Month: February 2020

What’s up?

Almost two months. That’s how long it’s been since I painted with my mom, but what have I done after that? Anything at all? Apart from acquiring the acrylic markers, I’ve been so silent …

It’s true, I feel like I haven’t done much at all, at least not painting. January was full up with other things on my mind, and I didn’t manage to do much at all of what I love to do, be it painting or other things. But don’t worry, I will continue to paint, and to show the results, both here and also on Facebook and Instagram. Hopefully, I will also be able to show you some of the other things that I would like to do. Computer graphics, sure. Sometimes I use that as a starting point for painting, but there’s also one other thing I’d like to try. When I found my Folk Art paint, I was looking for something essential to be creative in that area. Hopefully, I will be able to show you something from that. While I still haven’t found what I was looking for, I have done some purchases, and if would be such a waste of money if I didn’t manage to do anything about it.

But at the moment, it’s painting. I may not be fast, but I’m painting, and I’m sure I’ll be more confident and quicker the more I get at it. Currently, I’m working on a watermill. But unfinished as it is, I’ll show you the work in progress here on the blog.

WIP. Some corrections to do, elements to add, and details and colours, too.

Painting with mom

Christmas came and went, and so did the New Year. In the period between – the “Romjul” as we call it in Norwegian – I showed my mom how to paint with acrylics. Plus some general tips. She is no beginner, having painted for some years, first with watercolours before switching to oil as her preferred medium, but she was curious about how it was to paint with acrylics.

So what was more natural than painting together? We looked through a lot of photos she and my dad had taken and figured out which one would be best to paint. It wasn’t easy, as there were many interesting motives, but ended up with a detail from the coast.

Off we went, first priming the canvas with a dirty ochre colour. This not to let our eyes be fooled by the white canvas about how dark and light the colours really are. And it might give the painting a bit warmer feel, as a bonus. Depending of course on the thickness of the paint. Second, we divided a printout of the photo up in squares (8×8) and the same on the canvas. This makes it easier to place the elements in the picture where they should be. Two general tips she loved.

Then we painted. Well, mostly my mom, with me sitting beside her telling about the differences to oil as we went. But I did a bit, too. Some things were a bit too different from oil …

In the end, she finished it alone. It wasn’t quite as she had wanted it, had she painted it with oil paints, so she wasn’t sure what she thought about it, but it grew on her. And their friends have commented on how much they like it when they have visited, so I’d call it a success.

She still prefers oils, tho.

My mom’s picture (with a little help from me). Maybe she did a few corrections after this, I don’t remember.