Monday 31 October 2011

Happy Halloween

Have a wonderful Halloween everyone who's celebrating it! As I've mentioned before, we don't really have Halloween over here, although when walking back home from the station, I've actually seen a few kids here and there dressed up in some rather improvised bedsheets-turned-into-ghost costumes running around with bags ready to collect some sweets. I'm not sure how many of them actually know what Halloween is, and where it comes from, but I guess the sweets are just too tempting :). Well, they didn't ring my doorbell, which is just as well, as I didn't have any sweets. All I've got are my gorgeous pumpkins, and I'm still fascinated by them. I just love their colours and shapes!


And they're a perfect subject for practising my sketching and watercolour painting skills. The green spotted one I enjoyed particularly, patiently buidling up one layer after the other. Here's a step-by-step of how I did it. It really isn't that difficult, it just takes some time and patience. (Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to make that picture series bigger than this):



It's so relaxing, like meditating! Just concentrating on the colours and patterns, putting one brush stroke or dot after the other, down on to the paper. I've done three of the five (although the warty one isn't finished yet), so there are two more to go. And then one of them also wants to be turned into a nice soup!



And then there are all those lovely leaves everywhere outside! I've started painting some of them too, and I've got lots more to do. I'm so glad I re-discovered my watercolours. All these autumn things are just perfect for them. I'd never thought I'd enjoy them so much!

4 comments:

  1. My favorite is definitely the warty orange one! What a great drawing and painting! Looks like you're having a lot of fun. :)

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  2. Brilliant. It always amazes me how artists can get such depth with what seems to be such ease, and so few strokes. I would have given up at the sketch stage because mine would have looked like a dead spider almost immediately.

    That warty one is a bit scary, but of your paintings my favourite is actually the smaller, plain orange one (top left in your last series of 5) - you really got the watercolour working so well at showing the light and form.

    Enjoy your soup, and remember - small ghosts can be made into excellent pillow cases!

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  3. I really like this post - it makes painting seem so easy. I'm a fellow BYW student - glad I stumbled across your site. It's really different. Good luck!
    Heidi

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  4. Love your paintings, creativity and inspiration! I am also in BYW. It's good to meet you.
    Laurie

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