Sowthistles and Grasses (oil painting)

It's Friday! And it's Labor day weekend! So I hope yours is off to a good start!

Yesterday I finished a painting and I'm so excited to share it with you all :) It's based from a tutorial painting by Brian Bennett from the book How to Paint by Angela Gair and Ian Sidaway. So this is definitely not an original, but I'm proud of it nonetheless.

The medium is oil paints; this was my first experience with oil paints and it was very interesting. It took me a bit to get use to mixing paints with a medium, and also cleaning up with a lot more care. Furthermore, this tutorial was to practice palette knife painting techniques and that's a challenge in itself. The brushwork was minimal, which meant that I had to suggest certain details based on how I lay paint down with the pallet knife.

To learn more about my experience with this painting, please watch this video below! I am also making a bonus video showing about 2 hours worth of live painting, sped up 16x, and will be available soon! Have a fantabulous weekend!

<3 Kara

Poppies with Courtney

Good afternoon y'all!

It's been a while since my last post, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten! My friend Courtney was visiting from out of town for the last 6 days, so I've been spending lots of time with her; lots of sun and lots of pool time! While she was here we also went to Whimsy Art Studio for a painting class and had a blast! We went for the Poppies session and it was so much fun. You can see the paintings we did above. I love doing these type of wine with painting classes because you don't paint alone. When I'm alone in my own painting space, the way I go about painting is very different than when I'm socializing with others in a class and enjoying a glass of wine (not that I can't enjoy wine in my own painting space). The class and socializing frees me up and I paint more fluidly and freely. I don't have to agonize about the technique I must use to produce the results I'm looking for. In the class, I just follow the instructor's tutorial, relax and let go. It's nice too that I can add my own flare to the painting if I want to :) I've done classes like this 3 times now and I love it! It's a great date or double date night and also girls night!

I've noticed this new trend in painting where people can go to tutorial classes and drink the wine they bring. The first time I had this experience was at Painting with a Twist, and Whimsy Art Studio is the second place I've visited. I have also noticed another location in San Antonio called Vino van Gogh and want to check this place out too. Maybe I'll do a date night with my husband at Vino van Gogh in the near future. This location is the closest to where we live, so it's a lot more convenient. I'm sure there are more studios that offer this painting class where you can bring your own wine, but these are the 3 I know of. If you think this is something you might want to do, I highly recommend looking for one in your area. It's so fun! And if you go with your boy/girl-friend, friend(s), or your spouse, you guys can have matching paintings!

The way these places usually work is they have a calender with different paintings you can do. Each day is a different painting and they rotate each month I think. You sign up and pay for a class for one evening to do one painting.. You can do this alone but usually people sign up in duos or groups. Each class lasts about 2 hours.You may bring wine (or other beer or soda if you prefer for some places) and drink that while you paint. The instructor will walk you through each step of the painting and the whole experience is very relaxing.

At Whimsy Art Studio, I learned that the instructor is an attorney and paints as a hobby. She decided to open up a wine and painting class studio and rocked it. She's only been open for 2 months, but it looks like she's doing great. I was so excited to hear that because I want to earn a law degree but I also want to paint, so there is hope for me yet!

So that's my latest art adventure. I hope you enjoyed reading about it :) Until next time...

<3 Kara

Giclee (zhee-klay) Prints

Good afternoon everyone!

Today I want to share with you all some of my recent research. Ever since I completed the painting of the girl with the dragon, I have been trying to figure out the best way to reproduce it. If you have read the post and/or seen the video, you know that I didn't draw it. My friend Andi drew it out and asked me to paint it for him. I wanted to give him the original and keep a copy for myself, but he's insisting that I keep the original and give him the copy. In either case, I wouldn't want either one of us to have a copy that won't last and isn't of good quality.

So I have been researching different methods of fine art prints. So far the one I have decided to use is called giclee (zhee-klay) printing. Giclee is a french word meaning "to squirt or spurt" which describes the method of putting color on paper/canvas that is characteristic of this giclee printing. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various surfaces including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclee printing process provides better color accuracy and archival quality than other means of reproduction.

