Pinch and a punch and another month has gone already! January seems to have flown by in the blink of an eye and today being the 1st February, what better day to look back and reflect on the previous month in terms of art.
For me, January was all about warming up (quite literally in some ways, as its been so cold recently) by practising and honing my technical skills, along with trying some new mediums and planning for the months ahead. I started January with a pencil drawing of Keira Knightley from the recent movie ‘Colette’ and here is the finished result:
I drew this piece from a movie poster reference I found at the back of an Odeon cinema brochure (perks of being a movie enthusiast). Keira has such a beautiful face with such strong and defined facial features so I thought she would be perfect to draw and practice my pencil portrait skills.
If you look closely, the poster has a lot of small technical details too, like the fine details of the clothes and texture of the straw hat (and yes, that is a giant and a mini movie clapper 😛). I sometimes get a little impatient with capturing every single little detail (one of the reasons I tend to prefer more impressionist art) so this on some levels was technically a challenge for me, demanding a lot of patience and observational attention. It really is a case of taking your time, making sure you get the proportions right and building up from there. Like most artists, once I’ve mapped out the overall outline of the piece I tend to start shading with the eyes and work outwards, taking care to blend lines softly as I go (I actually use a cotton bud for that! I tend to avoid using my fingers now as I’ve found that transfers oils onto the page and you get smudges in places you really don’t want them). Considering I worked from an A5 brochure page and drew freehand onto A3, enlarging the face to fit a good amount of the page, I’m pretty happy with the likeness I’ve created. What do you think?
Moving on to paintings, I decided to give the Pebeo Discovery set a go which I brought with a Hobbycraft gift voucher and you can view photos of and read more about my experiences of producing my newest painting ‘Love in Space and Time Part 1’ in my previous blog post. I look forward to developing this series with less common subjects as well, including the less commonly beloved pigeon. I do often like to appreciate and find beauty and wonder in the ‘ordinary’ or ‘mundane’ and like the idea of placing them in more ‘wow’ and spectacular backdrops, such as the breathtaking background of space. For me, it takes something relatively normal and makes you think, is it really something we should consider as just ‘normal’ or of lesser value? How people judge animals according to their appearance and other characteristics is fascinating to me.
Away from hibernating indoors, I’ve enjoyed spotting wildlife and taking photos for my upcoming work at beautiful Whisby Nature Park where in particular, I enjoyed taking photos of adorable garden birds in Whisby’s dedicated bird hide. I also enjoyed a bit of photography at Baytree Owl and Falconary Centre in South Lincolnshire where I got to see many beautiful birds and all sorts of animals as I took tonnes of photos in snap-happy delight. I won’t show the best photos just yet as I look forward to featuring these in my upcoming art work soon.
So what next? Well, I will be preparing for upcoming fairs (details soon make sure you follow my Facebook page @gemmajohnsonart for updates) so that involves producing some new work, getting prints and greeting cards made etc, as well as making use of existing stock. In the process I aim to continue to experiment in my work as well along honing my skills with existing tehniques and am excited to share new work with you for the upcoming seasons ahead. Is there anything you would like to see in my upcoming work or any particular subjects for Spring and Summer?
Although the cold has very much now settled in, the days are noticeably starting to get little lighter and I’m sure it won’t be long now before those small peaks of Spring will start appearing. A frosty daffodil here; sprigs of delicate pink blossom there. I think we’re all ready for the exburance of Spring and I feel like its going to be an exciting time of both growth and change.
Speaking of time, have you seen my newest piece I’m currently working on as well (I have lots of different things on the go, as I like to dip in and out of pieces) of our lovely current Timelord Jodie Whittaker, aptly titled ‘Dr Progress’? Life goes on, as they say and I look forward to showing you the completed piece soon…Until next time.
gemmajohnsonart 