On Art and Art Books

On ART

The art gift for my sister is almost done, I have some retouches to complete and some areas to work more on, but it's almost done! So take a look...

At the studio where I work for two hours weekly with an amazing tutor and a great company of amazing people we take a model class from time to time, so here are some recent works from the last week.
I admire the people who work as models for painters, they actually encourage me not to be afraid of my own body and to respect it as well.

On ART books
I am a book worm and that is known but I also love art books because they are endless wells of inspiration, and I strongly suggest you to learn from as much for them as you can.

Some art books that I've found interesting and useful for me lately, all of them were bought at a reduced price in some local book stores. Yep, books are definitely my addiction!

Auguste Rodin by Jane Mayo Roos (Phaidon)

As every painter needs a bunch of knowledge of human anatomy, so to learn from the best sculptors it's always a useful tip, so go and find some good sculpture book for you!

Romanesque: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting by Rolf Toman

As the basic knowledge of architecture is essential for every painter that wants to make some outhentic medieval or fantasy art. Although the Romanesque style is mostly for churches and I am definitely not in to religion, I strongly recommend to learn from the amazing architectures of the past!

A series of little photography books that I found quite amusing for me.  Both are printed by Lark.
Here is a YouTube video that features the photographs from -  Focus on Passages, your world your images

There are actually four of them in a series but these two I loved and bought for me.

 

And here is the second - Focus on Reflections

And for the desert - 

Best wishes,

Gali

Spinning

A little update just to remind myself that I still have some personal and art life. Well, I'll start from personal, you are welcome to say Mazal Tov for me and my fiance, after five years of great, healthy and amazing relationship we decided to take a step further and now we are engaged! :) 

The proposal was cute and cuddly and we celebrated our five years during a little weekend vacation at the north part of Israel.

And here is an art update, I am currently working on couple of projects and here is a little progress update of one of them. It's my sister while she was pregnant with my cute nephew. Now he is almost seven months old.  :) This is a surprise work for her birthday in April so... shhh on that!

Third Step - This is how it looks right now,
lots of work to do but I am on the right path!

Second Step - Enhanced the top part of the
 hand and the belly .

 First Step - The sketch is done!

I am so glad that I convinced my sister and her husband to take a "pregnant series of photos", they are so beautiful together and the photographers did a great job with them.

By the way I am also very happy that my "Cracal" watercolor painting got a Daily Deviation at Deviantart at the beginning of January, and that's great and delightful!

Something little from my sketch book, from January. 

P.S.

I just can't resist to post a photo of my cute Picanto,
 is't she lovely? :)

Field of Flowers Watercolor Series

They are made especially for my boyfriend's family house, they all will be framed this week with paspartout and matte glass custom made frames and all six of them will happily hang on the wall. You are welcome to enlarge each of them to see it closer.

White Nights Watercolor on 300 gram W&N paper, some white gouache here and there, some candles, a little sponge and a white gel pen.

Each of them is about 26x20cm

No specific reference but I did looked on lots of flower photos for inspiration such as this , this and this .

Dots and Spots

My weekly routine starts to annoy me, because I usually don't have the time or the mood for art. It seems that I manage to draw/paint only when I am in a group of people who make art as well, and it's not usual for me not to work when I am alone.
My 2012 art summary looks rather good, but this year I almost never painted on canvases, just on wood boxes. I guess it's a way of working on something instead of nothing, better to complete a good quality little size work than not working at all.

The original meme is by dustbunnythumper and it found right here , and you can find all of the artworks in my Deviantart gallery 

And a little preview -  

My new watercolor flowers series. 

And a closer look.

I wish us all a Happy New Year!!! May it bring us creativity, happiness and fulfillment in every aspect in our lives. I hope that we all have/had great holidays and celebrations!

Gali

Tea Box Magic

Front View

Side View

This wood box I painted especially for - me! :) I wanted a tea box for a long time and I also wanted to paint this impressive stag by moem-photography . She is an amazing photographer that supports artists by letting them use her beautiful photos for references. 

So I bought the box itself in Romania the size is 22x19x7 and it has inner separation for the tea bags.

Painted with acrylics, and sprayed with a protective spray coat. Took me some hours of work, I think around 8-10. 

I remind you that you are welcome to order one custom made especially for you! A wood box like that can be a great present for your loved ones and yourself of course.  Just mail me via golous@gmail.com for all the details. The price depends on the size of the box and the complexity of the painting. 

