Alex Louisa

Lioness

This pic isn't of the best quality - but I do need to put a full picture of the lioness up that doesn't include me standing in front of it - one that I've made really tiny because I'm standing in front of it, like the last one. I keep forgetting to get some better pictures of it though!

So here's a stand in pic, for the moment. The 16 individual boards that it is made out of are the same size as the boards I most commonly use: 21 x 29 cm (like the Kookaburra, etc). I think it ended up being about 70 by 120cm overall. I want to try out some other ideas with multi-layered boards, but maybe not until next year - there's other things I want to try out first!!

Hope you are having a great weekend :)

Blogging, BARI, Busy and Breaks.

Ok. This is the third day in a row that I've tried to post this. AND my forth attempt this morning. Let's hope that this time it works! Come on, Typepad!

I know you are probably sick of seeng this by now, but I had better show the finished piece! [click]

Some random facts about this one:

It's 47 x 28cm. The usual ink background and coloured pencil leaves and frog. I learned that I can put a stroppy background in the oven to dry, when all my heat gun does is steam it up. I also learned that I should use a timer next time, in case Steve isn't home to ask my why I have artwork in the oven, and I turn it into charcoal.

Sometimes I start with my favourite bit in an artwork, but then that can sometimes make the rest of it lag a little, because I've already got the best bit out of the way. This time I wasn't so impatient, and left the best bit 'til last, so I still had it to look forward to. I think this helped me keep the momentum up with the leaves - not that I didn't enjoy drawing them too. There was a lot of layering to do though, to get that thick, waxy colour, and the drawing in all took me about 30 hours (Eeek!), but I think having timed it will help me make better estimations in the future on how long something will take me. And I might time a few more, just out of curiosity.

And I went through a whole lotta greens:

Craziness. Lucky they're so cheap! Anyone tried putting their problem prismas in the microwave? I've read this on a few forums. Supposedly it stops them breaking so much. I'm not so sure. But I guess if I try it out and I totally nuke the thing, it's just a pencil. I also know that you're not supposed to sharpen then to a point, and you're not supposed to press so hard that you are practically trying to carve the board with them, but that's not how I roll.

I drew the frog from a couple of photos I had of a little guy that would plaster himself on our glass door out the back every night last summer. I think they're called pygmy green frogs? Something like that. Full size they're less than a few centimetres long, as opposed to this guy, who was a whopping 10cm tank-ass and completely terrified my much-larger-than-10cm dog.

But when all the other little frogs would pull their legs in and shut their eyes when you walked past, pretending to be nothing but little green pebbles, this guy would boldly turn his head around and stare right at you. Then if you moved to the other side of him he'd spin his head around to look at you that way as well (I may have stepped from side to side a few times whenever I saw him, just to see him do this - much more amusing than TV). Very inquisitive - he had character. Oh so cute. I liked him. I hope he's back this summer.

The BARI festival kicked off at Flipbook last night. Tonight is Jugglers'opening night, and there'll be an art/industry  forum on there tomorrow afternoon as well. I'm hoping I get enough work done to be able to make it to that, then there's KiLN's  opening night tomorrow night. The exhibitions all run through 'til the end of September.

I will have these works at KiLN:

 

I was disappointed to only get the one new piece finished in August, being so busy, but at least I've got the chance to show these other four again.

I've got a week off coming up soon. Looking forward to that. Hopefully, I'll get a bit of art time in then. I also need to learn to RELAX. Re-align. Rejuvinate. Re-evaluate. Re-everything. So posts may be a bit few and far between just while I get through the next week or so, but I'll be back on track soon.

Hopefully by then Typepad will be in a more polite mood too!

So that's what goes in that little gap:

Saving is my friend.

 

But not to be finished today as planned. But we already know that I'm terrible at estimating how long drawings will take! I think I've said before: I should just make an estimate, and then triple it. Then I'll make good time :)

This is 'Ham', my painted pig from gimiks. He just jumped in the photo - couldn't help it. He likes orange too.

I think this will have to be my only new piece for the BARI Fest. That's no fun, but I'm not going to get this one, and another one finished by Saturday morning.

I would have got more art-time in yesterday, if I hadn't lost my whole day's work when the computer randomly turned off on me, as they so lovingly tend to do at the 'best' of times. I remember to save in every program but Photoshop. Anyone who's ever worked with me knows this and has tried to drill "Saving is your friend" into my head but it just doesn't work. (Nor do sticky notes on my screen. BIG sticky notes.) Once I start painting in Photoshop, I think I just end up treating it like any other work of art, rather than an actual program, and I don't go and hit Ctrl +S with my coloured pencils so I don't seem to with my Wacom pen either. That's my theory anyway, and I'm stickin' to it.

So, that is why yesterday, I also didn't get to my:

6 Random Things:

From Lara of Kirin Notebook

The rules:

1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

My Randomness:

1. I know that I have broken my green pencil leds 76 times since starting this current piece, because for some reason I have just let them pile up on my desk.

2. In the two seconds it took to turn back to my computer, I'd forgotten how many there were and had to count again. (Definately 76).

