Snarkbunny's Art Thread

[snarkbunny]

I was cleaning up around and I decided to post some of my art work. All comments and critiques welcome....


Colour Pencil
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/miscellaneous/RiverRocks.jpg

Acrylic
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/miscellaneous/RocksandLeaves.jpg

[snarkbunny]

Pen and Ink/Marker

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/miscellaneous/ScourgeOfAustralia.jpg

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/miscellaneous/ChickenShaman.jpg

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/miscellaneous/pirateheron.jpg

[snarkbunny]

More of the art work I've done recently (Did I mention I was slow?)

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/miscellaneous/Modernfamblee.jpg

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/miscellaneous/CliffFace-1.jpg

[Dazzler]

Wow, snark. I love what you do with pen and ink! That rabbit and rooster are really cool.

--Dazz

[snarkbunny]

Thanks, Dazzler. The pen and inks are relaxing and fun even if they take me forever to complete.

[snarkbunny]

I've been having a conversation with howyadoin about micaceous iron oxide, and it inspired me to try it - so I've been experimenting a bit with it to see what it does and how it handles.

Basic micaceous iron oxide - it's a charcoal gray and it has an even shimmery sheen that doesn't show up so well in pictures.
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/Mic_iron_oxide.jpg

The opaque pigments that I tried mixing the iron oxide with just deadened it, but mixing with liquid mirror seems to work to lighten the colour but keeping the sheen..

So I blended to give a series of bases to try layering colour on.

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/oxidetests1.jpg

Sticking with transparent colours (quinacradrone crimson and phthalo. green), I started layering colour mixed with glossy medium. (the oval with the specks is 1/2 covered in pearl mica flake with quinacradrone burnt orange )
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/Oxidetest3.jpg

and then moving into testing drybrushing of liquid mirror (on the smaller reddish test piece) or iridescent pearl(fine) (on the lower right piece)
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/oxidetest5.jpg

Still needs another gabizillion layers on them - but I quite like the depth that it adds to the colours.

[snarkbunny]

Better looks at the sheens

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/oxidetest4.jpg

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/oxidetest6.jpg

[Rallura]

It has a really nice texture to it, doesn't it?

[snarkbunny]

It has a really nice texture to it, doesn't it?

And it even looks better in real life, elegant is the word that keeps coming to my mind. It makes the pearl mica look clunky.

[howyadoin]

Better looks at the sheens

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/oxidetest4.jpg

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/oxidetest6.jpgHmm. This really has some potential, hasn't it?

[snarkbunny]

Continuing to add layers and see what the textures will do -

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/oxidetests8.jpg

I'm finding to get the effects I want, putting a layer of gloss medium between the pigment layers seems to be the way to get it most consistently.

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/oxidetests7.jpg

[howyadoin]

I'm finding to get the effects I want, putting a layer of gloss medium between the pigment layers seems to be the way to get it most consistently.Oh yeah, that'll definitely give you more depth.

[snarkbunny]

Oh yeah, that'll definitely give you more depth.

Yup, but it sure lengthens the drying time - I like the 5 minute drying time better but I do like the richness.

[howyadoin]

Yup, but it sure lengthens the drying time - I like the 5 minute drying time better but I do like the richness.That's where it helps to work on several pieces at once, of course - a thick layer of Liquitex Pouring medium, for example, can take several days to completely dry.

[snarkbunny]

That's where it helps to work on several pieces at once, of course - a thick layer of Liquitex Pouring medium, for example, can take several days to completely dry.

Yeah - I typically work on one painting at a time or if I do multiple, it's because they are linked, because completely different painting just seem to throw me off of both of them. Hmmm, it's either time to retrain my brain or else I can just do the pen/ink because I don't have that problem with completely different media.

Good thing, I only do this for a hobby - I would totally suck if I had to make a living off of this.

[snarkbunny]

Trying out the micacaeous iron oxide in a bigger piece - I'm using Golden Iridescent Pearl fine for the white. I do wish I could get a better picture of the reflective qualities of this. Now I get to decide if I want to add colour to the corydoras.

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/corydoras.jpg

[snarkbunny]

In continuation of my experiments with micacaeous iron oxide and gloss medium:

I decided I wanted to see if I could get more of the translucent luminous quality into the artwork lines as well as the back ground so I started playing with layers and medium and transparent versus opaque colours, etc.

First test - simple line work with heavily diluted iridescent pearl fluid, layered over with multiple layers of toned gloss polymer medium using transparent blues
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/Fish2test.jpg
Note: I just added more opaque so more gloss layers to come.

Next test was using gloss with a heavily diluted opaque (titanium white), then iridescent line work, and clear gloss on top.

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/windtest1.jpg
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/windtest2.jpg

This were both done with very simple line work and very flat. Next experiment will be to work with shading and highlights, so using a tawny frogmouth (http://www.saveourwaterwaysnow.com.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=1851) for inspiration - I'm getting ready to see how this will turn out
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/frogmouth_test.jpg

[howyadoin]

I could see putting opaque layers between clear gloss gels, but mixing the two in one layer could be potentially problematic. Seems to me the opacity of the white would negate the effect of the gel. Incidentally, have you worked with matte mediums at all? If you lay down enough coats of it over a clear surface, you start to get a milky effect, like a piece of glass that's been worn down by sand and water.

And I like that bird. (Oddly enough, even in the photo it looks more like a lizard.) What's your plan for the shading?

[snarkbunny]

I could see putting opaque layers between clear gloss gels, but mixing the two in one layer could be potentially problematic. Seems to me the opacity of the white would negate the effect of the gel. Incidentally, have you worked with matte mediums at all? If you lay down enough coats of it over a clear surface, you start to get a milky effect, like a piece of glass that's been worn down by sand and water.

And I like that bird. (Oddly enough, even in the photo it looks more like a lizard.) What's your plan for the shading?

I can see the problematic aspects of it for sure, but I rather like how the titanium white test came out in the background - it was a layer of the mic. iron oxide, a couple of gloss layers, then I poured some gloss medium on top of the then dropped in 3 drops of fluid titanium swirled and spread. It's matte where the titanium is more concentrated and glossier where it's not. I think a few more gloss layers will help bring that out.

I've played off and on with matte mediums, but it hasn't held my attention, the milky effect is both intriguing and offputting, in that I've never clicked on how I want to use it or at least try to use it.

It's the transparents that are the direction that are pulling me at the moment.

Aren't frogmouths awesome? They are australian and the funkiest birds, pull up a google image search of them some time.

I don't want to go realistic, but I may try to get a cheshire cat/fading effect where the bird is more solid in the beak and eyes and then dissolving back into the background around the edges. I do want distinct form and shape though. I suspect I'm going to need to use titanium white/ irid. pearl at some point for building up the highlights because the background is too dark. I will see how far transparent lights will take me first. I'm going to start monochromatic and then possibly add more colours but that may be a different test. I'll be doing some more shading and colour sketches tomorrow.

Where this is working up to is I want to do a series of masks combining elements from the frogmouths and barong dance masks (http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1125&bih=772&q=barong+dance+mask&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=).

[howyadoin]

Oh yeah, that'll definitely work.

[snarkbunny]

More experiments with micaceous iron oxide:
Painting directly on the iron oxide and putting the gloss polymer layers on top.
http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/th_cat.jpg?t=1305591696 (http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/cat.jpg)

Glass bead base with layers of gloss on top, with zebra in iron oxide and more layers of gloss polymer on top of that.

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/th_zebra.jpg?t=1305591696 (http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww253/snarkbunny/art/zebra.jpg)