Dragon Fairy -- Oil Painting and Print

This week I have put the birch forest painting on hold for a few days, which actually have turned into a week and a half. The reason is I have been drawing and designing some other ideas, the first of which I have shown a part of above. Yes, it's a fairy painting, and I am going to paint a series of them over the next while interspersed with my landscape art. I intend to offer prints of the above and the other ideas I am working on. These ideas are somewhat along the lines of the fantasy art I concentrated on back in 2004, see below gallery - Desert of the Blue Stones, Symphony of Silence (see my artvitae site for this work -- link on right below) etc. So comments and criticisms welcome. I am interested in your feedback. I really enjoyed working on the above this week as I had to get back to my basic drawing skills, and also it gets my imagination working again. So check back again to see the finished work. Faery and fantasy art is something I like doing a lot as I have enjoyed painting and drawing fantasy since my childhood days some of which I spent reading lots of comics and fantasy books. I shall most likely finish the birch forest painting this week if possible so will post it when done.

Birch Forest Update and Painting Style

As I am progressing this painting I have been thinking about style a lot and just exactly what it is. I think a lot could be written about it but I just want to put up a short post now so will write more another time. For now my thoughts have been that we are always told we will develop our own style, but what if that style fails to be one you are happy with. Is style out of our control? Can we fight against our natural painting inclinations (which seems to be what partially if not entirely is what style is defined as). I think we can change our style, but it can only be done in small steps and has to be a very conscious effort. If we don't think about it and paint we will see what our default style is, but starting from there we can refine it towards the direction we want. It is like trying to change your handwriting. I did this when I was a teenager. I consciously made small incremental changes in my writing letter by letter incorporating ways of writing that I liked into my writing and dropping shapes I didn't. Eventually I had developed a very unique writing style which to this day I don't want to change anymore. In my own painting over the last year I have begun to see my default style. Now I can assess it, and slowly I may make changes as and where I think best. I may not change too much at all, but it has to be a conscious effort and I am reasonably happy with many features of my current style. However there is always room for improvement, either in brush stroke or colour choice or many other areas. So as I tweak things from painting to painting maybe I will be able to improve my style making it more my own, and maybe it will be harder than I imagine. We will have to wait and see.

Birch Forest -- Update

I think it's quite fascinating to look back on the photographic records I am making of my painting progress. I can see what I have done right and wrong when I do so, and I especially like to have the record of progress when the painting turns out particularly well. As for this painting it is reaching maybe the one third of the way stage. There is still a lot to do, but things are starting to take shape, and that's exciting and what spurs you on to finish. Enjoy today's offering and check back again for more updates on this paintings progress and other works which I will display.

Feel free to subscribe via my links on the right and scroll down to see the paintings in my gallery section -- some of which are for sale, also many of which I have available as laser prints, just email me for availability to jimsartemail@hotmail.com. Prints are 10 euro not counting p&p.