3. Today was not a good food/drink day. I poured myself a glass of milk for breakfast, and poured my orange juice on my cereal. I completely charcoaled my previously awesome looking ham/cheese/tomato sandwich when I decided to toast it and just draw for "a little bit" while I waited. And then I sharpened my pencils into my cup of tea. (I do this last one often.)

4. You sit next to me if you don't want to be bitten by mozzies, because they'll just EAT ME instead. Better than Aerogard. And free.

5. I've recently discovered audio books. I really love to read, but I don't get the time to anymore. (Or I try and get a few pages in, in bed before I go to sleep, but I just konk out and smash myself in the face with the book. Bad when it's a hardback.)  Because it's hard to hold a book and read while drawing -  I just listen and draw instead. So far, I've found that only a couple of narrators have sounded stupid.

6:

Let's see if that helps me learn at all. It's really not that hard.

Now I have to tag six people, so I'll pick 6 artists/designers that I admire:

aramas, Kasie, cicada studio, stephanie levy, Chrissy and Skinny laMinx.

Ok, now I'm gonna make like this guy and:

[I also have a pink blanket on my bed now, since it's so cold, but that's ok for me because I'm a girl.]

Black and White and Grey all over

This is what has been taking up my last couple of weeks:

I love grey. Have you come accross the Wordle website? You can just punch in your blog address and it will create one of these for you out of the words in your most recent post. Think how long it would take to lay all of these words out yourself! I like it.

I don't know where the great big 'little' is from though... And oh dear - Steve is so tiny in comparison - but I think it's all just random!

I would really like to finish this 'leafy' piece on Thursday. I thought I might have finished it over the weekend but it didn't happen because I ended up working instead. So far it's taken 16 hours and counting! Layering and layering and layering. The coloured pencil bits are very shiney. You should see how many greens I've mutilated. I'd really love to do something in this style on a massive scale. These boards are only 47 x 28cm.

And, I've just found out that Lara of Kirin Notebook has tagged me to write 6 random things about myself, so I will have to get to that tomorrow!

Update

I completely disappeared again! Just when I was getting back into daily blogging and daily art. Sorry.

But - I got a bit of art time in today, for the first time since last Tuesday, so there will be an update tomorrow - I promise! I'm so glad I got at least a little bit done today.

Hope you had a good weekend. I'm getting an early night now, since I was up before dawn. Then I'll be rearing to go tomorrow!

And since Tuesday is going to be super-productive, I'm aiming to have that orange and green piece far closer to finished than it is now! 'Night!

So I got as far as day one.

Then I slept in an extra hour this morning. Whoops. Does that mean I have to start from 1 again for my 30-day attempt at waking up at 5am? And why do I want to? Because I never have... I was thinking of just shifting my whole day back an hour or so to see if I end up fitting more in. Or something like that. I guess I'll report back in 30 days. I think it might have been a better thing to try though, when it wasn't the coldest winter EVER! I just end up sitting at my desk, doing my work, all wrapped up in a doona. And I drink a stupid amount of tea.

I think I might just like these little pencils pots a little too much - to the point that I went back and bought two more. I have a feeling they might crop up around my house everywhere. How's that for a colour change? I used to love dark brown and teal - now I like white and grey. Odd.

But I'm happy to report that this piece is going along much more comfortably than the leaves that I was drawing on that slipper plant, because now I have these little suckers:

And I don't care if they look goofy, because the cushy goodness means that my 'like-a-three-year-old-grabbing-a-fat-crayon' pencil grip isn't giving me any more strife. No numb fingers! Sweet!

Way back here I started collecting my pencil stubs, to see how many I would use by the end of the year. In April I had used 6, on thirteen pieces, and now that I'm on to piece number 25, 4 months later, I've only used 6 more. Funny - I thought I would have gone through more. I thought that little jar would be full by now. I wonder just how long it will take for my collection to reach the top? Maybe I need to get more done to fill it up more quickly!

Tomorrow: I hope, will be quiter than today. The end of our street is being extended. Which means a lot of trucks and a lot compression breaking. AND a lot of Shadow barking obscenities all day at the lots of trucks with lots of compression breaking. And the postman. The poor, poor postman - who always says "Don't bark at me when I'm sharin' my lunch with yer!" and I don't know why... 

So, guess who's staying inside tomorrow, whether he likes it or not?

Like a turtle:

I'm just so SLOW! (And going green.)

Remember how I was going to time myself on these next few pieces to see how long it actually takes me to get something done? This is how far I've got on ONE LEAF in oh... about 3 hours. That's a little disgraceful. And a little embarrassing. I just like to get every little tiny dot of orange out of sight. Otherwise it wrecks the whole coloured-pencil-not-really-looking-like-coloured-pencil-effect-thing. I'm not complaining at all. I love it :)

...Which, by a rough estimate - puts the whole piece at about 40 hours. That's a whole work week. So I'm at least going to try to beat that. Let's hope this will be motivation to speed things up a little. That's my August aim - get going.

I'm also going to try to wake up every morning at 5am. 30 days in a row. This morning was morning number one, and I'm still kickin'. Hey, if the foggy winter sunrise out my art room window is anything to go by - I'm in. 

