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radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
radiantfracture

May 2025

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radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
This one was hard. This is the second version I did. The first one came out so lumpy and messy I was worried I'd never paint again. The second one was like that too, until I remembered that paintings always feel like that halfway through.

Pileated woodpeckers are gorgeous in coloration, but super dinosaur-looking close-up.




ETA: I know the movement (smell?) lines are super silly, but I ran out of blue paint so I can't fix them.

Bird Post

Jan. 23rd, 2024 07:06 pm
radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
Here's another in the regional bird series -- the American Robin I threatened. (QESḴEḴ in SENĆOŦEN -- pronunciation here.)

Small square gouache painting of an American Robin on a blue background

I was trying for the looseness of the house finch; this has not got quite that freedom, but I really like how it turned out -- the combination of wet and dry work to create the feather texture and the details, and the lively line. And it still has some of that slightly cartoony personality that the freer, slightly exaggerated and simplified shape gives it.

The background used to be much more saturated, and I had to work to desaturate it so that the robin would come forward.

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radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)
It's January, when the only thing of any use I can do, on a good day, is paint pictures of house finches.

A house finch painted in realistic styl

A house finch painted in loose style

I knew that trying to render the second pose realistically would probably mean sodding up the angles, so I thought-- this has to be in a much looser style, more gestural.

I overworked it a little bit, but I enjoy the result and would like to do more in that style.

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Art post

Jan. 5th, 2024 07:32 pm
radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
I painted a great many chickadees this season, and eventually even got somewhat better at it.







radiantfracture: a gouache painting of a turkey vulture head on a blue background, painted by me (vulture)
A great thing about any break is having the mental space to paint again.

I have begun a bunch of projects, but this one was time-limited. It is a little American Goldfinch for my uncle, who is in a care home for the first time this Christmas. The goldfinch appears in company with a half-finished Black-Capped Chickadee who is waiting for me to go and buy more black paint.

I don't think I've ever seen a goldfinch in this territory, but we get a great many chickadees.




American Goldfinch (Aginjibagwesi in Anishinaabemowin — thank you, Joe Pitawanakwat)




Black-Capped Chickadee in progress (t̕ᶿət̕ᶿqiyáʔəs in SENĆOŦEN)

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radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)
Yesterday[personal profile] jasmine_r_s  was planning candied-orange-peel-and-maraschino-cherry cannoli in honour of the strawberry moon. I cannot aspire to that -- I wouldn't say I know my limitations intimately, but some are more obvious than others -- but, inspired by her colourful efforts, I made a little strawberry moon bunny.

(Among all the awful crap Instagram shows me, it does sometimes show me videos of tiny bunnies eating strawberries.)



This is just a quick sketch in gouache, not very polished, but I like the way hints of red and green show on the plant.

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radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
Aaaah I love this guy. My new favorite painting - the turkey vulture.



I tried out a looser, more watercolour-inspired style with this painting and while I did also go in and do some detailing, I really like the effect.

(The paint is gouache, more commonly used for its density and intense colour -- which it is also showing off here!)

The freeness of this painting shows the lack of pressure I felt compared to the commission I just did -- which I do also like, but it is tighter and more graphic in style. Sigh. Ironies.

It's a dull cloudy windy day, but I think this photographed up pretty well.

Original photo from [instagram.com profile] tanager_girl on Instagram.

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radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
A couple of weeks ago I took down all of the art hanging on string swags from my western wall and washed the surface. And now it's still blank and I have all this art. And I don't know what to do with it.

I was thinking I might try to sell some for just enough to cover postage -- $10, something like that. It's more to have the art go somewhere, rather than just sit in my house. I don't know if anyone would actually want to buy any of it -- drawbacks are that they're all pretty imperfect cuts and weird sizes, and some are quite dusty. :/ Don't store your art tacked to the wall.

Here's a bunch on the coffee table. I see many Instagram Heads (tm).



[ETA: Hi so I accidentally cross-posted this to Facebook and now people are claiming the art and offering me barter, which is so fun.]

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radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
I thought I should be painting some more critters to build my critter repertoire.

This is a small gouache painting of Goniobranchus gleniei, a beautiful leopard-spotted nudibranch. It looks a lot like it's wearing a leopard-skin rug on its back. The painting is about 4" square(ish); the nudibranch is teensy.

Leopard-spotted nudibranch on rock

The reference photo came from an Instagram account called diveskillz.

[ETA: one more!]

This critter is a little bit murkier, but some of the watery effects were fun. It's Goniobranchus aureapurpureus.



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radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)
Weird weather. In the morning, a storm in the north, mist in the east, a patch of blue sky overhead, crows roosting in the trees. Today I feel sore, but lifted-too-many-weights sore, not incapacitated-by-needless-hiking-accident sore. After writing I lay down for a while and the storm that had first caught Salt Spring Island at the end of our Zoom writing session today passed over, rough but quick.

[personal profile] cmcmck suggested a Titania to go with the Oberon, and that seemed necessary, but now that she's here I get the sense that this queen wants to do her own thing.

Parts of this are more finished than others, but I have to say I really love this face.





Photo reference is a self portrait by the incredibly gifted [instagram.com profile] coppercosmonaut . Check out their riveting work on Instagram.
radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)
I’m now completely out of order on this art challenge, but I happen to have matched the day to the prompt today. This prompt is Oberon, king of the fairies.



