Oh what a face

My art stared out in the corners of maths jotters when I sat in the back of the classroom and doodled. As time whent on insted of progresing in maths my drawings progresed. As the room was always fool of people I had an endless supply of subjects to study. With many of my drawings most where pen scetches in which mostly just looked at the features like the eyes but not where they actually are.   

                                        

At home I was able to use acrilic paints to add colour. This painting has very little tone overall in the face so it lookes very flat. The fact that seemed to have stuck in my head and made me do this over and over is, the peach toned colour we all think is what skin is but in reality your skin is made up of many layers of semmi transpatant cells and much darker blue, brown and green tinted shadows. 

                                         

Over the years my stly has tended to be fairly light when drawing and every one always says that they can tell if it is my drawing but, the problem is that they never know who it is that I have drawn. All the things that I have not been consintrating in the corners of joters at school like the shape and structure of the face and the dark tones mean that it dosent look like anyone specific. There are many rules that artists use like the head is usually the width of 5 eyes, with the width of one eye over the bridge of the nose, but to creat something that looks like the person you are drawing you have to look past all the formulas you know to the actual face and see how it is different. This is something I will forevery be working on and I am nowhere near to perfecting. 

                                         

Chalk is a material I always hated in school art classes. It Is messy and smeers and never seems to work the way you want it to but, now I see the benefits. You can create contracting tones easily, it gets round the problem I have of being to worked about rouining the line drawing to put tone in well and it is always nice to fine another medium to experonment with. 

This in not a very good time line of the drawings, there are about two billion more I could use but I think that these are just a few of the ones that show both good and quits a lot of bad points. Some times it takes a long time to figure out what is off with a drawing and even doing simple things like taking a photo of it and looking at that or leaving it for a day can help just change your view. 

 Eleanor X   

Windmill

This painting was an experiment really. This painting is dedicated to Vicky a good friend and wonderful person. She loves leopard print hens the addition. Colour is something I am always exploring and motion is the other main things I looked at.

                               Eleanor X

Face up

So I am just back to school after the holidays and my higher art folio is just being sent of. I know I have done a post on my final but I didn't show my development.

***

It has come a long way since i started it and i wanted to show how I developed my ideas. I have never done a portrait before and so this is a new experience.

I started by working out the facial structure and blocking in the colours. 

I added a back ground, And worked on the skin mainly. 

When i had worked out the skin town better using dry brush I had to change the hair a bit. 

Croping is an important part and I used white card to look at different ways of cropping.

The development that I did will also be marked and it is just a series of scotches and paintings that lead to the final, including some writing about it all and a photo as my starting point.

so this is my final : 

Eleanor X 

inspiration.com

Inspiration when painting or doing art is the thing that ether makes you want to paint or not. So because of this is is really important. My 3 tips are ...

1.

This is where I find lodes of photos to inspire me about a subject and get ideas about how to do things. It is so easy to use and there is so much content every thing from how to paint a face to wedding ideas and yoga to strengthen you body. 

Follow me at - https://uk.pinterest.com/eleanorlumsden/ - to see my inspiration for projects on my art ideas board and all the other things that inspire me. 

2.  colect photos when you are out and about : 

on a walk ..

in the car ...

when you see the first snow drops ...

when the sun shines ...

on the London eye 

even what you eat !

This can all be useful when you don't know what to paint or draw and keeping them on your lap top means that you are never out of inspiration. 

3. colect post cards and make mood boards- 

mix of different photos that I have used before in mood boards 

post card collection 

These are something I do in the corner of my room I use for painting. Just print out photos and collect objects and even fabric that interests you. It isn't as portable as the photo one but if you have a place where you can deep it then it works well. even gust finding a large bit of card to tape them on can do the job.

keep inspired. Eleanor X 

sibling sketches

I have two very different and lovely sisters, Lily and Jasmine. these are just some simple scotches I did of them of a resent lone train we took to London. Although they are not entirely accurate drawings I am working on it and hopefully as they are always around I will get better at capturing the real them. 

dedicated to Lily and Jazz. 

Eleanor X 

Sunny favourites

The Sun is back for this brief spell of holiday I have before my exams. Work has temporarily ground to a holt and for a change I wanted to share some of the things I am loving at the moment. These are just 5 things that have made me happy and so I hope they will do the same for you.

1.

I have just started reading this and at chapter 3 i am already completely obsessed with it. I think this it the most well written and captivatingly in chanting book i have ever read and i would thuraly recommend it to every one who has not already read it. 

2.

beck - morning. this is a really beautiful and relaxing song to calm you down and chill to. I even paint to this track. 

3. 

I have always found that good skin makes me feel so much happier. I got this just a few days ago and for my it is amazing. it has spf 30, it is moisturising with out being really thick and it blends so well. it comes in a range on colours so if you are really pail like me or darker you can find one that sours your skin tone. 

4. 

I have been using these paints since christmas and so far i think they are great. these have really bold colours which you know i love and they are a great consistency. I have the 10 colour mixing pack and i have found that this is the best one i have had so far for creating the full range of colours I use. 

5. 

I love the summery floral and fresh smell of this perfume. It is my summer sent and although it is not technically summer yet this makes me exited for it. 

on that note i leave you. Have a lovely time in the sun! Eleanor X 

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The Amour Leopard

The Amour Leopard - there are less then 50 left in the wild and only 200 in captivity, and because of this  it is one of the worlds most endangered animals. I saw this beautiful animal for the first time when I was 10 in Edinburgh zoo and was so struck when I read the sign that said how many where left that I cried.This is one of the first experiences I had with this conservation and now I plan to make it my job, after school.

I hope that by sharing this you not only understand where some of my paintings come from. Also I hope it makes you, at least a little, think about what you can do. thank you.
Eleanor X

Progression

  This is a still life I did last year. It is a water colour and it was A3.

I think that this year My work has progressed more then any other year. Because of this blog I have had to put up work that is a high standard and worth writing a bit about. so this is really just a small post to show that if you work anything can happen. Recently I have done a lot more work so I will be uploading a lot more over the next few weeks.  Eleanor X

      

Selfie?!

This is my school art project final. it is acrylic that is layered up to give texture and form. During this project I was looking at scale of the face and hands.

I found this a real interesting project to work on at I have never done a self portrait before, much less in paint. it was a kind of jersey of discovery, the techniques I was working on was with the paint i think are something i can use in many different types of paintings and even drawings.
                                                                  Eleanor x
                                                               

Daisy

I have a new cousin! She is called Daisy and i sent this card to her when she was born. it is done in a mix of acrylic and water coulee washes. this gives the background the colour and the over all texture of the painting its look.   

 Eleanor X

This is a close up of the same painting.

In the shadows

There is a nostalgic calm quality about summer sunlight in the afternoon. these are two photos that I took last summer that when I was looking at I thought sort of showed this in a way and I liked the mood they create. i will hopefully be taking more photos as I am taking a corse at school next year. 

Eleanor X 

A walk in the woods

The woods around my house are beautiful, but in the winter the light is more mellow and calm. I like to walk in there as i find it a good place to think and get inspiration. these are just some pictures that i took on some of my more resent walks. Eleanor X