Glow in the dark resin dragon egg, painted with acrylics

Set backs, mistakes and frustrations.

As I sit here writing this I realise that I am not in a writey mood. All my effort and thoughts are elsewhere and I am struggling to put down the words.  The longer I type though, the more I am getting into it. I find that this is similar to lots of other things, until I actually start and make myself do something, it seems too daunting and big of a job.  Once underway, I actually enjoy it, so without further adieu here it is.  My blog post about my gorgeous dragon egg.

My vision was this magnificent dragon egg, glowing furiously, with a polymer clay dragon tail that protruded out from it.  First off, me using a jigsaw, ugh, we are not a good match.  My mdf cutting of an egg shape not so great.  So all my dreams shattered I had to wait until I had help to cut it.  This completely demotivated me and to be honest I did feel like a failure.  Every time I saw that badly cut egg I would remind myself how useless I am.  Why bother Kristina, I would think.  Nothing you do is good.

I put the egg in the too hard basket.  I would get annoyed every time I saw it.  There was always this part of me though, that saw it and wanted to start, wanted to make it turn into the vision in my head.  The old me, I have to be honest, would've thrown it away and never tried again.  I have this little bit of determination now, that I never used to have.



So with it newly cut by my wonderful husband I decided I could start.
I originally painted the base of the egg in Cadmium Orange hue acrylics.  Then I applied a layer of Golden's glazing medium mixed with the encapsulated glow powder.  It glowed, but not enough.  I wanted the orange to burst out from between the scales when I painted them on, like fire, not like badly painted s%#t.  This set me back again, I don't handle stuff ups very well.  So there the egg sat, taunting me, laughing at me, again.  Until I got so angry that I wanted to teach it a lesson lol.

There are two types of glow in the dark powder available from Glowing gecko.  There is the normal one which can be mixed with most things except water based materials, like acrylics.  They also have an encapsulated powder that costs a little more, glows a little less, but it can be mixed with acrylic paint, water etc.  

I decided to just paint the egg, and make the glow between the scales by painting the areas in.  I started with red acrylic paint as the base layer, added black to make the shadows, and put the scales on.  OMG ick.  Just ick.  Anger again grew within me and I wanted to scream, it looks like crap!!  Well maybe a little more profanity than "crap" was used lol.  Walk away, again.  I walked back though, and even more determined than ever I decided after two hours of individually painting on the scales that I had to redo them all.  Then I had to shade them, covering some up in darker colours, but I was finally seeing an egg shape appearing.  GLIMMER OF HOPE!! 

 I put some cracks in so I could make them glow instead of the scales, less work shhhhhhh.

The cracks I hated with a passion.  I won't go over how long it took for me to get the darn things right.  I almost gave up again.  I was beginning to hate this egg.

NO NO NO.  It just looked wrong no matter how much fiddling I did.  GRRRRRRRRRRR.














I decided to focus on the dragon tail that I wanted to come out of a crack in the egg.  Using polymer clay I made the tail, baked it.  Then held it up to the egg and hated the way it looked.

 I had come this far I was NOT giving up.  I painted the dragon tail but it still looked like some weird tail that didn't fit with the egg.  I think it needed to be bigger.  I kept the tail but it is for something else.  This egg was not it's place.  Dammit.  My 9 year old son said to me, "I thought you were going to have an eye in a crack?"  Hmmmm, no I didn't but that sounds like a good idea, thank you lol.

 Painted the eye, wrong, wrong wrong.  It took me a while to realise that I needed black paint in the cracks, because inside the egg would be dark.  Once I did that it was like angels were singing in the background.

Still desperately trying to make the tail fit, lol.  

I got the normal glow powder, mixed it with the resin and slowly and delicately poured it on the cracks and the eye.  I left this to dry, because I wanted to make it super glossy so it needed another resin layer.  I used Solid solutions resin, I haven't had a problem with it, except for the occasional patch of the art or table that doesn't get covered with resin, no matter how much I spread it.  It's called a dip or something like that.  Very frustrating.  I call them oogies.  So I did pour another layer of clear resin over the egg, but I got oogies.  three of them.  FFFFFFFFluffy puddles!!!!!

