A quickie again today (I’m exhausted) to share with you the work of Meagan Ileana who I came across via the Feeling Stitchy blog.  She has such amazing patience and artistic ability.  Check out all these tiny stitches…

Meagan says:

I draw from true moments in relationships and also from bodies. Things I return to: plants, babies, nudity/anatomy, queer relationships, friendships, private moments and sweet nothings. The most recently finished piece is the one that inspires me to keep going, It’s like an addiction. Sometimes even the stitches themselves are what excite me about starting a new piece.

Check out her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Meaganileana.  Her work is incredibly reasonably priced given the time and effort, not to mention the skill, required to create such pieces.

I came across Irish artist, Anne Ellard’s Sketchbook Project while browsing through Issuu.  I just love these silhouette’s she’s created with collage.

(c) Anne Ellard 2011

You can find out more about Anne and view some of her other artwork here and here, or follow her on FaceBook.

Just a couple of bits of news to share with you today, with it being Sunday and with me having spent the day away from home not making anything.

Alisa Burke has announced her online sketching class this week to start on Feb 7th.  Sign ups are open now for the most reasonable price of $50.  It’s a five week class with ongoing access to the lessons when the classes end.

Alisa’s sketchbook is a true work of art.  I wish I was even a fraction as good as she is at, not only sketching, but also incorporating a free and seemingly effortless style into everything she does.  She’s a true devotee of colour and I am often gob-

smacked at the beauty of her work.  Of course, we shouldn’t covet another’s style and should try to develop our own, which Alisa’s class should help with.

(c) Alisa Burke 2011

The next piece of news I want to share with you is that there’s a series of instructional posts over at While She Naps showing the method Abigail uses for making her amazing soft toys.  I’ve not had a chance to have a proper look yet, but there does look to be some really helpful advice contained within the posts so far.

(c) Abigail Glassenberg 2011

Abilgail is the author of the upcoming book, The Artful Bird: Fanciful Feathered Friends to Make and Sew which goes on sale later this month.  I do covet this book and it will be mine!

I’ve always been a fan of the Heavy Horse sculpture that stands on the West bound side of the motorway on the way out of Glasgow, it’s particularly impressive when illuminated on a clear night.  There are a huge number of fantastic photo’s featuring the sculpture out there on the web although I particularly like this one from David May’s Flickr photostream:

I was certainly aware that Andy Scott has completed a number of other high profile sculptures, but to be honest I hadn’t actually seen other examples of his work until I started writing this article and conducting the obligatory google searches.  One of the first sites I came across was Andy’s own website where you can download a number of pictures depicting his work, such as this fine example, ‘Arabesque’:

Andy has completed a number of fine sculptures but just to give you a sense of scale I thought I might share this image that happened across on Zimbio.com

According to Zimbio, this is the worlds largest example of a horse sculpture.  It represents one of two heads Andy made, two Kelpies, which were subsequently placed at the entrance to the Forth and Clyde Canal.

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Kelpies themselves are an interesting string to Scottish folklore, but I’ll let you read about them yourself before I digress any further:

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Skot is another artist found through DeviantArt where he goes by the name Lord Hoki, living on Austrailia’s East Coast Skot works in a variety of media creating a range of drawn, painted and sculpted objects.  Much of his DeviantArt account is taken up with his Hoki range of work such as those pictured below:

Above is just one of a wide range of character sketches featured in Skot’s DeviantArt account.  Aside from the sketches there are also fully worked up paintings (see below) in what is probably best described as, full 21st century technicolour:

I really love the blending and highlighting used in this painting, the background providing a wonderful richly textured contrast with the smooth features of the the face itself.  It could be that I’m attracted to these works thanks to the eyes – eyes being something of an obsession for me – and what eyes these are!  I almost feel like I could fall into them, a real focal point of many of these Hoki works.

If you like these characters painted, then you may well like them painted on t-shirts (below), wear an original work on your chest … I’d pay for that!

It only seems right that the Hoki’s be brought to life in an altogether more 3-dimensional fashion, and so it is we discover Captain Hoki:

The Captain here is a sculpture in papier mache that really fits in with it’s 2-dimensional forebears, the nose and eyes being the main feature with colouring and details in keeping with the designs I’ve already featured here and the others in Skot’s gallery.

Given what’s gone before you may well be forgiven that Skot is something of a one trick pony, yet nothing could be further from the truth and so, before I finish this post I’d like to share a few of Skot’s other works with you.

A pencil sketch entitled “My Dad”, we presume it is … his … not mine!

A couple of bird boxes made from reclaimed and recycled materials … makes me think that the birds we get around where I am are a bit rubbish.  Having said that the Buzzards, Grouse and Barn Owls are pretty cool … oh! and we don’t get deadly spiders, snakes or other nasties!!

As ever I can’t recommend enough that you check out this artists gallery which is available here.

I’ve really been taken by the work of Kezeff, another artist I found on DeviantArt.  I’ve only been following them for a short period, but even in that time I have been fairly impressed not only by the quality of their work but by the creativity behind it and the seemingly highly effective execution of that creativity.  Kezeff uses super-sculpey in creating their sculptures, a hugely popular material (and something I’ve been itching to try myself) and I believe paints them up with acrylics for the most part. You can find more of their work here.

