Snippet Saturday - Or: All over the Art Board

[wayfaringwordhack]

 
Here is a sampling of the art I got up to this week in my endeavor to buckle down and improve my skills.

 

First are daily compositions, inspired by Ian Robert's channel and the challenge he mentioned doing with students of his recent class:

  

Goofing around with leftover gouache* 

 

 

The finished tarantula hawk with her prey:

 

And two of the self-imposed copies (faces inspired by Magaly Ohika*; and "Plant" [bottom right of next photo] by Jennifer Bouron, who works digitally, but I wanted to use acrylics**)

 

 

The above was done on the book that I decided I could not read and have turned into a experiment/sketchbook (which the children are happily embracing, too).  Obviously, it was not meant for receiving any kind of paint, but I have no need to be precious about how I use it and feel quite liberated.  As I have pointed out before, I don't like wasting materials, and so I applied all the leftover acrylic from my copy in an abstract pattern, embracing the crazy.

 
Oh, and I forgot to add this watercolor experiment of painting the same anenomes in different styles:

 

When I first saw these blooming everywhere, I thought "poppies," but no.  There are poppies here, too.

 

 

 

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* I have so many tiny plates covered in paint that I just can't wash off because I could use that paint, every last pigment particle of it!  I know it is a problem, but I get twitchy thinking of the cost and waste and so use it up here and there, and the kinds of things i did here, seedpods and Ohika's faces are the perfect examples of where the paint could come in handy.  Ohika used more saturated, stronger colors, but I deviated by using what I had and choosing not to indicate face planes in a deliberate manner.

 

** Oh. My. Word. those acrylics are soooooooo crappy.  I have to buy others if I want to do any more serious paintings.  That is what I get trying to save money by getting my kids cheaper materials (and then thinking to use them myself).  They aren't even good for the kids because of the frustration engendered by not getting the right pigment load or saturation.  Mixing blue and black automatically gives you a gray, no nuance, frex.