Still painting

Im still painting on this big painting. Here is what I have for now:

Painting on such a bog canvas is quite an challenge to me. Right now I am working on the forest floor and the purple fields in the background. Istill consider my work on this painting as part of the background... 

oo much work to  do. I take wip picures to see my progress. Otherwise I can´t see it from time to time. 

Still working on that huge painting....

...and I'm not really pleased at all!! The firest grove is really hard to paint!!
Right now I am just painting and re-painting, changing colorthemes and adjusting the lines in the landscapes. Here is what I have for now:

Tuesday update!

I like having many different projects going on at the same time.

Today I am sketching ideas for a new painting for my living room. I am waiting for my new couch to arrive, and the room needs new art! This time I'm going for big!!!

The first sketch: 

Dreamscape, little lake, a tiny island with a boiling cauldron in the middle, a big tree in the middle of it all, forest, stars, emerging fields at the back, lots of trees and several animals. Those with an interest for shamanism and earth bound philosofy will understand my perspective ;-)

Scanning it into my pc and printing it in size A4

Drawing it onto transparency film and projecting it on my big canvas 

Tracing det drawing with charcoal and painting over it with yellow ochre acrylic paint.

Now all the proportions are good, and I'm ready to start on the background!
See you later!

Update on the fairytale dolls

 Still working on this project. My paperclay made some cracks, so I had to put some more diluted paperclay on the doll. After that, I sanded them all down, untill det studio was covered in fine white dust ;-)

After sanding the dolls, I changed my mind aabout the wolf´s fur, and covered his whole body in a very string joint compound and made some structure looking like fur. After sanding them again, I painted the base coat using some cheap acryliv paint.

Tip: I have a lot of acrylic paint, and I usually use the cheap quality for priming and basecoats. I like to paint with very expensive paint, so I am not using that for that. 

Tomorrow I will sand the paint again and perhaps give it another layer. Then I´m going to start painting the faces.

I had an idea today. I was thinking about hair and accessories as eg a crown. How to make then stay ontop of the head? I think I want to try to drill a hole in the head, and make wigs that have a stick that fits the hole. Small crowns can also fit in the hole. I must think about how to make that. It really could work, because these dolls are going to be moved, and I don´t want to worry about things falling of the doll. That kinda ruins the magic, don´t you think? 

Now, I´m off to bed. I must get up early tomorrow, because I have an very early appointment with a speech therapist ;-) I need to learn how to breath properly ;-) I´ll tell you more about it later...;-)

Good night! 

The witch sisters Part 1

I´m home alone tonight. Hanging out in the basement studio, having fun with paper clay, watching The Sopranos on HBO (mostly I just listen to the tv) and waiting for my frozen vegetarian pizza to come out of the oven ;-).

Tonight I´m working on a witch bust project. I recently found these nice old wooden thread spools in a gift shop, and I bought them to make the busts. I´m planning on 3 pieces, and right now I am working out the wooden armature. I found this picture from Moonhallow Vintage:

This is the style I´m going for. My dolls never look like the one on the picture, but you get my basic idea. 

I used the wooden thread spoole, flowerstick. white woodglue and some news paper. 

I use the newspaper to stabilize the flowerstick inside the thread spoole. 

A rubber band is also holding the wooden ball in place while the armature is drying.

Dinner-time!!

What I'm up to tonight :-)

I'm working on some tabletop theatre wooden puppets for fairytale-telling in the kindergarden where I work. It' a lot of fun to make these little caracters :-) I purchased them in halfs, and had to glue them together. Then I filled the gaps with some putty and a lot of sanding! I will need some more puppets, because every storyteller must have lots of caracters in the play. For now I have a wolf, a princess, a king, a queen and maybe a prince. I will also make a witch and a hunter. 

My idea is to make a very easy dress pattern, and sew several different dresses, and some wigs.

In this way I can customize the story, and make new caracters every time! 

I went to the public library today, and borrowed a book with russian farytales! I love their take on the witch caracter: Baba Yaga! I will find a way of telling the little children about her! She is amazing. More on that later!