New work in progress

Currently in the under-painting state:

Zelyss acrylic painting progress

Finished piece soon to be uploaded on www.zelyss.com

Dolce Amore : OOAK art doll, by ZELYSS.com

ART DOLLS section updated on my website, 

here:http://zelyss.com/dolls.html

Tutorial#1: Proper priming of your wood board (/panel)

or HOW TO KNOW when NOT to start a painting

I am not big on preparation. I hate the boring stuff. Gesso, undercolor, sketching. If I could, I would skip directly to coloring. BUT. If you are like me, impulsive and rushing, you're more than likely to find yourself with a lot of unfinished business.

So here goes, my exceptional tutorial:

1. You prime your wood panel with gesso. If you are sane, you must put there at least 2+ layers. If you're me, you might leave it at 1. Don't.

So, you prime:

You put the base color:

 You blow-dry (see? impatient altready!)

then you sketch:

and you start painting (values, undertones, etc.)

And just when you're right about here, 

you STOP!

Rubbish, no good, don't finish, throw away!

Why? 

(meaning asides from the obvious mid-process state. 

Well, don't judge by that, they all look kind of freakish until shortly before they're done). 

You stop,

because:

The paint just WON'T lay on the panel. Not like it's supposed to. 

So you can't get the result you must get.

And the panel has all these half-raised fibers that look threateningly wild-spirited, 

If you scratch them, they might come off. 

There goes. Bye-bye to my sweet hours spent so far on this piece. 

Err if you must, dear friends. Or if you wish, learn by me. 

Layers of Gesso: 2+
And don't rush. 

Sarah Kay inspiration

I am a big fan of Sarah Kay. I love those little girls that belong in a different era, with their puffy cheeks and their lovely outfits. They remind us of past years and innocent dreams. 

These sketches are nothing like the originals, but sometimes you wish for another's person's aura to blow through your art, without copying or imitating them. They're not my current style and I doubt I'll color them, but I want to remember I made them. No matter how hastily that was. 

:)

The world is a small place!

Thank you to all my blog's and website's visitors from:

France - Austria - Spain - Netherlands - Greece - Norway - Tunisia - Turkey - Ukraine - Brazil - Italy -  Russia - Mexico - Germany - Colombia - Croatia - India - Uruguay - Japan - Portugal - Poland - Belgium - Norway - Romania - Seychelles - Finland - China -  Luxembourg - United Kingdom and USA. 

Keep loving art everyone! It makes life bearable. 
Perhaps even beautiful.

Finished painting: Natalia's quill (big eye girls series)

"Natalia's quill"

Acrylics on wood board

26 x 50

Finished painting above. And the photos that inspired it below:

I think it's pretty clear what I took from each. The girl pose from the first, the book stack from the second, the window frame and wall from the last. I always use reference photos for my paintings, although my imagination tends to take the lead in the end.

KOVACS - MY LOVE

LOVE...LOVE...LOVE...

Natalia's quill: progress

Natalia's quill: progress

A glimpse of process. This is where me and Natalia are now, not far from the end. 

What's up next? Have no idea, lots of sketches but... who will be the lucky one to come alive through the brushes? Only time will tell.

"Goldylocks lost in the woods"

"Goldylocks lost in the woods"

Guache on textured paper

This is my very first painting of Blythe looking girls. We have gone a long way since then, me and my girls, the style has changed, the medium too, but this little one stays with me. It was the start of an era after all...

"Unteachable" by Leah Raeder

There's one, and I mean only one, thing that I find impractical about my Kindle. I cannot see actual page numbers, just percentage. So I cannot know exactly how long is one book, I just realize from the time I spend reading it, whether it is big or not.

The book in discussion now, seemed endless. It kept dragging on and on and on. 

Not everything was bad about it. I loved the first chapter. And this is an important accomplishment for a writer: get a great start. A great first sentence, a great first chapter. This is what the reader gets a glimpse of, before buying the book. But what about after that??

To be honest, I think it is a poor choice of this writer, to write this kind of book. Personal opinion, OK. But really, she has a sharp mind and a skillful tongue. Why waste it on describing a lukewarm love affair and a bunch of sex scenes? In which type of book also, I believe she fails. You see, the clue on YA romance books is the anticipation. You want the two protagonists to get together, they don't, and that's what makes you wanna keep reading. When the mail character/so called 'teacher' of our story, gives in to his desire so easily, without any restrictions or reservations, and then you just read nearly half a book about get together s on motels, I think there is not much story to want to follow. And there is not so much respect for the characters either. Or empathy. There had to be something more. And what there was, was not enough. 

This book didn't do it for me. At all. And I quit reading it. No, I am not ashamed to admit, I drop out of things occasionally when I lose interest. And I don't feel like a quitter. It's just that there are so many more things to do, so many books to read. 

Just the way things are.

Nice night to wherever the sun is hiding...

Favorite song (love-love-lovely..) : Tom Odell - Another Love

    Tom Odell - Another Love

Anna Dittman

Different medium, different style than what I like to make, but I LOVE her work!

Natalia's quill - painting progress

And then it goes on somehow like this...

I love acrylics for their fast-drying quality. At this stage they are used almost like watercolors. As for the choice of undertone color, well... It's only my favorite color, it must be present in some layer of the painting!

I'm not sure about the final color scheme at this moment, it comes on the way. Indecisive me!

New work starting

It all starts with a line... Always.

"Osiris and the ostrich"

"Osiris and the ostrich"

Acrylics on wood

30x55cm

and the photo that inspired it:

The girl on the train

First things first: It takes a lot of patience, persistence and thought, to write a book like this. That said, I found this book ugly. 

Let me be clear. The characters were very well-studied, and I think I can say that they were very consistent to their personalities. But... Thinking about what bothered me in the book, I believe it was that all characters were deeply flawed. Not that we all aren't, but it takes a protagonist of a story to have some sort of good qualities in order for you to like them, sympathize with them, feel for them, and eventually come to love their story. Or if the main heroes are twisted or plainly unlucky/stupid (see "Gone girl"), aka not particularly likable, then at least the plot must be somewhat special in order to save the book. And unfortunately this was not the case here. 

Let's start with hello.

Hello, then.

I'm Zelyss. With a double 's' in the end.

I am an artist.

And so many other things...

This is my blog. Yes, you will see here several tips regarding the way I paint or make my dolls, glimpses of my process, even bad attempts that I prefer to forget about. Hopefully you will see me evolving as time passes.

But a blog is kind of a journal, a sort of diary if you prefer. And this means that I will put here other pieces of myself also. Things I liked, things I didn't like. Books I read and loved, movies I hated, pictures that inspired me, thoughts that made me sad. Of course you may not want to read about them, you may not care at all, there are certainly better ways to spend your time. But although, reading my thoughts and concerns may disinterest you, I suggest (if you don't despise writing, that is) to do the same yourself. Write your thoughts. Not for public view necessarily. But writing, like reading, like painting, like listening to music, has a magic way of comforting the soul. Plus it keeps pieces of your life alive for longer than your brain certainly can.

So there. Part of me already here. Typed on the above words.

Currently reading: 'Girl on the train'
Currently painting: 'Osiris and the ostrich'

Coming back with comments on the first and photos of the second really soon.

So long,

Zelyss