Color Wheel

Lately I've realized that I have way to many colors. You'd think that is a good thing. I also thought so, but I can see that I struggle with making colors, and with getting everything grey. Ugg.
And sometimes is not better to have more of anything. So I decided to catalogue the colors, and see what I can do with them.
What I have learnt: it is not obvious which things are not working unless you try them. Now I now why I was having problems with oranges (almost none of them is bright and shinny, how I like my orange to be). And also, I don't need that many things. I can manage beautiful colors with just six colors (primary yellow- 275 from Amsterdam Acrylics, permanent yellow- 285, permanent red, 336 cadmium red, 306, prussia blue, 566, sienna  411 and white). Next painting will use those, and I will use some of my bright ones just for accent or background.
What do you think?

I'll keep you posted!
Best

This is a trial, apologies for the inconvenience. Not so recovering after all, this are pictures of a possible project...

Van Gogh style

Here is another one. This one is quite wacky, but let me explain...
I was watching this nice tutorial on internet about how to paint like Van Gogh.
And I really liked it.

So, I decided to try. My husband is a fan of Van Gogh, so I wanted to paint something for him.
He also happens to be a fan of Kubrick films, so I decided to mix and match. I got this picture from Kubrick from internet, and I went for it.

Here is the result:

The background is red and orange because of the Clockwork orange. I liked a lot to paint the face in this style, but I found very difficult to paint the camera. I had to improvise part of the arms and got them completely wrong.

What do you think?

Sara

Meditation guy

Meditation guy

So, I've been into meditation lately. It is a hard, hard thing to do. But similar to yoga, running, eating veggies and painting, when I do it, I feel better. So I'm trying.
To get inspired, I decided to try and paint a meditation guy. Here is a post where I can show you several steps of the process, so be ready to laugh!

This was my inspiration:
https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/424956914815224221/

And here was my first version:

I kind of like the guy, was specially proud of the beard, and totally loathed the background. The pink was similar to some of the colors in the wall, but the texture was out of my reach. So, after much looking I tried to use the spatula with pure purple, blue and white for the background (big disaster, I hated it so much I could not bring myself to take a picture). 

Next, I went back to the purples, white and ocher yellow.

OK, that was more like it. I still thought it was a bit bland, and did not like the  dark wall behind the guy. So I got some window paint and made some squiggles on it.

After a while, I realized that, meanwhile I liked the painting in the back wall, the volume from the window paint made it very awkward. So I peeled it. I tried painting it back, but I'm really bad at leafy arabic squiggles.I painted in back, trying to get closer to the outside wall.


What do you think?

Sara

18 April 2016

Redhead girl- based on Milt Kobayashi painting 

Good morning!

So, this week I've been working on my brushtrokes. I'm trying to get looser, which is difficult due to my *ejem* tight past. So, I got this big brush this weekend, and tried to copy (not so loose after all ;)
one of my favourite paintings, from Milt Kobayashi.

Here is the original:
https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/402016704218922462/

I liked a lot how he combined grays and saturated colors to get such a vibrant pictures. And I love the expression in her face!

And here is what I did:

What do you think?

Sara

Stephen's bird:

So, I have this friend, who hates rain and wind. And we live at the Netherlans, which makes for a very cranky friend. The worst of it is summer, because you know, he expects it to be sunny and not windy. And that is usually not the case.
Being the Netherlands, he comes to work by bike. When it rains, the result is similar to this.

Because it makes me laugh, I wanted to make a painting for him with that same look. Now, I know he likes birds, so I looked for the most similar bird I could find to this cat. And this is what I found:

So, now I had my bird, but it looked to ugly to me to have such a close up painting. So I improvised the bottom part of the bird, and tried my best to get that look of hilarious wet disappointment into it. I failed miserably, but it is still fun to look at.
And here is the result:

What do you think?
;)

Sara

The first one!

Good morning Stranger,

Here is my first painting. I started painting together with a good friend of mine (Hello Laura!), who had quite a lot of experience. My only experience was to get a oil painting set for one of the catholic milestones. I tried and managed to make a very ugly brown painting, and decided that was not for me.

As a kid, I was not very handy, and even though I tried, very hard, I always managed to make ugly things. Being a perfectionist, I HATED it. I did not know how to make bright colors, everything looked brown after it passed through my hands! So, along the way I decided art was not for me.

So, going forward many many years, I was now ready to paint, but had no idea how. That is where Laura and her husband, came to the rescue. Both are accomplished painters and generally creative people. So, when I tried to do this picture, they did not shout at me (as I was doing myself): You cannot do that! It's too difficult! And because they didn't, I thought "Well, the worst case is that I throw a canvas". And tried.

Here is the original picture I was trying to recreate:
https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/402016704212045617/

And here is my result:

As an exercise, I will tell you what I like about it. I loved the rock texture, and the fact that is different from the original one (I was totally incapable of doing the other, so I settled). Also, I liked that it looks like a snail and a reflection! And the little bubble, that was nice to make.

I'm not going to tell you all the things that I don't like about it. Because I'm recovering.
;)

Have a great day!

Sara

This is me!

Hi Stranger,

If you are new to this blog, welcome! Here is where I tell you a bit about me.
I'm a Spanish woman, living abroad for ten years now. I've been a scientist for a long time (you know the type, always rational, smart and a bit up-nose kind). A couple of years ago, I started a self-discovery journey, and I realized that was not all  for me.

So I started painting. And I was baaaaaaaaad. But I did not care, as it made me happy! And now, I feel that I'm recovering from all that rationality, and letting myself be the crazy, funny and loving person that I really am. Now, I wanted to share what I'm learning with you, in case my experiences help you too.

I paint with acrylic paints, but I don't discard getting into oils, as I really like the subtleties of color and shine that you achieve with them. Maybe next year!
As you will see in the blog pages, I make a lot of mistakes. And that is OK. You can always cover them, and you always learn from them. I will try to post pictures of the bad, the ugly and the good. And if the painting does not work for me at the end, it's OK to start over. Because it is not about the result, is about the process.

So, welcome and let's have some fun!

Sara

Somewhere in 2015

This is my second painting. Sorry I don't have the process for this one, but let me tell you, many layers of paint went into the making of this picture.
;)

Here is the original picture that I was based on:
https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/549087379546901538/

I like the light of that picture, it reminds me of how if feels to be in Andalucia, even in winter time. I needed that after a long dutch winter! So, here is my attempt:

What do you think? I was pretty happy with the result, but man, the leaves where very difficult. Also, they look more like tangerines than oranges, don't you think? Anyway, now this painting is living with a student of mine (Hi, Sunny) and I hope it makes her days bright.