Paypal only and full payment ahead.

WIPs

This time I forgot to shoot the initial sketch stages (the first 1\4 of the work) so here you have the 3\4 of the working progress.

The tools for the front painting

Starting to work on the stag and keep improving the background. 

Fur progress.

Almost done!

From Romania With Love

Beautiful steps outside Castle Bran

Myself at the Peles Castel

Hello,
I haven't updated for quite long time now, but it's only because there was a lot going around and I had no motivation to post about it at all.So this post is a kind of photo reportage about our (my boyfriends and mine) little vacation at Romania at the end of this September. We visited (with a rented green Mazda2 - believe me we saw only one besides ours :) all the interesting places in Romania including Bran, Brasov, Sighisoara, Sibiu, Rasnov, Bucharest, Peles Castle and probably some more places that I can't recall now.









Romania is a very beautiful country,with rich history and plenty of castles and nature to visit. I literally felt that I am somewhere at medieval period of time at some places that we visited! So here is only a tiny selection of photos that we captured in Romania, just to sense a little of the this interesting country!

At Busteni Mountain

This post was postponed for too long but I really love to share some of the beautiful moments we had in Romaina.

So enjoy this little photo guide! :)

Medieval armory from Castle Bran

Here we are on all-terrain vehicles in Romanian forest  

At Sighisoara :)

A homeless dog at Bran - he has such "I am a survivor" look. If there was something that shocked me in Romania in the huge number of homeless dogs, it's so sad...

Rsanov Castle

Sighisoara

Streets of Rasnov

Evening at Bucharest

Commissioned Orca Wood Box

Acrylics on wood box, 18x12.5x5 cm, reference - some general photos of orcas and mountains.
Especially made for http://whitetippedwaves.deviantart.com/ , she loves orcas and wanted one especially painted by me. :)
The box will be shipped to the happy owner at the end of this week.
Now I can celebrate my first professionally made commission!

And here are some WIPs of the painting prosses...

I remind you that you are welcome to order one custom made especially for you! A wood box like that can be a great present for your loved ones and yourself of course. :) Just mail me via golous@gmail.com for all the details. The price depends on the size of the box and the complexity of the painting.
Paypal only and full payment ahead, and if you like I will gladly send you WIPs of the work during the process.
I can paint almost everything, nature ,animals, fantasy, people, architecture... :)

Cheers,
Gali

Art Updates

A new custom painted wood box, especially for Anat, my art tutor. Finally I gave her a real art present, after I found that she loves Cavalier king charles spaniels. She loved the box so much! :) 

Acrylics on wood box.

Size: 18x12.5cm

Reference: by Charli37 used with permission

Sprayed with protective, non-yellowing, weatherproof coating which provides permanent protection for the painting.

I remind you that you can order your own custom painted wood box from me, just write me via golous@gmail.com, and well talk on all the details. These make a great present for your loved ones!

 WIPs:

A greeting card for my sister, her husband and my newborn nephew! Was done in 25 minutes while babysitting him. :)

Size: a bit smaller than A5

Sanguine pencil on watercolor paper

Reference: by Woxys used with permission

No pencil sketch.

A plein air study of a bush from Park HaYarkon from the last week. Sanguine pencil on my A5 sketchbook. No pencil sketch.

 And to finish this post I add one of the last videos from Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Their show in Tel-Aviv last week was just breathtaking!!!

All Dogs Go To Heaven

This cute smiling nose isn't here anymore...Our first dog is gone yesterday, gone for her last dream. I still can't believe she is not around anymore. Missy was our first family dog and now only her spirit remains with us. My dad and I were with her for the last seconds. She could live for another week or so, but we didn't wanted her to suffer the pain any longer, we decided that this is the right time for her to go peacefully for her last dream. Her body condition was decreasing so rapidly for the last two weeks, the tumor was growing and growing and growing...

Thanks to the pain killers she still was in relatively good mood and was eating well at the last week.

She was so happy and life loving dog, she was waging her tail until the last second of her life. :) 

This was one of her last photos from a week and half ago, this picture means a lot to me.

And here is a photo from the last month. (The tumor was still not that visible.)

And a charming smile from last year! :)

And for the desert - How to find a soul mate according to a dalmatian! From 101 Dalmatians by Disney.

And some basic info about Dalmatians

I wish all our pets will have long, happy and prosperous life!