Finally: Spirited Away - Prints are 50% off for a limited time!

"Spirited Away" -Enchanted Visions Project
Size: ~6.5x9 inches
Medium: Watercolors
©2012 Claire Nobles
For sale: $12.00 (But will be $6 or 50% off for a limited time only!) Click Here

If you've been following me since the beginning of 2012, you might remember this painting from my "Slightly Eccentric Tutorials." Well, I finally got my computer fixed and was able to scan it in and print it! 

I have to admit, I painted this when I was really sick (I think I had a sinus infection) and I did at least all the base work in the first day. The results amaze me because it appears that when I'm not thinking clearly, my creativity gets unleashed to its fullest potential and holds nothing back. Had I been healthy that day, this possibly would have been a much more simple painting. So I guess my point is that I need to get sick more often? Good job Claire. *walks away muttering to self*

Weirdness aside, it will be available as a 8.5x11 print for only $6.00, rather than the usual $12 for a limited time only. That's 50% off! Also, my other new painting I released this week, "Fairy Cat" has also been marked down to 50% off for a limited time. Both will be available at my Etsy Shop in the SALE Section. So for a short time, you could get both these prints for the price of one! Hoo-ray!

And Whether Cats Have Wings!

"Fairy Cat"
Medium: Watercolors
Size:5x7
©2011 Claire Nobles

My computer was finally fixed by my amazing computer genius friend, Matt! I painted this last year, and never got the chance to upload it after my PC went on the fritz. So here it is for you all! Right now an 8.5x11 Print is available at my Etsy Shop!

Also, I am having a HUGE markdown sale for many of my inked drawings. I'm trying to make space for new ones! Most are under $10!!!! Get them while you can, because once they're gone, they're gone!

"Orchid Eyes"
Medium: Ink
Size: 4.2x4.5 inches
©2012 Claire Nobles
Only $6 click here

"Floating in the Water"
Medium: Ink
Size: 4.5x7 inches
©2012 Claire Nobles
Only $8 click here

"Playful"
Medium: Ink
Size: ~4x4 inches
©2012 Claire Nobles
Only $5 click here

Spirited Away Preview

Spirited Away - Enchanted Visions Preview

Hello all, 

I know it has been a long time since you last saw my painting Spirited Away (from the Slightly Eccentric Tutorials). I wanted to let you all know that I finally finished the painting and that I'm finally pleased with it (don't quote me on it-- leave me alone with it, I'll probably fix something else)! I changed a LOT since you all last saw it and definitely pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I am used to painting washes in light colors and stopping after two or three because I'm always afraid to ruin the piece! In this case, even the title tells you that the painting will be extra other-worldly and different. So this time I pushed the colors to make everything-- especially the fae come to life!

Unfortunately during this time I didn't take very many pictures. I just kept painting, thinking I'd be done soon, only making small changes and could photograph afterwards! So the rest of the tutorial I'm sad to say will be jump pretty far from idea to idea, but I'll put it together for you all and explain as best I can what I might have been thinking (or not thinking!).

The painting will be released as soon as my computer comes back from "the shop."(once the piece is scanned in, I'll actually stop making changes to it!) (and to explain-- I am writing on my laptop right now, but I also have a PC which handles all my major photoshop, printing, uploading and downloading needs-- the PC is the one in the shop, and the laptop isn't powerful enough to do all the things my PC can take care of.)

In the mean time, check out my website and see all the changes being made and all the new products released! I've been adding whole new sections on a weekly basis! So there's always something new and fun times to be had over there!

To view the tutorial of "Spirited Away" -click here-

Spirited Away: A Slightly Eccentric Tutorial - Part 2

This is part 2 from the other day's painting tutorial...


Part 1: Spirited Away: A Slightly Eccentric Tutorial

Here, I started doing some dark strands and shadows in her hair with a tiny round brush. Mostly a mix of Yarka browns. 


I also started worrying about the orb the little sprite was offering the maiden. I outlined it with Yarka yellow but kept the center and the wisps around it the white of the paper.


It was right about here that I started getting distracted by texts from my good friend, Alexandra and started skipping records of each step... You can blame her. =)

First off, I began darkening the shadows of her skin, clothing, etc. I also began swooshing lots and lots of bright colors wherever I wanted. 


I did a bit of skin tone and cloth detail on the little sprite, and the swooshing around the offered orb.


Right here is where I was deciding what color to paint around one side of the orb when the sound of the alert from my phone that Alexandra had texted again made me jerk out of my weird state of concentration and spill green in the wrong place! 


I had a split moment of panic and urge to murder. Fortunately for Alex's life, the weird green splotch turned out to blend in nicely with the already wet reddish pant and I texted Alex to inform her that she's awesome and should startle me more often. 
So she texted back "RAWWWRRR!!!" --didn't work the second time.

Sorry about the color inconsistencies! I don't scan each step because it takes me wayyyy longer, instead I take pictures in whatever light presents itself to me at the time.


