Ella Masters : My painting process

 

I don't paint as often as I would like, practically never now that I juggle a lot of other more pressing commitments, but its always nice to share with people how I work, everyone has their own way of working/style ans technique.

 

So to begin with I draw directly on the canvas with a mechanical pencil, then I paint with acrylics onto the canvas (watered down as to have more overall control), I always do an under coat of green, because the one thing i have learn't from studying art my whole life is that our skin colour isn't just one colour it is a mixture of all different colour hues and tones, I find green warms the skin tone (try using a warm green to start off with and layer in the shadow areas).  I use System three paint nothing fancy, you can buy the Acrylic sets in any hobby or art store.

 

Next came the painting of the beard, I do love painting in detail I do love a challenge, I use Daler and Rowney brushes normally, a 2 and 6 round, for the fine detail, (I have a crazy extensive brush collection  due to once being a fine art student and having a wonderful second cousin who use to be a well known artist who likes to occasionally send me his antique art bits and bobs) tools are really important for creating a good piece of art work nothing too fancy is needed. It is vital to work on layers and take your time.

  

Like I spoke about earlier, when it comes to the acrylics, i use a mixture of pound shop quality to rather expensive colours, I personally don't think it matters what you use as long use them properly (well when i say properly i mean don't go crazy with them) there is no right or wrong way to paint. You can lay them on thickly or as thinly as you like, I water mine down a lot so I can get maximum control over the canvas as Acrylic paint drys pretty quickly The way in which I paint with acrylics is pretty similar to how i paint with watercolours, (and stains clothes) layer them up is very important for creating depth. I do often get asked how I paint, and the process in which I use, I've never really been all that confident when it comes to painting onto canvas, I only started to paint onto canvas when I went to uni, because everyone on a fine art course does, I decided to get involved and the evidence is now hanging at home on the walls of our downstairs loo so many canvases!

Lets talk canvases, I don't stretch my own, never really have just due to the fact i'm rather messy and useless when it comes to that. I like to work small, so I go for square or rectangle canvases as I like these best, they come primed ready to paint and you can get these from any hobby/art store. 

So the next step was to paint the tattoos on, once again layering the colours up, this is where I get really worried and mess up what I have already completed, I get to excited and go a little over the top I am still yet to learn enough is enough! Take your time when painting if you aren't feeling it step away from the canvas and come back to it a few days later. Have the confidence in your own skills thats whats really important.

I hope this gives you lovely lot an insight into my little working process, I'm not the best at explaining but its always nice to share what I do.

I have written a few more tutorials before here on Ella

Mister Finch for Anthropologie

Last week I had the joy of attending an event run by Anthropolgie in conjunction with Mister Finch, too say i was excited is probably an understatement.

So the event was run by Anthropologie and hosted by the lovely Mister Finch who was also exhibiting in the windows of the Kings Road store. So full of mince pies and lovely Mulled wine me and Lisette set to work making our little Christmas jumper. So we were directed by Mr Finch set us a little task of making our own Christmas jumpers. Now my sewing isn't exactly the neatest but the atmosphere was welcoming and friendly so we made the most of the beautiful space and got sewing. 

We got too chose what fabric we wanted to make our little jumpers out of, I opted for a pale green velvet and lovely patterned fabric and Lisette went for a William Morris style cotton fabric and a deep turquoise velvet fabric. We chatted a lot and sipped our Mulled wine from the prettiest Anthropolgie cups. I think we all fell a little bit in love with tiny coat hangers, the eye for detail hey! Mister Finch himself was so helpful and hilarious, we got to read and flick through his lovely book, I just wish I had has sewing ability. My jumper did look a little but thrown together but the other ladies at the event created some beautiful and very artistic with embroidered Christmas lights and Haute Couture style glitzy jumpers.

After the event had finished and we had packed our little jumpers away we got to walk around the store, anyone who knows me knows how much of a fan of Anthropologie I am, so getting to wander around the store after hours went a little to my head and I bought myself a present or two oopsie! But just look at how beautiful everything is!

blog content tips : Colour

One of my favorite things about being a blogger is the freedom over my contents and photography, i am a massive believer in good photography and one thing that grabs my attention on my favorite blogs is bright and vibrant colours in their photos.

As an artist colour has always played an important part in my life, be it in a painting or having bright colour items in my studio for inspiration. I always find something more appealing if it has a pop of colour.

Colour is a wonderful thing, make the most of it, in these winter months its hard to find moments with a lot of colour especially with all these grey skies and wet spells. You can find colour simply if you start to keep you eye out for it. I was wandering along on my winter walk the other day with my brother when I spotted the Yellow padlock and it really made me smile the combination of the yellow on Turquoise really cheered me up, passers by were giving me rather odd looks but who cares about them hey! Prepare for odd looks if you want to create different content and photos!

I have a few ideas and tips on finding your colourful foot steps..

- When taking an outfit photo try and find a colourful back drop maybe a nice wall of graffiti, a colourful front door or a shop.

- Buy yourself so lovely props (cheap is good, tiger is a great shop for it), maybe some flowers (Columbia road goodness!)or colourful paint that you can dot about in patterns.

- Wear an item of clothing that is colourful, a scarf a pair of red shoes or a bright nail polish, it always adds a bit of fun to a photo. 

- Buildings are beautiful especially when they have lovely tiles, look for old buildings (east london have some lovely old structures, old tiles, feet shots of tiles hello insta favorites)

- Taking the time to find something beautiful like a colourful door, or a bunch of flowers will brighten up anyone's day give it a go!

Weekend walks

I love nothing more then a good winter stroll, near where I live is the biggest woods in greater London and as a child I would spend endless hours running around climbing trees and getting rather muddy. So when my brother invited me along as he needed a walk to clear his mind I couldn't say no. I popped my florescent running trainers on which subsequently didn't stay florescent for long considering how muddy it was. 

The woods felt eerily silent as we strolled passed tree after tree, trying hard not to get whipped in the face but twigs and branches my brother is built like a house and when walking behind him get use to a twig or two in the face! I do feel most inspired when I am out in nature, as a child I was a bit of a geek and loved bird watching and desperately wished that all the animals were like the creatures Beatrix Potter wrote about in her books, but alas they aren't. 

It was such a beautiful day yesterday in comparison with the grey skies over London today as I am sat in my studio trying to sort my sale for Cyber Monday which is going crazily well, you can buy my items for £5 or less in store today!

What fun did you get upto this weekend?