Hi my loves!
It feels like so long since I did a regular speed-painting video, I’m so happy to be
getting back into the swing of it all.
I’ve been doing a lot a lot of sketchbook work recently and now that I’ve finally
finished my travel journal, I’ve had the time to explore new ideas and start working
on a bigger scale on standalone pieces outside my sketchbook again.
It was pretty daunting at first, I meant to have a video up for you all last Wednesday,
but I found myself second guessing every idea I had, I almost just kind of forgot…
what I do.
You know.
Like what do I even like painting, what is my style, stuff like that.
So this week I’ve just been exploring a few things, looking at my old videos, seeing
what I like and why I like particular things.
And I did a little brainstorm and I came to the idea that I wanted to paint something
floral, because I love the colours and the patterns and the textures.
And I didn’t want to complicate it any more than that.
Baby steps at the moment.
Just taking a simple idea and running with it.
Now, another challenge with this one was that I, if you watched one of my more recent videos,
I am trying to ween myself off my dependence on outside influence for my work, so by that
I mean, looking at pictures online, photos and other art, to help my with my ideas.
I don’t think theres anything wrong with that, it’s actually really useful to flesh
out existing concepts with references and stuff, but for me, it’s gotten to a point
where, I cant even come up with ideas anymore without some kind of visual stimulation.
So, to tackle that, I just started painting, on scrap paper and in my sketchbook.
I had the vague idea of wanting to paint peonies so I painted what I remembered peonies to
look like.
I was using a large flat brush and trying to get as much down in one stroke as possible,
because that’s something I’ve tried in a previous sketchbook and really enjoyed and
it kind of fits into the whole simplified, blocky painting style that I’m working on
with my landscapes.
And because I have painted peonies before, I actually managed to string together some
decent quick initial paintings without having to look at photos.
Funnily enough, while I was rummaging through my scrap paper to find something to paint
on, I found a few drawings of peonies that I’d done as part of my tattoo design page
in my sketchbook series, so those served as some inspiration as well, all of it coming
from me and not from an outside source.
I really liked the linework style of those drawings so I decided to incorporate that
in the painting as well.
And then it was just a case of picking colours.
I didn’t set out to find a colour scheme, I was actually watching a youtube video, one
of those ones you end up watching because it’s in your suggested videos, not remotely
relevant to anything but the title or the thumbnail catches your eye.
I can’t even remember what it was now, but the girl in it was wearing a t-shirt with
like a flame design on it, it was like a rock band concert tee, and I loved the orange and
yellow and the hints of purple in the background.
And I just kind of took it from there.
Like not literally, but I settled on those colours.
Purple, and a fiery yellow and orange.
And as the painting went along I just kind of dipped in different colours here and there,
all mixing one colour from another so they all tied together nicely.
And I’m really happy with how it turned out.
But more than that, I’m really happy with just getting it done, and all of it coming
from me, reminding myself that I’m capable of doing that, creating and executing ideas,
and adding a little something new to my collection of artworks.
If you’re interested in buying this painting, I’ll have my shop linked below, you can
also pick up prints of this as well.
If I do any more like this, I’ll probably make a sticker set out of them, let me know
if that’s something you might be interested in.
And yeah, thanks for watching guys.
I’ll see you soon for the next one.
Bye!