I have added my three new Star Trek Portraits to the Illustration section.
I really had fun doing these. I’ve always been a fan of the show and it’s a thrill to finally do justice to my favorite characters. The technique was new for me and incredibly easy and fun. The gouache underpainting shows through the final acrylic layers in a surprising way and the effect is something I will continue to play with. I have one more Star Trek image on the drawing board and I’m really taking this style to town on it!
I will be moving on to some new series after this – I’m so excited to see where they will go. I have a nice pile of boards and paper all waiting to bloom into life!
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Gouache Painting – Spock ©2017 Julia L Powell
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Gouache Painting – Kirk ©2017 Julia L Powell
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Gouache Painting – McCoy ©2017 Julia L Powell
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Gouache Painting – Uhura ©2017 Julia L Powell
At last – the glue has dried, the hardware installed, and now it’s time to share what has been an exciting and scary piece to create!
“Shrine to Heart’s Ease”
This piece is an expression of the love I have for a particular flower – the Pansy. Also known and a violet and Heart’s Ease, this lovely flower has many connotations of gentleness, joy, and healing. This piece also is an homage to the beautiful prayer shrines I had seen as a young girl in the Carnegie Museum. I loved that they were portable, beautifully painted scenes one which one could focus their consciousness on the divine. It has been a life long ambition of mine to create such a piece. This is only the first one – I have plans in place for a second one! The poem on the doors was one I wrote myself – as a mantra to remember what makes the pansy so special to me – the image evokes the loveliness and gentleness the flower represents.
I just HAD to light the interior! It is hard to capture just how beautiful it is when it is lit in a dark room.
I really cannot wait to start on the next one!
This was another piece of experimentation with the needlework. I am having fun with combining all of the skills I have collected over the years. I am still working on the alchemy of these things -thinking of how I can combine these things into pieces that tell stories and draw you in, and have a mystery to be discovered.
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I have posted new work and added some new pieces to my store! The Gaia piece was donated to raise funds for the Changeling Artists Collective Audubon Society fund raiser – Can’t wait to send that out to the lucky winner!
I am already starting work on new pieces and to create a real experience for Illuxcon 2017!
Oil Painting – Coreopsis ©2017 Julia L Powell
Oil Painting – Gaia ©2017 Julia L Powell SOLD
Oil Painting – Fireflies ©2017 Julia L Powell
This painting has been an image that I keep coming back to. Sometimes a certain image just calls and calls until our skills catch up to the demands of the vision. Three years ago when I first worked on this piece I was so excited by what I achieved I actually cried with joy.
Fireflies Version One
This was a huge leap in growth and skill at the time. This was done in 2014 not long after I had been to the Illustration Master Class. I carried this around like my own personal Mona Lisa for over a year.
Then I decided I had to do this again. A larger better drawn and critiqued image. I was participating in an online critique group and they seriously helped me to improve this image until it was the strongest piece I had yet done. A solid and professional eye is invaluable in helping me develop my own judgement and I was so fortunate to have such good artists helping me with this! I decided to complete the painting for another project and again, I hit a whole new level of skill with this new version. It became my new and improved Mona Lisa.
Fireflies Version Two
Oh I am still very proud of this one! However I knew I wasn’t finishing it. This is a case where I got too attached to the place it was in and not having the courage to dive in and finish it. I have since done some truly lovely and ambitious pieces since this one and knew it was time to really do this piece justice.
I pulled it out, studied the color palette, studied my references, thought hard about what I wanted to achieve then gathered my courage, stuffed my ego in a box and chucked it in a corner…
Fireflies Version Three
And achieved what this piece had always intended to be. I can finally put this to rest. I still have so far to go – the wonderful thing about art is you never stop growing – but this is an achievement not just in skill, but in a changed attitude toward my work. The first version was a constant frustration and the tears I cried were mostly of relief that I finally got something to work. This final version was a joy because I now have a confidence, and mentor who is mercilessly encouraging, and three more years of practice and work under my belt.
Fireflies is finally home. I can move on now.