I poured another layer, carefully ensuring that the oogies were covered, and agh, nope.  I love solid solutions resin, it does everything I want, and because I am still a beginner perhaps it is something I do to make the oogies happen.  I don't know.  I do absolutely adore that resin.  I'm just trying out new ones to see what I like.  Bunnings the hardware store here in Australia, sell a beautiful gorgeous glassy oh so glossy resin.  Oh I love it, perfect, but almost $60 a litre.  A little bit too pricey.  Save it for the special pieces.

The egg glowed, it was shiny, it looked like a dragon egg, the majority of it was a glass finish, but those damn oogies were killing me.  

You can see the defects in this video on the resin.

I ran out of resin while doing the egg so I bought in bulk a different resin.  It is designed not to have oogies!!!!!  It kept it's promise!!!!  NO oogies!!!!  YAY.

 AND SHE GLOWS!!!  I put glow powder and resin on the side of the egg to make it appear like there is a glow all around it. 

 This is the final product, after weeks of hatred, anger, disappointment and mistakes.  I actually really love it.  

 And here is my pugs reflection in the egg.

Wow,  I just realised that after my initial frustrations of writing something, I have gotten more done than I thought.  It is good to get this out of my head and accomplish something, even if it's never read by anyone, I did it.  I finished the egg, I didn't stop trying.  I love the end product and I feel good about myself momentarily.

Now onto the next project.  I have been focusing too much on tables and resin geodes etc that I have neglected my main passion, painting.  My next big goal is a huge canvas painting of Aquaman's face (Jason Momoa).  With water dripping off it.  In oils.  I cannot wait to grid it up and start.  I just have so many things to get done.  I also think Aqua man is going to take me two weeks to paint so it won't be done in time for my next blog.

I am unsure what my next blog will be about.  I'm thinking maybe a detailed (kind of) blog about the products I use in the resin geodes, like the glitter and the gems etc.  Or possibly I could do a blog about the Captain America table I will be finished this week.  Or the one I am looking forward to but I know I will fail and get angry at for a while, the harry potter glowing table I have plans for.   I also want to address mental illness and it's ability to kill every thing and every relationship in my life, and how I chose to fight everyday.  Some days just making sure my kids are happy and safe is enough.  Mental health is very important I am learning.

Anyway, enjoy your week.  It is my daughters birthday this week.  She is a beautiful 22 this year.

Enjoy yourselves.


Please follow me on facebook........... KristinaObrienart
I am also on Instagram.......... https://www.instagram.com/kristina_obrien_art/
Aaaand Pinterest....... https://www.pinterest.com.au/krystalrose316/pins/

Hopefully within the month I will have my own website selling my one of a kind products, and if I can conquer my fear of being seen I will have a Youtube channel. 

Making my first Resin geode after I saw Mrs Colorberry

OMG Resin geodes!!!!!

About six weeks ago I was flicking through facebook when I saw a magnificent piece of art that I just wanted, I needed to create.  It was Mrs Colorberry, and I watched the timelapse of her making a geode over and over again and decided to try it myself because it was just too beautiful not to.

This is the end result of my attempt at a resin geode table.

I wasn't too sure about using MDF so I used plywood, I think it was 12mm thick.  I primed it ready to accept the resin.  If I didn't prime the wood it would just suck everything up like the Bermuda Triangle.  I use gesso now but for this one I used a paint and prime spray paint, white.

I googled for geode images that I really liked, the blue seemed to make me happy lol.  So I then drew out some lines which I wanted to the resin to follow, lol, resin to follow, lol.

