I'm loving this!

Northumberland beach, coloured pencil and oil pastel on brown paper

I really am loving this! I'm loving creating new art works and not being constrained by my previous work, or what I think I should be creating. I'm just enjoying making art for it's own sake.
Here are my two most recent pieces.

Libby, Fineliner and acrylic paint on brown paper

6 down and 24 to go

Northumberland Hills - oil pastel

I've made a good start to my 30 30 30 challenge and have now completed 6 pieces. I'm trying to do a range of different styles and subject matter. And using this time to explore art I wouldn't usually make. I am a abstract painter if i'm honest and love throwing paint around, so doing something as disciplined as creating work to a set size is a new way of working for me.

Warkworth Castle - Charcoal

So far I have completed: 2 pencil drawings; 1 Charcoal Drawing; 1 oil pastel drawing;  1 ball point pen drawing and a painting in acrylic.

Piggies - ball point pen

I've spent about a day on each, but the pen drawing has taken more than two days.

Boats - acrylic paint

My oil pastels also melted in the heat and were more like mini oil bars. I quite liked the fluidity of the melted pastels and got very messy creating the drawing.

Statue - pencil

I still need to create another 24 pieces to meet my challenge and I'm still on the look out for more ideas. If you can challenge me to create a specific art work, or use a certain style of unusual combination of materials I'd be more than glad to hear from you.

Pencil

I'm hoping to exhibit some of the work in the autumn and will be selling it for £30 each original piece  - as is, no framing. It's to help raise funds for my upcoming trip to China with International China Concern. And considering how long I've spent on some of these pieces  - £30 is a bargain.

Almost there

This is where I left this painting yesterday. I'd added more layers of acrylic. in the process I managed to hide areas I actually thought worked well. However the whole piece lacked detail, so today I began to work into the surface with oil bars. This is oil paint in stick form - it's relatively easy to apply, but as I had only a few colours, I found it didn't give the desired effect and was rather too soft. Instead I began to blend oil pastel (much harder and more waxy) with the oil bar medium and use them on their own; this has allowed me to add the detail. I think I'm going to leave this for a while. I need time to look at it from a distance and consider what if anything I need to do to it.