Phoenix

Finally get to put something I've done on! This is exciting.

The other day my brother was using wood paint on paper (yeah...) but he made some paint with a nice shade of orange, and because I liked the consistency, he gave it to me. I had no brilliant ideas for using it, so I just brushed it on to canvas.

This is something I love happening - when I think of something I haven't done before in art and can reasonably do it.

After a day or so when it had dried, I got an idea relating to the mythical Phoenix. (More about this later!) So I did it and it lead onto a few other ideas.


The ideas behind this are:

• A rebirth of ideas and concepts - such as cyclical movements in Art, or of Art movements or concepts coming 'back into fashion'.
  
• The changes that art as a practice and as a form of communication goes through.
• That relics of long-past ages can still be meaningful for us today.
• The sacrifices and pain that sometimes must be endured for art to 'speak'.
  

Before long I'm sure I'll have some properly written, artistic-sounding concepts thought of, but these here are just the basic ones that I thought of as I worked.



Some small experiments on canvas with ink. Another happy accident - finding out that the normal fineliner-ink I used bled beautifully!


Canvas, with ink, and eyeshadow for colour. I think the eyeshadow covered up too much of the detail, but that's how you learn!

I decided the Phoenix should have two pairs of wings, to make it a bit different. I'm really pleased with the way the wings don't seem to hold any weight, how they seem to float viciously along behind the Phoenix.



That first experimental drawing led me on to do another one in a slightly different technique. Just ink this time, and i bled it sooner rather than later, and took a less structured approach.


Fine liner on paper. Originally I'd planned to do this in pencil, and be very realistic and careful with it, but I think a more spontaneous look is better. The ink is much better for this than pencil would have been, I think. The idea is that... no, I won't give away all my secrets yet - I've heard it's far better to let people to make their own interpretations of art, rather than just tell them!

I like the imagery of the Phoenix - its power and the story behind it.