New Year......Where did last year go!

Last year flew by. Between traveling and selling and buying a new home my blogging fell by the wayside. Most of my painting this year has been digital painting. I’m actually beginning to get better at it and enjoying it. I have been getting great giclee prints made from my work and am quite happy with the color and quality of the prints on canvas.

Here is a short video of some of the work as well as some single photos.

More Digital Painting

Another new digital painting. I have never painted a horse before and it was a challenge getting the proportions of the features correct. This is way out of my normal subject matter and I am no horse expert but I had fun painting this. The composition was from my imagination and with the help of research photos I studied, I was able to get the face to resemble a horse.

Another Digital Portrait

As before with my daughters portrait I did this digitally using the Procreate App. For some reason my son was harder for me to do. I spent much more time on it and it probably still needs some adjustments. I use photos that I have taken for reference but I do not trace them. I start out with a pencil drawing trying to get the features as close as possible then I move on to a new layer and start painting. So far I like using the acrylic brush and the airbrush and the smudge tool. I also do the features on different layers so I can scale and move them if needed. When I get to a certain point I start merging all the layers into one and then start detailing on another layer. It is great to be able to edit, cut and paste and rearrange until you are happy. Also working in layers you don’t get muddy colors or overworked areas. I am slowly thinking this will be the way of future artists. Hopefully digital art will become more acceptable and valued as an art form. It still takes an artist to create the art. The app and the computer is just another tool as is the brush, canvas, and paint.

Digital Portrait

The last two days I have been working on this portrait of my daughter. It was digitally painted with acrylic in the Procreate app. It is all hand drawn and painted, no photoshopping. The fun thing about digital painting is you can try out different things on different layers such as background colors, to see which looks better.

Below are several different background versions. All are still saved in my layers so any one of them could be printed.

Back To Fused Glass

This is a piece I just finished. It was a bit challenging to get the finished look I was after. I did the first two firings as a crackle project with the yellow and brown veining. It seemed a little boring to leave like that so  after the second fuse with clear sheet glass on the top I then sifted orange and blue powder frit over a leaf stencil I created. I full fused that but the blue came out to light. So I decided to add a dark brown line of liquid glass made of gel and powder around the leaf and around the outside edge. I then full fused again. The blue still was not to my liking so I made liquid glass again and applied using a squirt bottle in a thicker layer. Now I fused again. Finally I found that to be acceptable. The leaf popped out more and so did the crackle in the leaf. In person the depth of the layers is more evident.

If you are interested in the crackle effect Bob Leatherbarrow’s book is a good reference for that.

This is a video of a recent digital painting I did using my iPad and the Procreate App. I created my own digital brush to paint the planter and create its earthy texture. 

Video of Digital Painting in Procreate

This is a digital painting I did using the Procreate app on my iPad Pro. It is painted on many layers. The neutral background layer of the Lilies was sketched awhile back in Procreate. I imported it in for my background layer. I like the neutral colors letting the butterflies take center stage. Painting in layers is also a good way to create collage type painting/art.

See my digital art at https://society6.com/lyndapikearts.
Art prints of my work are available as well as on many different products perfect for your home or gifts.

Practicing My Digital Painting

I’ve been practicing my digital painting and also working my way through an online digital drawing and painting course using the Procreate app. Procreate is one of the best digital painting/drawing apps I’ve used. I have used it for quite some time but there are lots of things I haven’t discovered about using the app so I decided to buy into an on line workshop. It has proven to be worth the money as far as learning the mechanics of the app. One of the things I’ve learned is to use the drawing guide and the symmetry tool. It is very helpful in drawing objects that have a symmetrical form as in the wine glass. I have softened some edges so it doesn’t look to mechanical after the initial drawing. That choice is up to you.

New Digital Art

It’s been awhile since I have posted and I am sorry about that. I’ve been traveling and having way too much fun. I’ve also had some commission work taking up a lot of my time also. Because of my busy schedule i’ve been working on my ipad pro a lot more doing digital art. Here are a few pieces and a link to my Society6 storefront. https://society6.com/lyndapikearts or click on Society6 in the Links list at the right.

Butterfly Migration......digital 6500x7000

Iris & Cabbage Butterfly

More Digital Painting on the Road

In the digital paintings below I demonstrate the value of using an underpainting color. This can be done digitally or in real paint painting. With real paint you have to choose your underpainting wisely, as it is not as easily changed as it is with digital painting. With digital painting you have the ability to put the underpainting on a seperate layer that you can change and delete easily without disturbing your painting. Using a warm color under a coolpainting can give your painting a little complementary punch and adds a little excitement to your strokes. Cooler colors under a cool painting can give it a more calming effect. This technique works best with oils and acrylics, real and digital. Give it a try.

