🎀🎈💖THE BEGINNING💖🎈🎀

Hello lovelies!
With the chance of my new upcoming solo show with Curio Art Gallery in Portugal, which is themed around Alice in Wonderland, I'll be showing you a bit of my process of how I prepare the work I'll show, so that you can learn sth on the way, whether it is a few technique tricks or the madness of an artist 🤪😂💖

So, let's start with the bunny today...! I decided to start working on the messenger bunny as a first piece, and not the white rabbit, because of the colors! This was the ideal theme to warm me up! A solo show carries a lot of weight and responsibility, it really is hard to explain. I personally see it as a challenge to outdo myself, to go further than I have reached until then, always artistically speaking. On a solo show you work together with a gallery and it is an honor for an artist to be picked by a gallery, so like a parent that has invested in you and helped you, you want to make them proud of that choice and the faith they showed in you!! 🎀

The messenger bunny dressed on the gown of hearts, with warm pinks and reds all around, seemed like the perfect mood-fixer to begin with! Warm colors make you feel more vibrant and more optimistic in my opinion, and are more suitable for activity and 'let's do it' mood!

I started out with a first sketch (above). Eyes are not a problem for me, since I started sketching them at the age of 14, so...many years of practice 😜!!

But the bunny in my first sketch looked older, and more serious than I wanted. Big eyes make a figure look young, but the distance between eyes and the chin line is very important to achieve youth: the closer the eyes are to the chin, the younger the figure. It's the same with children if you observe! With a little tweaking on Photoshop, the sketch came to where I wanted, so that was done:

Many times I make a B&W shading sketch, but for this one I needed the color therapy asap, so I painted my initial sketch with gouache. The result is what you see in the first picture. I was quite happy with it (lucky me!) so this one is ready to go on the painting process now 💖🤗!!

We'll let this be for a while and on the next post we'll talk about fur, so if you're an animal lover, don't miss it ❤😉!

'Carousel Ride' by Zelyss

We all more or less end up abandoning our blogs (I've seen it in many other artists), cause life is so consuming and we end up realizing (and accepting) that there is no time for everything. 

I love it though. When I visit my blog to write a post, I feel like standing in front of a stream, with my thoughts flowing freely...

Short stop today again, I thought of showing you the unexpected route a painting can take. How we can start with one feeling and end up with another. This is my 'Carousel Ride', a very dear piece to me. From sketch to (almost) final. I'm not posting the final-final stage yet, but the 4th photo is pretty close to what it is. 

Our paintings grow, along with us....

Lollipop Rococo

This is my last painting, 'Lollipop Rococo' and I wanted to share it in bigger analysis with you.

She's the first actual Lowbrow piece that I've painted and it feels kind of awkward. But it certainly has the general feeling of my work on it. 

I hope you like it! 

Elephant lover's eye

This heart-shaped block of wood was laying around in the studio for far too long. I ended up into turning it into an 'Elephant lover's eye'... I'll take another photo of it hung up on a wall because I was in a rush this morning.

I'm thinking of keeping it but I'm a little worried that we'll start looking too much like a museum around here in the end... I 'd so like that! :)

'Guarding Angelica' by Zelyss

Angels are a good theme for Sundays I think... and Mondays. And so on... 
Detail of my painting 'Guarding Angelica', acrylics on board.

Progress photo - girl in woods

This photo is in so many ways wrong, it was taken in the dawn fade natural light creeping in my studio. But the painting is coming out so nice... I'm thrilled!!! I think in the end I will wanna go parading in the streets to show it off... ;)

Tips+tricks series starting

For those of you who don't know, I am a self-taught artist. Self-taught meaning that I've hand-picked numerous art books which have shown me things that I would have learned in an art school I suppose, and I've spent endless hours of my life trying to learn every little detail that will make what I paint look a little better than yesterday, and me a little more happy tomorrow...

The main reason I still spend time on social media is to learn, Internet is a great tool and a great source of knowledge. So I'm thinking to contribute my piece to this process, and post occasionally some tips that I find handy, simple things really that however may be of worth to some beginners. I'll be marking such photos with a 'tips+tricks' stamp so that they're easy to recognize. 

