Sold, sold, sold for WOYWW

The art show was last week

and joy of joys,

I sold all of my pieces.

Now I can buy heaps more

goodies and more art lessons.

My desk is a mess as usual

this week, I kinda left for class

in a hurry and left bits where they were.

I'm working on Mr Pelican again

and during the few minutes I had

over the last week I roughed in his beak

and his eye.

Not looking too good there,

it's more like he got into the brandy and

is blind drunk.

Today in class I fixed up the darker blue bits on

his feathers and my teacher

taught me a secret way to do foam on water

 (so I can't tell you how I did it).

 How cool does that look.

I had the best time playing with it.

Now all I have to do is finish the beak

and eye and another canvas is done!

I love the watery stuff so much that I'm going to ditch 

the cockatoos for a while and start another

water painting.

It's winter school holidays here

so I have to keep little miss out of trouble,

especially now as she has

 discovered boys!!!

Oh the pain!!!

Just hope I can pick up a

paint brush this week.

That's my messy desk for this week

now go to 

Julia's Stamping Ground 

and see the other desks

around the world

this cold wintery

wednesday.

 

Lettuce Soap for WOYWW

It's been a while since I 

WOYWW'ed

but nothing has changed really,

I'm still a grot and here's the proof.

 

Stuff everywhere as usual.

In the back you can see my latest fun toy.

The square grid to hold my paint brushes

it's great cos I don't have to put them in my mouth now.

Oh the times I've put the wrong end in or

the paint was up the handle and it got my mouth.

I know it's poisonous but what doesn't

kill you makes you stronger and boy am I strong!

I visited a dear friend last week and she gave me

some gorgeous gifts.

One was a teapot and since she is a fabulous artist

seeing her studio inspired me to pick up

my pencil and start drawing again.

 

I'm a bit rusty but I'm pleased with it.

This friend is as mad as me and she understands

my sick sense of humour, so the next gift

was me all over.

Yes, you read it correctly 

Lettuce Soap!!

You could take this a few ways,

it could be to wash lettuce

or it could be a human soap.

I prefer the latter as it would be hard to soap up

a lettuce leaf.

Using lettuce soap is in itself

fraught with danger

as I have a chook

(that's a chicken for non Australians)

and now she is looking at me

with a strange glint in her eyes.

I'm sure she can smell the lettuce 

and is just waiting for the right moment

to strike with that killer beak.

Have to wonder if Tracey thought this through

when she bought it 

or is it her evil sense of humour.

If her next painting is of someone

running around a backyard with a chook chasing her

I'll know.

So while I still have my fingers and toes

attached, here is what I'm playing with

at the moment

  It's at the poo kack stage but will be two

cockatoos eventually.

I put them together and got the sense that the one

in the tree (that you can't see yet)

is saying "And where have you been?"

I'll have to try and get that sheepish 

look in the blokes eyes.

That's my week,

why not pop over to 

Julia's Stamping Ground

and check out the other desks

around the world

this cold and windy 

Wednesday.

It pays to trust your teacher.

I've been locked away

painting like mad and

I've finally almost

very nearly

finished my paintings for the show.

Now I know it's only three paintings

but considering I used to be so

podantic that it took over a year

to paint one,

I think I'm doing well.

My icky poo canvas was the last

one I had to finish

and it is almost there

just the sides, hanger and sealer to go.

Remember icky poo

Blah, it still makes me shudder,

well after squillions of layers

of paint and glazes

and trusting my teacher

(that was hard)

this is the finished product.

It seems there is an element of truth

in the icky poo background making the

main subject look brighter.

Of course I knew it would look like this

from the very beginning

(cough, cough).

It does look better from a distance

as the background appears

to have more depth.

 But I like the cheeky birds up close too.

I also did another painting ready to go

to a local shop, it's nearly finished too.

It started like this (yuk)

 After a lot of texture paste and ink

it went to this

 Then with a lot of paint and ink to this

and presently it looks like this

This was taken on my phone so it's not a great

shot but there is sure a lot of depth

building in this one.

It's still a bit dark for me at the moment.

I've finished my jellyfish painting as well.

 There are still some blobs left

unjellified, just so that people

can find their own jellies.

The painting is far more vibrant than the photo

I just can't seem to capture the colours

so you'll just have to believe me.

Now I just hope someone buys them

cos I've spent a fortune on more

canvasses and art goodies,

just couldn't help my self.

 I've started an equally
icky poo background
in turquoise and orange.
When it's all blended together
you get a sort of an orange
meets TNT over the water effect.
Not too pretty I can tell you.

Somehow this is going to be
two cockatoos  in a tree.
Trust your teacher, just keep saying it,
trust your teacher.....

I'm running out of ideas for paintings.
I tried the old stand by of
a still life with flowers in a vase
but of course no matter how I tried
it was sooo BORING.
May have to think of flowers
with a twist somehow.

Linking up to PPF

Dreary day for painting.

Now I know we need rain

and yes it's vital for life

but who says it can't only rain at night

or when I don't have time to paint.

