Airbrush
the 'real' kind and digital too!

Airbrushing has always fascinated me!

The very first time I saw an airbrush work I fell in love with the seemingly endless possibilities that the medium promised.

It brought fantasy art to life in a way I'd never seen before...

As the years went by and life gets in the way, airbrushing sat on the 'backburner'... waiting for the time and place to warrant my attention again...

pictured above Gothic Soul

So, having never done any airbrush work myself, a few years ago I splurged and spent the money on an airbrush course...

pictured above - Thinking... completed on day three of the course

Its really really big!

It was a 5 day course with Power Studios, based in Melbourne.
Daniel Power, the owner of Power studios is a fantastic artist! I love his work!

He takes on classes of about a dozen people and over a number of days, takes you thru different aspects of whats involved.

On the third day we were able to produce our first art pieces, of an eye...followed by hand pics the next day, (titled thinking) and on the final day, our "masterpieces" :)

Being pregnant at the time kinda meant after the course I had to not obsess over getting an airbrush set up goin, and more concentrate on changing life around for little bubba to come! star slither two

Fast forward to the beginning of this year, and I get hold of the brilliant program, adobe photoshop CS3...ooh yea!
And I introduced myself to the world of digital airbrushing!

enchantment

Its quite different from the 'real'/analogue airbrushing, but from my limited experience with it, I feel it uses the same basics...
So here are some of my digital airbrush pieces

above is Mushies

pictured above right is Heartbroken Whispers

gothic angel

Exotica

pictured above is exquisite, a close up of Zafyres face in my piece Trikeuphorica

Trikeuphorica progress

Trikeuphorica

Background trees ps brushset "lady Victoire" ps brushes: "source"

I've been meaning to put up the progress pics of Trikeuphorica piece before now but it has been a busy bee week!

(This is the first 'realist' artwork i have done with digital airbrushing)

So here they are!

all done with a generic mouse! yay! :)

i started with just colour blotching everywhere, then filled it in

this is with my constantly going back to the reference photo...





then did the details...

finished!

this is the reference photograph above, of my daughter Zafyre on her trike! :)

So, The wonders of airbrushing! Both digital and analogue...

I will, one day, get my airbrush set up, and hopefully I'll remember how to use it!

Until then, I'll continue to do airbrush works the digital way...

Take care now!

Peace N Luv to you all!

Drawing Day o8!

Saturday was World Drawing Day.

The aim was to get 1 million drawings drawn in one day for the sake of art.

And Drawing Day rocked (and keeps on rock'n)

So over at Red Bubble, we had a group dedicated to Drawing Day, hosted by the fabulous thickblackoutline and the wonderful Natalie Tyler

If you would like to treat yourself and check out the works created by our Red Bubblers for drawing day, here is the link.

These are my contributions - the ones I did on World Drawing Day-

Pleading with the Beast

A piece I have been meaning to realise for a long time.Inspired by an old wooden cutting, I wanted to portray a conversation of sorts between human and beast.

Can you guess what she pleads about?

My favourite interpretation from a fellow RB artist - Shoes!

The runaway princess fairy

She was a fairy princess, who has run away from the kingdom in her quest to find true love.
I like to draw pretty fairies, and mermaids, all those wonderful fantasy creatures that spark the imagination.

Witheld from substance

This is a biro pen sketch of a painting that is a work in progress…

Starved from substance…knowledge, nourishment, drink, light…all substances we need…here our heroine has been captured by an evil wizard who keeps her trapped within his crystal ball, doomed to look out onto all that would nourish her if she were free…

Elegant Transcendence She looks so lovely in this shot I just had to draw her!
Inspired by a friend and fellow artist, BillyLees lovely self portrait photograph Naked Billy
When I saw the photograph of hers I instantly fell in love with it and had to draw her!

She is a sweet thing and kindly allowed me without knowing what it would turn out like lol!

So, in the spirit of spreading the love, I thought I would also post about my favourite drawings of other artists from the day on RB...

"Sketch 3" by Michelle Walker

I really like this pic, it has a lovely flow to it!
Michelle has some lovely work over at RB.

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"She Sees All-IT'S DRAWING DAY!" by Martinz

Martinz drew this from their beautiful model to the music “teardrop” by massive attack, resulting in it being so round and soft yet still strong. A great example of how music can shape our art.

Martinz is a fabulous artist, and poet, I love all his work.

Definately worth checking out his portfolio!

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Below, from left to right - "one baby to another.....", "Kurt Cobain" and "Kurt Cobain"

by caroline wood

These are so awesome! Definately great culture art!

Caroline is a brilliantly talented artist, if you would like to see more of her art, her website is blackvelvetrocks

She is a new artist to Red Bubble, and all her work is brilliant!

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And last, but definately not least,

"Feathered Friends" by georgiegirlaww, this is just soo cute!

