Two more free assignments

Free in the sense that we were given a week to paint one or preferably two pictures, after our own design, ideas and style, as well as medium. I would have dearly loved to be able to sit every day and have another wonderful go at using oils, but alas, there was no time.
Here then, we have the two pictures I chose to make. One which, admittedly, I started on a bit earlier, after an idea came together in my head. The character is one of my own design; an eccentric noblewoman by the name of sir Vincent Ravenscroft (let's keep the gender-, sex- and so on, discussions, somewhere else, shall we - it is a female, she's happy about being a female, and she prefers to be called "her" and "sir" and dress in men's clothes), who is a hopeless romantic, a charming charmer and socialite, artistic, intellectual dandy. Here, we see a daring escape by a small airship - from the lady? From the man? After kissing the lady, thus upsetting her fiancé - or perhaps, after kissing the man, upsetting a lady romantically interested in him? In whichever case, there's of course a marvellous tale behind it all...
Well, you get the idea.
I worked in acrylics, on an F4 paper block again, starting out with a sketch and then painting from big areas and going into details later. The sky was originally going to be a darkening blue, but it didn't look quite right once I'd painted it, and painting it all in evening colours would have been weeks and weeks of work, if I had been able to pull it off at all. So it had to be by daylight, though I dare say one day I will paint another one, somewhat similar, to it, "by night" so to speak. I had the most trouble with the far background - the pink house and the forest, or park, or whatever it is. I chose to make sir Vincent herself the most detailed part of the painting, as she is the main subject. Overall, I'm not entirely happy with the picture. There is something about it that nags me to sit down and spend some more time on it. But some things I think I did well, even just keeping them very simple. A lot is killed off in transferring it to photo and screen, though not as much as with the next picture. In the end, I also had to revert to a few ready-blended colours from my dear Games Workshop box. They're acrylics of a sort, too, and they had just the shade I needed. I need some more paints for my acrylics collection, I lack a few shades that are simply necessary for painting properly - some kind of better blue, amongst others.
This one is a lot less complicated. It was a real relief painting it. I chose a theme of the season - cherry blossoms, or, as it is in Japanese, sakura さくら　桜. (In English and Swedish, the words are "cherry/körsbär" and "cherry blossoms/körsbärsblommor", implying that the fruit is the main association. In Japanese, however, it is the other way around - sakura, versus sakuranbo "cherries"). It was an easy thing finding a few pictures for inspiration and briefest reference, before the delightful act of blending a simple pink of just the right shade, and an almost-black. The branch I painted first, then, the sakura, and last the pale blue. It's a great pity, really, how much is lost in the photo. It was a simple painting, took very little time compared to the other one (not a hard thing to do, admittedly) and was a delight to throw together. Also, it was interesting to have a lot of unpainted white.

An attempt at Fauvism

The latest school assignment presented quite a challenge. Apart from the studying, we were supposed to paint in Fauvist style. Reading about the movement itself, it is hard to find much about how the artists painted, other than that they wanted to experiment with colours. I did my best to study different paintings, and artists, but at first, the only common denomination seemed to be strong colours, often slightly skewed, or a lot of orange and yellow and red. Eventually I figured I had to try and paint anyway. With the latter half of Jim Dale's reading of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", I set about looking at a great number of paintings, and then to paint. I decided on the fairly, for me, unusual, and also interesting, subject of a prancing horse.
I began by sketching, with blue-black acrylics, the horse, and then simply set about painting. It was done on the paper block I purchased before, and with rounded brushes, mostly; also some was done with the feather brush I am now eagerly trying out at every opportunity, and the two small round brushes I use. It took me but one sitting to paint it, with a few pauses.
Perhaps I should have been using clearer paints, but after a few layers, and a lot of concentration and some more looking at other paintings, I think I figured out most of it. Exaggerated colours and clearly delineated areas seemed to do the trick, and at a distance it really looks good. So despite its shortcomings, I feel I managed to do the assignment mostly justice.

I feel proud that at least I, myself, can see my skills improving! I look forward to the next challenge.