I didn't cut a hole in the middle of the geode this time because I wasn't sure it would work, so I decided to use resin with black resin dye to pretend to be the hole in the middle.  I actually let this dry overnight so it wouldn't mix with the next colours, that pesky resin, always wanting to self level.

Then the next day I attempted to do the blue and white resin layers, using a heat gun to mix them together so they looked natural and pretty.  Remember, gloves, mask when using resin and a heat gun.  Even if the resin says it's ok the colours you are mixing in it may not be.  Better to be safe than sorry.  Also make sure the piece you are working on is level and in a safe and secure spot covered from wind and dust.

I have these awesome resin pigments from Solid solutions in Australia, they make the most beautiful colours ever!!!  solid solutions resin and dyes

This is my attempt at the middle and keeping the resin within the lines, hmmm, so far not too bad lol.  The rocks I placed around the area I wanted the resin to cover, they were some clear rocks.  

This is the next layer, though still technically the first layer, I used blue rocks, blue dye in the resin and white dye as well, and of course glitter.

I had the plywood sitting on my painting mason jars, yeah, don't do that, if there is resin dripping over the side it collects around the rim of the jars, and makes it super hard to remove when dry.

After the layers above had dried I then decided to do the black edge, which I didn't want mixing with anything.  I also had black sand that I put on the edges of the geode to make it seem more realistic and natural.

I wanted this geode to be the most beautiful thing I ever made, so I ensured that all the layers were dry before adding the next.  The next layers were resin and glitter, mmmmm glitter, so pretty.

Then I just placed some more gems and glitter in each of the layers, and then followed all of this with a few clear coat resin layers to make it smooth.

The base was made by my husband and son out of lightweight aluminum.   The end product is a layer filled, shiny glittery monster which I have fallen deeply in love with.

So shiny and glass like....mmmmmmmm

I love the iridescent glitter that makes it look green from one angle and blue from another.  I am super proud of this baby.

Moral of the story, don't burn yourself, follow the reference picture, don't put so much glitter on the final layer.  Do enjoy it, make layers and have fun.

Next up on the blog will be my Peter Stormare oil painting.  This is the painting that made me realise that I love to paint, and I want to get better.

Have a great week, an artists week.

Painting Tyrion Lannister's greatest moment in Game of Thrones........

Tyrion Lannister's greatest moment you ask, there's so many, True, but this......

Was his proudest moment don't you think?

To begin with I do not chose the easiest of characters to paint do I?  Peter Dinklage (Tyrion) was super hard to paint and honestly I am still not happy.  I can see the errors everywhere, but that is where time and practice come into it.

To start with I wanted to paint him on a wood canvas.  Aldi actually had some wood boards for sale a few weeks ago, so I got a few.  Got to be honest, I did not find them the greatest paint on.  There were also splintered edges on them,so I had to sand and gesso the board a fair bit.  Once that was done I began painting.  

As always, this bit is scary, it's the "Oh crap should I just burn it and run!" moment.  I drew him very loosely in and then went over him with acrylic umber, then I did the whole board in an umber wash, basically very watered down umber paint.  I use Golden Glazing Medium though because I don't want to use too much water because under binding just doesn't sound great.

I always have a problem with backgrounds, always.  This one just came to me though, I really did want it like the reference picture.  So I looked around at tutorials to see if anyone had something similar for me.  Of course The Art Sherpa had the perfect background.  This is the link to the background painting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBUu2gZ7-R8&t=4601s

I of course changed things around and added the extras that I wanted, and took the lighting in my reference photo into consideration.  Plus I added copper paint.  Oh my that is a wonderful colour!!

I went over the lines of Tyrion so the background would look complete.  This is all still in acrylics, mainly because I do not have the range of colours in oils that I have in acrylics.  Yet.

Then after doing a grey scale, which took longer than usual.  His nose and eyes and mouth were killing me, I almost gave up.  But I wanted to paint him.

I didn't have any natural light in the garage when I mixed up his face colour in oils.  As a result it was very pink, I need natural light.

