Well, it has been a week since my last blog and I have well and truly settled in to my new workspace. One of the aims of this space was to help get me working again and I am delighted to say that it has done the trick. I have finished my latest Elding Valkyrie, my latest Dusted Valkyrie has her first layer of chalk down (I had to fix the pastel ground before I started as I must have put on a much thicker layer than usual), and I have a new outline started for what will likely be a Gaeilge Valkyrie.
More excitingly, I did a new piece using watercolour along with my usual pastel. I had originally intended to use my Inktense blocks, but when it came to it they didn't seem the right choice. I inherited my mum's metallic watercolours and decided to give them a try. I'm quite pleased with the result and it has made me want to explore watercolours more. It is not a medium I have much experience with but I can see some real possibilities with it. Using it to create grounds that look like skies or water could be really interesting.
This latest piece has really sold me on using mixed media. Looking at it, if I had tried the same thing, but stuck with just pastel or just paint I think it would have looked a little trite. Mixing the media gives it more intent somehow. Definitely time will now be devoted to skilling up!
Amongst my mum's art supplies I found some larger pastel paper than I currently have. In organising her things into my studio I had so taken by the size of this sheet I immediately taped it to a board and have an initial sketch on it. If I can pull off the rather extreme angle of the model it should look really cool.
The toughest thing when creating my Valkyries is deciding on the colours. The reference pictures are easy enough. I'll just see one that speaks to me and grab it, but the colours are such a puzzle. Initially I didn't want to repeat pallets, but I've realised I am drawn to certain colours and much like the nudes, I should just embrace what makes me happy. I am now trying to be more organised and make a note of all colours used so I can recreate a pallet again if I especially like it. I'm sure all experienced artists do this, but I'm just coming to grips with producing a lot of work in a defined series.
It's an odd day here. I've been struggling with my grief of late and while it isn't stopping the creativity, I don't feel all that well which puts me off making marks sometimes. The good thing is, with this blog, my website and my Etsy shop there are always things I could be doing to keep things moving along.
One of my planned projects is to go through my mum's artwork and put some of it up for sale. It seems a terrible waste to leave it hidden in portfolios. Perhaps she will even help get my shop paying for itself? That would be kind of cool.
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