Inspirer: Leonora Carrington

I have taken a lot of inspiration from this woman, suddenly. Her name was Leonora Carrington. Sadly, she passed away last year. She was a painter, and an incredibly interesting human being. Her work was typically surreal, a style of which I have always been fond of.

"Who Art Thou, White Face?"

The above painting I am particularly drawn to. Much of her work is extremely mesmerizing to me.

Oh, and just in case anyone is feeling especially generous and cares to donate to the "Alicia Is Too Poor To Buy Herself Interesting Things Fund" then I shall have you know that I desperately want to own this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hearing-Trumpet-Leonora-Carrington/dp/1878972197

It is a children's book called The Hearing Trumpet, written and illustrated by Leonora Carrington. Admittedly, I took interest because of this excerpt: “You may not believe in magic but something very strange is happening at this very moment. Your head has dissolved into thin air and I can see the rhododendrons through your stomach. It’s not that you are dead or anything dramatic like that, it is simply that you are fading away and I can’t even remember your name.” 

That is about all I can find from the book as well. But anyways, if you're interested, here is a nice blog post with many good examples of her work: http://timeisart.org/?p=306

Digital Paint WIP

Well, I have been doing a lot of "research" on how to blend digital paints and stuff like that. So I am finally sort of getting the hang of it. I got some semi-smooth transitions in there.

I have also been having a LOT of fun making different brushes to play with. I really like the more speckled brushes for painting portraits than the smooth, soft brushes. It gives the skin more texture and more character.

Anyways, hopefully I will end up finishing this at some point. Apparently digital paintings take HOURS. So I am throwing in the towel for tonight.

Evelyn

Meet Evelyn. Full name: Evelyn Marietta Von Tessa.

She is my new original character for art practices. I will be using her to try out all kinds of artistic styles. This way I can compare different art styles more easily. Knowing that each picture depicts the same person will make it easier to distinguish the various elements of a particular art style that make it unique.

So Evelyn will be a basic semi-gothic character. And by that I mean that she is probably closer to being from the Victorian era than the Gothic era.

She has dark, long, wavy hair. Sleepy grey-violet eyes. Her favorite color is burgundy. Fair skin.

Evelyn is likely to be the first of many original characters that I create. To the right is just a quick sketch of her in my...normal realistic style. It's not great or anything, but I just wanted to create an appearance for her.

So anyhow, treat her kindly and watch out for more of her on my DeviantArt channel!