Sonntag, 30. September 2018

Fairies - Art Elements theme of the month challenge



This month's theme challenge at Art Elements was "fairies" chosen by Caroline. Even though I had taken time off work, I didn't manage to create a lot. The time was required to simply get back to recharge my batteries. The first days I made nothing. I had a lot of plans but my body just wanted to sleep and do nothing at all. Maybe drink some coffee...


Still, I played with different materials. Most importantly, I started my new water color sketch book! Yay! And I have to tell you, it works like I want it! Water color paper makes it easier. I may play with different brands in the future but probably will go on binding my own sketch books. The coptic binding makes it so easy to have it lay flat and paint in it.


Fairies was a difficult topic for me. Because as much as I enjoy seeing the cute, beautiful or playful interpretations of this theme, it is not me. So taking a deep breath, I thought about the other stories about fairies or the older name fae. If you are into fantasy literature, then you may know that in this world fairies and fae are actually describing different things. Not that it is "right" in the true meaning of these words. Fae is the older one, fairy rather the description that over time became the name itself (yes, oversimplifying here!). But in fantasy literature the name fae is often used for all the fae creatures, the seelie and unseelie court, while fairies is often used to described a certain type.


No, this is not important in general, but it helped me getting my ideas. I am a roleplayer since being a teenager and I also played a lot world of darkness (still doing) including changeling. So I went into the ideas of the unseelie court...


...and went on to the wild hunt. Keep in mind, this is all in my sketch book. There are no perfect paintings but rather ideas and experiments. For my wild hunt I went on to playing with layering to the extreme. There are a lot parts I went overboard (no going back with water colors) but I embrace them because they help me learn.


I also played a little bit with clay and made some new faces (I use the sculpey face mold, I think the most used one worldwide for faces? ;) ).


I had a lot of plans for them, since I wanted to create some earrings with the tiny ones and some beading with the bigger ones (yes, seeing all these gorgeous beaded creations of Art Elements members made me give it another try!)... but... somehow the time was gone. But as soon as I have used them, I will show you the results!


My husband and I managed to at least take a few days off for a small trip. We went to the Scharmützelsee and there we stumbled over this little place. I think it is magical.


Then a few days later back in Leipzig I stumbled over this place. It is not really as green as the one above since it is simply a green corner next to buildings but it made me smile!.


Last but not least I wanted to show you an old project that I still thought was fitting for this month's theme. I so love to use beetle wings in my work and I have made quite a lot of earrings with them. The colours look gorgeous especially in the sunlight.


I hope you enjoyed this month's theme challenge and please have a look at what everyone made!


Guest Artists
Vic
Divya
Alysen
Kathy
Tammy
Kimberly 
Hope 
Alison 
Cat 
Sarah 

Art Elements Team
Jen 
Jenny  
Niky 
Laney 
Claire (you are here)
Cathy 
Marsha

13 Kommentare:

  1. Oooo, I love the Wild Hunt! It's absolutely gorgeous!

    AntwortenLöschen
  2. I love the sofa in the woods, what a place to sit and watch the magic unfold ;) Glad you managed to re-charge your batteries.

    AntwortenLöschen
  3. Your paintings are stunning Claire, I love the ethereal feel to them. I'd love to see more of your sketchbook as you work through it.

    I hope you're feeling well again after your break!

    Thank you for joining me in the challenge!

    AntwortenLöschen
  4. Great explorations using a variety of mediums. The paintings have stories waiting to be told about them, or so I feel. Do share them as well

    AntwortenLöschen
  5. I always adore seeing what you paint in your sketchbooks! These paintings are just beautiful. The colors and the feelings they evoke are just fabulous. Hope you were able to recharge your batteries!

    AntwortenLöschen
  6. Ooh, I love your Wild Hunt illustration. And really, all of the work I've seen in your sketch books. It makes me want to take some drawing and painting classes. The beetle wing earrings are great colors. I wonder if people imagined fairies because they saw such wondrous colors in nature?

    AntwortenLöschen
  7. I think your take on this challenge is fantastic. I love everything you've included here. The fact that you got to break in a new journal doing it is awesome too. So glad it's working out for you. Your eye for magical places is much like mine. The two you showed gave me goosebumps. And, those beetle earrings - they're gorgeous!!

    AntwortenLöschen
  8. I love viewing your sketch book and your ideas and experiments you help make me feel braver to try new things and to not be afraid of things not working out as I expected "I embrace them because they help me learn" wonderful wise words! I really do love your dear girl painting the gold is exquisite but those birds in your other painting I can almost feel them moving...perfect!

    AntwortenLöschen
  9. I love earrings and the colors in your are gorgeous.

    I know you are going to love having a sketchbook that meets your needs.

    AntwortenLöschen
  10. I love to see everyones interpretation of fairy, and yours is fantastic! The watercolor is beautiful!

    AntwortenLöschen
  11. I am so glad you went darker and UnSeelie. What would the light be without the dark? Im with you - that I prefer my fae more earthy, more real - less flitty and pink. Your deer woman is STUNNING> I never do faces, I don't like them - I need to do more and challenge myself.

    AntwortenLöschen
  12. I prefer the darker side to Fae too and I've been fascinated with the wild hunt for many years. I love the watercolour of the wild hunt and the deer woman has an ethereal but mysterious look to her.

    AntwortenLöschen

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails