Creative Literature Video

The Conductor

I am really chuffed that Devon Mettlin of Art of the Abstract, has created an interpretation video of one of my abstract paintings. I really love it. He turns the painting around and gives a completely new reading from all angles. Love this! I really appreciate the time it takes to produce videos like these and can't thank him enough. It's so interesting to hear how other people read abstract art. I never would have dreamed of anything like this. Such creativity, energy and originality. Please subscribe to his You Tube channel if you like it too, and also his Facebook page Art of the Abstract.

Art of Abstract Video

Art of Abstract Video

The Owl and the Pussycat, Abstract Cat Painting

The Owl and the Pussycat
©mforrester

Just put up this lovely image in my online shops. Definitely brings a smile to my face, who would have thought they would be in a submarine.
 😊
I've created another abstract painting but this one is waiting for the right little critter to go in it. I have plenty of animals to paint up so I'm wondering which one will fit the bill, although I have a pretty good idea it might be three little mice.

Battleship
©mforrester

Abstract Cat Cards

Just a little something I'm working on, combining my abstracts with my cats and a little Photoshop magic. These will be for cards, prints etc.

Harlequin
©MPF 

City Cat
©MPF

Flying Carpet
©MPF

Painted Cats
©MPF

Doodle Abstract Paintings

My starting Doodles

I've been developing my abstract style based on some of my doodles. I think I am going to be very busy as I have loads, this first image is a glimpse of where I start and the final 3 abstract paintings are where you can see the designs and how I used them. As you can see I add bits and take bits out as I develop my painting. I am really looking forward to painting some more. The artist that has most influenced my abstract work is Paul Klee.
 😊

Pictures Within
©MPF 

Phantom City
©MPF

The Conductor
©MPF

New Abstract Painting

Girl with Fish

Close up detail

I really love abstract art (that's probably why I like creating fractals) so I decided to take this a bit further with my acrylic paints. During my University days I had to create lots of backgrounds for my art so I tried frottage (which I still love), acrylic paint dragging, watercolours etc etc. but mark making, texture and acrylics has always been my thing. What I really love about abstracts is that I have no idea how they are going to turn out. I love this way of working and often see characters and forms appearing in my work. It's hard to decide what to keep and what should go. This is my first abstract piece as a painting in it's own right. It was totally freestyle and I had no idea where it was going until a landscape started to form so I just went with it and developed it further. Putting titles to my work is a challenge as everyone sees something different in abstract work, but I see a Girl on the right with a blue face and yellow dress carrying a huge mammal like fish on her shoulder, so there it is Girl with Fish. I have another 3 abstracts that are drying at the moment. I'll post pictures of those in another blog, they have lots of doodle elements in them.

New Cat Paintings Collection

A while ago I was creating a stylised cat character for development into paintings. I have now started painting up designs and selling these on Fine Art America and Red Bubble plus Greeting Card Universe and Posterlounge. I am in the process of painting a new cat design for Halloween which should be on-line later today.

So, here's the start of my cat collection 😋 painted in acrylic paint. I usually use silver or gold pen for the stars and either paint on A3, A4 or 10x8 canvas board. Really looking forward to developing new designs for these little critters.

Cat with Blue Tit Bird
©mforrester

Candy Crown Cat Princess
©mforrester

Fractal Development in JWildfire for Mac

I've been busy creating lots of fractals and thought I would share the development of 2 final fractals. This isn't a tutorial but a blog to show my fractal development to 2 final works.

Starting a Spiral Fractal

I used a "Spiral" fractal in JWildfire. A typical example of how they look are shown here. I choose one that I like the look of from the thumbnails on the left and start to adjust and change the variations and nonlinear parameters (on the right). Then I start to adjust the triangles by moving them, adjusting the sizes, rotating and scaling until I start to get something I like. They are usually nothing like the starting thumbnail.

The second image is where I start to get something I can work with. I continue to change the settings, drag round the triangles, maybe add a new transformation triangle and generally explore lots of options. This is a very addictive program for me. I love the nature of fractals and how I never know what the outcome will be. I love working like this with no expectations.

The start of my fractals, lots more to do here.

The following screenshots are some of the designs that I progressed through. I save a lot and then rename and delete most of them later. When I'm working on them and get something I like I save it and refine it by changing colour and adjusting position etc. Then I push it further and see what else I can get.

Development Image 1 - starting to get something here.

Development Image 2 - I've changed the colour on this one.

Development Image 3 - I really like this one may work on this later.

Development Image 4 - Image pushed further. I like this also.

Development Image 5 - It's difficult to abandon this one so I continue working on it.

Development Image 6 - Yes!

Before rendering I explored some more colour options. Rendering really takes some time on my old Mac as you can see from this screenshot.

JWildfire Renderer for 1 image - approx 2 hours done and another 1.5 hours to go.