Cool painting with magenta underpainting.

Cool painting with purple underpainting.

Digital Painting on the Road

Yes’ I am still on the road. The only art I have been able to do is digital. Thank goodness for my ipad pro. I just finished working on this digital painting of the Ennis, Montana area. The top one is the original, but with the magic of digital manipulation I can change the season and the mood of the painting. What one do you like best?

My greeting cards

Need one of a kind original art greeting cards? Check mine out at Fineartamerica.com by putting Lynda Pike greeting cards in the search tab.

My Art Prints

Check out some of my art prints in frames. You have lots and lots of frame choices and mat colors to choose from when you purchase my prints at fineartamerica.com. There are also canvas prints available framed and unframed and many other wonderful products that can be printed with my art on them. Check out the widget at the right, click on an image within the widget and it will take you to my page on their website for ordering.

Purchase my Art on Prints or Products

Click on an image in the sldeshow below. It will take you to the fineartamerica.com site where you can purchase my art printed on various products as well as canvas prints, framed prints and greeting cards.

My Art Now on fineartamerica.com

Mandala Bowl Slumped

step 7 slumped

The bowl is completed and fullyslumped and I am pretty happy with the outcome.

Spring Roses - Fused Glass with VitriGel and Glass Powders

While my last project is in the kiln slumping I have now started a palette knife painting of some of my spring roses. I have never taken a class in this method but I have done a couple of these on my own a few months back but using Aloe Vera Gel. Now I’m using VitriGel which I like much better and its not that much more expensive then Aloe. Below are some photos of the beginning steps of this project. I will add more photos as I move along in the process.

My photo photoshopped with background stuff removed and vase shape changed.

Quick tracing of roses.

Bullseye glass of clear and vanilla overlaying tracing.

Palette Knife painting in process.

Close-Up.

Check back for updates on this project.

Finally got back to this project after the holiday weekend. I finished up the roses and added some leaves. I found a piece of black glass in my stash and decided to use that for my base color. I’m not totally committed to the black yet. I have a long wait until I can get some more clear frit for the top layer. Everyone is out of stock. So I’m still deciding whether or not to just fuse this piece without the clear on top or not. So again keep checking back for the finished piece.

Mandala Bowl

My newest project using the Vitrigel product by Michael Dupille.

Here is a step by step photo version of the project.

The first step cutting the circle of glass and creating my design. I just hand sketched the design with a fine sharpie marker. Later on in the process I added more detail to the design.

The next step was painting the design with the gel & glass powder.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step three photo 3 is what it looked like after fully dried.

Step four below is the piece fully covered with clear frit and ready for the kiln.

Step 4

Step 5

Step 5 is after first full fuse. As you can see the sunshine yellow kind of disappeared into the green base glass. So on to a second fuse.

Second fuse after I added more yellow and more details in photo below.

The piece is in the kiln slumping in a wavy bowl mold. I will update this blog entry as soon as it comes out of the kiln .

Step 6

Fused Glass Pendants

Pendants are a great way to use up left over supplies from larger projects. Sometimes trash becomes treasure. Leftover gel and powder paints that dry in cups overnight can be popped out of the cup and crushed up to make speckles and flakes of color to be used in other small projects such as jewelry. Also bits of frit and enamel paints can be used. These pendants were all made from stuff left on my table. Be sure to stop and think before you toss what looks like a mess into the trash can.

Fantasy Floral Fused Glass

This is another Powder painted fused glass piece. I did this on a 7” black circle. I used Dritz sewing white carbon like tracing paper to copy my design onto the black glass. That worked great. It was a suggestion someone made on one of the Facebook glass groups. Sorry I dont remember their name to give credit. Anyway next I mixed up my Vitrigel and different colors of glass powders. I used squirt bottles to paint my design and a couple of clay tools to move it around with. I layered clear frit on the piece and full fused. No problem with bubbles on this one as it is only one layer of base glass plus all the frit. One fuse and probably one more for slumping, probably into a wavy bowl.

These cabachons were made from scraps. I dont like wasteing glass so I used the powder and gel paint that dried in the mixing cups after it dried hard. I cracked it away from the sides of the cups. I used a scrap transparent piece yellow gold glass for the base and used left over squirt paint for the edges and then filled in with the glass flakes from the cups and covered with clear frit and full fused with the flower piece above.

Check back soon to see the fantasy flower bowl slumped.

Its now slumped into a nice bowl, arty and functional. Its great for a salsa bowl, dip bowl, candy bowl etc. I am very happy with my slumping schedule. It fully slumped to the bottom with a nice flat bottom.