Small Works Art Drop

 

I’ve always found sketchbooks intimidating—those pristine pages just don’t inspire me. Instead, I prefer working on loose watercolor paper, to explore ideas and using these small explorations to spark ideas for larger paintings or to develop into small stand-alone pieces with carefully considered composition, marks, and color.

I’m excited to share a curated collection of 13 of these small unique paintings. These one-of-a-kind, affordable artworks are acrylic and mixed-media plus I've included two watercolor pieces. All are approx 17x22 cm (5x7inches). They are designed to bring joy and personality to your space.

Why not choose one - or two? - for yourself or use them as a unique personal gift this holiday season. Afraid of gifting art? A piece of art thoughtfully chosen is more than just an object. It is special and brings joy, reminding you both of what you share.

 I will be releasing them at 8:00 GMT time tomorrow Friday 22 November.

Click the link below to be notified

YES PLEASE, NOTIFY ME

Value in Painting - Black and White Boards

"The most important aspects of a painting is VALUE  and DESIGN. These two trump colour, texture etc." Nicholas Wilton

Value is essentially the lightness and darkness of a colour. The correct use of value gives a painting (both abstract and representational) depth.

I must admit, because I use a lot of colour, the values can sometimes go awry and I have to always be very conscious of that. So getting more of a grip on this, is my goal for this aspect of the course.

The second assignment of the Art2Life course, was to create two boards using only black and white. I based one on one of my failed paintings to see where I could make improvements and the other was purely abstract.

This one still exists as shown, I have yet to put colour on it

The first one, received some limited palette colour:

I have not taken this one forward and I shall have to find it again in my pile of unfinished boards. I can see it is too busy (so obvious now) and it needs to be unified.

Adding Calligraphic Marks using Acrylic Ink

One of the hardest things I find to do is scribble/calligraphic marks which seems to come so easy to many artists. To me, mine don't look natural and I have to manipulate them by painting over them, thinning the lines with paint or using transparent paint to make them 'sit' in the painting. 

I use a range of different tools - oil pastels, pencil and pen, but today I discovered I enjoy making these marks, and they look more natural, with acrylic ink direct from the bottle using the dropper supplied.

I'm great at purchasing art supplies (my favourite hobby) but often don't make use of everything I buy. I purchased some acrylic inks several years ago but only ever created a few ACEOs, so I am delighted to find another use for them.

Some of the marks on current works in progress

CONNECT WITH ME

Website: www.artbymarion.co.uk

Instagram #artbymarion
Sign up for my newsletter 

Everyone Likes BLUE

A MOMENT IN TIME

Medium: Acrylic on Panel
Size: 30 cm / 12 inch x 30 cm / 12 inch x 5mm

AVAILABLE

It's always a little disappointing to discover you're average. Blue, along with teal and purple are my favourite colours. Teal and purple all contain blue of course.

"By the 1920s, researchers were just about ready to throw in the towel regarding that straightforward question, “What’s your favorite color?” People’s answers appeared far too idiosyncratic to study in any substantive way. But as statistical tools and color standardization improved during the decades that followed, a pattern slowly but surely began to emerge.

Everyone liked blue..."

Continue reading this article in Artsy Magazine
 

CONNECT WITH ME

Website: www.artbymarion.co.uk

Instagram #artbymarion
Sign up for my newsletter 

Adding Texture to Acrylics Part 1

My visitors have all gone home and I am enjoy the peace and quiet lost in painting again.

As usual, I am working on several paintings at once but they all look a little flat so I am injecting some texture into them.

The best way to do this is at the beginning of a painting is using gesso or modeling paste. You can also use these on an in-progress painting but, as they are opaque, you will lose any colour already down.

One method I enjoy using, because it brings up a lot of unexpected surprise, is laying down two, three or even four layers of acrylics on top of one another and then scraping through the acrylic.

Use thick paint for the best results and wait for the paint to touch dry before adding another layer. I like to wait until the top layer is just touch dry before dragging the scaper through the paint. The effects are different according to how dry the paint is. Practice this to see the different effects. The wet paint also lifts off some of the dried paint underneath, giving interesting results.

The first photo is the work in progress. The grey is layered on top of the cream which is on top of the base painting colours and the scraper has been pulled through the paint.

This is a closer look at the texture achieved.

In this photo I have added another layer of blue to the top right hand triangle and again dragged the scraper through the paint.