My New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone, here's to a fantastic 2015!

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, mainly because I never have any ideas, but this year there are a few things which I hope to do and achieve in 2015.

To give me more motivation to succeed, I've written them out, or rather painted them out, in the style of a journal page.

I really enjoyed making this today. I used it as an excuse to experiment with my Winsor and Newton watercolours. I've never really known how to merge colours successfully, so blending pink into purple was a bit of a challenge! For the most part it worked really well, although the right hand side of the 2015 rectangle looks a bit dodgy.

Anyway, back to my resolutions...

#1 Draw or paint a miniature portrait every week

I've done quite a few miniature portraits now and thought it would be a fun challenge to complete one per week, not only of celebrities but 'normal' people too!

This is my first one of the year, a coloured pencil drawing of Angelina Jolie on brown paper. I think I'll get bored if I do them all in the same medium, so I'll chop and change depending on how I feel!

#2 Make my art business flourish

Those of you who've read my blog for a while will probably know that I work full time and use my spare time for art. 2014 was an exciting year for me as I took more commissions for drawings, paintings and paper cuts than I ever have done before and I hope that 2015 will see many more!

If you would like to help me along with this resolution and commission a piece of art, please let me know! I can do mini portraits like the ones above, paper cuts, paintings, doodles...have a little flick through my blog or Facebook page and see what takes your fancy.

At the moment I'm working on some wedding card paper cutting templates for people to cut themselves. This is one of them. I have another two to cut before they'll be up for sale on Etsy as digital downloads.

#3 Get my ears pierced again

Bit of a weird one this! I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to get my ears pierced again. My sister got her second set done a while ago and I like the way you can wear dangle earrings alongside studs.

#4 Wear high heels to work

Again, another odd one! I walk to work every day, so wearing heels isn't really practical, but some of the girls keep a set at work to change into. I do like wearing heels, so thought I'd give it a go. Not sure how long this resolution will last!

In other news...

I ordered some new pens the other day and decided to put them through their paces to create a mandala. This is far from finished and there will be more inking on the section you can see here, but I'm very pleased with it at the moment!

I had a sudden urge to draw octopuses (octopi?) so they've made it into one of the rings!

Not sure what to include in the outer rings, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!

Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of Croyde beach where we started our walk to Saunton today.

I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Paint Party Friday, The Queen of Creativity and Blue Chair Diary Illustrations!

Who's that girl...?

I'd like to share with you a painting that I have just finished! It's always at the final stage that I lose the motivation to add the finishing touches - I've been dragging this one out for the last three weeks! Finally though, it's done!

It's Zooey Deschanel, the actress who plays Jess in the series New Girl. I love her and the show so I thought she would be the ideal subject for my first portrait in ages. It's acrylic paint on a 10" x 7" canvas panel.

So, here's how I did it. First I found a high quality professional photograph here. Then I drew it out in pencil with the help of a grid to get it aligned correctly. I don't always use a grid, but I don't think it's cheating, I mean, look at Leonardo Da Vinci! I started the painting with the background colour grey, then moved onto a black/brown base colour for the hair.

I did the hair very roughly as I knew I would paint over it, I just wanted to get some background colour on.

I did the same with the face, using a slightly watered down block colour all over.

Then I roughly added the shadows, ready to smooth out a bit later.

Some bright red lipstic came next....

...and a bit more smoothing of the shadows to blend the lines.

Then for some block highlights in the hair, no individual hairs yet.

I finished off the detail on the mouth and the nose, adding some little white sparkles to make Zooey's lips and teeth shine.

She looks a bit spooky in this next pic with her eyes blocked out with a white base coat! I added a few strands of hair to her fringe.

Next, I concentrated on the irises, mixing in a couple of different blues.

I wasn't completely happy with her complexion, so I toned some parts down and painted a bit more shadow in the left cheek to add depth. The final touches were her eyelashes, fine hairs and highlights, and the shiny bits in and around her eyes - I think it's these final details that really bring a portrait to life.

Finally my signature and there you have it!

Just thought I'd take this opportunity to remind you about my Etsy shop and my facebook page. If anyone is interested in commissioning a portrait, please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP! :)

I'm linking this post up here: Handmade Harbour, Raising Reagan, Blue Chair Diary Illustrations, Diana Evans, Paint Party Friday and Manon Popje's Illustrations.