"Nine in the Sky"- My process

The 78 Tarot Project involves 78 artists from across the globe, who have all been given a card from the Tarot deck to create. When it is completed there shall be 78 totally and utterly unique cards put together to make one wonderful Tarot Deck- showcasing the variety of talent of illustrators, fine artists, photographers, digital artists and many others from all over the world. 

So, back in February I was told about this amazing project. My friend and fellow artist, the wonderful Anita Invararity was taking part and she was very excited about it. So I got the details and sent a few emails. Within a few weeks I have been recruited to take part! I was given the Nine of Wands as my card to create, and I got started with the all the crazed arty excitement I could muster!! 

First thing's first: Inspiration

So one of the first things I do when I start a new project, is I go and do loads of research!! I wanted to relate the card back to my own interest in Scottish mythology, as well as making sure it embodied elements of what the Nine of Wands was meant to represent. 

Pinterest is always a great site for finding inspiration, and so I put a little board together as I researched to spark creativity in me. You can see it here: (just clicky). And of course it was truly important to look into what the Nine of Wands was all about. 

The best description of the Nine of Wand card I found was that it was for the "Battle-weary warrior inside us all, who still refuses to give up fighting". It is meant to appear in the reading when the recipient needs to learn when to lower the defences and re-cooperate, allowing healing and emotional well-being instead of overly defending themselves. It's commonly illustrated by the nine wands (or staffs sometimes) and/or an injured figure, who is battle worn- showing a long battle that has not allowed the scars to heal. 

I loved this card straight away when I read what she was all about! There was a character I had in mind for her, and the card description was just perfect! I wanted to make the card based on the Scottish/Irish story of the warrior queen Scathach and her lover Cuthulainn.

So it was straight to the drawing board! I didn't do much in the way of concept sketches. I started one version, finished it and realised it wasn't what I wanted for the card and so started all over again! The second time was the charm! 

The Process

When I start  painting in my style I very rarely know how it is going to turn out and so it can be just as surprising to me as it is to you! First step is always to choose my canvas, which in this case was reclaimed wooden panel, and then tea/coffee stain it. The staining gives me the bones of my piece, which I then begin to paint into with watered down white-acrylic. 

Work in Progress Shot 1- White Acrylic. 

Since I had the intention of making the piece primarily white with the stained background, it took a long, long time to get it looking the way I wanted it. Shading is key when developing a sense of depth,especially if there is going to be little alteration in the following stages. 

WIP shot 2. Acrylic Finished. 

I scanned the piece after the acrylic stage was completed and I'm very grateful I did as it really gives you guys a chance to see the level of colour variation achievable with just white acrylic and coffee. After that, it's watercolour all the way!

The Watercolour Stage

Watercolour is great fun, and so flexible as long as you have the right base down to remove with water as you go. That's why I use watercolour on pre-acrylic-painted wood or panel so that I can soak it back if the watercolour doesn't work. Used thick of thin, watercolour is lovely! So I worked all the shadows deeper using the same watercolour set I've had since high school. 

This left me with just the final touches and of course, the big reveal: 

"Nine in the Sky"-
Copyright Kimberly Hagen ART 2014. All rights reserved.

And here she is. Fini.
So happy with her and proud to know she is going to be alongside so many other talented and amazing artists in the 78 Tarot Project!
To check out the other artists taking part and see the deck as it comes together check out the website:
http://www.seventy-eight-tarot.com/deck/

And if you are feeling generous, also check out my website and facebook page:
www.facebook.com/kimberlyhagenart
www.kimberlyhagenart.co.uk



All artwork used in this post is copyright Kimberly Hagen ART. All rights reserved.

My Second Solo Show is Creeping Up On Me!

My second solo art show is slowly but surely creeping up on me. I realised today that is is a mere two weeks tomorrow! Yikes! So I thought I'd give you a guys a quick wee blog post to let you know how the preparations are going on and what sort of goodies I am planning for you all. 

WELL, first off I have my invitations, posters and fliers all printed now. Thank goodness! The invitations to the opening night will be posted on Monday morning so everyone will receive by Tuesday/Wednesday. I have already started sending all the email invites out, so they should also all be out by Tuesday/Wednesday. 

Again I would like to thank my very talented friend Rhys Stenhouse, who has designed my invitations, posters and fliers. He's done this for me over the last 3 of my exhibitions so I am very, very pleased with his work. He is a very professional, very talented graphic designer and I highly recommend him for all your graphic design needs! 

Take a look at the amazing job he did of the opening night invite! So cool right? 

I know not everyone can make the opening, but here is an invitation to my blog readers anyway. He really has done a beautiful job of turning my watercolour piece "Miss Red", which will be on sale at the show, into a stunning piece of graphic design. Go Rhys :) 

Speaking of getting things printed, I will have prints of several of my paintings for sale on both etsy (for those of you who can't make the show) and at the show. There will be greeting cards, prints and postcards available as well as badges and keyrings with my art in them. The keyrings and button badges are a new product I am trying out, just as a quirky way to carry my art with you. I think it will be quite fun, and I am hoping to have a few other novelty products ready over the next year!

