Birds, OWLS, and naked ladies

I spent the majority of 2019 attending a local life drawing class; you may have seen some of the pieces on my instagram @yasminfrench or my artfinder account. I posted some of my favourite pictures- they’re not all great, but I just love capturing expressions and mannerisms, it truly is what makes us human.

I’m hoping to continue drawing and sketching to my heart’s content this year, but, amongst all the naked ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be trying to sketch more scenes and animals. It’s hard, isn’t it – always looking for that balance! Does anyone ever achieve a balance of everything they want to do, or is it just some kind of utopia?

In December I got really excited to have an excuse to get my acrylics out. I decided to paint an owl for my boyfriend’s parents for Christmas! His mum had hinted she would love a picture of mine and I thought, well, why not?! I chose owls, just because… well, I’ve painted lots before, and a lot of people like owls. His parents live in the countryside, and I knew my portraits of alpacas, emus and similar wouldn’t go down well (they used to run a farm and were sick of the sight of them!).

Owls were a safe bet so I found a really lovely reference photo of a spotted eagle owl in a tree trunk. I cropped in a lot closer, changed the background a bit, adjusted and simplified the bark … you know the drill. There are little bits of Golden gold mica in there, too, to really make the bark pop.  I had so much fun playing with the textures in this!

It is in its new home now. The painting has gone and I’m sad because I was pretty happy with the results (which is rare!). I’m pleased that they were really happy with it and it’s got pride of place at their house. It’s definitely one that I’ll be producing prints of, on greeting cards, and 8×8″ prints.  If you’d like a print, message me via the contact page.

I will be back and will post more about the workshop I went to last year, where I rediscovered a love for painting street scenes! I am seeing paintings everywhere I walk in town, now – expect more in 2020…