whimsicals?

I think I finally have it, after an awful lot of reading and experimenting I am having a crack at whimsical art, from what I read this is about taking a real image and adding your own take on it, lets face it I have not quite mastered making it look identical LOL, but that was never the idea. So, I chose a few subjects and put on my own take on them, wondering if I can turn these into cards? might just have a try. Here is my take on an owl, I thought he was quite sweet, also mixed media I have used inks, pastels and watercolours throughout.




Here is my frog, I never showed you but I have countless drawings of frogs, never quite managing to get their feet right, but with whimsical you can add your own, and try give their own little personality.



Lastly here is Fiona the fish, started from a goldfish image and somewhat expanded.



Whilst resizing I then had a bit of a play in photoshop, not sure if I like the originals or the digitally modified versions, so here they are with a bit of PC drama..







I am still practising the calligraphy, about an hour a day as it is starting to feel a bit like 'lines from school', but its getting there.. then I find myself doodling around it. Had to stop doing lines and do some quotes to make it more interesting to learn.

Going to have a go at printing out some cards and 'maybe' try them on sale see how they go..

Hope you had a good weekend, as usual all over far too quickly - soon be time to start another new week, dont know were the time goes!

~SimJaTa~

Calligraphy

How hard can it be? sometimes wonder if that should be booked for my headstone. With my recent drawings I wanted to add some inspirational quotes, so I had a go and wow what awful writing I had! This simply had to be dealt with, and I found many artists used beautiful calligraphy on their work, so ordered pens, ink and books. This coincided with my telling a few friends of my enjoying working with ink and they assumed I meant indian ink and were very impressed, not so impressed when I said it was infact graphic pens. So, the idea of calligraphy went hand in hand with having a try with real ink and real pens.

Of course this cannot be learnt overnight, but according to my Mum I did infact do this at school, which was only 30 odd years ago she has always wanted me to go back to it.

I set to work today, my first lesson (as their always is with jumping in feet first) was how on earth to fit an ink cartridge, as I had decided to try this first - needless to say that all went very wrong and their is now ink just about everywhere, all over me, the table, the chairs and the floor. Here is my first attempt from following insturctions, first learn shapes with a pencil, then learn the alphabet.. Excuse the ink all over the place..






I then had a go at my favourite quote of the week, I may well do better with the next cartridge I havent pierced with a stick and leaked it everywhere so the flow is not too good, making the letters a bit wobbly to say the least. I would like to say the mistake was intentional, but alas it was not... but does add to the appeal and the quote.





Next I tried dip pens, I am having a lot of fun with them, but not quite worked out the right nib for lettering yet - already my writing has improved though, so might be able to finish off some of the background work I have already done at some point. Never know I might actually have something a bit more impressive to show next time.

Thank you to Mick and my friend Julie for concern on the family news in last blog. Without going into too much detail, a close family member had a cancer scare after a final test this week got the 'all clear' so after a lot of worry and upset of what the future may have held, all is now well.

Back to the pens and the fun.

~SimJaTa~