This is a quick timelapse of my attempts to fix up the skin colour and get his face right.  Just doing the same things over and over again.  I needed to walk away.

After all the fiddling around I decided to just get on with it.  Just paint on the days I felt like I could handle it.  His face and angle was just so difficult, but I didn't give up.  Made so many mistakes, got super angry, but I kept going. 

I will make more in depth painting videos once I become more time savvy, right now I'm fumbling around like a little lost puppy.  This is all so new to me, I am used to hiding and not letting anyone see my work.  So this is really difficult.

I just needed to get back on the horse and start blogging, I have been scared, but I will persevere.

In a few days I will have the resin geode table that I made up on the blog.  It was my first foray into table making, large resin use and geodes, so of course I had to go big lol.  Yep, made mistakes, learnt from mistakes, I hope.  Please check out the result of my month long resin table top below.  I like it.

I will have a more in depth blog about the resin geode table, as it is long and complicated but sooooo worth it..........

 

Tips on oil paints and mistakes not to make.

Oils are FREAKING AMAZING!!

 Expensive, they are expensive, yes, but they last so much longer than Acrylics.  Oils are also not born equal.  I have the cheap ones (mont marte), the middle of the range (derivan) and a little bit higher on the scale is Artist Spectrum and Winsor and Newton.  They are definitely more expensive per ml compared to Acrylics (some of them lol), but a little goes a long way with oils.  If its kept right you can keep using the same little speck of oil over and over again for a while.  How long?  I do not know lol.  It took me ten days to paint my Peter Stormare (Czernobog) portrait, and I used the same squirts of paint from the beginning.  Except with the cheaper oils, they were not always usable.

I bought all the good quality oil paints I have recently from a shop here in Hervey Bay that I absolutely love.  It is called Art and Soul Studio and it has absolutely every kind of paint, including Golden paints (YAY OH YAY).  Here is the link for the shop if you want to check it out,  Art and Soul Studio oil range
I highly recommend it.  I could get lost there for days lol.  

I tried a long time ago when I was very sick to do an oil painting, didn't bother with YouTube or any instructions on how to use oil paints.  Mistake, bad bad mistake.  I didn't even realise this until recently though.  I am kind of embarrassed about the mistakes I made 😳.

 I, of course decided to use one of the biggest canvas available to me, and the cheapest oils I could buy (mont marte).  I also completely disregarded copyright rules 😰.  This was supposed to represent my anorexia, because at this stage I was lost in it, devoured by the darkness.  I still wish to paint my very own version of this painting.  It is supposed to be me on the top of a bed reaching out to touch the monster under the bed who starts turning me to bone.

Mistake number one:

• Canvas tooooooo big for a very beginner, no, just no.
• Copyright, ok I was only doing this for myself so no harm no foul, but in reality it's just plain wrong to copy others work.
• I (So embarrassed to say this), used oils like acrylics.  I had no medium like Galkyd or Linseed oil or liquin.😞
• I didn't clean my brushes (I know, I know).
• I didn't take advantage of the best aspect of oils, blending!!  I just dumped it on like acrylic and didn't blend.  I look at this cringe, I am so sorry for burning your eyeballs with my blasphemy lol.
• In theory I think this is a good idea, and definitely when I have more paintings under my belt I will take this on, just like I took anorexia on.  I may not win, I may just put it in the cupboard, but I am going to redo this idea. 
• There is nothing wrong with cheap oils for beginners, it is definitely money friendly.  I will say this about mont marte oils, they do not have the range the more expensive brands do, but in a beginner this isn't a problem.  They work quite well, unless they are old and then they are drier than my skin on a summers day in the Adelaide dessert.
• OMG I just remembered I didn't even (so sorry) gesso the canvas.  😨
• I apologise for my errors against oils and painting lol.  I threw this one away in a fit of temper because I couldn't do my face.  Then I decided I was worthless.