It's pouring outside and 

dark and dreary inside.

Yes, I know I could buy a daylight bulb

but hubby won't go for that

and I don't think it would work in my daggy old

ceiling fan anyway.

By the way the ceiling fan gave up the ghost

this summer so I can't use it anyway.

I'm starting to think that my

icky poo, pookack coloured canvas

is causing this icky poo weather.

It all started in my painting class.

It seems that I'm tone blind, as opposed to tone deaf,

which I could be but that's another story.

I can copy a colour as a finished product but I can't 

do layers of the mid tones and darks and lights,

so my teacher made me turn a beautiful pale blue and

 turquoisy lilac canvas into the monstrosity

 you see before you.

Now I have to try and put in the birds colours using their tones

and not just the crazy bright colours that I usually do.

I was forced, kicking and screaming, 

well whinging and whining,

to mix up the yuk greeny yellow for the tail in class

but now I have it at home I've brightened

 up a bit with the wing.

 

Yes I know, the wing should be a browny colour but I just couldn't do it

and since my teacher isn't here, I'm doing it brightish.

Oops, couldn't help myself here,

 probably get in trouble for that.

Not supposed to put all the bits in with paint

 as I'm going to glaze in the tones. 

 So I'll bring it down for the red bits.

Eew, it looks so flat and boring, I know the glaze

 will do all sorts of things to make it better

 but my little brain can't seem to see it.

I have to do the body now. 

Since it's so dark and dreary I may 

have to use much brighter colours. 

 Of course that's just so I can see it

in this light, you understand don't you?

Just to brighten up this day, 

I've finished my other bird.

He's nice and bright!!

The photo was taken yesterday

 when the sun was out (sigh).

I'm calling it "Hanging with my buds"

get it??  I know I'm a sad cookie.

Linking up to Paint Party Friday

Bitza week for WOYWW

This last week has been a bitsa week.

I've done bitsa this and bitsa that

but nothing much of anything at all.

Firstly for those who don't want to 

suffer through my ramblings

and multitude of photos,

here is my desk.

 Same old mess

but something is different

 Little Miss used my computer and

lost my Doctor Who desk top pic

(ooh the inhumanity)

but she redeemed herself by

creating an even better one.

How cool is that, now my Dalek has a friend!!

I've been playing with a few canvasses this week,

one I love, one is just plain nuts

and one is yuk (at the moment).

-The one I love-

My jelly fish have been appearing out of the 

ocean depths.

 

I've been trying to think of a good title

for when it's finished.

What do you think of 

Attack of the Jellygobbles??

-The one that's just plain nuts-

Mr Pelican is home

but far from finished.

Stupid here forgot to add white paint

to the white gloopy stuff.

It dries clear you see and of course

now he looks as though he's 

a dirty little grub, which of course he may be

especially if he is part of my mad family.

- The yuk one-

I'm learning tonal colour and so I have to start

with muddy (proper term for pookack) colours

and move up to brights.

I just can't get past those icky poo colours.

Ewww, makes me shudder just looking at it.

I tell you, how on earth am I supposed to get

glorious bright colours out of that poop.

I trust my teacher but this time I'm not so sure.

Well that's my week so far,

sorry for all the pictures and ramblings Julia.

Now why don't you hop across to

Julia's Stamping Ground and

check out other desks around the world.

I bet they don't have poopy pookack

paintings!!

Birdy has a head for WOYWW

At last my poor little bird

is headless no more.

As well as his head I've done some

tinkering.  I've repainted the green feathers

and re inked them and darkened, with inks,

the area above his tail, to make it disappear a little.

Still lots more to do, re brighten the flowers,

give him a foot before he falls off the canvas

and do the highlights on his face,

but I'm getting there.

My desk has some goodies on it this week.

My hubby was over in Scotland with school rugby

in the Easter holidays and he brought

back some Scottish things and some wonderful things

 I'm not the only one excited by Doctor Who goodies,

Nessie was so excited that she is swooning in the back ground.

Gotta love a hubby that knows what you like :)

 

 This is above my window and I keep forgetting to

show it, my prize from Lunch Lady Jan

has a permanent home above my desk.

It's Christmas every day now!

 

Here's the wide shot of my WIP's.

See that blah canvas in the middle,

this morning it was like this

 

Then it went to this

 

and ended up like this

Ewww!!  I have to get the back ground all cacky

so that the birds I'm going to put on really stand out.

I'm not convinced it's going to work but my teacher

said to trust her, hmmm.

On top of all this weirdness my crazy pelican is

even crazier.

 

 I hate how the beak turned out but I am going to 

use glazes to correct the bad smooshing.

Sigmond's (that's the pelican) dark feathers 

are actually purple so the whole thing ties in,

I just can't get the photo right with the phone camera.

This will either be an epic fail

or a crazy fun painting, not sure which yet.

That's pretty much all of interest I've done

this week, so now you've seen mine

hop over to Julia's

Stamping Ground 

and see what's been happening on

other desks around the world.