Portrait of Mabel

after this is finished, I am going to take a break of portraits and commissioned art to dedicate myself to design projects. I am in a transitional phase, still experimenting on masonite, trying to accommodate my style and find the best technique. and I am absolutely anxious to finally give form to "O Fortuna".

pencil pencil pencil

i have tried different methods of starting a painting, but at the moment the one that seems to best suit my needs is doing the penciling first. i am primarily a penciller and that has always been my favorite medium, either for the texture or for the ease of control. it is time consuming, but as a technique, in my opinion there's nothing more impressive than a good pencil work. it shows all the artist's craftsmanship. I've been doing some pencil work before applying the underpainting, which have helped me to have more control over the values and the overall mood of the painting.



Materia: Earth
(yeah, I have horrible finger nails. besides being an incurable nail biter, they are usually dirty with graphite. never seen any point in nail polishing either. but i almost always had the boys i wanted. :P)


Materia: Water (detail of the mandala)


Portrait of Angie

Alchemy - Portrait of Julia & Tony

Mixed Media (Acrylics, watercolor, pastel and graphite on paperboard)

14 x 11 in

2010

Private commission

Julia and Tony are a couple of lightworkers who have been working together in the fields of healing and teaching. Their synastry chart shows a strong Aquarius energy, fully embed in freedom, dynamism and idealism. The strong blue background was something I had saw immediately when Julia sent me the pictures for the portrait, so I attempted to build it based on that vibration of spirituality and spaciousness. Their tarot arcane based on their numerology is "The Temperance", which signifies a perfect union of two forces toward a common objective - a perfect alchemy. Therefore I used some of the elements in the Temperance card, like the water flowing (which is also a symbol of spirituality and psychic work), and simplified the symbolism of the angel with two translucent and vibrant wings (also a symbol for the Aquarian freedom) "embracing" the couple. The mandala at the top represents the union of their traditions - Celtic and Shamanic. By their sides, their animals totems, and in the center, the Fire as another symbol for alchemy, transformation, and primordial creativity.

To check out their wonderful work, please visit Julia and Tony's website.

in progress: portrait commission

that took a little more time than expected to be completed, since I had to redo it... didn't get satisfied with the flat background, but now that i made it more translucent i'm much happier. :)

portrait commission in progress

I am so in love with this portrait! completion is taking a little longer than usual since I am documenting its making in video. first parts will be uploaded soon.

Vali

Mixed Media (Acrylics, watercolor, graphite and a bit of pastel) on illustration board,

15 x 20

2010

$500

A tribute to Australian artist Vali Myers, a true inspiration in my art and life.

sick and working

have been sort of sick these last couple days. a little lethargic, dizzy and with a weird pressure inside my head. this afternoon I felt a little more energetic and could almost finish a portrait I've been working on these last weeks. better go to the doctor if this thing continue on. if I had some help around here it would be so great... sometimes feel just too exhausted.


Portrait of Lucy - work in progress

I'd like to have a place far from home only for working. work has been getting more intense in the last few months and it's becoming very difficult to harmonize it with house chores. when you work at home there will always be something that will take you off from your work, and that bothers me a lot. I've been thinking for a while in finding somebody who wanted to share a studio, so I'd have a place where I could almost exclusively focus on work (and on my baby, of course, at least until she is able to go to school.)

back home...

...and finally catching up with my work. here are some pieces in progress:





Artemis
Illustration for the "Liquid Dreams" poetry book, by Ricardo Blancas.

