Fig Leaf Drawing

Here is a photo of the process of my drawing of dried up fig leaves in my first drawing class since high school. This class was at Miami Dade College. At the time I took it, I realized I had not drawn in five years. I had completely given up art to work and have several jobs and live “life” like an adult. Well, over the years, things have changed, and my life is more balanced and fun. Ever since this drawing class, I have continued to explore my artistic side. The macro nature assignment (this one) was my favorite of all the assignments that semester.

Pastel Orchid Drawing

The piece of art I showed earlier of a completely digitally created orchid was an inspiration for this drawing. I wanted to get back into using pastels and drawing, so I used that image as my subject. Then when I photographed my drawing and zoomed in, I admired the smooth lines and fine grain of the medium. I like little details and have a habit of looking at things very closely, including textures and interesting features in plants.

Acrylic and Photo Experiment

Here is a photo of my first experiment with 4×6 photo prints, clear acrylic, copper wire pieces, ink, black sharpie, colored acrylic and gold acrylic paint. You can see in the bottom right corner the curved shape of the edge of a leaf that I painted with gold acrylic and salt crystals with gold paint as well. The image overall is very organic and flowing, there are photos that actually started as a real live leaf that was then painted. Ink can be a flowing medium especially when mixed with clear acrylic. I enjoy experimenting. This was one of my first times playing around with this concept. I feel like I am still in the experimental phase of developing this mixed media style of “painting.”

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Just another photo straight from my phone that I really like.

Photo Collage Art

Sometimes I take photos of different things, cut them into geometric shapes, and using double-sided artist’s tape (stronger than regular double-sided tape) I overlap them in a way that looks pleasing to me. The images are taken with my Canon 5D or even with my phone. Then I print them at Walgreens photo center 4×6. I cut the images and adhere them to canvas, or in this case a sketchbook cover, I pour self-leveling glossy clear acrylic over them and smooth it out. You can’t make it too thick or it will run over the edges. Sometimes though with canvas, I’ll put aluminum foil underneath and wrap the edges up to make a custom-sized “dish” so the self-leveling acrylic can be applied thick and create depth. With the sketchbook cover, I did not do it very thick, just thick enough to seal the images down and make it very glossy. Then I apply another layer of the clear glossy acrylic medium and then mix other media in there such as ink, cut up copper wire, colored acrylic paints, etc. You can put anything in the clear medium and the acrylic acts like glue.

Leaf With Water Droplets

Love the water on this leaf. Not a perfect leaf. It was sitting on the ground. But it seems so beautiful to me with its natural variations in color and water shapes. It just fascinates me and I find this image very attractive every time I look at it. Taken with my phone. It’s great that we have phones that are pretty good little cameras too. I am very grateful for that, I use mine a lot. I always have it with me and it’s not as heavy as my Canon 5D. I can just have it in my pocket and whip it out when I see something I find beautiful, such as this leaf.

Orchid Digital Art

This is a completely digitally created image. I created the shapes as vectors tracing over different orchid photos to make the composition with the main orchid, top orchid, and background orchid. Then I added veins and kept playing with blending, softening, overlaying, highlighting, etc. And when I was finally happy with the image, I had it printed on metal with Plexiglass on top.

Wood Inspired Art and Photography

This is a photo of a large dried up piece of wood from a tree that was on the ground while I went hiking in Utah. I took a photograph of it and played with the tones in image editing software. Then I had the image printed it on metal with thin non-glare Plexiglass on front. The curves in the wood naturally looked like this. Very neat.

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Here they are together – the cropped section of my painting and my photo of a red sister plant leaf. See previous two posts.

Painting Close Up

This is a close up section of an abstract painting I did recently. It kind of reminds me of my last post. It’s funny how in life the things you’ve seen or thought about most recently affect what you currently think of or inspires you. Your brain makes interesting connections. Sometimes this happens for me in school with completely unrelated classes my brain makes an interesting connection, and I always find that interesting. My paintings often have an organic feel with curving lines and soft transitions between tones and blending. I will post two other pieces of art I had professionally printed on metal in the last year. Curving lines and natural beauty found nature inspires both of these pieces.