Anyways, I just love adding swooshes! Can you tell it my favorite thing? I do a lot of wet-into-wet washes in this stage and I do what Alexandra calls "make backgrounds of doom"- which basically means epically detailed backgrounds... No actual doom involved. These "backgrounds of doom" require lots of tiny brushstrokes of many different colors. In this case I literally swiped a wet brush across my entire palette and used whatever color came out of it. I find this much better than going with pure colors because of the fun subtleties and interesting shades you can get.


I also paint the birds after asking Alexandra what color they should be (we miraculously text "Greenish" at the same time). And apparently Alex now thinks she co-painted this...

And here's where texting with Alex really got me distracted from progress shots! (Blame her!) As you can see, I painted in a ton more "doom," elaborating what was already laid down. The butterflies were done in a monarch-like orange (Yarka) and then accented with white gel pen (white gel pen rules). The figure was much more heavily shaded and shadowed and brought to life, and so were her clothes.


The rest of it went on as I grew less and less able to paint due to the insane cold I had. Plus, I had a crazy headache that made it really hard to continue between the sneezing and the coughing and the sniffling and the vision was getting to be all but hazy.


So here's the stopping point where I finally I left it as "Done." In my sick state, I really thought it was done. (Again, the colors are so far from the original painting's, taken with this camera in this awful light-- so the colors will change quite a bit from this monstrosity to the actual print.) Unfortunately, I put this up at my desk for a few days and after having the chance to really look at it from far away, I realize that I have to squint at it... I now see in my back-to-normal-not-sick-anymore-state that the colors are all about the same value, and since there's not enough contrast: the fairie and the painting disappear within itself. 


SO!: This means, more painting of the non-sneezing variety. I know that some of you are thinking I'm just a crazy artist and am being super anal about my work. You're right. But I'm still going to work on it to make it right in my eyes. 


Now hopefully some of you see why artists have the reputation that they do. =D


Next week classes start, so I will try super super hard to finish it before then!! I promise to try my best!


Stay tuned.......

Spirited Away: A Slightly Eccentric Tutorial

First off, this isn't exactly a tutorial. It's way too scatterbrained for that, especially since I forgot I was suppose to be taking pictures of each step halfway through.... But I would like to show you my experience of pushing my skills into something very different for me.


I wrote a poem earlier that explains the sort of mood I was in yesterday and am usually in while I try to create these fantastical paintings. My brain wants to draw EVERYTHING and I realistically have to settle on only a few ideas. You can view the poem I wrote -here-


This painting was a challenge piece for me because I wanted to create the whole thing in ONE DAY. I mostly succeeded.

So this is the inked sketch that turned up after my muse and my brain settled down, well, settled down a little...


I kept quite a bit of the pencil lines in so that I could have something a bit more raw than my usual clean, crisp black lines.


The hair I left mainly to make up as I went along, as well as much of the background. I have to challenge myself to use brushstrokes, rather than rely on what I have laid out for myself. I really wanted to get the creativity flowing for this one, and push myself out of comfort.


I planned to make swirls and swooshes in the background, inspired by the ones I've seen in Stephanie Pui-Mun Law's paintings. My only other plan for this piece was to make it Bright! and to use very vibrant colors like sunshine.


I use Arches Hot Press Watercolor Paper, mechanical pencil, and Micron pens, usually the finest point: 0.005.

Next I painted in some background with yellows on top surrounding the figure, and some reds and purples on the bottom.


I use mainly Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors, and also Yarka Watercolors. I'm not sure if one is "allowed" to mix brands, but I always have, so I don't see any reason to stop now. The brushes are an assortment of mostly Princeton rounds.


The yellows were lemon yellow and cadmium yellow from the Yarka set. This is mainly because I was too lazy to get the Daniel Smith yellows out. 


For the bottom reds and purples, I used DS alizarin crimson, my favorite, and DS carbazole violet.


I did the first wash the same way I usually do washes. While I was taking Watercolor Classes, this seemed to be a technique that confused most students. First I wet the entire paper with clear water and a big flat brush, nice and wet! Then I splatter some colors around the page, taking care to pull the color as I go away from the figure or other parts I may not want to be bright yellow or the like. You can use more clear water to pull and lift the colors away from the central figure. This way you create a sort of glow around the figure that is especially nice for fantasy art. You have to work fast of course! Otherwise, you're left with weird splotches that you have to figure out what to do with... Once you're done and waiting for paint to dry, you can use the salt effects or rubbing alcohol for some fun starbursts and bubbles. Otherwise, I use a hair dryer, full intensity at this time. =)

Next, I create some swooshes...


I try and stay with my sun-colored plan, but I need a bit of contrast and variation. Since purple is the complement of yellow, I put that down with a little extra red, to make more of a red-violet and stick with the bright theme.


The technique here is to lay down a brushstroke, and then with clean water lay on down directly beside it so there's no hard edges, but so that the color bleeds over. I did create a couple of hard edges, but those are intended. 


(sorry about the weird inconsistencies with color by the way! This was taken under the light of my art lamp which gives off weird shadows and so all of these pictures have had to be adjusted to show them off best.)

