July 27, 2013

Old projects getting finished - Jubiiii!

Years ago (6 to be exactly...) I started a project late one night. I wanted to make a baby dragon hand puppet. I cut out all the parts from the pattern in this book:

You can see him on the front, the red and green dragon, and he is called Georg in the book! 
Well it went as it oftem does for me, I gave up half finished...


I think I had problems understanding the process, and so the unfinished puppet was being stucked far down a cabinet in my studio. Tonight I found it accidentally, and know what? I finished the puppet! Jubiiiiiii! I must have gotten smarter during these last 6 years, because I had absolutely no problem understanding what to do! Here he is: 



Don´t you just love the feeling, when you suddenly figure an old problem out? I learnt a new word yesterday: Eureka. Let´s check wikipedia: 

"The exclamation 'Eureka!' is famously attributed to the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes. He reportedly proclaimed "Eureka!" when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose—he suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged". 

So I have an Eureka! feeling! It feels so good to finally finish the project. I have soo many of those lying around.

Do you always finish your projects? 



July 26, 2013

Let´s do an experiment together part 6 (almost done!)

Here are links to the previous posts:
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/06/lets-do-experiement-together-part-1.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/lets-do-experiment-part-2.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/let-do-experiment-part-3.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/lets-do-experiment-part-4.html
http://www.solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/lets-do-experiment-together-part-5.html

Hello again!

It´s been several days since I´ve posted last about these icons. I´ve spent the most of a week in different woods here in Denmark. Every year my husband and I tage a week off and live withdrawn from our ordinary life. Here is few photoes of our beautiful camp under the trees:



Home again, i find myself working with my icons again. Something was wrong, and I just couldn´t figure out what it was. I really like the painting, but the leaf pattern I was working with wasn´t working. Let´s take a look: 


I think I used the wrong fern leafs. They were too small and had some funny brown powder on the backside. I found some new in the forest, and will try to use them on my second icon. That one is a cute deer. I´ve just started it: 


I think it will be good, but I really need to work on the leaf pattern! I don´t think I will use this kind of frame again using the treemass. It´s hard to make nice pattern on those rounded and uneven edges.
The next icons will be different. 

My next two icons will also have a forest animal theme. The badger and the deer was important animals from my first out-sitting, and the next two will also be connected to my trip into the wilderness: a viper and a goat ;-) I´ll tell you more about that later.... ;-)





July 10, 2013

Let´s do an experiment together part 5

Here are links to the previous posts:
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/06/lets-do-experiement-together-part-1.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/lets-do-experiment-part-2.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/let-do-experiment-part-3.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/lets-do-experiment-part-4.html

I went to the cinema to see "The Lone Ranger" with Johnny Depp tonight, så no work to show on my icons today. Have you seen the movie? I usually love Depp, but in my opinion: this movie wasn´t one of his best. His caracter is fantastic and he plays the role sublime like he always do, but I didn´t somehow get impressed at all, or even touched. Just a funny movie with some cool actors, nothing more. Here´s a trailer for those of you that haven´t seen it:


I DID finish my badger painting last night, and here is a photo to show:


I like it, but it doesn´t look completely like a badger. My painting looks more like a little panda bear or something. The badger has a much longer and narrower face. Should I repaint it? NO! My art teacher told me that no matter how bad a painting is, NEVER paint it over with white. Just keep om working with it untill it is finished. There is so much more to learn, if you work through your obstacles. She is a very wise woman ;-) I use to resign and repaint a lot of my painting, but now I try to keep going. So, a badger has a longer face. I will remember that the next time. OR, I must accept, that my painting style is a bit animated and childish. My paintings always end up looking a bit like this style. I once read an artist saying: that artists must stop fighting their own style, and just develop and enjoy the specialness of it. Not try to copy other artists style, but keep working until your own style get´s perfect, interesting and interesting. I always wanted to write children´s books and illustrate them my self. Perhaps one day my childrish painting style will become a book? Just as an note to that, I would like to share a painting of my favorite illustrator Ursula Seeberg: 



This is the style i´d wish I had myself ;-)

Tomorrow I will work on the dried leafs and painting them. I will also start painting my deer on the other icon. Hope to see you there!

July 08, 2013

Let´s do an experiment part 4

Here are links to the previous posts:
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/06/lets-do-experiement-together-part-1.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/lets-do-experiment-part-2.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/let-do-experiment-part-3.html

Good evening!

I am still working on my icons, and the´re getting along nicely.

I have painted backgrounds on them both:


I will paint a badger on the one to the right, and a deer on the one to the left. Both special animals to me right now, because I met them both on my summer solstice out-sitting. If you would like to read about my experiences, just press HERE.

They´re both painted in Golden Acrylic Heavy Body - my favorite brand! 

A couple of nights ago, I went for a long walk, and collected several types of  leaves, which I have pressed, and they are now almost dried. I will work on them tomorrow. 




I can´t wait to complete my badger! Here is the photo I use for reference:


Isn´t it just adorable? I saw one last night, when I was out for a run with my youngest daughter. It crossed the road infront of us! They are very shy animals, and I can´t stop thinking that it was more than just a strange coincidence, that I got to meet it in real. I can´t understand why I was so scared of them all night, when I was sitting alone in the forest. 

See you tomorrow!






July 07, 2013

Let´s do an experiment part 3

http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/06/lets-do-experiement-together-part-1.html
http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/07/lets-do-experiment-part-2.html


I have painted my frames with gesso, which is a paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment. It is used in artwork as a preparation for any number of substrates such as wood panels, canvas and sculpture as a base for paint and other materials that are applied over it.
Now I can start my painting, and glue the leaves onto the frame part.

I also put some woodmass onto the frames my husband sawed for me. It will hopefully make them look authentic, and not so pre-cut. I am going for a more rustic forest look, if you know what I mean.

 My two frames with woodmass. 
Here are canvas being glued onto the plates and pressed with glue cramps. I use white wood glue.
I am a very unpatient person, and all this waiting for woodmass, leaves and painting to dry is getting on my nerves ;-)

I can very soon start painting on my first frames. The gesso is almost dry ;-)

See you later!


July 06, 2013

Let´s do an experiment part 2

 http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/06/lets-do-experiement-together-part-1.html

It took a little longen than I expected to share more photos of the process. You know, sometimes life gets in our way, when we try to dedicate our lives to our creativety :-)

In the first post, I talked about how to make a wooden icon, something like this one:


This icon is made by the very talented artist June Uriagereka, and I just love the way she has framed this little painting by adding dried fern leafes to the frame, making a beautiful pattern. 

Here are some more photos of my accomplishments: 

I trimmed the corners with a sharp knife, and sanding the edges 

Then I drew where I wanted the frame to be. 



Then I added "treemass". This is a medium that can be purchased here in Denmark and also in Germany under the name "holzmache". It is a wonderful medium for modelling things that should look like carved tree, and for artdolls and puppets. Here are some examples of dolls I made with this medium: 







Treemass is made of tree shavings, rye, chalk and ammonium, and after added water, it becomes a fantastic clay, which can be modelled into anything you can imagine. I think it is something similar to "woodclay". You can google that if you want more information. I havn´t been able to find any information about the treemass in english. 

I wasn´t sure if I was totally satisfyed with my icons, so I had my husband help me with sawing some wood plates in a shape that I liked. This is the result:




Now I must go for a walk and find some fern leaves to dry ;-) And while they dry, I will paint my frames with gesso. 

See you tomorrow!