As far as the work goes I have a lot going on. My work for this exhibition is a celebration of tea and stories; two things that I think have an almost symbiotic relationship with my art. There seems to be a good mixture of a more illustrative style of work, as well as my continued exploration of fine art techniques. There is also a mixture of different work surfaces for this exhibition: from canvas and panel to burr wood board and old shelves. I've tried to be both eco-friendly and economical in my preparation for this show and I hope it is obvious in the final analysis. 

A few pieces are making return appearances. My four tea and ink "Muses" from the exhibition "Baklava Nites" earlier this year, as well as my representation of the Greek god "Apollo" will be on show again. "Apollo" is going to be united with his sister piece "Artemis", who I will not be showing online until after the opening night, so you will have to wait to see her. There will also be a selection of new watercolours on display. I haven't worked in watercolour since high school, but felt that now was the time to start experimenting with them once again, so they are certainly worth a look. 

As you can see my studio is starting to look a little bit manic with everything going on! 

And so I shall leave you! I will hopefully update again before the exhibition opens, but if I don't there will be a post telling you how it went! For a sneaky peek at a few of the works already on sale please check out my facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyHagenART

where you will find the watercolours available as well as some of the other pieces that are still available. 

Hope you all have a brilliant few weeks :) 

Kim. X

https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyHagenART

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KimberlyHagenART

Auctioning Off The Skeletons

Hi guys :)

Since my second solo show is creeping up on me, I am going to be auctioning off several of my older works to raise some funds for the exhibition essentials (framing, printing, my shoes for the opening... that kind of thing).

So lets talk about some of the pieces I will be auctioning.

Clicky Here To Go To Auction

First off we have my lady "River Rushing." You may remember her appearance in my last solo show? She was one of my first oil paintings and I have been holding onto her for over 3 years now. She is framed in black with a white mount, ready to hang. 

If you CLICKY the caption under her you will be taken to the live ebay auction where you can either buy her now for £90 or start the bidding off!

My ladies "Maiden, Mother and Matriarch" is also going to be up for auction. The piece was created summer last year (2012) following my most recent experiments with lino cuttings. The piece is lino and fibre board painted using acrylics and oils. It is framed to a high standard in a floating style black frame on a white background.
You can start the bidding off at £20 or buy now for £75. 

I will of course be auctioning off several other pieces, however I thought I'd let you see these two just now.

As always I truly love the support and love I receive from you as fans of my work and I hope you all take an interest and bid on my past work.

Help the struggling artist struggle on :P x

https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyHagenART

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KimberlyHagenART

Black and White Boy- The Album Art Commission

Hi guys and gals,

I know I've been terribly inconsistent of late posting in my blog, but I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to make a new post!

I have been very busy of the last two months working on a few rather challenging, interesting and different commissions! The one I've just finished (and the one I'm blogging about today) is the album art for "Black and White Boy's" new album "Fragile". This was an amazing opportunity that came about after Andrew- the genius behind Black and White Boy- saw my chalkboard drawings in the Beanscene and thought my work had real potential for his album cover.

This was obvious very, very flattering and also such a great chance to try something completely different. It was also a chance to let my inner illustrator out to play, since I have quite an illustrative streak in my current style of work.

So to start with, when doing a commission it's always a good idea to draw up a creative contract. Nothing scary, no small print, just something simple and easy to understand for both client and artist. Cover the basics such as copyright, time scale to completion and payment. If you guys let me know I'll do a proper post on the ins and outs of creative contracts, but not in this post :P

After all the boring (but necessary) paperwork malarkey was done the first stage is to play about in the sketchbook! Something I love doing, and I always have a little sketchbook in my handbag! Here are some of the basic first ideas I had:

 You'll obviously notice I stuck to a similar sort of idea. This is because the client gives you a rough idea of what they are looking for, inspired by and think would look good. When you take it to sketchbook you have to work with both your own ideas and the clients to create a symbiosis of the two concepts.

These sketches were sent to Andrew and he loved them, then giving me further ideas and more refined criticism so that I could narrow the scope in development. The umbrella was particularly liked, as was the tea staining and so I pulled these two elements forward to the development stage.

The development stage

So the development stage was more refined, and I asked again what the client thought. He loved the vibe, thankfully I was pretty close to the mark, but he questioned whither the character could be a child rather than an adult.
Personally I have rarely drawn children, but I loved the concept! It worked well to truly hammer home the concept of a fragile, vulnerable character. And so I took my development and concept sketches and reworked one or two other options:

Option 1

Option 2 and Wild-Card Option 3

AND it was back to the sketchbook. Three options were given, two from the original idea, and one wild-card, because you never know!
Andrew was very quick to decide that he wanted option two and so the final piece began!

And here it is!

