Illustration Friday - Perennial

This weeks Illustration Friday is ‘Perennial’ and rather than picking an old tree or something else natural to draw in my art journal I felt like creating a mythical creature.

Okay so I know a phoenix is a cliché but I wanted to raid my pastel and random paints draw and thought the cheap oil pastels would work well for mixing quick merky flames for the 20 minutes I made her in. 

I knew the flames/wings would look as they do, as this is the only technique I can master with oil pastels – smudginess. I’m not great with oils, I can never tell when to make it thinner or put linseed oil in and my lack of talent of the medium spreads to oil pastels also, but I’m determined to get better.  So yesterday I splashed and brought some Sennelier Oil Pastels to see if it is my cheap £5 box of pastels is just making my grip of them even harder – but I have a feeling it is as much my perfectionist state wanting all the colours to merge and be uniform that is my downfall. 

I still do not know why I have this regimented side of my art brain when my favourite artists are among the Impressionists – their bold brushstrokes and colours I bask in, admiring their freedom – so why I cannot allow the same of my own hands I’ve no idea.  I’m hoping the Sennelier Oil Pastels and a self-imposed strangulation of my naughty sided art brain will help induce my freedom.