charmaine olivia's diary : mermaids

Showing posts with label mermaids. Show all posts

Friday, November 26, 2010

Etsy Sale + Work in Progress pix

Hello darlings. Did you have a delicious Thanksgiving? Good. Me too. In the spirit of sales and all those annoying things, I'm offering 10% off all orders through my Etsy shop until Monday. This includes all original silhouettes, original drawings & prints. (So stoked Etsy is finally allowing coupon codes, makes it easier for me to treat you all!)

Just enter the code:

ILOVEYOU

at checkout for your discount.

I'll also be hosting another giveaway on my fanpage soon. I do giveaways every 1,000 fans, so we're almost there.

I haven't had a ton of time to be able to work on my painting as I've been cranking out these silhouettes for the past week or so. Which is fun, but I'm dying to finish this piece! So, here are a few more sneak peeks of miss Aveline. I started on her tattoos the other night, which is my favorite part. I am so loving octopus tattoos right now. They're more cartoon-y on my silhouettes and more realistic in this context.

I kind of like her in black & white. Sort of tempted to experiment with some black and white paintings at some point.

Anyway. She's coming along. Next I'll be tackling the compasses on her shoulders. I'm also really proud of her mermaid scales, which you'll see eventually.

Got a few shows opening next week:

Dec 2nd - 111 at 111 Minna, San Francisco

111 artists! massive group show. fun times will be had. i'm super excited to be showing next to some reallllly stellar artists.

Dec 3rd - Snowflakes & Candycakes @ 323East, Royal Oak, MI

will not be attending this one. it's a little too far.. someday I'll make it out there!

Dec 4th - Mezzanine, San Francisco

an even BIGGER group show. 200+ artists, fashion designers, photographers, etc. party time.

Okay. Now back to work.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

NAUTICA

She's all done, for the moment. Minor tweaking is inevitable.

click to see it larger

24" x 30" oil, watercolor pencil & ink on wood

Here's a song for you to listen to while I go in to far too much detail about my painting process:

The Innocence Mission - Rain (Setting Out in the Leaf Boat)

Finished her up yesterday. I'm a big fan of the size, it's a little larger than my normal oil paintings, but still manageable. I had a lot of fun playing with nautical elements, as that world fascinates me so much. The mermaid tattoo is inspired by art nouveau designs. The quote says "fair winds and following seas", which is a traditional mariner's phrase, it's like a farewell/blessing. It gives me chills a little bit.

Throughout the painting process I go through many emotional ups and downs. Mostly switching from "this isn't working, you've lost your touch, Charmaine" and "you know you'll get it eventually, just keep at it". Well, eventually it gets to a point that I'm comfortable with and I take it to the next step.

Here's a little bit about my painting process: the longest part for me is the conceptualizing. I spend a lot of time on the computer sketching in Photoshop, playing with colors and themes. Since I work from photo references I generally draw on top of the photos so I can change the hairstyles, clothing (or no clothing), etc. Once I feel good about the image I'll start sketching it on the wood. Even though my paintings are highly planned out, I leave a lot of room for changes and improvising.

After I'm happy with the pencil sketch, I start with the skin. I guess you could consider my technique more like "finger painting". I like to blend the colors together with my fingers, I find it's a much smoother result than using a brush. (My flesh color palette consists of Yellow Ochre, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Umber, Titanium White and Ultramarine Blue.)

Once I am satisfied with the skin, I start the hair (my favorite part). I start by blocking in most of the color and shape with flat black oil paint. Once the black dries a bit, I bust out my India ink and draw in individual strands, just to give it more life.

The tattoos are predominately black watercolor pencil. I know, water and oil don't mix, but somehow the pencil works great on top of the oil paint (once it has dried a little bit). To get the color hues, I mix a lot of paint thinner with the oil so it's nice and transparent. I suppose some linseed oil would work too. If I feel like it needs more definition then I'll go in with my ink to get some darker lines.

For the blue halo, I was in a bit of a predicament. I felt like it really needed it and I wasn't going to be happy if it wasn't there, but it's difficult to get a smooth and even color when painting with thinned-down paint directly on the wood, as it soaks in so quickly. Then I found an old bottle of Bleached Linseed Oil buried in the depths of my art drawers. It adds a nice gloss and transparency to the oil, which made it really easy to use directly on the wood. It's also thin enough where I could paint directly on top of the hair to get the blue behind it.

Anyway. Yeah. It works wonders. I wish I had used it for the skin! I'm going to experiment with it on my next painting that I'm starting tomorrow. Yes, more tattooed ladies coming up!

Well, thanks for looking, hope you like her.