"Fragile" album art commission by Kimberly Hagen. Copyright 2013

The final piece is now finished and being picked up tomorrow. I am very proud of it, as it was such a fun, and different project! I particularly enjoyed being able to continue tea staining, which I loved doing for the group exhibition I was part of in May. 

Thank you Black and White Boy for the opportunity! For those of you who are curious to hear the music of this very talented gentleman clicky HERE. The website is full of great info so please do check it out! 

Thanks and keep checking to see if I've updated ;) 

Kim. XX

http://blackandwhiteboy.net/home.cfm

^ Check it out

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https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KimberlyHagenART

Blackboard Art-

"Snow Queen"
Blackboard Chalk Piece in Beanscene Stirling
March 2013

I've recently started doing pieces in chalk pens at The Beanscene in Stirling.
Why is this a cool thing to blog about you ask? Well for one it's a really interesting way to work. I love creating something that I can change, rub away, manipulate and all together remove at any given time with no effort. There is also something damn cool about working with a new tool, so in this case chalk pens, and even chalk itself. I've worked with charcoal before and that was interesting, but my experience with chalk and pastels is very limited so it's a really invigorating to experiment with this new technique in such a public setting.

"Esmerelda Lady of Spring"
Blackboard Chalk Piece in Beanscene Stirling
April 2013

Another thing that makes this worth blogging about is the amount of exposure it is helping my work get! Starting out as an artist is hard, there are no ifs or buts about it, but you can make it easier by being out there and talking to people! This gives me an opportunity to do that. Thus far I have only done three pieces in The Beanscene, but I have met some very interesting people, all with helpful and constructive comments and compliments. The amount of fans on my facebook page has gone up, as well as the views on my etsy store (despite the fact that my etsy store is pretty empty right now) which can only be a good thing!

"Wild Rose" Blackboard Chalk Piece in Beanscene Stirling April 2013
copyright Kimberly Hagen Art

What I truly love about doing this so far is that it does help with my confidence as an artist. I can work on something, while people watch, work away and enjoy it without worrying too much. I can experiment as well, which is always fun! It's a great challenge and a way to defeat artists block.
I'm really interested to see how two of these transfer into paintings. We'll see ;)

On a side note, I will try and blog more! I've missed doing it and it does help relax and refocus my mind a little. Hope you all had an awesome Chocolate Bunny Day :D x



All artwork is copyright Kimberly Hagen ART. Artwork may not be reproduced without written consent gained from the artist in advance. All rights reserved. 

It's 2013! Bring Forth The Fairytales!

Sorry for not blogging for so long, but life has very much got in the way! In the last six months I've moved house, started university, been ridiculously ill and all round just busy! However I am back, with news and new art work to share. Woo hoo!

So lets start with what I'm currently working on. I have an exhibition coming up in April and I'm very very busy with that sneaking up on me. I have seven paintings all on the go at once, none of which are coming together quickly, but I also have a mini project that I'm going to share with you guys today.

"Mirror Mirror" 2013 copyright Kimberly Hagen ART

"Lustrous Locks" 2013 copyright Kimberly Hagen ART

"Anderson's Merchild" 2013 copyright Kimberly Hagen ART

For a long time I've been thinking about doing a project around the fairytales but it has never really come about until now. I've been delving into my old copy of Grimm's Fairytales and Hans Christian Anderson's Stories, as well as having a swatch or two at my roommates new copies. It's got me seriously inspired! I forgot how much I loved the true harsh and twisty fairy stories. 

So with that in mind I am doing a series of 14 drawings based on these amazing stories. All will be created using water soluble pencils on hand-made paper. I won't be showing you them all just now, I need something to hold back till my exhibition, but here is a sneak peek of three of them!



All work is copyright Kimberly Hagen ART. No work can be copied or reproduced without written consent of the artist. All rights reserved.

Being an Artist Who Paints Figures and Rubber Ducks

Y'know being an artist often means doing a crappy job that you hate. I used to clean toilets and serve tourists food to make the money I needed to paint, so I know exactly how that feels. I hated both jobs, but they led to where I am now. 

I paint ducks. 

Yup! You read that right! I paint rubber ducks and sell them. 

That isn't the only crafty/arty/weird thing I create to make a small living, but it is a start and it's something I really enjoy. I think that many people forget that as an artist we can have "day jobs" that we enjoy to fund our art, and that these two concepts do not have to be separate. My second etsy store may well support the fact that I am a freelance artist, however that does not make the fact that I AM a freelance artist any less important, or the fact that I am both a business woman and an artist any less valid. 

The business of being an artist is a difficult one, so we supplement it with other things while we make our way to independence. In my case I run a small family and friend craft business that I can also sell my art prints and accessories through. 

I think finding a wee day job that you love, and allows you to be creative away from your painting/sculpting/photography can only be a good thing! It allows you a break from the hard labour of love that is being an artist while still keeping the creative juices flowing. 

I'd love to see more young artists like me doing this! It's a different way of being a working artist, but I find it very satisfying :D 

X