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. 

Painting Peter Stormare in oils, my first real portrait.

Peter Stormare??? 
Who is he? You are probably thinking.

I first saw him as John in Prison Break, then I discovered he was the poor lost soul who dies in Jurassic Park 2 with all the little dinosaurs attacking him in the river.  The bad guy in John Wick, he pops up absolutely everywhere and I just fell in love with his acting style.  His latest part is in American Gods as Czernobog.  I saw a picture of him holding a hammer covered in blood and I just knew I had to paint him.  The urge just wouldn't leave me.

I knew it had to be different from my others so I decided oils, yep, oils, and yep let's go big because well, that's what I do lol.  I painted him on plywood, 7mm thickness.  I use the grid method to get the picture onto the wood.  I always use my Surface Pro for this part, gosh I love that little computer.  I'm an Apple person but the Surface Pro could change me.  I use the grid that Art Tutor offer on their website, it is a brilliant tool.  Art tutor Grid drawing tool

This is Peter, in black and white because I just like to start out that way.

 I gridded up my plywood using my huge T square.  Never ever thought I would find a use for that big sucker, but I have lol.

Here is the finished product, yep, not little lol.

Then the tedious work of just copying whatever is in each square begins.  I actually don't mind this part, it stops most of the incessant noise in my head while I concentrate.

Once I am "happy" I do my umber line drawing and then the Umber wash.  Yes he looks ghastly.  Wait till the next bit, he looks worse.  This part only takes a few minutes.  Takes a while to dry so I usually do this at night and when I wake up he's all dry and staring at me, angrily.

Then I begin my loose interpretation of a black and white study.  I think I do this just get the courage up to start colour.

 I hang up my reference pictures on my board, I just go to Officeworks and get large photo prints for 80c.  It seriously helped me a lot more than just holding the Surface Pro.

And the oils begin, I had a very limited range of colours to begin with but honestly it was all I needed.  I believe my skin tone base colour for Peter was Red Oxide and Yellow Ochre.  Then adding different tones to get the different shades of skin.  I used Galkyd as the medium for this one, I like Galkyd, I need a bigger bottle.  It's just trial and error here, stepping back a lot, walking away a lot, staring at the painting a lot.

I actually fell in love with painting all over again, it was the blending and the little marks on what was perfectly smooth skin, the wrinkles.  How you don't actually paint the wrinkles, you paint around them and the wrinkles will come.  It took me a while to understand that.  The beard, Oh man it took me forever, so many layers, waiting to dry, but I am so glad I didn't stop.

All that was left to do was pick out the background colour, that is always my hardest thing.  Backgrounds are just difficult but very important.  Overall I was super happy with this one, I wanted to do more and more oils paintings.

Painting is my therapy, it's my saviour.  Two years ago I couldn't paint anything, not a thing.  So just in case you are wondering, it is a learnt behaviour.  Some people have the awesome talent naturally and I am jealous of them, but the rest of us learn it.  I just had to wait until I was ready.  Until I had to choose between living for skinny and starving, or living for a reason.

I may obsess just a little about painting now, I think I may be slightly obsessive in nature lol.  Only slightly 😄.  I was beginning to miss my eating disorder before I started this painting.  I was getting depressed and the craziness in my head was beginning to win again.  

Then I saw American Gods and I just had to do it.  It became my source of crazy.  I would dream about painting him, stay up late and wake up early thinking about the mistakes I needed to fix.  It is an obsession for me, and if I don't have a current project I am working on to distract my crazy I start to drown again.

Anyway, on my next blog post I will be showing you my glowing dragon egg!!!!  It is a mixture of acrylic painting, glow powder and resin.  I also have made a polymer clay dragon tail to possibly place on it, I haven't quite finished it yet so I am unsure if I add it lol.  It will be a surprise.  Anyway here is a teaser of the unfinished egg.........

Until next time, I hope you all have an arty week with little to no crazies.

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.

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