Bits and pieces

I haven't been around for a few days. I've been doing lots of work (learning a new program), waiting and waiting for this orange background to dry, and it was my birthday on Thursday, so then I had to make up for the work that I didn't get done on Thursday... Done, and done.

But, I now have a solution for an ink background that won't dry: just chuck it in the oven. On low - about 100^oC. And then make sure someone is home with you when you do this, so that when you totally forget about it after an hour or so (like me), that person can say "Ah - how long has this been in here?" and you can say "Oh shit!" "Thanks!" and run and get it out before it gets too crispy.

So, I'm very happy to report that this background is completely dry (I think I may have used too much white ink when I was mixing it in with the orange - that's my only answer), and thanks to Steve - it is not only dry, but char-free too. And it doesn't even smell like the fish dinner that I'd cooked in the oven the night before! Sweet.

Now, I never thought I'd be a sucker for flowers, but I so am:

Especially orchids. And sticks. Orchids with sticks. And cool green cube vases. (The first vase was white - but then they all went droopy and sad-looking within the first day so we rang up the florest to replace them. Ha! People are never as smiley second time round are they?!) Thanks Steve. Hopefully these ones cheer up my art room for a little longer than round one.

I'm also ridiculously cheery about my new cake stand that you can see there. It will never have cake on it, just art supplies. I've been looking for one for ages - one that wasn't covered in flowery, lacey crap (Yay IKEA). Yeah, I'm a little weird about storage things... (Again, yay IKEA).

It's been a good weekend so far. I didn't have to take any time out to water the garden, because Shadow did it for me:

And no water restriction comments - we're on tank water!!

And tomorrow I'll be able to start that new orange piece - properly. So the rest of the weekend's looking pretty good too.

Have a good one! See you Monday.

When all else fails:

Just make another background.

The orange background still isn't dry. The drying-in-the-oven idea didn't work (because I forgot to try it), but it had more time basking in the sun today, plus more heat-gun blasting, plus some time in front of the heater tonight. Still not dry. It's just ink. Any idea what's going on? I made it half way through the day on Sunday, so it's not like it hasn't had enough drying time. Or so I thought. It can't just be a winter thing.

On the other hand: this new background dried in under a minute with the heat gun. Completely. So despite the fact that I really really want to get started with some green on the orange, this one's going to have to go first.

With something little grey and pink and furry.

Orange and Green

That's the colour combination for my next piece. And I'm so motivated to get started on it (after my much needed weekend off) but I can't get it to dry! It's been lying in the sun, and blasted repeatedly with a heat gun - but no luck. I didn't even think I'd used a huge amount of ink...

So I'm going to put it in the oven after we've finished cooking dinner :) Take that, soggy board.

This is going to be piece number one of 4 (or 3, or 2) for the BARI fest. I'd like to get them photographed beforehand though, which means I'll need to have them all finished by the morning of the 13th. HA! Which leaves about 8 days. 2 days a piece? Sounds mildly (not-really) feasible. At least I've got a weekend in there for two full days of artwork though. I also need to buy more greens because the Slipper Plant got greedy and ate them all.

Also: Out of curiosity: I'm going to time myself on each piece. I might end up with some scarey figures, but it might also end up being a bit of a hurry up motivator. And also because so many people at the opening night were asking me how long each piece took, and I just stood there with a stupid look on my face, looking up at the ceiling, trying to figure it out. But no.

If I can get this silly board to dry, there'll be an orange and green preview tomorrow.

The day after.

Whoops. So much for my pre-show post! My internet's only just back up, after crashing about midday yesterday. [Optus, you're awesome. No really.]

Thanks for all the well wishes!! (That I only got to read just now - but still: thanks! I really appreciate it.)

Last night went by so fast. Gosh it's been so long in the making, it feels a bit odd that it's been and gone now! But at least it's all still up until the 23rd. Which is especially a good thing for me, as I'll be able to get some photos that are better than the incredibly dodgy ones I got last night. And I forgot to take any until we were leaving so the place was pretty much empty...

I liked meeting people that I could talk art with! It's nice when there's people who appreciate the same things you do. (Rather than me just talking someone's ear off about art, while they're stuck there smiling and nodding, and smiling and nodding...)

So, here's a few quick pics of the layout: It's funny, they all looked SO much better on my little tiny camera screen. But now, since I've sold a few pieces, I'll be able to get the real camera that I've wanted for ages, so I can start taking some real pictures!! I had it in the back of my head that I could only buy a new camera if I sold ten.

Of the 23 pieces that were for sale - 12 sold!! Thanks.

And here's a pic of that elusive lioness! Of the two photos of me with it, my eyes are completely closed in one, and half closed in the other, so yep, it's staying tiny, because I look a little bit sleepy (or half-brained, or something). I'll get a better photo of it on Wednesday.

One person told me that I need to get my mind checked, because of the detail in it, but we'll take that as a compliment...

As I said, everything's still going to be up until the 23rd, so if you're anywhere near Brisbane please stop by. They're open Wed - Sat, 12-6pm.

That was fun. Now I've gotta get onto my BARI stuff!