He is painted a little more roughly, because that’s what I had the energy for, but I like him. And I like how his background kind of looks like malachite.

This painting also shows me experimenting with hot press paper, which takes up the gouache in a notably different way. The surface is very smooth, and painting on it with the gouache, which is already quite thick and springy, is almost like working clay. I think I like it, but it’s a brand new experience and the results, so matte and smooth, keep surprising me. Everything from before, on cold press, looks so rugged now.

The original photo reference is from [instagram.com profile] tarababylon; Photo shot by [instagram.com profile] iamgabrielagum; model [instagram.com profile] d.anthony_ in a very cool rug coat which I did not want to just copy, so I changed the design quite a lot – hop over there and have a look at the original.

I really have to thank [instagram.com profile] brettmanningart — This series has been so fun to paint.

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radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
On Sunday, I made spider cake after [personal profile] sovay and was not disappointed. I made it with goat's milk yogurt instead of cow milk and cream, and the bread was wonderfully tart and fluffy, with the thick custardy "spider" running through it. That, with maple syrup? Damn.

I'm in the middle of tonight's second batch of ordinary cornbread, because I am out of goat yogurt but not out of the stone soup I make every Sunday during my family calls. That I have a great deal of, frozen, and the cornbread will go nicely with it.

(Though I guess solo stone soup would be... just a stone in hot water. So it's more like whatchagot stew.)

I got three prompts into the Faebruary art challenge, and then I got bogged down on "fairy dance" because the dancers I chose as a reference were wearing masks and no matter what I did I got the faces All Wrong. The bodies had more flow than the last drawing, but the heads, augh.

(Pauses, listens closely) I think there's a... goose.. in the yard. Hang on.

...No goose. Must have flown off.  Early this morning there was something on the roof with a strange pattern of movement and a peculiar yowl and I'm a bit skittish today. I don't think that was a goose.

Anyway, tonight I sat down and painted for another prompt, #faeriesfestivalfrock in order to catch up a little bit and feel more like a competent painter. The reference photo is a Jean Paul Gaultier dress I have had saved for ages because it was so lovely. (I didn't paint the designs in on the wrap, but now I think maybe I should.) So this fairy seems to be off to a festival that involves catwalks and photo shoots. Must be urban fantasy.




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radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)
Today's painting -- started yesterday, left in a state of disarray, repaired and thrust into the world today.



This was painted for the third prompt in #brettsfaebruaryartchallenge2023, founded by [instagram.com profile] brettmanningart -- "urisk." The internet tells me that the urisk is a guardian of waterfalls and sacred springs, and also that he has the legs of a goat, like a faun.


Oof, this one really challenged me. Landscapes! They’re hard. Figures! Also hard. I’m going back to sexy fairy faces.

Objectively, this isn't very good, but I do like how the complementary colours work together. If I could have brightened up the greenish highlights on his legs a bit better, I think that part would look really cool.

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radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
The prompt in this case was Gean-Canach or gancanagh, which I am told is a sexy fairy fella who lures you away from the narrow path of virtue. He's canonically supposed to be smoking a pipe but here he is just smouldering in general.

The full image (about 4.5" x 4.25" IRL)

A brown-skinned fairy with bright blue-green eyes looks seductively at the viewer


Just giving face

Closeup of a brown-skinned fairy with bright blue-green eyes looking seductively at the viewer

The reference photo for this was from artist & stylist [instagram.com profile] jonzu , who does all these great gothy and retro photo shoots -- this one was taken by photographer [instagram.com profile] flaminia_fanale . Highly recommend.

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radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
Happy Imbolc. I'm drawing fairies.

I didn't start this art challenge -- this one comes from artist Brett Manning, who on Instagram does lots of Brian-Froud-ish gnome-type persons I enjoy very much. (I feel like there's another, closer reference, but I can't think of it.)

Every year Manning posts a list of prompts from fairy lore -- today's was Daoine Sidhe, who seem like a fascinating convergence of mythology and deep history, confabulation and cosmology.

I know very little of their story (so feel free to refine my understanding), but they are both the people of the barrows -- the burial mounds -- and half-angelic or divine children of the goddess Danu. They have a lot going on, is what I'm saying.

This was going to be a more elaborate painting, with more signs of her fairy nature, but then it just seemed done. I added the creepy green fingers, which were not in the reference photo.


A red-haired pale-greenish-skinned fae peers over a mossy log

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radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)
It is the year of the rabbit, after all, though I am late to celebrate the new year. Two more in the series. I quite like these ones. They're each about 3" square(ish).

Alert, subsumed in grass:



Slightly devilish:



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radiantfracture: Weary blue art monster is weary and blue (art monster)
My not terribly original but somewhat tasty answer to this week's prompt, #box: a box of doughnuts! The contrast on my camera and some slightly mistaken shading choices make this look a little fire damaged, but let's say that just lends a smoky complexity to the sprinkle flavour.

A pink box of delicious donuts


Predictably, I now want doughnuts.

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Reference: a photo by Jae Park, found on the free photo site Unsplash.

radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
Still more rabbit action, but more detailed this time.

radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
A few more little gouache doodles of rabbits against the moon!







radiantfracture: Gouache portrait of my face with jellyfish hat (Super Jellyfish 70s Me)

Yesterday's critter, finished today. I'm not sure what I was going for -- something a little more bodily -- anyway, this is what I got. It is a bit wibbly, but I decided to call it done. Maybe it's also a study for something else.


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