A Couple of Pastels and a Surprise

[smallhobbit]

As I said in my 'Goal' post I haven't been doing any craft recently, but I did purchase some items to attempt Christmas cards for the family this year:



I used my pastels to draw one of the trees I had sketched in the summer:



And I attempted an art contribution for fan_flashworks 



The Challenge was Green, so these are the Greenwoods where the outlaws are hiding.

In the summer one of the Art Card fortnightly emails including a free competition which I entered, not expecting to win anything, but I won a prize:



I have never used oil paints, so clearly I need to learn!

If only I could retire now, there's so much I want to do.

Comments

[badly_knitted]

What are you going to stitch on your cards? Any ideas yet?

I'm not going to have time to make Christmas cards this year, I have two 60th birthday cards to do, and they're going to take a fair bit of work.

Good luck with your oil paints, it's so cool you won them!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Very nice. I like the cards. And you're branching out into all kinds of media.

[howsmyenglish]

I find it amazing that you're so... flexible - i mean, had i got a present like that, i would have said, I don't need it. but you just accept it as a new challenge. I do think it's wonderful of you. maybe, being your online friend and reading your posts, I'll get infected with this flexibility, too... i really might use some of it.

[vix_spes]

Such a lovely idea - good luck! And congrats on winning the prize!

[shaddyr]

So much cool stuff! The cards will be lovely, I'm sure. And oils! I find them intimidating - have fun!

I hear you about retirement - I need more time off to do my crafty things!

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm not an artist, but I have experimented with paints. The awesome things about oil paints include intensity, blendiness, and you have all the time in the world to screw with them before they dry. That last is also a disadvantage, so you have to learn to work with it.

I highly recommend that you print out some art exercise sheets, pencil them on a cheap canvas, and kill a few afternoons just playing with the paints. Learn what they can do, learn which techniques you find fun.

https://drawingninja.com/show/oil-pastel-lesson-worksheets.asp

https://www.thoughtco.com/art-worksheet-gallery-4122671

https://oldmasters.academy/old-masters-academy-art-lessons/old-masters-academy-worksheets-and-templates

https://www.smore.com/8rjzn-portraits-mixing-skin-tones

https://blog.udemy.com/oil-painting-techniques/

https://garybolyer.com/2011/08/11/top-6-ways-to-create-texture-in-oil-painting/

There are some ways to make rather awesome art even without a lot of skill, such as geometric abstracts -- you can make a fun one just using masking tape and filling in the blanks. You can even make practical projects such as sound-absorbing panels.

[moth2fic]

Just a warning - I made cards for all my nearest and dearest while I was still working, then once I retired, well, they all had at least one, didn't they? Now I have boxes of craft stuff and have recently been culling the contents to send to Jamie's school - I wish I knew a brownie troop nearby.