Ocean Wave

My art teacher has been trying to convince me to participate in the biannual Embassy craft fair here in Monrovia. He finally succeeded, and we were scheduled to sell at the one in December. Eight months is plenty of time to prepare, right??

Well, we got switched to the one in May. May 8th, to be precise. In. Ten. Days.

I have two paintings ready.

I'm hoping to do at least five more.

Pray for my soul.

I will be exhibiting the tiger previously posted, and one I just finished - a wave. Also my first completely solo painting. My teacher never touches or fixes my paintings for me, but he does tell me when I'm doing something wrong or gives me advice on what I need to do. It was hard at first to paint without any coaching, but once I got into it there was no going back. :) Pretty happy with how this turned out.

Alona Daire

I've always wanted to try and draw my characters. Well, tonight I did. This is Alona Daire, my MC's ally. She's a serious, quiet person - not shy, just quiet - but has a good sense of humor and is usually willing to try something new.

I started with a reference, just to get the facial structure correct, but then from there I did my own thing. The only thing that looks the same now is the nose. :P

The hair still needs work, but I'm too lazy to do that right now :D

Tiger

So my teacher and I are going to be doing an exhibition this fall, and this is the first of hopefully ten paintings that I will be showing/selling.

When I started this painting. I had no idea how complicated it was, how long it would take - and also how rewarding it would end up being. I am so, so happy with how it turned out. Even if it drove me crazy for awhile there.

This painting took 15+ hours to complete.

Layer #1 was pretty much painting the background black and the rest pale gray. The eyes and nose were lined with black.

Layer #2 I painted all the stripes on. Still wasn't looking great, as the black stripes were transparent and needed another coat.

Layer #3 I went over all the gray areas, texturing it for the fur that was to come, and adding darker and lighter grays for shading. I allowed this to enter the black so that it would look smooth, and then went over the black stripes again, letting the texture enter the gray the way the fur will flow...if that makes any sense. I also shaded the eyes and nose.

Layer #4 I took light gray paint and, with thin strokes, painting fur over all the gray areas between the stripes. Also allowing the gray to enter the black in the direction of the fur.

Layer #5 I went over all the highlights with strokes of white to create the illusion of fur. Entering black where needed.

Layer #6 I took black and used small strokes that entered the gray in the direction of the fur. I also went and painted the eyes again, finished the nose.

Layer #7 was just touching up wherever needed, and then going through the stress of painting the whiskers without messing up the whole painting. o.o And then, of course, signing my work. :3