Fire Water

Usually when I start off a painting I will have some idea of what I'm doing, like some reference pics, or sketches, but this was made with no plan whatsoever. I started of just slapping some paint on my palette and applying every color at once with an oversized brush. Then I went back with a much smaller brush bringing out the brightest hue I could. Then darker colors were put in to create depth. The sky was actually the last part I did. I call the piece fire water because it reminds me of how paint reacts when dripping alcohol on it. You might notice the face hiding in the "mountain", I wanted to get rid of it at first but I'm leaving it. This was a fairly small scale painting, about 34x18 inches. I would love to try something like this again, this time purposefully adding in figures.

Hands & Feet

I can't say this enough to people wanting to improve their art, practice practice practice! Whatever it is you want to do it requires patience and time, you don't just master a skill overnight. Once you tackle true anatomy then your style can take over, but first there needs to be an understanding of the body works. You can always look at your own hands or a friend's, however I prefer a picture. That way your limbs won't tire or eventually lose their pose. Last thing don't worry about being perfect, it's hard to see but there are in fact under drawings, I just like to draw really light at first.

Resting Tiger

You might have seen an image similar to this circling the web, this painting is from a photo I found online. I have worked with oil before but this was my first big piece, about 2 by 3 feet. I found oil to be much less forgiving than oil, however the ability to blend paint that was laid down hours before was certainly a blessing when working on a larger scale. Next up with oil I want to be able to handle detail a little better.

The Unicorn Hunt

One of my newer creations, once again using acrylics. This painting was made purely to try new techniques, including gel gloss, sponges, as well as retardant. I actually like how quickly acrylic dries so I usually only use retardant on large scale paintings. My inspiration came from medieval tapestries and the art of Eyvind Earle. You probably know him from his work on Disney's Sleeping Beauty. The whole painting just turned into a collage of me throwing things onto the canvas and seeing what worked. The hardest part was deciding what should and shouldn't be flat as it's not meant to look realistic but there still needs to be appeal.

Trinkets

This is probably when I first started to really get a hold of acrylics and how to use them and is probably one of my favorites, so far anyway. This canvas was actually not gessoed because I had bought it black. It was also my first big still life, based on childhood knick-knacks.

Old vs New

I think sometimes all artists need to take a step back and see how far they have come. We look at a new finished piece and nitpick every detail that annoys us, I know I do. Plus it can be just plain fun to see how much we've improved. 

I had created this during the end of high school and had given it away for an auction so all the pics I have are a little fuzzy. The theme was Portland so naturally Voodoo Doughnuts fit right in. At the time this was probably the painting I was most proud of. Maybe because it wasn't in my house under the bed I didn't have to stare at it and become annoyed.

A work in progress but definitely an improvement. Even now though I plan on completely reworking most of the writing, it nags at me every time I step into the room. Then I still have the brick wall and metal workings to add. Photography isn't my thing so I have a bit of a glare on the canvas. There I go again just complaining about everything I can find, inside I really am happy at how this is turning out.  Both of these paintings were done on stretched canvas in acrylic, both canvas' came pre gessoed but the bottom I added another layer myself. About a three year difference between the two. 

Hey There, Hi There, Ho There

Welcome everyone to my blog Off the Paige. First a little about myself...

I'm an aspiring animator and painter, currently attending the California College of the Arts. Much of my inspiration comes from Disney, Warner Bros. and Don Bluth. Thank you for visiting my blog and feel free to post any questions you have.