting on a canvas of fairly small size, but painted for too long in the evening - the light changed, I made a colour-mix and then, the morning after, saw my mistake. Covering it up only made everything worse and so, I faced an uncommon occurence to me: I had to start over from the very beginning.
So I did. With deadline mere hours away (I believe, eight or six hours, maybe less) On a rather larger canvas of size F4, I suspect, I worked with the original idea, but simplified it. There is me, reading a book - as I did all the time, whether I was standing, sitting or even walking - but it is all made with a muted, Raw Umber mixed with Titanium White, colour, and sketchy at that. I did fill it in with a bit of colour, but only a little. The book is a little more detailed, but the interesting part are the surroundings. As I seemed to live most of the time inside my own head, or in my books, and the books and my fantasies were all much more colourful and enticing than real life, I painted some fantastical and mythical beings and things around the head of the girl. A lady with a sword, a dragon, some fairy lights or possibly butterflies, a moon, a stylised star. My art teacher labelled it "Symbolist" though I hesitate to place myself amongst the distinguished painters of the age when that label first appeared.

I certainly am not calling this a good painting, in any way but the idea that started it. It is hastily made, the colours aren't very well matched, the composition of it is decent but not perfect and over all, yes, it certainly shows that the artist, that is, me, was working under the pressure of a severe time limit. I simply didn't have the time to even lay the groundwork for making it better at a later time. I had to have a painting ready and so that was the only goal.
No, it's not a very good painting, but it was a learning experience nevertheless and the subject is one I plan on re-using at a later date.

Two portraits painted with directions

Again, this assignment was about painting in Expressionist style, two portraits. I believe that I failed that particular part of it. It simply does not come naturally to me. Part of the assignment was also to paint on 50x60 cm pieces, for which I purchased one canvas board and one canvas on frame.
The first photo here is of the painting that I made second. It is painted on canvas and I started out with a photo (of myself, taken on top of Dunadd Hill Fort) as reference, to get the general outlines of the face. I chose this particular one because the face is very tricky to get right in that angle. A mixture of black, blue, brown and some green and white was used for the outlines, and then there was a lot of blending and painting with larger, flat brushes, going on. I had immense help from the fact that my white is fairly opaque and could be used to "erase" areas where I made mistakes. There's a bit of a risk for that mouth to look like it is sneering, but again I take comfort in art being not finished merely because the artist puts the brush down - the viewer has part in it as well. I did not mean it to be sneering, I meant it to be sad, but there you go.
The second photo is the painting I painted first, and on a canvas board. Again, a photo (where Jonas is actually wearing a similar shirt) was used for reference, and I focused on the eyes, mostly. I am not very happy with either of these paintings, but they were good exercise. The shirt I am satisfied with, however; it looks good without being overworked. I started out in the same way as with the second painting, but had to make a lot more corrections. I could not get the measurements right, and it does seem to me now that I have a problem with drawing portraits and that it lies in the forehead-eye-nose-mouth and getting the same scale for all of them. This painting took two days to finish, but in hours as well, it was my so far most time-consuming piece.
I guess I am not happy because they do not look exactly like their subjects. Close enough but not exactly. Which is why I ought to redo this assignment, so that I push my own boundaries and learn something new.
All in all, I would not call either of them "Expressionistic", but they do express something at least.

An Expressionist Dunstaffnage Castle

For my second painting in the Expressionist style, I looked at the artist Gabriele Münter, and noticed how many of her paintings are of houses on hills, and the like. I thought of a picture I took maybe half an hour before the photo reference I used in the last picture, one of Dunstaffnage Castle itself. It was autumn when I visited the place with my friend, but as it turned out, that didn't have a strong enough impression on me when I chose to paint it, and so, it doesn't look much like any season at all. Maybe like early autumn.
An important point about Expressionist painting is that it's not a painting of the artists impression, but one of their own expression. Their inner feelings and emotions about the scene before them, rather than their impression of it.
I always liked castles and ruins, and their diversity fascinate me. I am also an archaeologist, and I had my reasons for wanting to become that. Castles and ruins give different impressions - some are sad, mournful, even desperate and I'd like nothing more than to restore them to their original glory. Some seem not to give the slightest bit of care to the fact that they are crumbling, and stand proud and intimidating still.

