Animals

Trying out ArtRage Vitae

| cathmary1030

I’ve never really considered digital painting before because I don’t have an iPad or an iPhone. Instead, I have an Android phone, and a Kindle Fire 10. However, one of my favorite artists on Instagram (Teddi Parker) has posted occasionally some work she’s done using ArtRage Vitae. So I decided to check it out — and to my surprise it’s available not only for Apple products, but Android and desktops (Windows, MacOS).

Okay, then. I bought it for $2.99 on Google Play and loaded it on both my phone (can’t see using it there, though!) and my tablet. Below is my first work.. a sketch of my cat, Simba, based on a photo I took of him some time back when he was on my lap. I saved it before I finished his long white whiskers (well, really I messed up with layering and had to start all over again.)

Not bad, for a first attempt. I used my finger, and am debating purchasing a stylus to see if that helps.

Big and Bold: Chickadee

| cathmary1030

This bird was painted on a 11×14 canvas which I toned with Blick Studio neutral gray — but I should have added at least one layer of gesso. (Cheap “pre-gessoed” canvases are less and less appealing to me.)

This is from another class on the Acrylic University website, originally shown to the public on YouTube for a brief period of time back in January 2022. The focus of the week’s classes was “Radiant Landscapes” and this class was about going big and bold with your brushstrokes to paint a chickadee.

There were 4 ways suggested to “go bold”: 1) limit yourself to 30 minutes painting (and that’s it, no going back later); 2) Limit yourself to a certain number of brushstrokes — say, 50, or 75; 3) use a large brush throughout; 4) paint with your non-dominant hand

I went with a larger brush than I typically use, and I had a lot of fun with this painting. It makes me happy to look at.

Crow

| cathmary1030

I did this painting on an 8×8 canvas which I had months ago applied modeling paste to, without knowing what I was going to do with it. So I decided to paint the crow (based on an image by mycol from Pixabay). After a while, it gets tiring to paint other people’s work from class, ugh.

I enjoyed painting this.

Black Labrador

| cathmary1030

This is my first animal “portrait”, based on an image by Nikki Luijpers from Pixabay.

I love black Labs! Never had one, but a roomie from 40 years ago had a black Lab named Emma, and I just loved that dog! BEST DOG EVER.

This quick study was done on 6×8 gessoboard, which I gessoed again to get rid of the smooth surface, and then painted over with Neutral Gray 5.