Below is me working on 'Lolipop Rococo'. You see that I'm laying a dark blue color on the bows, although you may see them turning out purplish, even whitish in the end. The reason is that blue lies everywhere(thankfully!), on every shade, on everything we see. The sky is blue, the sea is blue, and they're all around us. Every shadow has blue in it and every dark part of your painting should too. Don't use stand-alone colors as I see in so much artwork posted around. Mix up things on your palette a little and play around. You'll be surprised... wink emoticon 

Lovely inspiration by Mariska Karto

Is it photograph or is it a painting? Hard to tell.
I love the cotton-smooth skin depicted on Baroque/renaissance paintings and thought it's hard to achieve on acrylics, that's where I'm headed at.

Mariska Karto's work seems a highly-recommended inspiration if realistic painting is where your heart lies, and it's definitely a pleasure for the eye and the soul. Lovely work!!! Here's her website if you're interested for more:http://www.mariska-karto.com/

'Out of space Leia'
by Zelyss
Acrylics on board 32x28cm

'Tic-toc' by Zelyss

My blog being my most favorite media to write on, and I can't believe I haven't posted anything since 14th September! Uncontrollable time!!! Here's a little 'time-involved' project on progress, just for eye-candy... 

I'm trying to gather a small tutorial post (of sorts), on my current working piece. Check back here or on my facebook account https://www.facebook.com/zelyss.art so that you don't miss it. Cheers!

'Pinocchio's Blue Fairy' : artwork by Zelyss

Finally finished. And I say finally because this was CANVAS, and many people like CANVAS, but for me it's like the CANVAS is the leader asking me to follow, while I should be the one ordering CANVAS to do what I want. And I do ask, but the CANVAS doesn't follow. So I hate CANVAS @#$@$!@#!!!. 

I love the fairy though... :)

'Pinocchio's Blue Fairy' by Zelyss
Acrylics on canvas 

30x90cm

'Let me kiss you' (the frog prince) : WIP by Zelyss

Too many things to do, too little time. I regret leaving my blog for days on end, but it's not possible to catch up on everything. Here's what I'm working on right now. The lighting is coming from a warm lamp so it changes the colors, but the theme of the painting is great. My concept of the Frog Prince:

'French Croissants' - artwork by Zelyss

Here is  my finished piece 'French croissants':

"French croissants" : original artwork by Zelyss

Acrylics on masonite board(1.5cm thick) - 16x39cm

(detail)

WIP : "French Croissants" by Zelyss

My last two paintings, "Thursday" and this one, are small and rather 'rushed' because I'm trying out surfaces again. Canvas ("Thursday"-previous post) seems to accept paint better, it's easier to work on, but the 'bumps' are visible and I don't like it. I prefer the smoother texture of the board.

The following WIP ("French Croissants") is on primed masonite, and again masonite proves too smooth for me. It helps to get easier the facial colors but the paint needs 2-3 layers to stick on and have the thickness I like, and I don't know if I have enough patience for that. Pff! Potato-potato!

"Thursday" : artwork by Zelyss

"Thursday"

original artwork by Zelyss

Acrylics on canvas - 24x30cm

WIP : 'Pray'#2 - Zelyss art

A series of process photos for my current work "Pray"...

I am focusing on light effects in my last paintings. Layer upon layer of color, it takes longer than expected to reach the desired tones. Plus that staircase on the background is a real 'piece of cake'...!

"Bat your eyes" : finished piece

"Bat your eyes" : art by Zelyss

40x50cm, acrylics on wood

Big eye paintings - www.zelyss.com

https://www.facebook.com/zelyss.art

New work in progress: "Pray", by Zelyss

Summer is making everything slower and it starts getting to my nerves (OK, kind of, but still, I sometimes miss a cold wintry breeze...).

This is the last piece I've started, in between sections of my other painting, (meaning whenever I'm too exhausted to paint fine details, I prefer something more loose).

Started off bigger headed than my usual likes...

With a bit of alteration, we ended up here:

And so it begins. Good luck to me!

:)

WIP : 'Bat your eyes'#3

OK, this is becoming a series (posts regarding progress of 'Bat your eyes'). 
I like the follow-up...

WIP : 'Bat your eyes'#2

And here is the update on the process of 'Bat your eyes':

Step #...7(?): Working on the eyes

Skipped the intermediate steps... Too messy fingers for daring to pick up the camera :)