Dunstaffnage struck me as a bit of both, but mostly as a very impressive castle built well and with good defensive strategy. I painted this on a fairly large canvas, F8 in size, with acrylics. It took a few sittings and several hours. I had the fortune of having good natural light as well as a lamp, though after painting in the evening, I went back and re-did the grass because it looked too garishly yellow-green. The sky had bit of a touch-up as well. The odd yellow blob to the right side was a tree with autumn leaves. Oddly enough, without meaning to, it gives something of a depth to the painting.
There was also something mystical about the castle, about its strong walls and odd angles, and what with everything we found around it, and how magical the entire journey was, I couldn't resist painting something in that picture that's usually relegated firmly to outside the fine art galleries. The clue is in the name of the painting, "Clouds over Dunstaffnage Castle".

This was the first painting since the course began that I gave away. Feels odd not to have it at home, but it was a late birthday gift for the friend with whom I shared the trip.

Sunflower or blue iris

Out of the titular two, I chose the blue iris. I want the painting process to be filled with joy and satisfaction, and trying to paint a sunflower didn't catch my fancy. Also, there is something about them that can have me stare and look and think and ponder for hours. And yet another thing; I went to the Imperial Garden in the Meiji jingu park in Tokyo in very, very early spring, and the pond there fills up with blue iris in the summer. I've always wanted to go back and see it.

Said and done, then. I found myself a reference (despite having quitely resolved to try and NOT use reference for once, but it was a good thing I did), and set out to paint. I chose a real canvas this time, which felt exhilarating and exciting, although I felt silly feeling that - but there really is a difference between painting on a canvas board and a proper, stretched onto a frame, canvas. I started out drawing the outlines, of the flower and the leaves around it, with an HB pencil again. It was fairly straightforward.
When I started painting, I originally went with too much pink in the blend, so it turned out a wee bit too purple. I used this to good effect, however, on some areas of the flower, as they really were a lot more purple than blue. Mostly, I used Prussian Blu, but also Ultramarine Blue. I added a bit of Cadmium Red, and in fact also a pinkish red whose name escapes me - possibly Alizarin Crimson? For the yellow I looked no further than my Cadmium Yellow, which was also a key ingredient for the green.
The colours in the painting tied in really well. The blue in the iris, with a dash of red, and then the near-purple of the spots. The pure yellow didn't feel out of place because of my simply blending it and the blues I used, for the green in the background (well, I did cheat a bit here, I think I used some Viridian or Sap Green too, but mostly I blended the greens myself). And the white goes a bit of everywhere, where it is needed.
And here it is. I think I captured the vibrancy of the colours fairly well with the camera this time, but it's going to be interesting to see it fully dry! Here, it's been drying for a week. I painted it in, well, several hours, but mostly during two days. Started in the middle of the night and went up early to continue. I couldn't resist it!
I think I could have taken a bit less of a look on the reference photo - it's a very good likeness, but I should have thought for myself, too, to make it look more "real". As it is, some areas of the flower look almost flat, though I know that in reality they aren't - of course. Again, I used a lot of blending. It's really one of my favourite ways of making things look smooth... Pity I'm not better at it, when it comes to watercolours! But I'll get to that in time, I suppose. In real life, the painting gets a bit of texture from my using a fairly thick layer just about everywhere, but it is especially apparent with the yellow areas. They do look a bit knobbly, just as they should. I mostly used flat brushes, and preferably with a bit longer hairs. I'm thinking of getting a "fan" or "feather" brush, since I think it'd be interesting to try and paint with.
Once again, I'm very happy with this, and I hope I'm have some nice spot on a wall to hang it!