N ests

N proved to be difficult.....I just couldn't think of anything to paint starting with 'N'.  Neck and nails seemed to be stuck in my mind, so I googled 'nouns starting with n'.  I got n words for crosswords and scrabble and lists of all words starting with n. No quick fix for me. If anyone out there is bored and wants something to do please compile a list of nouns for every letter of the alphabet or if you know a website that lists nouns please let me know.

I nearly cheated when I came across 'nude' as I have quite a few nude drawings from life drawing classes I've been to.

But, I digress. 

I settled on 'nest'.  I decided to do some more monoprints only this time I experimented with 3 colours.

 I taped my paper (rice paper) to the tray and rolled out some yellow ochre. I drew the eggs and a rough idea of the nest and twigs.  Next I rolled on some burnt sienna, drew into the nest some more, then lastly used black to draw in some shadows.  The print ended quite thick. Here is the print after this process.

And here is the same print after I added some white paint to the eggs and cropped it.

Straight after the first print was pulled off the paint, I laid another piece of rice paper down and produced this print.

You can still see the burnt sienna from the previous print.

I added some gold leaf to the eggs and a touch of white paint and cropped it.

I then rolled out some more black and this time tried to draw with a finer stroke.

I rolled pieces of gold leaf into the paint thinking it may get picked up on the paper but it didn't and you can see the white bits where it was.  Next I added some blue paint to the eggs.

What do you think?  I really like the idea of using more than one colour but think I need to have a lighter touch or a finer instrument to draw onto the paper with. Also the brayer wasn't turning properly in the first two prints and left quite a textured background whereas the last print the brayer was turning and the background is much finer and even.

Some more experimentation awaits me thinks.

Mmmmmm Mugs

I love still lives, I can't deny it, and I love old crockery.  I have also started collecting bright crockery for future additions to my paintings.  A few months ago I picked up a beautiful (well I think it's beautiful) bright red enamel small teapot. The sales lady was saying how handy it would be for that one or two cups of tea instead of the usual 5-6 cup teapot.  "Oh" I said, "I'm not going to use it. I'm going to paint it".  I'm sure she thought I was daft.  What do you think? (Opinions taken on the beautiful bit and the daft bit lol)

But, I'm getting side tracked, this week's letter is 'M'.  I just happen to have some bright yellow MUGS that I picked up from an op shop a little while ago so thought I would do something with them. I first thought of a small oil painting, then moved on to a lino print, then considered stencilling.  In the end I had so much fun manipulating them on the computer with Photoshop that I decided to present these images, starting with the original photo. 

Now I'm really spoilt for choice. I can see how Photoshop can be a really awesome tool for future lino prints or just to transform everyday items into groovy pop art prints.