Exciting Collaboration!

Early last month I received a fantastically generous offer from someone via my Dick and Franny shop on Folksy. The talented and very lovely Kat Milligan offered her photography and modelling to me to help create beautiful images of my jewellery.
As someone struggling to find enough time to paint and make jewellery, let alone photograph, edit and list my work, this was an offer too good to be missed! It can make a huge difference having high quality photos, so I was thrilled to be given this great opportunity.

Since offering me the collaboration Kat was involved in an accident which left her with an almost completely severed finger! Argh! I can't believe she's continued with the commission. After an operation to reattach her finger Kat has persevered and mastered one handed photography with the lovely model Lylium who struggled through bad weather to attend the photoshoot.
I'm really grateful to Kat and Lylium, and I can't wait to see all of the photos!

Here is a taster of the great results:

Check out Kat's Photography on RedBubble

And her modelling page on Model Mayhem

And Lylium's moddelling page on Model Mayhem

My Colours

Some of my favourite paintings. Is there a recurring theme?

My Colours
Originally uploaded by Franny B

New Paintings - Negative Painting & Frisk Film

Negative Painting - Bee on salvia

Painted from Sarah M's lovely photo: www.flickr.com/photos/daftdabbler/2127038309/
From the group 'Artists Sharing Photo References' : www.flickr.com/groups/aspr/

I haven't tried this sort of thing before, so the background went a bit wrong. And I didn't know what I was doing with the negative painting, so I didn't really manage it. I quite like the richness of the colours tho - I'll just have to try again!

To see some fantastic negative painting, and a great tutorial have a look at Beverly Morgan's Flickr stream. Here is a link to 'Step 1' of her tutorial: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bevmor/4291143834/

And here is an example of one of her beautiful negative paintings, "We follow the Sun":

Frisk masking Film - Painted lady

I painted this background right after painting the Bee background, so at least I knew to work fast and not let parts dry. What I hadn't quite realised, was that I didn't need to put down such strong colours. I think I was just panicking in my rush to get paint down before the paper dried!

This was also my first experiment with 'Frisk' masking film. I can't believe how easy to use and brilliant it is! By the time I'd stuck it down, drawn round my drawing, unpealed it, stuck it back to the backing paper, cut out the shapes and stuck it back on the paper, it was really not sticking at all. But when I painted the edges down with water and then paint the film stayed magically in place! Now that I've got a better idea of how to use it, I won't do that sticking, unsticking thing again and I guess it will be even easier!

I'm not sure if it's worth trying to darken or lighten the background. Or if I should just learn from the mistake and have another go...

Painted from my photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/franny_b/3859767453/in/set-72157623158286092/

Weekend Deals on Etsy and Folksy

From this friday 21st August until Sunday 23rd I will be offering 15% off all jewellery in my Etsy and Folksy shops.

Just enter the code "weekend deals" in the message to seller and the discount will be refunded promptly through Paypal.

I have some great charm bracelets for autumn:

Owl and Teddy Bear charm bracelet

Chunky Berry bracelet

Purple and bronze charm bracelet

Lots more jewellery available in my Etsy and Folksy stores:

http://www.dickandfranny.etsy.com/

www.folksy.com/shops/dickandfranny

Struggling

I've been trying to combine drawing with painting, but I'm still working out how to achieve what I'm aiming for, and work out what that is. I want the clean line and detail of a pen drawing, with the colour and freshness of a watercolour. Here are a couple of my recent attempts.

In this painting of Forde Abbey in Somerset I started with a sketch using derwent drawing pencils in earth colours. I then added paint with large loose brush strokes, adding extra texture with salt. I also used some pastels once the paint was dry.

I started this expressive painting of Barcelona sunshine with some bold pen drawing for just a brief outline. I then went mad with bright blues, purples and yellows!

Any comments will be much appreciated! :-)

Ghost Tree Prints - Velvety loveliness!

I recently ordered a few prints of some of my paintings and digital artworks and I really love the results! The quality of the colours and printing is excellent!

I've just listed these three beautiful original digital Giclee prints, my 'Ghost Tree' series.
These were created from an original mixed media painting which was then digitally enhanced to create these stunning, colourful designs. The Giclee print is a long lasting image, printed to the highest quality.

I can't do justice to the beautiful quality of these prints - they are so velvety and rich! The high quality lightly textured paper combined with the archival inks produces a luxurious and velvety finish, with rich deep greens, reds, purples, golds and blues - vibrant and beautiful!

These would look fantastic framed as a set, or individually. Beautiful trees, lovely rich colours, stunning quality prints!
All three are available in my Etsy shop http://www.dickandfranny.etsy.com/