Recently i have been working on my art, illustration, painting game.
It’s something I’ve always been interested in, but not really got into for a long while. To put it into perspective, I’ve been married for 15 years this year, and when i have been sketching over the past couple of months, my wife exclaimed to me ‘i didn’t know you could draw and paint?!’
So yes it’s been a while. On the whole, i don’t proclaim to be any good at it, I’m no Picasso, or Carlos Ezquerra, but i think i can just about hold my own.
Along with some of my other interests like photography and antiques, i have a few things in mind that i would like to do, and improve upon.
For instance, dealing in antiques, i come across old jerry cans, saws and old boxes. These are perfect canvases for some art.
The things i’ve been trying are working with acrylics, stencilling and doing signwriting with enamel paints.
Jerry Can with a Pinup
This was something i based on some old elvgren pinup poses with a modern touch, and a ‘plane nose art’ sort of style. I think it turned out great. The only thing i would think about more next time is taking the grooves into consideration for a better image from all angles.
Return of Cthulhu
A large mdf canvas and a generally dark image, but with lots of different tones in the tentacles, the mountains in the water. a challenge here was trying to get the shadow in the water to work a little better. Also used a stencil in this one to get the general shape of the tentacles.
4 layer Stencil on an old oil can.
This was fun. This is from a photo i took a couple of years back, and ran through stencilcreator. I could have made it up to 7 layers and more complex, but it looked good with just four. Lining up the stencils was a challenge, but i figured i would just add a cross somewhere on all the layers at some point as an anchor point. To see the original photo rock on over to
Old Saw Signs
I have a huge amount of all different types of saws, so thought a few could be made into signs. Using a mix of different paints, i started doing some with acrylic paint pens, and mostly use enamels. The main thing here is making sure you get a good flow with the paint, so adding in a little thinners when loading your brush up really helps. Too much and it flows a little too much.
Old Wall Of Death Carnival Sign
This was a lot of fun. Laying out the design and handpainting in acrylics. It was quite a lot of work, and i know a couple of areas i would like to improve. It turned out really nice though.
Death
This was just a chance to work on big bold lines and trying pull a single line as best i could. I think i got the flow about right and it turned out really well.
Pin Up
Based on a bit of Sailor Jerry Flash, i created some stencils for laying down the main colours and hand painted the outlines and more intricate bits. Better Stencilling would have helped, but that is something i am addressing in some further work.
Other work.
I’m always thinking of other techniques and images i want to create, using different mediums, and different canvases. Watch this space for more.
I do enjoy laying down some paint or doodling something in the margin every now and then, and find it outstandingly therapeutic. I can get lost for quite a while just moving paint around a piece of canvas. I think it can be like that for a lot of people.
I am pretty set on learning a few different styles and learning about famous artists to understand the thought process to further my skills and ideas.
About Me.
I’m Gareth, a 41 year old Blogger, Photographer, Maker/Restorer of things.
Trying to make my life as full as possible with learning experiences, and helping others along the way.
I love cooking, making, restoring/upcycling boxes, doing fun stuff with my family, photography, giving myself skills and learning something new everyday.
