Art by Órna

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Sharing a values exercise. I can see plenty wrong with this picture, but I'm also pretty pleased as I've never worked dr...
01/26/2022

Sharing a values exercise. I can see plenty wrong with this picture, but I'm also pretty pleased as I've never worked drawing to a value scale before and it was a really satisfying experience.

I started drawing and painting young, and took art at school until I was 15, but I definitely didn't absorb any instruction. In all honesty, although I can sometimes draw relatively well, my technique is mish-mash, and my understanding of the fundamentals is limited.

Doing these exercises as a more organised adult, with a clearer understanding of their application, is always very interesting, and honestly surprising. I always feel like a bit of a dilettante or a faker, or perhaps just not very good, when it comes to drawing, but using a value scale and doing things as simple as 1. Remembering to hold the pencil at the correct angle 2. Shading in the same direction exclusively and 3. Referring back to my scale while drawing really helped.

I used XIX pencil and 400 series paper.

I'm gonna call this #994 of because I think I missed it earlier, and no, it's not a drawing, per se - but it's my fir...
11/02/2020

I'm gonna call this #994 of because I think I missed it earlier, and no, it's not a drawing, per se - but it's my first piece of using Photoshop. Featuring my beautiful and very colourful pal

I'm gonna call this #999 of because they're observational pencil drawings of shop signs and they took me so, so long....
10/10/2020

I'm gonna call this #999 of because they're observational pencil drawings of shop signs and they took me so, so long. They all *more or less* look about right though, and the satisfaction of laying them all out was great.

I recently went for a sketching and coffee date with two very cool, very talented, female Toronto artists. They had lots...
10/09/2020

I recently went for a sketching and coffee date with two very cool, very talented, female Toronto artists. They had lots of good advice, and one piece that stuck with me was that you have to do 1,000 bad drawings before you get one good one. I've done a few crappy drawings this week, but I think I'll call this cat, an exercise in abstraction for my drawing class, #1000 and start working my through . And I guess in 1,000 I'll see where I am.

Having a little flick through my sketchbook, as I can't really put up too much of what I'm working on rn. I was practisi...
09/02/2020

Having a little flick through my sketchbook, as I can't really put up too much of what I'm working on rn. I was practising eyes and mouths a while ago, which has come in useful on my current project. I'm really bad at both of them, and don't talk to me about noses 😂

And the in black.
04/19/2020

And the in black.

Here's a lil samsam I whipped up for The Vacuums band earlier this year, for their eponymous record. It was great fun, a...
04/19/2020

Here's a lil samsam I whipped up for The Vacuums band earlier this year, for their eponymous record. It was great fun, and I was very pleased with the outcome. and plus a lot of guidance from my cool guy graphic designer boyfriend, thnx bb! 👌

I decided to take a crack at an art nouveau-style lady. I've been talking about doing a picture of Kathleen Ní Houlihan,...
08/19/2019

I decided to take a crack at an art nouveau-style lady. I've been talking about doing a picture of Kathleen Ní Houlihan, the personification of Ireland, using John Lavery's portrait of his wife Hazel as a jumping point, for ages now. I got into using water colours over the summer for a project I'm working on, with this cheapie €3 set from . One thing I love about illustration and painting is that (especially with the advent of online tutorials) it's a very low-risk pursuit that pretty much anyone could afford to do, and it gives so many hours of relaxation. It's a very out-sized return on investment.

I'm often told I look like this woman, with her deep-set eyes and strong nose, in her iteration on one of our old bank notes. I think it's an enormous compliment, especially considering she's the fighting spirit of a rebellious, revolutionary country (and part of the reason I gave her lots of red hair, which Mrs Lavery did not have). I might put a background on this one and I might not, I'm going to do a few more pieces in this style so I'll play around and see how I feel.

******

I took a break from posting recently, for a few months, and the entire time I could hear the critic, saying, 'You start things and quit them. You never finish them.' It really bothered me. I was still drawing for pleasure, but if a tree falls in a wood and no one posts the video on Instagram, does it make a sound? I felt so guilty, but when I listened closer, I realised that voice didn't sound much like my own. My little voice said: 'You need a break.' Pressuring myself to post was sucking the fun out of the pursuit.

Listening to yourself is important. I know you're used to black ink from me and this post isn't exactly 'on brand' (barf) , but I read a quote a few years ago from an architect that's always stuck with me, when he was asked about his personal style, and he 'purred' apparently: 'A style is in some ways the sum of all your inhibitions.'

Well, f**k style! Art is art is art, bbs, and it happens on no one's schedule but your own and looks the way you want it to.

And no matter how they are, things are always perfect just the way they are.

I like this quote by Eckhart Tolle a lot. In his book, The Power of Now (thanks for the reco ), he talks about the moder...
05/21/2019

I like this quote by Eckhart Tolle a lot. In his book, The Power of Now (thanks for the reco ), he talks about the modern curse of rumination, and this idea we all have that we're a brain and a body, with the brain in control. Really we're more like three parts, including, importantly, a consciousness that can observe that brain and body and their machinations, non-judgmentally. I'm getting better at this all the time, but I have real trouble with it, and have always had trouble with it.

Our brain is really good at catastrophising and inventing convenient narrative, at emphasising and focusing on the wrong thing, dwelling or speculating. I'm highly self-critical, and for me, when life gets hard, I try to be better - better than myself, better than others, better at new things. This year was a hard one, and any positive validation was an excellent distraction from the hard parts of life. But achieving - whether that's prizes, writing a lot, or drawing a lot - for its own sake, isn't living. Not if it doesn't bring you joy.

I haven't posted a picture in a few weeks, and this morning I realised I hadn't noticed, and it's for good reason. It's because I'm finally achieving something really important, which is balance.

My life in the last few months has been full of love and I've been allowing myself to enjoy it. I have been seeing friends, and making new ones; planning holidays, dates and meals; and spending time talking to loved ones far away. I have been spending time in nature, and cycling, eating bread and drinking wine, and sleeping late. I have been so happy. I drew this for pleasure. It took me far longer than it normally would, and it's not very detailed, and I enjoyed every minute of it, because I had no end goal.

The past is gone, and the future doesn't exist. Life, now, in all its colour and confusion, is beautiful - just the way it is.

'Why is no one as scared as they should be?'
05/01/2019

'Why is no one as scared as they should be?'

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