Don't ever let a painting or a creative activity decide your worth in this world. 

 Now I am still learning the potential of oils, they definitely have their benefits over acrylics.  They have more CADMIUM colours.  They have cadmium green, I have not seen that in acrylics yet.  It is pretty.  Oh so pretty. Still to this day Oil paintings are considered more valuable than acrylic or watercolour.  I think that is based on the Masters and their expertise with oils.  If I did the exact same painting in oils and acrylics the oil will sell for more.  I don't believe there is any reason for this except an ingrown belief that we all have that oils are more worthy.

I won't lie, I still haven't decided which paint I prefer, but from recent activity I'm leaning towards an acrylic base with oil on top.  Acrylics are forgiving, they can be blended like oils if you use retarder or Golden Glazing Liquid.  They are cheaper in the beginning, they are easier to fix mistakes, they do not smell anywhere near as bad as oils and their mediums and cleaners. It is so much easier to clean the acrylic paintbrushes.  I still have not found a an oil paintbrush I love.  I've figured out I prefer the soft smooth paintbrushes for oil but I do not have many of them.

Going from acrylics to oils is like going from scrapbooking to cardmaking.  They are in the same category but they are nothing alike.   

Oils just have this smooth buttery feel about them.  Thinning them with a medium or odour free solvent is amazing.  Painting oils on wood, yes, just yes.  It's like they were meant to be together.

This is my very first fantasy painting, done all in oils except for the base coat.  Oils can go on top of acrylics but acrylics can not go on top of oils.  Why I hear you ask, well here is the very technical answer, because everyone says so.  Maybe one day I will try it and maybe my canvas will explode, or crack, or come to life, but right now I follow the rules.  

 You decide for yourself what is best for you, I thought acrylics were the bees knees until i actually used oils how they are supposed to be used.  For a quick painting I will chose acrylic, I still love acrylic.  But oils, they just have sooooo much potential.  This is my oil portrait.....

 This is my acrylic portrait.....

 
 I love them both, but oil has so much more potential don't you think?  I would love to hear your opinions and even see your oil vs acrylic paintings.



Love

Kristina O

Painting a 3d resin doughnut

DOUGHNUT PAINTING AND RESIN!!

This is the finished doughnut with the resin on it.

Fairly different from what I originally painted, and I am definitely not happy with the resin on the icing only.  I mean the concept is great, I love it, if i had of pulled it off.  Unfortunately the second I sat down to perform this delicate operation my boys decided to invade my studio/garage.  That was fine, they were playing, I was slowly pouring the resin trying to get it in the right spot without moving.  Then the circus began, I won't go into details but it ended in a remote car having a broken mirror because it got run over by a bike, intense and very loud screaming by the four year old.  Attempts were taken to run over my 15 year old with a bike, my dog running around like a crazy animal knocking stuff over, climbing into shelves and bumping into me.  Needless to say I could've done better, but at least I won't forget my first attempt thanks to my adoring and loving children lol.

To begin with I just drew a doughnut, simple doughnut.  I wanted icing dripping as the whole plan was to do resin on it.

Then as I've been taught by youtube videos, I have to block in my colours.  I had decided the icing was going to be chocolate, the background black and I wanted a plate in it.  Sounded awesome to me, I was debating putting sprinkles on.  So here is what the blocking in process ended with:

Pretty basic, but a starting point.  I used liquitex basics and heavy body for this process, the yellow ochre I have is lumpy.  Cottage cheese like and is a son of a gun to spread, because it is off.  I have bought quite a few liquitex basics that are off.  At $10.48 each it's beginning to get expensive.  Liquitex has been nothing but helpful to me once I decided to email them regarding the problem.  So thumbs up to a company that recognises there are imperfections.

As you can see I did the background black, I thought it was freaking awesome, popping the white plate right out, but then I noticed the icing was vanishing into the black.  So I made the decision to change the background colour.  To red.