Face Parts Study

Aspiring artists and sculptors would do well to take a leaf out of Kezeff’s book and do some studies of whatever their preferred subject matter is. I’m sure it’s something that I would benefit from, even where your intention is to twist it in some fashion understanding the basic anatomy of your subject can be hugely beneficial.

Much of Kezeff’s work appears to consist of busts either in a more realistic fashion as with this piece here:

Battle Chasers Knolan Bust

Or something a bit more corrupted like this fellow:

Zed

Kezeff has also worked to create some the more quirky pieces such as these wee characters here:

Snoogle

Pumpkin Carl

I really enjoy viewing the sculptures that Kezeff creates, but what keeps me coming back for more (aside from the cool subject matter) is the attention to detail that he puts into the sculptures. Look back over the images above and notice the wrinkles and creases in the skin, the underlying bone structure, the attention to making moist elements appear moist and the variation in skin tone and texture. It’s each of these elements that add up to make some rather great sculptures and I can’t recommend enough that you take a look at their DeviantArt account to see more of their work.

With luck I’ll have one of my own sculptures to share with you soon, I can’t promise it’ll be as refined as these but it will be in my own particular (shouldn’t that be peculiar?! – ed.) style!!

I first became aware of Helen’s work a few years ago when I began dabbling with papier mache and was just beginning to see the possibilities it offered beyond what we traditionally think of when we hear about this much under-rated material.  I had tried my hand at making a mask with mache and Helen (a mask maker) happened to comment, something that led me to view her DeviantArt gallery.

Helen seems to have become a mask maker of some repute, something that is certainly confirmed from what she has featured online, these masks are created most usually from papier mache or leather.  In honesty it’s the papier mache work that interests me most given my own experiments with that particular medium, and her talent here can be seen in these two designs:

Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh.

Gilded Pleasure

 On the latter mask, above, Helen says this:

I’m not sure what it says about my maskwork, but whenever I try to create something pretty, it usually ends up looking sinister.

Something which I admit made me laugh!  Indeed not all of Helen’s masks are sinister, or even black for that matter.  From what I’ve seen though it’s when Helen is working with leather that a form of organic beauty comes to the fore and it’s in working with leather where her skill for mask making is most apparent.

Social Butterfly

If this, and it’s counterparts, don’t fall into the ‘pretty’ camp then I don’t know what does.  Helen herself sees much more of the gothic in these than I believe there is, yet as she created them I guess we should cow down to her opinion on the matter, either way these are fab … to see more like these follow the links at the end of the article.

Steampunk inspired mask

Steampunk is something of an artistic movement that has gathered pace in recent years and has now pervaded almost every genre you might think of from it’s early literary origins and it’s something I’m a bit of a fan of myself, perhaps that’s why I’m a fan of this piece.  Yet it’s the little details that really set this mask apart with the attention to detail around the edges and the textured finish given to the mask.  Subtle, but it works so well.

I’m not quite sure if this counts as a royal endorsement but Prince Charles, below, certainly seemed to take a shine to her popular ‘welsh dragon’ mask! 

Come on Charlie, put it on ... you know you want to!

Not content with mixing with the royals Helen has also been commissioned to do make masks for the theatre and this music video for Ebony Tower and their White Rabbit track:

Something a bit different, but check out that mask!

Whether you’re a fan of masks or just seeing great pieces of work created by a true artisan then I strongly suggest you visit either Helen’s deviantart account, or better yet, check out her website (where you can also make purchases if you’r eso inclined).

For those who don’t know DeviantArt is a massive online artists community which spans the globe and contains the work of many thousand artists and crafters, amateur and professional alike.

I recently came across Karolina’s work while browsing through the submission feed and I’ve got to say it simply knocked my socks, her gallery is fabulous.  Karolina is an artisan hailing from Poland and whilst I can’t necessarily read her comments about her work it doesn’t mean I can’t fail to appreciate her work.

Just check out some of these sample pieces from the range of pieces that Karolina makes:

Karolina makes wonderful brooches which seem to be largely based on birds and bugs, I must say I’m developing a particular fondness of the bugs and strongly suggest you go and have a look at the ladybirds in particular.

Clearly taking a great deal of inspiration from the natural world around her, unless I miss my mark, Karolina also creates a range of beautiful ceramic pendants in the form of leaves and flowers like this one featured below.

Finally from this small selection of her work is an intricately sown necklace featuring another of her ceramic creations.

Aside from these types of items Karolina also creates a range of ceramic tiles featuring floral designs that are also worth a look and a range of photography which shows a keen eye for a good picture.  It’s this good eye for a picture which really makes her work stand out as she presents it in an attractive and informative fashion, highlighting details and elements of her work in an eye catching fashion.

It’s great to see well presented work on the web, it bothers me when people who have put a lot of effort into making something fail to put in an equal effort into presenting it.  Not the case here, check out karolina’s gallery, do it now!

You may also find Karolina at her blog, http://karolina-g.blogspot.com/.

~00OO UPDATE OO00~

You can buy Karolina’s work from either of these sites:  Decobazzar.com and Wylegarnia.com. 

These sites are in Polish, don’t let that put you off though, you should be able to get google to translate them for you, just enter the url into the google search bar, also you can use xe.com to convert prices.