Thursday, 14 November 2024

New Painting: Barn Owl, Night Sky, (And a Strange Tale...)

Image shows a peaceful watercolour barnowl with bronzy feathers perched on a branch against a dark blue night sky of snowy stars.
Barn Owl, Night Sky, by Clare Walker
Click here to see it as a metallic Displate

Hello there, and hope you're thriving in your corner of the world.

This week's tale, is, I promise you, unusual, (for me, anyway).

How This Barn Owl Came to Be...

You see, I suspect that there's a weird myth out there about how things get created.

The myth

It goes something like this. Artist/designer/insert name of other creator here, spends each day in a haze of glorious inspiration, effortlessly "bringing through," phenomenal pieces of work, always inspired by an ever-obliging muse.

That's the ideal, and inspiration *does* feel wonderful. In fact, it may be a (healthy) addiction to inspiration and flow that keeps anyone going in this kind of field.

The reality, however is often a lot less glamorous, and may involve anything from feeling totally uninspired by grey November weather, to shouting in frustration at a website as it refuses to upload your image for the umpteenth time (ask me how I know..:-) ).

However...

However, in this case, there was a fair bit of rare magic involved. Which is perhaps, fitting for a creature as mystical as a barn-owl.

For a start, my one and only real-life encounter with one of these magnificent creatures was the wonder of its silent flight across the lane in front of our car, in the dead of night, almost two years ago.

Image shows a cushion or throw pillow on a sofa/couch. The throw pillow is patterned with repeating barn owls, in a patchwork style.
Barn Owl, Night SkyThrow Pillow/Cushion 



For various reasons, that night also changed my life. (So maybe some of the association between barn owls and transformation has legs).

So, there was the real inspiration. And this week, almost two years later, the image and essence of Barn Owl came so strongly into my mind that I could almost sense its silent flight, from that inner image alone (if that makes any sense at all).

Far from being an elusive muse, the image felt alive, and even had views on how best I should complete it. (And yup, I guess that betrays that I do talk (and listen!) to some of my paintings. But honestly, it's those ones that seem to turn out the best...)

the image shows a round table and chairs. The table is covered in a repeating design of barn owls against the night sky
Barn Owl, Night Sky Round Patterned Tablecloth



It stayed longer than I'd bargained for...

This determined barn owl soul only flew out of my mental space when it had expressed itself in full as a painting *and* been properly distributed (that last part being hand-on heart, something I don't always do as much as I should).

So that's why this bird (started in traditional watercolour, made extra bronzy with metallic watercolour, and then given his or her night sky in several digital layers) was rather special. (And appears in all the places and products scattered through this blog post).

Picture shos a mock-up of the complaeted card, where the owl is surrounded by textured white paper effect and digital gold trim.
Tap or click here to buy the sheet that
will enable you to make this card for yourself...



And so...

And so, the unusual twist in this tale, is that yes, the wonderful, flowing, inspirational feeling of  doing the bidding of a friendly but exacting (in this case feathered) muse does exist after all, it seems.

Will I be relying on it in future? Absolutely not. 

But if a kind and happy part of nature wants to pay a visit in this way again, I'm very open to the experience, and promise to do my very best, both for them and the people (maybe like you, and if so, *thank you*) who want them in their lives too.

Finally...

I hope you enjoyed this strange-but-true tale. And as ever, thanks so much, both for being here, and for reading down this far.

More soon.

Thursday, 7 November 2024

Please Accept A Free Virtual Hug Teddy Image

Image shows a golden watercolour plush teddy on a purple background, and the words ,"Please accept a free Virtual Hug in hand lettering (plus the message that you can share this, in tiny letters at the bottom.
Right-click, tap or click here,
depending onyour device, to download this
 "Please Accept a FreeVirtual Hug"  image.
Hello there

This week, picture says it all. Whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever you're reading this, please accept a free virtual hug in the form of this virtual graphic (and share it if you wish, just as it says at the bottom of the image.).

I can't vouch for the exact image size you'll get from Google when you do, but it should be enough for most things, especially online.

Just tap, right-click or click on the image or this link , and this cuddly bear graphic and his message are yours. Hope you enjoy this bear as much as I enjoyed digitally watercolour painting this image, in Krita 5.

That's it for now. But take good care of yourself. And as ever, there'll be...

Thursday, 31 October 2024

A Totally Surprising Watercolour Tip


Hello there

Hope you're doing well in your corner of the world.

As promised, today's post is short and sweet, *and* a complete change of tempo to those of recent times.

I've finally had chance simply to mess around with watercolour again, and I discovered something that's new to me. Drumroll please... It's that...

*You can use watercolour/(watercolors in the USA, I know) on thin card packaging* (as demonstrated in the picture below).
Image shows white cardboard packaging, decorated with bright orangey yellow, green and brown ink and wash autumnal leaves.
Autumn Leaves on Packaging Cardboard
(Sakura fineliners and Inktense washes used)

The idea behind it

I first had an inkling that this might work when reading an out-of-print book on Archive.org. (If you haven't discovered this *amazing* free site by the way, it's a treasure trove in itself, and an especially good source of written and pictured art lessons in book form). But I digress.

The book itself was actually about papercraft, and not art at all. I've even forgotten its title, as I actually read it a few months ago.

 But it mentioned in passing that all paper of a weight above a certain number (which I think was 250gsm, but don't quote me on that) was actually classed as a thin type of card.

As the best watercolour papers are usually 300gsm and above, this got me thinking. Could thin cardboard be a suitable (and very cheap, accessible and eco-friendly) substrate for watercolour?

The experiment

This week, when I finally had enough time to devote to fun experiments like this again, I tried it out on the next piece of available piece of thin card packaging that came into the house.

Lo and behold, drawing and painting on it actually felt smoother, more fun, and easier to use than a lot of the usual watercolour papers. It was able to take loads of washes without buckling, dried quickly, and gave a lovely smooth, bright  result.

For someone like me, who only ever thought the "official" type of paper would work, this was a total revelation.

Cautions

I should also add some words of caution here. I have no idea whether this works on all types of card, or whether I just got lucky. Time will tell.

Obviously, this is also best suited to practice work too, or things you plan to scan into a computer anyway (more on that soon). There is, by definition, nothing archival about it.

Finally, to be exact and technical, I was using Derwent Inktense watercolour half-pans, which are a little to different to other watercolours, and a water brush.

Finally

But if this sounds interesting to you, and you fancy playing around with the freedom of painting on something you were only going to recycle anyway, why not give it a go and/or suggest it to someone you know? 

(It was so much fun here, that I'll definitely be doing it again, and will update you on progress).

I promised you a short post, so that's probably more than enough from here for now. As ever, thanks sooo much for being here, and enjoy your week.

More soon.