aurelia

Hullo dots and poppets!

Hope your week has been nothing short of splendiferous. Mine has been a busy one. Mindil Beach Market being cancelled this Sunday past was cause for a bit of a celebration in our house, since it meant a much-needed 'night off' for both of us. By 'night off', I do of course mean 'a night of drawing, beached on the couch, trash on the telly, in close proximity of inspiration (the coffee machine and fridge) nary a care that I am a slob at heart and nobody is around to raise an eyebrow at my leggings holier than a blessing from the Pope on Christmas Day'.

 

Among other things, you might infer from this little monologue that I am very much the homebody. Working from home is a dream come true for most people I think. But it is certainly not without its challenges, and I am learning everyday that it's not easy to be disciplined and eliminate distractions. It is always quite wonderful though, when I can synthesise all of the qualities I love and admire about the artists whose work is on my wall, and use it to inspire me to create better work and develop my own art practice. I am so happy to say thay it's very hard for me to be away from my pencils for too long at the moment, and I'm using almost every spare minute away from the market shop to draw.

For all of you who follow my adventures on Facebook or Instagram, you'll already know that I've been on a bit of a roll these past few weeks sketching out a whole heap of imaginary portraits. It is totally indulgent work that I am really loving: beautiful girls with sweet demeanors in gorgeous clothes.

And so, here's a few pics of my latest effort, and the first finished piece of my 'Wallflowers' series: 'Aurelia'. Her name means 'golden', which I thought was kind of fitting for her caramel-coloured eyes and Nordic tresses. Aurelia loves purple and was especially delighted to find this little eighties number crop up in her local op-shop. The only thing she needed to really set the whole thing off was a funky purse- cherry red to suit her lippy; salvaged this time from her grandma's wardrobe and customised with a bit of lace and an antique daisy necklace for a strap. Très chic, no?

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you love her as much as I loved bringing her to life.

Mel x

pretty, pink and a little bit punk ♥

Happy hump-day peeps and squeaks!

Just thought I'd share a snippet of a drawing I've been working on this week . . . oh, and any excuse to fiddle around with Instagram! Only a week has passed since I finally gave in to the iPad craze and as Dave will testify, I am already addicted to those gorgeous lo-res, faux Polaroid effects!

Thoughts?

Mel x

hustle-bustle, bunnies and bowler hats ♥

Hullo there poppets, and a very happy hump-day to you all! Wednesdays of course, are sort of like a Sunday for me, and generally herald another 2am bedtime- cutting mats and framing, printing, packaging up postcard sets, cleaning tablecloths... a carnie's life is never dull!

Of course, the Dry Season markets also mean that my week is split between manning the shop and drawing. So often I say there simply aren't enough hours in my day to get everything done, and this, in a roundabout sort of way, is the very subject of my latest work.

You might recognise these images as three of the five that made up a black-and-white series in my show 'Strange Creatures, Sweet Allsorts'. In the intervening months, a lot of people have commented on the pictures I've popped up of them, until finally I decided, I needed to colour them and bring them properly to life!  Fingers crossed I'll have finished pictures to show you next week, but until now, here's a little teaser of my triptych 'Time for Rabbit-Tea'.

Mel ♥

'ophelia' and a glorious grumpy star giveaway!

Happy Sunday liebchens!

I wanted to share a sort of photo documentary over the week it took me to colour 'Ophelia'.

As with all of my work, I started by drawing her out in a fine mechanical pencil first (you can see the intial image here). Drawing is my first love and I can't remember a time when I haven't been without it.

My wonderful husband Dave then photographs my work, and with a bit of tweaking in Photoshop, I print it out at low opacity on very smooth hot-press watercolour paper (Aquarelle is particularly lovely).

The printed lines act as a sort of guide for me when I'm colouring. I am completely unable to just grab a blank piece of paper and paint straight onto it; I absolutely have to draw at least the faintest guidelines first.

Most often now though, I keep the drawing and the coloured version completely separate: the graphite drawing lets me dream while I sketch in the first faint outlines. Once they're there, the character just unfolds: I let it be what it should be, I get to know the character and they become themselves. It is a beautiful process for me to spend that time watching them come to life.

The colouring is much easier to do once I've got the 'underpainting' printed; we use Epson inks which are waterproof and fade-resistant, so they don't disappear as such but become nicely integrated with the colour I add on top, and add a depth I might not otherwise have using such vibrant colours.

You might notice from my previous post, or from some of the photos I've been posting up on Facebook recently, I've another album titled 'the first attempts of 'ophelia'' which features this same image in quite a different incarnation. I've left that album up on Facebook mainly because it's nice to remind yourself of the places you can go as an artist if only you give yourself permission to try new things and take risks. Shortly after the last photo in that particular album, I took the painting to the point of no return. I couldn't capture her in paint as I saw her in my mind.

There's really no point in failing in small ways: if you want to fail, stuff it up proper royally, take the five minutes granted you to cry, throw a tanty or snap the offending paintbrush in half. And then be proud: jumping in the deep end might well take you to a place beyond your capabilities, but at least you tried.

And silver linings are never too high for anyone with the smarts to go get a ladder. 

If you'd love a chance to win your own copy of 'Ophelia', you can go to the Grumpy Star Studio Facebook page for all the details.

Don't have Facebook? That's alright, all you need to do is: 

1. Sign yourself up to subscribe to or follow the blog;

2. Post a comment here, in as many or little words as you fancy, why you'd love to win her.

One lucky winner will be drawn on Friday, March 30th.

Good luck my pretties!

Mel x