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Monday, January 11, 2010

Illustration Friday: Confined

When deciding on images I wanted to paint for the 6" x 6" exhibition I thought about my previous whale and boy illustration, and wondered how I could squeeze these characters into a more confined square space. I'm often cropping images down, but this forced me to think about how the image related to the edges of the board, and I liked how this influenced the work.

Here are a few process photos. For info on paints and technique please see my 'Undone' post.



37 comments:

christine grove said...

This is lovely! I also took a look at your "Undone" post. I love to see processes and you showed yours beautifully. Great work!

Krista said...

Very sweet and dreamy. I especially like the scalloped edges on the waves!

ellis.illus said...

this is simply wonderful ... *chapeau*

spindelmaker said...

This is so great! love the illustration and the technique!

michael robertson said...

beautiful illustration! The woodgrain showing through adds a nice touch.

Ann Pilicer said...

Your work is quite beautiful as usual! Amazing illustration!

Susan said...

Beautiful work, love the blue tones!

Angela Matteson said...

thanks everyone!

María Florencia Murillo said...

Angela: I´m really glad that I found this blog, there are great ilustrations here!Happy 2010!

Flor

Curious Art said...

Really lovely, Angela, & fun to see the work in progress! I think the image got stronger in confinement, & I love the textures. I'm excessively fond of the 6"x6" format myself... there's something just-right about it.

Eric Barclay said...

I could look at this all day. Wonderful characters and technique.

Vhrsti said...

Fantastic dreamy art, Angela!

Mónica said...

Lovely whale!!
i like very much your style

Renee said...

Angela it is wonderful.

Love Renee xoxo

theartofpuro said...

Adorable illustration!The style is wonderful!

Cally Johnson-Isaacs said...

Wow this looks fantastic Angela!

Food and Drugs said...

Wonderful.
Save the whales!

Dayle's Painted Diary-Dayle Dodwell said...

Beautiful illustration and thank you for showing the process.

donny* said...

really love this one! and thanks for sharing the process.

Andrew Finnie said...

yes, likewise and thanks from me too

Faruffa said...

thi is fantastic, love your wonderful style and imagination!!!

reddy said...

nice to see you didnt achieve the effect through a photoshop filter, what material are u painting on.

Anonymous said...

I love this painting! SO creative! I think the whale is so sweet and the boy looks comfortably confined with his friend. Very nicely designed.

Shirley said...

Your sweet whale and boy are just amazing, Angela. I really, really love those swirls too - you are like a contemporary woodblock artist with those. Great job!

MrBibleHead said...

This is very cool! Love the color combination and your composition! Nice work Angela!

roz said...

Simply gorgeous.

MJC *-* said...

Hey,

thanks for your very first comment on my blog, because nobody visit my new blog :(

Funny to see how you also pushed a character in the corners of your illustration.

What i also see is that you use an acrylic brand that i don't know.
Last month i bought. "Golden Acrylics" It's paint that stays wet longer, just like oilpaint.
http://www.goldenpaints.com/
I'm wondering if it's the same? I only used it on a wallpainting, and i'm not sure if it's really what i want. Because it's sticky...(that's why it stays wet)
I looked at the video of Eric Fortune and he is working with watercolor. But i'm not sure which one? Something like this. http://www.winsornewton.com/main.aspx?PageID=104
O, there are so many paint brands! I just want something where you can paint really detailled with, don't stink and where you can have multiple layers and transparency!
*-*

Angela Matteson said...

Thanks for visiting Marjolein!

The acrylics I use are Atelier Interactive:
http://www.chromaonline.com/products/atelier_interactive

They are probably very similar to the Golden Open Acrylics. I don't notice too much stickiness with Atelier, but I use them thinly with very little paint on my brush, almost like dry brush.

Eric uses acrylics, but waters them down, and applies them with very thin, multiple washes. If you followed his method you would have more transparency.

Happy Painting!

sketched out said...

Loving this techniqe, the acrylics on wood. I also really like the confined feeling you crated by cropping in, so to speak, on the image, as opposed to cropping some of the image out. It really gives the right feeling for this week's theme... well, it's just cool anyway, anytime, hee hee!

Art Trip said...

Fun work. Thanks!

Miss Tanya said...

You are an amazing artist :)

Are you paid for your work?

Angela Matteson said...

Thank you Miss Tanya. - This particular piece did sell in a local gallery. I'm paid as a designer at my day job, and also as a freelancer. I also sell prints of my work.

Miss Tanya said...

Wow!

Well, all of the paintings displayed on your blog are very inspirational. I envy your talent! :)

Vj Arumugam said...

Hi, really loved this painting. What a wonderful friend, and the boy is completely relaxed and now he can sleep well without having the dream of the evil Octopus! :) awesome one!

valerie walsh said...

so very touching and beautiful!

Lisa M Griffin said...

really love the feel of this piece, very fluid. Thanks for sharing.

Abigail said...

Wow, lovely. I really like the process shots, it's so fun to see how other people work.