Nosey Nutty's eye candy (with a little bit of silly)

I'm browsing the creative community like crazy at the moment, a side effect of breastfeeding my little girl, and I'm stumbling across all sorts of eye candy. I thought I'd share some of the goodies this week with you to return the favour for all the goodies you've shown me.

First up is White Violet Art's resin experiments and her two beautiful blue mandalas. Two stunning pieces of art finished off with a technique I had never even considered and have been happy to have been introduced. And they are for sale! She has further information regarding her resin experiments here. And, WVA, did you manage to get the resin out of your hair?

I have also been dribbling rather extensively over Angela's pastel paintings. I dabble in pastel, but she really knows what she is doing. My latest favourites are Bleeding Heart and Amaryllis, though I have some serious attraction to the simplicity of Boat Reflection. The colours are so bold and confronting.

I came across this video on one of the blogs I read (sorry, I can't remember which one, apologies) and it introduced me to Helen Fitzgerald, a professional watercolour artist in New South Wales. Her finished works are absolutely amazing. I will admit that I do not want to paint like that, mainly because I really don't have the patience and it is not my style, but her work is beautiful. Watercolour paints scare me. The reason I'm posting the video here is because I was awed by the skill in her hands. To watch her work, a simple twist of her wrist makes marks I know I would labour over (and create mud in the process).  This video is part one of a series if you would like to peruse further. You can find all her works at www.helenfitzgerald.com

Over at the Happy Shack I was touched by 'How the birds and bees made me grateful'. I don't think there is a mum out there who wouldn't be.

I've also recently been introduced to the concept of 'zentangles'. I've been drooling over several artists who do mandalas and doodles, quite stunned at their work and baffled as to how to do it myself. Artists include White Violet Art, 2smart (here, here and a tutorial here!), and Jane (ow, my hand hurts just looking at them). I did have a short go at doodling myself, but failed miserably. I'm used to designing something in my head and then creating it, something I so totally proved to myself yesterday and today when I did the latest Art of Silliness exercise.

We were supposed to draw some elephants with a continuous line. Did I sit there and just draw that line like everyone else? No. I designed the drawing then drew the continuous line. Two out of three drawings were successful, but I don't think I did what the exercise was designed to teach me. I'm finding it hard to let go of what the final piece will look like. I got a glimpse of artistic freedom while creating 'Tree of Cyclones', which was genuinely created on the fly, but my brain reverts back to designer far too easily. This is at the core of what I'm working on. I need to relax and let it happen, like I do with my writing sometimes. I need more practise at letting go.

So The Art of Silliness 2.13 - Elephants in continuous line.

Elephant, continuous line, pen on bleedproof paper, approx. 100 x 120 mm

Elephant Chain,
continuous line, pen on bleedproof paper with quick digital fill when scanned in, approx. 230 x 50 mm.

Nutty
(in a bit of a creative humph)

PS: A question...I've seen images from Flickr posted to peoples blogs that are obviously not their own. Credit is given to Flickr and the owners of the works. How do I do this? I would have loved to share some of the works I mentioned above, but am unsure of the nettiquette involved. What is permissible in regards to Flickr? Are we allowed to share others' works in a promotional manner? I'm still a newbie at this, but I'm learning fast. Any help greatly appreciated.

The Art of Silliness 2.7

I've quickly dashed off today's exercise before the kids wake up (my kids love to sleep in at the moment, yay for me :D). I do wish I had time to pen and colour these, but I'm pushing it just by managing to get them up on the web. I'm out of the house today so time is of a premium.  I suppose I'll keep them in my stash and can always work them up better later.

The exercise involved creating a pet creature from a pre-defined shape. If you compare the two drawings, you should be able to see the shape they are both based on.

Anyways, above you will find the Fleeposaur, a rather ferocious decendent of the dinosaurs.  Or he would be if he weren't the thickness of a sheet of paper and didn't sleep all day. Beware of papercuts.

And this is the Beeblefly. Had a collision with some wallpaper back in the sixties and has never quite recovered.

Nutty
(typing and crossing my fingers that the kids sleep a little longer is a feat in itself)

Inspired maybe?

After spending my ten minutes drawing my stag beetle and then dashing off to attend to Izzy, I was left with a feeling of incompleteness. This feeling only intensified when I started looking at what the other participants in the workshop had come up with according to the same instructions.

I was a little flabbergasted. There was colourful completed artwork galore. I had to reread the instructions to see if I had done it correctly, which I think I did, and I had to come to the conclusion that this was the Art of Silliness and I should relax my teachers pet attitude of trying to get everything right. Relax, Nutty!

Of course, amongst all these wonderful pieces, my lousy little ten minute sketch, complete with wonky perspective, just didn't live up to the score. And to admit it, I liked the idea of the stag beetle and had the urge to scribble down some cartoony versions.

So with Izzy asleep on the couch, and despite the fact there are about a zillion things I should be doing with such a precious moment, I knelt down at the coffee table and drew for a little while.

Note: these are pencil works designed to be traced and penned with black ink, so they are pretty rough and are not finished works. As to whether I'll eventually pen them...unsure, time is a problem as always.

I don't know if female stag beetles have the horns and I can't be bothered to look it up, but this one spoke of girly as I was drawing it so it evolved that way.

This guy was supposed to end up a mean machine, but is a touch too mild mannered. The structure of the beetle speaks to me of hot cars and racing flames. I may expand on that idea in the future.

 

This one is achieved some of the 'mean' the former one didn't, even though he is essentially the same bug. The typography needs fixing (I'd either computer it, or fix it during the pen work) and please ignore the dark shadow from the scan.

That's all I've done so far. The magic of this whole thing is that I would never have ever considered drawing a stag beetle if it wasn't for the Silly Assignment. Already my tiny monetary investment in the workshop is paying off. Down the track I could possibly work this design into something I could use. And stag beetles? Not something you see everyday, so they have lots of possibilities.

I'm enjoying myself!

Nutty

(still smothered in a list of six zillion things I need to do)

The Art of Silliness

Well, here is my first exercise. 10 minutes sketch, no corrections (didn't have time), so you have raw Nutty drawing skills...hmmm, looks squashed.

Stag beetle, pencil on printer paper, no eraser. approx 100x 200 mm

Nutty
(dashing again for little Izzy who's hungry)