ByShi

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Little Girl At The Beach

'Little Girl At The Beach'

Watercolour and Pitt Pen on Paper -

(Paper page from 'The Baby Sitters Club #32' by Ann M. Martin)

I went to the beach last year and have had this image floating around in my head ever since. I like to imagine myself as a little girl, wearing floaties on the beach, building sandcastles with my bucket and spade, under the shining childlike sun. It makes me feel warm and happy.

Other images of my 'Little Girl' can be found by clicking here

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

SpiralDeer+Bird

14" x 18" Mixed Media on Canvas

I continued my Spiral Animal Series including:

Spiralbird

SpiralKittyLove and

SpiralDaschund

This deer and bird were inspired by Kaiser Craft's 'Hummingbird' collection of papers.

It feels great to have been able to paint again.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Rainbow Beauty

'Rainbow Beauty'

20"x 20" (51cm x 51cm) mixed media on canvas

I haven't done any art for 6 weeks, it just wasn't flowing, and I decided not to push it. I had the Easter 4 day weekend free and on the Thursday night this image came to me again - it's one I thought up over a year ago but hadn't yet had the energy to sit up and do. So I woke up super motivated, and gave it a go, determined to at least make a start on it.

I first had the idea after seeing much of Rachelle Panagarry's gorgeous work on her blog www.arteyecandy.com I looked at her style of collage background with a face in the foreground, and loved it. And her youtube clip for 'Faces in colour' on the page 'Art Eye Candy TV' at this website, gave me the idea for using the tissue paper, and also the collage in the background.

The good thing about this piece was it was done in steps. So I was forced to take breaks. I would do a layer, then lie down as it dried. Then I'd do another layer, then lie down. It's the most ambitious piece I've done so far and took a lot out of me (I expect to be in recovery mode for a while) but I love it and it makes me feel so good to have made it. I love looking at it and seeing all the layers.

Here is a step by step guide to how it was done:

1) First layer was a collage of faces from magazines:

Background to 'Rainbow Beauty'

by Shiloh Moore

2) Next I outlined the face and hair in pitt pen, and painted a thin layer of skin coloured acrylic on the face and white on the eye. I made sure the paint layer was thin enough so you could still see the collage layer underneath:

Outline of 'Rainbow Beauty'

by Shiloh Moore

3) Then I added a layer of tissue paper:

Tissue layer of 'Rainbow Beauty'

by Shiloh Moore

4) Over the tissue I painted with watercolour and outlined the detail with pitt pen. These photos show detail:

Detail of top of 'Rainbow Beauty'

Detail of bottom of 'Rainbow Beauty'

Portrait detail of 'Rainbow Beauty'

5) And the final product:

'Rainbow Beauty'

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Little Girl Skipping

'Little Girl Skipping'

4"x6" watercolour and pitt pen on paper

Some friends gave birth to a wonderful little girl, so to decorate her bedroom I painted this picture. I continued with the theme of my 'Little Girl' which can also be found in these other posts:

Enjoy the Puddles

Happy Birthday Balloon Girl

Little Girl

and

Circle of Life

'Little Girl Skipping - Sketch'

4"x6" Pencil on paper

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Fire Within

"Fire Within"
10" x 14"Acrylic and Sharpie Pen on Canvas

"There is a raging fire within

But at my heart

There is peace"

This piece was very different to anything I've done before. I have been wanting for a long time to be able to sit up and just 'play' with paints with no agenda, no preconceived ideas. I finally had two full days with nothing on (no medical appointments, yay!) and I was feeling a little stronger, so I did just that.

Usually before I start a piece I have a strong idea of what it will look like. I'll have a drawn plan and an idea in my head of the steps to make it come to life. This time I wanted to abandon that and paint with intuition.

I started with a set of pastel coloured acrylic paints. I put them on with the squeegie, and one of the colours was orange. When I put them on with the squeegie, the orange totally overtook the painting. I was uncomfortable and almost upset - I really don't like orange as a colour and I didn't know what to do with it. I thought I'd ruined it. It was certainly not the soft pastel palette I'd had in mind. But I told myself to relax, go with it and sit with it and see if something could come of it. Then I painted red and pink squiggles and it looked a little better, but not complete. I left it overnight.

Then next day I looked at what I had and the colours made me think of fire. I felt like I wanted the fire coming from the bottom right hand corner, and I doodled for a while until I was happy with the shape of the fire. Then I drew it on the painting. It didn't look complete, but I wanted flames coming from the fire, so I doodled all over the painting. I feel a lot of pressure when putting a layer of black like this on - if you stuff it up you can't go back. But I was happy with how it turned out (below). Then I thought it looked a little empty so I filled areas in to contrast the black areas and the coloured areas.

I was really happy with the result. The flame at the heart of the painting looks to me like a dove diving. So that made me feel like at the heart of this fire is peace. The flames are fierce but flowing, and beautiful. I feel them within. I feel like this is a representation of how I am feeling at the moment - I've had a lot to deal with lately and within are powerful flames burning fiercely. But at my heart is peace. I am ok.

The process of this painting taught me valuable lessons. Be calm, if things go in an unexpected route you don't like, don't panic. Sit with it and it may turn out more beautiful and powerful than you previously would have planned. Be brave, intuitive and accepting.

earlier stage of

"Fire Within"

Monday, February 11, 2013

Hip Hip Hooray!

'Hip Hip Hooray'

A4 Watercolour and Pitt Pen on Paper

'Hip Hip Hooray'

Original A7 scribble

Thursday, January 31, 2013

SarBear Owl

'SarBear Owl'

A7 Pitt Pen and Metallic Pen on Paper

I have a precious friend who loves owls and who wears the coolest glasses. I wanted to dedicate an owl to her. I don't know if she knits, but this owl felt like knitting. So SarBear, this one's for you xx

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Enjoy The Puddles

'Enjoy The Puddles'

Watercolour and Pitt pen on Paper

If you like this 'Little Girl' you may like these other posts:
'Happy Birthday Balloon Girl'
'Little Girl' and
'Circle of Life'

Monday, December 31, 2012

Set Your Heart Free

'Set Your Heart Free'

30/12/12

Line drawing on Paper, digitally enhanced with sky image using 'PicMonkey'

Whatever's holding you back -

Fear, your body, time...

Let go and

Set your heart free

'Set Your Heart Free'

30/12/12

Line drawing on Paper, digitally enhanced with paint image using 'PicMonkey'

'Set Your Heart Free'

30/12/12

Original Line drawing on Paper

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Butterfly

'Butterfly' Paper collage

It's been a tough couple of months with a relapse of severe symptoms. I have this piccie up my sleeve from 19/5/12 so I thought it might be time to reveal it now and keep the blog going but give me some time to improve before working on my next post.

May it be a symbol of what's to come - now's time to go into my cocoon. May I heal in time and emerge as the butterfly that's within me :)

Close up of

'Butterfly

Welcome to ByShi, Art by Shiloh!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Monday, February 11, 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Monday, December 31, 2012

Thursday, December 27, 2012