I love cute drawings, those little pieces of the heart that make you smile!

You can almost hear their little chirping...

georgiegirl has alot of cute pics in her portfolio...

"Drawing Day 08 - My Little World" by Japu

This one is a cute one! on top of the world! I love the perspective on it!

Japu has lots of great pics in thier portfloio!

So, Drawing Day was a success, alot of people drew for the sake of drawing, art was inspired, and shared, and although I dont know if we made that elusive one million drawings worldwide, as with the different time zones it will be a few days before the drawing day site will tally the total, but it doesnt really matter the total of drawings, only that we have been inspired, and that is why Drawing Day was a success !

Want to see more of other Artists faves and experiences with drawing day 08?

Vector Goodness Blog

Definatalie

Peace n Luv to you all!

Joys of being a parent!

and the inspired art that comes from such a venture....

"Precious Moments"
portrait I did of my daughter and her father.

I never would of imagined that I would love being a mum so much, and that it would be so much fun!

My daughter, Zafyre, is coming up to 18 months now, and every day with her is a new adventure!

But apart from being a gorgeous mischievious angelic child, she is the best model!

"Child of the Sky" - one of my firsts in digital artwork...

I have never been as inspired as an artist as I am these days, and its all thanx to my little girl!

She has made me take a different perspective on life, allowed me to see joy and hope and feel love I didnt think was possible, she is inspirational in all forms of the word...

and she makes the best model!

Here are some examples of art I have made with her as my inspiration and model -

"My daughter Zafyre, New to the world"

This one above is one of the first drawings I did after having a break from art whilst pregnant and movin house.
Drawn with black pen on cartridge paper, this is a portrait of my girl when she was 1 week old.
She was so angelic looking right from the start....

This piece to the right, I did a little while ago.
We all have our guardian angels, faeries whispering secrets in our ears...

Titled "Believe in Magick"
The poem that goes with this piece-

The fairy whispered in her ear...

“Believe in Us…

Believe in Magick

Believe in fairies

Believe in all lifes joys

Believe in all lifes treasures

Let Belief take your heart

In whatever its form

For To Believe in anything

will make your heart warm…”

"A Mothers Love"

drawn with pencil on canvas sheet...
On the day of her birth, my sister captured a beautiful shot of my girls first feed...
This is my pencil sketch of that photo...

This came runner up in a drawing comp with the theme of a mothers love awhile ago...

(support breastfeeding!!!)

"Daughter of the Skies"

This piece is one of my first goes at using photoshop...
I dont own a graphic tablet or anything fancy, so this is simply drawn with the mouse using burn and dodge tools and some minimal airbrushing (lip colour, hair colour)
I was quite pleased with how it turned out! She's so adorable! (Tho I know I am biased! :))

"magical droplets"

and

"In awe of water"

These two above are part of my "Water Baby" series...
Zafyre loves bathtime, loves the water!

"fairy bubba restin"

Another sketch drawn with pen on cartridge paper...
When Zafyre sleeps, she gets this perfect expression of peace on her face...
an expression I have not seen an adult wear...
an expression with which only those magickal creatures share...

"White Pearl"

Now, my girl was born with a full head of luxurious thick dark hair, which continues to grow very quickly :)
So what would she look like if she were a blonde?

somethin like this I'd say...

Now she really does look like the ethereal angel

my favourite comment this piece has recieved in my portfolio-

"I love the technique you used in this image. It’s soft as a whisper or an angels kiss. Nice work!"

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Being photo crazy and constantly having pen and paper on hand helps alot when it comes to creating alot of my work...Constantly remembering to back up my work on discs is somethin I have to improve on though! The hard drive is overflowing...

Zafyre is already so creative! She loves to try and copy me with scrapbooking and othe rart related ventures, and she has the most respect I have ever seen on a toddler regarding her books and any papers she finds around the house.
So far she has only ripped one book cover, and she got quite upset when she did :)

Although I am leaning toward thinking that she will be more musical than visual in her artistic ventures, as her Dad is a musician, and she loves to copy him and strum on her guitar while he plays.

"Wild Child" is part of my 'Rocker Baby' series

She has an impressive sense of rythm! Loves to dance, spends ages playing either her xylophones, her guitar or the organ, to which she stands on a her tippy toes like a ballerina, trying to reach ther topmost keys...

Definately a very creative little soul in the making!

If you are interesting in purchasing prints of any of my artwork, click on the title links next to the pic.
or click on the link to my RB portfolio to the right.
Also, I am available for freelance work, if you would like a piece created with one of your children, or yourself, leave a message and I'll be in touch!

Peace n Luv to you all!

So what can we use as reference these days?

Copyright law exists to protect our creative works, and our rights, so its easy to forget that there is another side to it, and that is when dealing with what we can and cannot use for reference.

One does not want to end up being sued because they have drawn a picture of a famous photographers work, or used an image in an artwork..