To learn more about giclee prints, you can definitely do a search, or click on the following links:
 http://www.dpandi.com/giclee/
http://www.gicleeprint.net/abtGclee.shtm

There are various sites that offer this service but they all involve me shipping the painting to their company for scanning. I don't want to ship my painting out because you never know what happens once it leaves your possession right? Some sites have the option of me taking a picture of the painting and e-mailing that to them. The problem with this option is that I can't know for sure that the colors would turn out exactly the way it's supposed to. With that in mind, I have been looking for a local place that does giclee prints. This puts me at ease because I can bring the painting in and take it home with me, and I can pick up the print rather than having it shipped. I love online shopping and shipping but there are certain things that I would rather not go through the shipping process.

So, that's where I am at in my search. I'll definitely give an update once I find a local place and go through with it.

In the meanwhile, have a wonderful start to the week :)

<3 Kara

U.S. Army Soldier Show, 2012

Good afternoon Lured Ones!

Today I would like to share with you all an event I attended back in April called the 2012 U.S. Army Soldier Show. During San Antonio's 122nd Annual, 11-day Fiesta celebration, Ft. Sam Houston created a family friendly atmosphere and invited the public to celebrate Fiesta with games, festive foods and entertainment. There was also the Soldier Show at the Fort Sam Houston Theatre that I attended with my husband. I was really excited at this time to test out my new lens! It was the Canon 17-40mm f/4 L and I loved it! I could get close enough with a bit of zoom, and the picture quality was great, even with my cropped frame camera.

The show was amazing! They performed adaptations from a good mix between the classics, recent hits and some originals. And the choreography was also diverse. I enjoyed it so much, sometimes I didn't even bother taking pictures. For more information on the Soldier Show, please visit their website by clicking here!

I have included throughout this post some pictures I selected, but this is not the complete set. You can see the full set at my Flickr: Be Lured. I've done some cropping (since I couldn't always be at the edge of the stage and didn't have a long zoom), and fixed some exposure and white balance. Other than that, I've kept the integrity of the images.

See the full set at my Flickr: Be Lured by clicking here!

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

<3 Kara

Pedernales Falls State Park

Good evening all!

My husband and I went on a day trip to Pedernales Falls State Park with Kim and her kids today. It was so much fun with lots of beautiful things to see, but man was it hot! We started at Pedernales Falls and then migrated to Twin Falls after a bit of a break. I have to say, Twin Falls was super obscure and hard to find. And when we left, we actually got lost because the trail just faded away (instead of backtracking we wanted to circle around like it was marked on the map but of course that doesn't exist). It was rough, and I am so proud of Kim's girls! They were troopers and persevered in the heat and climbs. Intense, but so much fun.

Aside from having lots of fun, I was a bit sad that the sun was so bright and high up that it was difficult to get correct exposure. It was so easy to overexpose an image. For the images I did overexpose, I was lucky I photographed in RAW format so I can adjust exposure on the computer.

Despite having an amazing time, I feel like I was unable to capture the fun that I experienced. I think Kim did a way better job, so I must learn from her! It's always a learning process and I welcome any sort of tip or advice :) Anyway, here is a small sample of today's trip. I hope you like them!

<3 Kara

Girl with Dragon - New Painting Complete!

Hey everyone! It's an exciting day because I just finished my first video for Be Lured! Instead of writing about my latest painting, I've decided to talk about it. I was nervous to be on camera because I'm usually the one behind the camera, so yikes! And at the end of the video, I've put together a series of pictures that show the painting as it progresses from beginning to end.

There are a couple people I'd like to mention and give thanks to. First, a big thanks to my friend Andi who drew this picture that I painted! He's a great artist and does beautiful portraits. Also, thanks to my friend Eric (known as Out of the Void) for allowing me to use his songs for background music in this video. He's totally cool and recorded these for me on the spot when I asked him about it! And finally, thanks to my husband for all the encouragement, supplies and helping me record the video.

Without further ado, here's the video. Please let me know if you like this format of presenting my paintings and if there's something else you'd like to see!

Until next time!<3 Kara

Winter Painting Gift

Hey guys!

I wanted to share another one of my winter paintings today. This one was done in December of 2006 as a Christmas gift for the Furgasons (they are like family to me). I painted this in a matter of hours, which was really fast for me. Usually I take forever to finish a painting! This painting was done in acrylic on canvas, and I wrote a message on the back so this painting doubled as a card.

I did take some time to browse through a ton of winter images on the web, just so I could have a better idea about the texture of the snow on trees and bushes. Also, that helped me come up with a composition. This whole painting was made from scratch, so to speak :) I pulled pieces I like from various pictures and put it all together.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

<3 Kara