Here I was thinking I had done well, but after intense angry staring at it trying to figure out what was wrong, I realised I had done a faux pas.  Red, red is warm.  Warm colours come to the front, cool colours recede.  I wanted the doughnut to be coming forward, but the red background was stopping it because it was warm.  So another background change.










Now the blue made me happy.  It was actually a new blue I had just got, and OMG it was so pretty.  So of course the unhappy artist in me wanted to make it better by trying to make the blue into a wrinkled tablecloth.  Nope, didn't succeed with that one, still quite disappointed in myself for that.  Must practice wrinkles..........

Anyway I finished painting and let it dry for three days.  Over that three days I got a serious case of man flu and could barely even stay awake.  The pain was real, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.  

When I had partially recovered it was time for the resin, the bit I was terrified to do and yet excited as well.

This is everything I use for my resin paintings.  GLOVES......do not get resin on your fingers if you have issues with sticky annoying stuff being stuck on you for like ever!!!!  Ugh I hate it on me.  I buy my resin from Solid solutions

I have not had any issues as yet with their resin, and the more I buy the cheaper it is.  It does have quite a few bubbles when mixing the two parts together but when I pour they just seem to disappear.  

Placing the canvas on four upturned plastic cups I place a level on it to ensure it is straight and well, level.

Since I wanted the resin harder than usual before I poured, so I could control where it went, I added a little more hardener than part a, and I had to wait about ten minutes after thoroughly mixing the two parts together before I attempted anything.  If i didn't wait then the resin would self level over the whole painting and I would have no control.  That would be fine if that was what I wanted.

I have to credit my 9 year old son Lucas for taking a plethora of photos for me, he was a fantastic helper.

I am taking tiny bits of resin using my wooden stick and slowly dripping it on the icing on the doughnut.  Guiding where I want the resin to go.  This definitely worked, it is the way to go, only go slow, don't have a circus in your garage and GO SLOW.

I messed up a couple of lines, because I thought I was clever and could make it thicker, nope, it self leveled.  Cursing myself for that but lesson learnt.

Just slowly dripping the resin along the icing lines.

Trying to guide the resin to where I want it.  Next time I will just do one drip on the parts where I wanted just a high circle.  Not two.  Do not do two!!!!

I had to quickly get my flame thrower 😂 and blow it along the top of the doughnut, obviously not touching the resin with the flame.  This is so I can bring the bubbles to the top and pop them with the heat.  No one wants bubbly resin, unless of course you do, then so be it.  Rephrase, I don't want bubbly resin in this particular project 😜

After using my flame thrower (lighter) a few more times every few minutes, I covered the doughnut in it's box, making sure the lid would not touch it while it dried.  I left it to dry for 24 hours.  It depends on the resin you have as to how long you wait until it isn't sticky.  Even after that 24 hours, it's is still kind of sticky, we are humid here in QLD so maybe that affects it.  So if I wanted to paint on top of the resin I would normally wait about 3-4 days for it to dry thoroughly.  Do not use oil paints on top of resin.  It isn't recommended, or it won't work, or both.

I considered adding those straight beads you can get as sprinkles into the resin as it was drying, but I decided not to.  If I did that I would have to do another clear layer of resin on top of them, as I wanted it smooth and shiny.  It could be done without the second layer of resin, adding texture to a painting is always fun.  I might do that in the future.

Or sprinkles could be painted on top of the resin if so desired.  Whatever takes your fancy.  


Here is my doughnut in all of it's glory.  No actually I still need to varnish the area of the doughnut I did not put resin on.  Then it's finished.

I'm relatively pleased, for a first attempt.  I have learnt some things along the way that I will use next time.





I will be back next week with another blog entry, I have many things on the go, I just can't wait to show you what I'm getting up to.  Mother's Day is also coming up here in Australia, and I have something planned for my Mother to blog about as well.

Have a wonderful week.
Use you imagination.
Accept yourself.