Fawn in the Flowers

He curls up in the undergrowth, snout to tail, ears alert. His mama has given him splotchy dots all over his tiny body to keep him safe.

When she returns he will leap up with joy, awkward bandy legs splaying out in all directions - a dance of relief.

oil painting by saidthefawn - photograph by Jeff Dyck

Seabirds and Scarlet Locks

At the moment I'm stuck right in the middle of revision. It's tedious and hard and I can't wait for it to be all over. I'm also slightly concerned about my attitude towards this period of concentrated study, usually I find it much more easier to get into 'the zone' and get to work. This time, however, I'm so much more easily distracted and I'm finding it difficult to just concentrate and get into my books. A facebook ban should help me on my way, providing I've got the willpower to hold it out...

But it can't all be study, study, study. As always, the creativity bug bites when I'm supposed to be knuckling down to schoolwork, so as of late I've been working on my first ever oil painting. When my grandpa died about ten years ago I inherited all of his art supplies, and since paint lasts a long time - especially oil paint - it's all still useable. During a recent raid of one of my local art shops I found some pre-stretched and primed canvases on sale, and remembering the oil paints gathering dust at the back of my art cupboard.. Well, I couldnt resist.
The reference image is a stunning photograph by *Lightrae on DeviantART, who kindly gave me permission to use it - I can't resist a good puffin! ;) For a first attempt at oils, I'm pleased - though I feel I need to be bolder with the paint since there's so much canvas texture showing through.

Painted puffins aside, I'm feeling the urge to do something bolder with my hair now that I'm (soon to be) free from A-levels. Usually I'm not so bothered about my hair (this much is evident..) However, I've decided that since I'll only be young once then I should rid the desire to dye my hair obnoxious colours well and truly from my system ASAP. Furthermore, I've been missing my lovely long locks ever since I had a moment of lacking sensibility and had them lopped off. So, soon I'll be embarking on a journey of layering, bleaching, colouring and extensions to transform my bonce from this...

...To something very similar to this (Photograph by my lovely friend Felice Fawn!):
Photos will be taken when it's done. I'm nervous, but hopefully my follicles will withstand the bleaching!

Real-life Life art... And Baroness

Look more closely at the hair of the painting in the model. It's real hair. That isnt a painting on canvas, its a painting of a girl in a mac.. On a girl in a mac. Yep! It's model covered in paint; the highlights and shadows turned into lovely acrylic smears so that she looks like she's flat on a canvas. See more here.
Every time I begin to think that we've run out of ideas, that art is becoming monotonous, artists like Alexa Meade - this talented woman - come up with something so simple yet so impressive and deceptive to the eye. I love it. Whilst many of us look to new technologies to come up with new, original ideas, Meade simply paints what she sees - ON what she's seeing - and the effect really is an odd but interesting one on the brain.
It's always the case that as soon as the exam season begins, my procrastination for art suddenly decides to make itself scarce and I'm all for getting covered in paint and graphite and bits of thread again, or plugging in my Wacom tablet and spending hours hunched over my laptop, scribbling away. Meanwhile, the sad layer of dust on my revision timetable begins to accumulate. Guaranteed, every summer. Try as I might to work the two around each other, I always end up breaking open the acrylics in the afternoon and finally putting my brushes and palette down in the wee hours of the next morning. Recently I've been inspired by the album art of the band Baroness:

The complexity is not in the colour but in the linework, which is also where the shading detail is worked in. The lovely womanly figures are eerie and aloof and surrounded by not so pleasant symbolism. My attention span is far too short to produce something as detailed as this, and besides; with the reminder that I do have exams to study for stuffed somewhere in a recess in my brain, I figured I dont have enough time for putting in great complexity. This is what I produced:
Overall I'm pleased. I figured she'd look better if I gave her unhumanly colours. Grey and washed out red seem to contrast and complement the off-white of her eyeballs nicely (Ha-ha.) The image took perhaps 45 minutes in all, leaving me enough time to contemplate revising, and perhaps admit to exam failure...
But at least I could make it as one of those street artists, right?