CREATING ART THE AMATEUR WAY

This was a steep learning curve for me. I used a macro photograph of a spider on its web, which I took some years ago, for the reference photo. The web was actually on a large fern in my garden and on it are the spider, raindrops, and the golden sporangia from the fern itself which look like jewels in the photograph.  Unfortunately, I thought the best idea would be to create the raindrops by using masking fluid and then painting the background but that was a seriously bad idea. I found, once I had painted the background, that the areas protected by the masking fluid weren't round enough. I decided to use Coliro metallic 'Silver' to cover where the masking fluid had been and it still looked bad. I wanted to make the water droplets glitter. I also wanted the web to glitter as well so I used a 'Uni-ball Signo UM-120SP Gold Glitter gel ink Rollerball pen - at least that worked out!  Sorry to say that the glitter does not show in the iPhone 🙄photo.  In desperation, I applie...

I've been doing a lot of writing lately and am afraid to break off in case I go back into a writer's block, but I have been missing the creativity of using colourful paint. While the frustration of writing often increases my stress levels, painting generally (not always) depletes them. In desperation, I painted a quick painting of a little tree inspired by a YouTube tutorial by Anastasia Mily using Roman Szmal paint. My version took about 15 minutes in my  8x8 inch  Handbook Journal for watercolours (it is not cotton). A link to Anastasia Mily's YouTube channel has been created in my External Links page.  I wanted to animate my tree painting using Grok Imagine.  After several attempts, trying to make it do as I wish, I think it turned out quite nicely within the limitations of 6 seconds. 

I dived further into unknown watercolouring territory today when I painted my first clear glass and colourful marbles. I didn't have any real difficulties with the marbles except for those inside the jar because even the original image seemed unreal. I, more or less, followed a tutorial (link on External Links page) on YouTube for this but my skill and eyesight are obviously not as good as the artist Shaji Chaladan's. He's amazing and deserves a bigger following.  What I found really difficult was the screw top of the jar and in the end had to stop fiddling around with it as I couldn't see what I was doing. I painted it in my Strathmore watercolour journal using Roman Szmal paint. It looks quite pretty in the journal.