Now it's time for the figure. I can always go back to add more swooshing and background later.


I first put in the red-violet shadows, for warmth, then for contrast I used DS ultramarine blue in the cooler areas of the figure, to really bring it to life.


I added in the bright red ribbon, just because I was feeling gutsy. I painted some soft greenish lines coming from the tips of the fingers of her left hand, and I also did some stokes of yellow around the orb the little sprite is offering. 


The above picture also clearly shows the first wash step where I pulled color away from the fairy, but let it slide over the little sprite, since she is not the main focus. 

Wow, the camera really distorts some of these colors from picture to picture... sorry!!


Anyways, here I started in on her outfit and wings. The dress was still wet when I took this picture, that why it's shiny. 


For the dress, I started with yellows as a base color and then used oranges from my Yarkas and watered down DS cadmium red. I also added some DS ultramarine blue and the same red-violet in the folds.


For the pants, I used a lot of this watered down blueish-green color left over on my pallet that I have no idea what colors formed it... That's partly the joy of watercolors over other mediums: colors you painted with months ago can still be used, just add water! More DS ultramarine was used in the shadows as well. I also poured a lot of watered down yellows over the pants then as it was still wet, then I mopped it up. This was done so that I could go for a bit of a glow and to give them a worn look, rather than leaving them crisp white. This way I could also leave the whites for the brightest parts around the orb, wings, etc. 


For the wings, i spent a lot of time adding small amounts of brush strokes, then pressing a paper towel down so they didn't come off as too harsh. I wanted to create the stained glass dragon-fly winged look that the great Stephanie Law is so good at. 

This next picture is a tad blurry-- I'm sorry! I didn't know at the time! 


Anyways, I painted in some of her hair with yarka yellows and watered down browns. 


For the trailing smoky looking bits flowing from her hands, I first painted these with clear water, then spattered in some greens, reds, oranges, whatever I felt like and let them all intermingle as I literally turned my paper all angles, and voila!: I have some really interesting wet-into-wet effects in a contained part of my painting.


That is about as much as I care to fit into one blog entry. More steps will come later as I did finish the piece in one day (yesterday), but looking at it today, I might want to add in a few more touch-ups before I scan it in.


Stay tuned!!

Ascension

"Ascension" by Claire Nobles

©2011

Medium: Watercolors

Click here to purchase

Finished my second phoenix painting-- hurrah! This painting is all about starting over, new life. The phoenix represents change and rebirth for this whimsical fire bird is very powerful. When a phoenix dies, it reforms from the ashes into a baby bird. The angel is being guided by this creature up from darkness, into light and clarity.

Occupy Sock Drawers! Free Baby Trolls!!

"Dirty Sock Troll"by Claire Nobles

©2011

Medium: Watercolors

Size: ~7x7 inches 

Prints available by clicking here.

Dirty Sock Trolls have been unfairly forced into Sock Stealing since the Government Ogre Act of 1695 which declared that baby Trolls are required by law to collect socks for the upper class Ogres. Socks are seen as a status symbol in the realm of the fairie and the Ogres like their socks as dirty as possible. Sometimes the Baby Trolls like this one will mess up and steal clean socks that just look old and dirty. In this case, they are punished by being swung by their ears into the nearest grease fire and forced to wear the clean socks as a sign of disgrace. Obviously this baby troll has made a lot of mistakes as he is wearing many socks and his ears are abnormally long...

Baby trolls are slaves until they reach adolescence which can take 400 years. Because the law started in 1695, there is no telling what will happen when the Sock Trolls are fully grown and will probably want revenge on the Ogres... Some of the Sock Trolls shall start maturing in December of 2012 which is probably what the Mayans were referring to as destruction of the Earth... Really, there will just be a lot of ticked off Teenage Trolls roaming around the malls and other such places you don't want them.

The best course of action is to Occupy Sock Drawers by staying home all day catching the baby trolls. It is said that if you catch a Sock Troll and ship him to Spain, he will be free of the tyranny of the ogres and be able to take up a secret passion of bull fighting. Be sure to ship the troll in a box with tons of Febreze spray so that the Ogre Border Patrol won't come near the box and the baby trolls can escape!

This announcement was brought to you by the very strange yet harmless mind of Claire Nobles and the Occupy Sock Drawer Movement! Be sure to pick up a pamphlet at your local government office, (though you will get strange looks when inquiring). Thank you and good luck!

Thrill

"Thrill" by Claire Nobles

©2011

Medium: Watercolors

Size: 8x10 inches 

Prints available here.

I finished the painting! And I *told* you the elf was wearing pants! I feel so happy about this piece. I really challenged myself to make this painting work. I spent a lot of time using tutorials and reference photos in order to help this piece along. It was time consuming, but well worth it as I now have a much better understanding of horses and animals in general.

This is the first piece I have ever scanned in and corrected on my very own! The new scanner is finally working and I actually have an idea of how to use it! I have a few more pieces for you so stay tuned!

Prints are available for sale at my Etsy Shop.