Serenity - Oil on Canvas

I have a huge appetite for all things creative, and am constantly experimenting with mediums, or roping my beautiful (and patient) friends in to some project or another.

When I was young I wanted to draw, and spent hours and hours doodling and sketching fashion designs - with the dream of being the next big thing in the fashion industry.

When I turned 18 I decided I wanted to create commercial art and sell my creativity, and so went on to study Graphic Design for a few years. Not content with this, and wanting to capture much more realistic images I studied photography and ended up leaving my job as a Graphic Designer to be a Photographer. Not content with that I decided just stopping at a photo wasn't enough for me, I wanted to take my portraiture to an entirely new level and so introduced my design skills in to my Photography in Photoshop to create artistic digital portraiture. I have spent the last 10 years perfecting this, I make my income from it, and out of all the things I have taught myself, it is the thing I love to do most.

However, this year I am going through another one of those transition stages, on a new path... Not content with stopping there, not content with creating a digital image, I now want to be able to create the same type of images I have been perfecting for many years - but with my own hands. I guess you could say I have gone full circle to when I first started creating images as a child, but this time I have a little more understanding of lighting, composition, values and what makes a good image.

On the first of January I set myself a challenge - one year to learn how to paint. And so I did my first painting. I have been creating one a week since then and have completely fallen in love with using oil paints. I'm not very good, but I am passionate and willing to learn and this stubborn old bird wont give up! I wont stop learning, after this it will probably be something else...

I've tried all sorts of styles over the past few months from abstract to black and which realism, and I have spent hours learning about different techniques used by a wide range of artists from Picasso to Rembrandt, in the hope that I will find a style of my own and a work flow that sits well with me. So far it hasn't happened, I have been hunting for the Vicki style - and as yet - nothing.

Yesterday however I realised that I have been looking for something which has been staring me in the face all along! When I create my digital portraits, I start with sketches and then create what I come up with in Photoshop. So why not just do my sketches straight on to a canvas? Skip the digital image bit, and just paint it. 

Serenity is my first Creative Oil Portrait Painting which I have created in the style of my Digital Portraiture.... but using my hands and a brush! My muse in this creation is Alana one of my favourite models who I have been photographing for many years.

I'm pleased with it - it feels like something VLB would create - technically it's not a great painting, but it is a great starting point for me to start exploring my imagination through painting. And developing my own style.

...we shall see!

To see my painting progress please click here!