I usually take the final .png files and take them into Photoshop to do a quick adjust on colour if needed. This is how the final images look. Large prints and items are available to buy on Fine Art America and Red Bubble. Both ship to the UK.

Lemon Lime © mforrester

Dreamy Pink © mforrester

Fractal Art using JWildfire

I've been working on some fractal art in a wonderful free program for the Mac called JWildfire V5. I have previously tried to install this but just couldn't get it to work. No problems with V5, installed straight away. I'm finding this to be really similar to Apophysis in it's ease of use but I have so much more to learn. This is the link to the program: JWildfire so much support available and tutorials. There's also a great Facebook page too.

A couple of my creations 😊 large versions available to buy in my on-line stores soon.

Coral Reef ©mforrester

Foxy ©mforrester

Green Man Linoprint

Just a couple of photos of how I did the Lino for my Green Man Linoprints.

Green Man Design

Finished Linocut

Finished Print

Almost finished drawn design, scanned and flipped in Photoshop. I used white Tracedown to transfer the image to the lino and then I go over it again with white pen. I drew most of it freehand on the lino.

The finished linocut is shown. I am working on 6x4 lino so this was a bit fiddly with the leaves but I was looking forward to seeing how it would print.

I was really pleased with the final result. I am still using my dad's old vintage photo mounts to print on and will be really sad when they run out as they are really good quality. I am half way through them already. Oh well, will have to keep my eyes open for other unusual printing surfaces.

As always these will be available on Artfinder as pictures and Etsy as greeting cards. Links are top right on blog.

New Lino Prints on Xcut Xpress, Express Craft Machine

Xcut Xpress

I came across a great little machine on a group on Facebook. Many people are using this die-cut craft machine for lino printing as it has rollers, a printing bed and a roller adjustment dial. This is not for large size printing but will take A4 paper so is ideal for my 6x4 prints. I bought my Xcut from Hobbycraft on-line for £79 and I am really pleased with it, on the box it says Express Craft Machine. It was easy to put the handle on. The dial is a little stiff and the lock sliders are too but this is a good thing, in my opinion and it all folds up to a nice portable size. It is a lot heavier than it looks though.

So, my first prints on the Xcut Xpress and a couple of photos of the Xcut.

These will be available for sale on my on-line shop at Artfinder and I will be printing greetings cards for Etsy.

Green Man

Mandrake

Abaddon Fallen Angel

Bartzabel Fallen Angel

Guland Fallen Angel

Jeretik Fallen Angel

Registration Process

Xcut from above

Lino Print Cards now on Etsy

Absolutely loving how my Linoprints have come out. Really lovely and I love how you can feel the ink on the greetings cards.

These are now available to buy on Etsy all of them are original works of art and each one is hand printed with ink. 😍

Celtic Cat

Country Fox & Moon

Hare & Foliage

Luna Moon Moth

Wood Mouse &
Mushrooms

Three Welsh Sheep

While experimenting with lino printing I came across some of my dad's vintage photo frames. These are gorgeous so I printed directly onto the mount. These are raised slightly from the background so I have added another picture mount to keep the ink away from any glass frame. So lovely. It took a few attempts to get the registration right but once I nailed that the print was nice and central. A little more experimenting needed but hopefully these will be listed shortly also.

Wood Mouse & Mushrooms
Original Linoprint

Small Spirit Dolls Listed on Etsy

In my last Spirit Doll blog I showed how I had created these lovely dolls. They are now finished and listed on Etsy

I'm really pleased, they are all so individual and have slightly different faces that make them unique. Here's a finished photo of them all 😍

Spirit Dolls

Lino Printing Test Prints

This week I have been creating lino prints and have broken down the process as below. These are the first test prints.

My painting adjusted in Photoshop.

I took one of my recent paintings that I have not published yet, turned it black and white and then added a filter to outline it in Photoshop.

Next I traced the image using Tracedown (white) and then outlined it again with a permanent white pen as this was rubbing off when I started to carve. At this stage I didn't realise I had forgotten to flip the image. Never mind I carried on to see the end result which luckily was okay.

Traced to Lino.

I continued to transfer and cut out my other image designs and this is what they looked like.

Celtic Cat. 

Hare and Foliage.

Country Fox.

Luna Moon Moth.

Wood Mouse and Mushrooms.

Welsh Sheep.

Consistency of Ink

Before I started to print I cleaned them off with alcohol, which surprisingly took off the permanent pen.

The following images were the first test prints from my linocuts. Pretty happy with most of the them, but the hare and cat need more adding to them and the mushrooms need some more detail.

I will post another blog when the final images are ready.

These have been handprinted using a baren. The lino cutter & baren kit are made by Essdee and fits my small hands a treat. Very happy with this little kit and my linocuts.

More detail needed on mushrooms

Luna Moon Moth top left

Country Fox

Welsh Sheep

Need more outline on Cat and more white in the Hare.