Lucy (detail)

Portrait

Portrait of Regina

Watercolor and colored pencil on paper,
8.5 x 12
2009

Portrait of Sharon

Watercolor, pencil and colored pencil on paper,
8.5 x 12
2009

new website + astroportraits

I finally managed to upload the new website. it's all working properly. and it's working fine on Internet Explorer, in spite of I was fearing, although I still recommend Firefox for viewing. the link for the Portuguese version still doesn't take anywhere, but it's just a matter of time.

working on a portrait:


I love to make portraits, I'm fascinated by the human figure. the ones I make I call Astroportraits, since they are based on your astrological profile. that's how it works: before brainstorming your portrait I raise the chart and identify the archetypes and symbolical elements involved, like colors, animals and others. I also ask for a little help from the Tarot. most of times my intuition plays a major role, but I think absolutely necessary that the person takes part in the process. I want the portrait be a kind of encouragement for her/his to develop other characteristics she/he'd like, so I encourage creative visualization and a look inward, as a little push toward the self-awareness process.

when I was testing the technique I made my baby's and mine portraits. now I use the portraits as samples. they were entirely made in colored pencils, media I'm not using anymore for being too time-consuming. now I use a mix of watercolor, colored pencil and graphite.

Ariel and the Lion
Colored pencils on Bristol board,
8.5 x 12

this is my self-astroportrait. I'm a Gemini with Leo rising and Moon in Scorpio, and a Water/Air type. it was not that easy to create my own portrait, since I identify with so many symbols and elements that I found better to let intuition go in my favor. I lived a phase of intense changes (moving to another country, marriage and pregnancy, all at once) that made me dive into myself and seek for my own strength, something I don't remember having done so strongly before. I remember having done a rough sketch of a scorpion and a lion, which I consider my two inner powers, stuck the sketch on the wall and looked at it every time I needed encouragement. I needed to get reminded that I had that strength, that it was inside me as part of what I was. things are certainly smoother now, but I wanted that my portrait was a kind of constant reminder of that power I had discovered within myself. then I drew the lion, my rising sign, close to me, as a constant companion (and I realized that my name, that literally means "lion of God", in Hebrew, was not given to me by chance.) this lion arises from the water, from the big ocean of feelings that characterizes all water types. Although one may think that water people are fragile due to their emotional, sensitive nature, they may be considered extremely strong exactly due to this attunement – they know like nobody how to deal with such world. my Air quality is represented by the color yellow and by the butterflies – also representatives of my sun sign, Gemini. butterflies go vivaciously from one place to another just like Gemini does. they are also flying animals, symbols of freedom, one of my strongest characteristics. another reason for picking the butterfly is because it’s one of my favorite animal totems, present in several of my pieces. butterflies are the symbol of rebirth and transformation and this is why it makes them so special to my eyes. rebirth and transformation are also keywords of my Moon sign – Scorpio. another element I created to represent this sign in my portrait was the lotus flower, due to its relation to situations of reconstruction after long struggles or even total loss – the lotus blooms from the mud. it is also a symbol of spirituality, something that is an important part of my daily life and that helps me keep going in spite of any obstacle.

Portrait of Isobel and Unicorn,
Colored pencil on Bristol board,
12 x 8.5

Isobel is my baby daughter, a triple Sagittarius (Sun, Moon and Rising Sign), with a predominance in Fire and Water. when I made her portrait, she had just completed one year old. I wanted that her portrait had a surreal, magical quality, what I achieved using strong colors and abstract elements. my idea was to portray her as a little elf, as a fun thing. a unicorn was chosen to keep her company: a “lighter” symbol for Sagittarius, more appropriate for a child’s portrait than the traditional centaur. an open field with trees which leaves remind red flaming hearts compounds the background - Isobel is all heart, a spirit full of passion and intensity. a river runs trough the field – the water quality of her personality. differently from the mysterious ocean water of my own portrait, peaceful Isobel’s water nurtures and refreshes, representing the caring side of her personality. on the other side of the background we see a deep sky, symbol of the desire for expansion and unlimited freedom of Sagittarius. two hummingbirds, symbols of optimism – another trait of this sign – come out of the deep blue. on her hair, a crown of lotuses, flower I like to use to represent the sign of Scorpio. although Isobel is not a Scorpio herself, she’s got a formidable stellium (an alignment of planets) in this sign, what gives her a lot of Scorpio characteristics.

if you are interested in commissioning your own portrait, drop me a line (ariel@patricia-ariel.com) or visit my store.