EYE. am. INSPIRED.

As you know, or if you didn't  I have been working with some images that were inspired originally by Elisa Mazzone, creating works in my style inspired by elements that I pulled out of her work.  Some of the things that initially attracted me to her work were her use of color, and also the contrast of the color with areas of tight rendering, in what looks to be pencil or black colored pencil.  Add that contrast to the finished and unfinished, I was hooked.  

Amazing, simple amazing.

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What totally made my day?  I sent Eliza a message via Facebook to let her know that 1) she was awesome, 2) her work was an inspiration to me and, 3) to let her know about the pieces I was creating based on this month's challenge.  

Folks, she sent me a response.  I got art kudos from my muse.  Seriously?  Wow.

So...with that bit of background...here are the images I had created from August 1-4th (below), all based on her work.

Good and Evil by Innes McDougall

After I am done jumping up and down and celebrating Elisa's message, I am on Pinterest, pinning some images to my 'Inspiration' board...and I come across this image (below).  Holy crap.  Those eyes looked right into my soul.  Amazing.  The quality of the rendering, the eyes look so realistic...the contrast of the black against the color...add that to some splats and drips...which I love...where do I sign up? 

The piece is called, 'Good and Evil' by Innes McDougall, of the United Kingdom.  Here are some more links where I found more work by the artist...

• http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Painting-Watercolor-Good-and-Evil/58782/1427035/view
  
• http://indi1288.deviantart.com/ 
  
• http://www.artgallery.co.uk/artist/innes_mcdougall 
  

Of course...I have gotta make some art after seeing this, right?

I had started a piece late last night, decided that I needed to go off on a detour and focus on eyes...and I was really feeling the butterfly imagery...so I was thinking that I would add a dragonfly wing, and just focus on one eye.

That is where I left off that night, and the next morning I come across this image?  Meant to be.  

Sunday morning, I finished that eye poolside.  Some detail drawing and shading on the eye and then watercolor on the wings.  Honestly, I wasn't going to add any drips or splatters yet, I was thinking after I saw this piece by Innes McDougall that I would gradually work towards this after a few pieces.

Then I got a smudge on my paper.

Can I digress?  Okay, thanks.  Being a left hander. I am forever smudging.  I know, I know...I should just pay more attention, or keep a paper under my hand....blah.

It turns out, my accident gave me permission to go ahead and try to add some of this style to my work. I started another one, this one with a Monarch butterfly reference...then another one, using a red butterfly as my reference.  Here is what I came up with; (below)

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'Eye' series...inspired by Innes McDougall

Oh goodness...then I worked on CED #218...girl meets monarch butterfly...still inspired by Mazzone's work...and Alphonse Mucha's hair...started her poolside, but came in because the sky looked pretty dark.

I escaped the rain but not a little sunburn. Anyway, here is a slideshow of my Sunday artin'. (below)