So its good to know that there are solutions!

One source I love is public domain images!

So what is public domain?

the following is an excerpt from wikipedia -

The public domain is a range of abstract materials – commonly referred to as intellectual property – which are not owned or controlled by anyone. The term indicates that these materials are therefore "public property", and available for anyone to use for any purpose. The laws of various countries define the scope of the public domain differently, making it necessary to specify which jurisdiction's public domain is being discussed. Furthermore, the public domain can be defined in contrast to several forms of intellectual property; the public domain in contrast to copyrighted works is different from the public domain in contrast to trademarks or patented works.

The public domain is most often discussed in contrast to works restricted by copyright. Under modern law, most original works of art, literature, music, etc. are covered by copyright from the time of their creation for a limited period of time (which varies by country). When the copyright expires, the work enters the public domain

Can I use any image I find on the net?

No

Freely obtained does not mean free to republish

These factors have reinforced the false notion that "freely obtained" means "public domain." One could argue that the Internet is a publicly available domain, not licensed or controlled by any individual, company, or government; therefore, everything on the Internet is public domain. This specious argument ignores the fact that licensing rights are not dependent on the means of distribution or consumer acquisition. (If someone gives a person stolen merchandise, it is still stolen, even if the receiving party was not aware of it.) Chasing down copyright violations based on the idea that information is inherently free has become a primary focus of industries whose financial structure is based on their control of the distribution of such media.

(Almost) everything written down is copyrighted

Another complication is that publishing exclusively on the Internet has become extremely popular. In countries party to the Berne Convention, an author's original works are covered by copyright as soon as the work is put into a "fixed" form; no formal copyright notice or registration is necessary. But such laws were passed at a time when the focus was on materials that could not be as easily and cheaply reproduced as digital media, nor did they comprehend the ultimate impossibility of determining which set of electronic bits is original. Technically, any Internet posting (such as blogs or emails) could be considered copyrighted material unless explicitly stated otherwise.

The distribution of many types of Internet postings (particularly Usenet articles and messages sent to electronic mailing lists) inherently involves duplication. The act of posting such a work can therefore be taken to imply consent to a certain amount of copying, as dictated by the technical details of the manner of distribution. However, it does not necessarily imply total waiver of copyright.

Furthering the public domain with the Internet

Many people are using the Internet to contribute to the public domain, or make works in the public domain more accessible to more people. For example, Project Gutenberg and LibriVox coordinate the efforts of people who transcribe works in the public domain into electronic form. Some projects exist for the sole purpose of making material available into the public domain or under no-cost licenses. The IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) is attempting to create a virtual library containing all public domain musical scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world free of charge. The Eyebeam OpenLab creates software and hardware projects in the public domain, such as the work of the Graffiti Research Lab.

Note that there are many works that are not part of the public domain, but for which the owner of some proprietary rights has chosen not to enforce those rights, or to grant some subset of those rights to the public. See, for example, the Free Software Foundation which creates copyrighted software and licenses it without charge to the public for most uses under a class of license called "copyleft", forbidding only proprietary redistribution. Sometimes such work is inadvertently referred to as "public domain" in colloquial speech.

So below here we have a gorgeous photograph found in the public domain,

donated by Magnus Rosendahl
I particularly love this shot! I'm planning on doing something with it although I'm not sure yet, as my head is swimmimg with so many ideas, as usual...

So. like I was saying, I particularly love this shot, as where I live it doesnt ever snow.

I have never actually seen snow in real life (sad i know :))

which makes it abit hard to get out there and take a similar shot with my camera :)

So finding this pic in the public domain was great!

The photograph in the top right corner of this post, titled "East Devon Beach" was donated to the public domain by Anna Cervova

Would make a lovely background for some poetry artwork, or great reference for a painting... the ideas are endless....

And my favourite shot I've found as so far in the public domain, one that I'm planning on starting a painting based on asap, is

Sunset In Serengeti by Richard Spencer

Isnt this such a beautiful shot!

And what great generosity the photographer has to place such a stunning shot in the public domain, free for any and all to use it for their own art.

These photographers, amateur and professionals alike, are an underated value to the artistic world, helping keep creativity alive.

So, Have good photos layin around collecting dust?

excerpt from public domain.net

"If you have any quality pictures which you would like to share with others you can upload them under My Account - Upload Image. See your work across the Internet, in ebooks and magazines, on t-shirts, mouse pads or mugs, etc.
We know that taking good pictures is not easy and that it takes time and money. So there are some bonuses for you if you release you pictures under public domain license. They are mentioned under My Account and they are really interesting."

With such a variety of great images available for use in the public domain, its a pity that art theft is still ongoing.

Hopefully the more aware people are made in general of copyright laws and whats available in the public domain, art theft will not only be illegal, immoral, and just wrong, but it wont even be a thought....