NELVIA'SART.COM

Ok coming off a highly technology afternoon, for me.  Spent a couple of hours making some CDs for my Mom's birthday present.  She likes music you can't hear on today's radio stations so I got her hopefully a "simple" Sony radio/CD player.  Now that I am in the "technology" flow.... I have asked the wetcanvas group how they used computers to work with their art - preplanning, composition, grayscale, during and after photo prep.  Got some interesting answers about how some folks edit their photos to get stronger, truer, reading images for the web, so I am committed to try to learn GIMP (free program similar to Photoshop and probably every bit as complicated) yes that noise you just heard was all the geeks in the world sighing as they anticipate what a disaster this will be.  So we'll take this in baby steps.... Worked a bit more on my tiger and then took my best photo shot and put it to GIMP and followed the man's suggestions about brightness, ...

Ok Saturday afternoon here, not sure what the rest of the weekend will bring as far as progress, as I have both yard or housework so thought I'd post my progress. Finding the short hairs on the nozzle area difficult as there are lots of different directions that they go, but hoping that I am getting the feel of it.  Lots of different techniques here as the nose area is very different than trying to get the thick long coarse hairs on the face fringe.  Am going to try not to stress out until I get more of the actual full-on face area in and then make adjustments in color and shadows.  Here is the challenege for me, trying to get it to look good both closeup, when you can see the strokes, and long view where the eye blends the colors and the picutre reads totally different.  Have to tell you I did the mouth/chin area at 2ish in Friday morning hours when I guess I was unconscious, so hope it came out.  Hate to say that at that time it all looked good.  :)...

Sorry guys I don't usually post mid-week but got to tell you I am excited.  He is coming out, in my opinion, and I just wanted to share to see if anyone sees something that I need to correct, in this stage when I can.  He is speaking to me and not honestly sure how we got this far.  I can only remember some sage advice from an eniminent artist "feel the animal"

Well here is the culmination of this weekend's work on the tiger. It is pretty slow going here.  I think I have an idea of the coloration I want to use but am sure that mid week I will be guessing again, of course I noted the colors but didn't actually write them down or chart out my layer applications (guess I better learn how to develop that habit for future use) and do see a lot of different coloration on his coat where either orange or yellow is emphasized.  Trying something new this time as well, besides a picture reference I have the cat enlarged on my computer and it really shows the colors quite well, so am hoping that will help. Have a lot of colors in here, especially in the dark part of his back, not sure about it, but am going to continue and not worry about it.  You can see I have the side whiskers blocked in although there is still quite a bit of work to be done there, but it is much lighter coloration than the regular coat and looking at this I hop...

Life's lessons:  if you haven't painted using Yupo paper, don't think you can pull out and sheet and create a beautiful painting like Renate.  Morale:  Know your materials both painting media and your paper/canvas supports.  Learning life's lessons here on this one.  Am using more Prismacolor pencils and their art stix so the pigment laydown is much different - 1)  They lay down lots more wax than my Staedler Karats and are wax based versus watercolor or oil based 2)  While the layers blend easily, due to the large amount of wax, it eats up the tooth - so need toothy bristol board or have to try the Stonehenge papers that hold more layers, rather than the smooth bristol I have and am using 3)  Because of the wax now know what "bloom" is - it gets a hazy or gray look that kills color, you can try to wipe it off, but comes right back, so ..... 4)  ......Thank God for toilet paper (yes, this is one of many reasons) - read about i...

Ok, here is the start of my tiger so I am off the snide of actually getting started and got something on that white paper.  The reference photo is from PMP, Gary Jones is the photographer, actually he had several just great reference shots of this big boy.  Loved this expression and how he is intensely scoping you out, he is really engaged scenting you out I think to see how tasty you might be. I tried something different with the eyes (not sure how well it's going to show up) and am happy to get multiple colors in and tried to show striations but ran out of paper without that many layers down.  Only thing different is used a blender in addition to the pencils themselves, very waxy, so not sure I am going to like that as much as it sounded good, might just go back to white, cream or yellow to burnish.  I do need to study up some more though to improve on the eye technique - probably over thought it instead of just going with it. Have him on my...

Okay, hung in there with this one, this is for PADT August challenge. Again another ACEO because I wanted to do in colored pencil and get it finished within the month timeframe. I tried different layers here and also used solvent because the paper wasn't filling in and looked spotty.  Wasn't happy with either experiment - solvent made the background flat and my color layers didn't end up with what I thought I'd get, so used tape to pull off color and it ended up pulling off paper with it - nothing went right about this painting.  Wanted to quit in the worst way but kept on and at least got it done.  I have a lot more to learn about this medium that is for darn sure.  (Can you hear the grrrrr in there?)  Have found a super site for anyone who wants to hear from other artists and get a free art education, wetcanvas.com.  You probably all know about it, I am usually the slowest; but wow is it ever a treat for the mind and eyes.  So many ...