I have been working on a Sunflower Fairy painting.  I really like the way the sunflowers turned out! However, I do think her face, and hands need a lot more work. In the next step, I will start to add the details, and I hope I can sort out the problems with her face. I do regret that I started this painting on a small canvas, because her face is so tiny to paint.  Now I am going to let the painting dry for a few days. ©Marianne Mathiasen 2011

I had some problems logging in to EF. Did any of you have the same problem?

I am so relieved that I am back in!

At last spring has come to Als. The trees are slowly being covered in delicate sap green leaves, and the first yellow citrus butterflies have been visiting my garden.

I took this photo last weekend when Jess and I went for a walk in the forest. Selene and Ebbe were so full of energy, and it was hard to keep an eye on them, because they were enjoying that we were outside, and that all the snow had gone!

This is the first dropped fairy dress I found in my garden. The forest is covered in white Anemones right now, so I am not at all surprised that it was a dress like this, I found.

Apple Hold Castle

My old apple trees have been pruned, in February. This was done in an agreement with the fairies of Nidlongdir. King Apple Strong and one of The Elder Advisors from Dragonia signed an agreement on a whispering leaf, at a meeting under my apple trees. They have agreed not to start a war, but they will have to cut down on the tree juice production because the old apple trees need rest after the pruning. I have promised them that in return for their loss, I will provide them with fresh pressed apple juice in the autumn.

I am reading the fairytales by H.C.Andersen to Ebbe and Selene and we have been doing paper cuts inspired from the paper cut H.C. Andersen did for the children he knew.

This paper cut was done by H.C. Andersen.

Happy Easter to all of you!

Marianne

Dear Enchanted Folk Friends,

I have been away for a while, I needed some time of the computer, to take care of my famely. 

Last year was a very turbulent year for me. My daughter Camilla got married, and shortly after they moved into the new flat we have built. My mum has been ill, and she has moved into an elder centre in a new flat, next to my sister. It was so hard to move all her things, and she was so sad that she had to leave her home town Silkeborg. The good news about my mum is, that now she lives next to her two 9 and 14 yeas old grandsons, and she got a new dog called Molly.

Camilla and Christian bought a house of their own and moved out of our house a month ago. Bjane my youngest son bought a flat in Aahus with his girl friend Cecillie. Bjarne is studying Media Scienc at the university in Aarhus and Cecillie just got a new job as a sales manager.

My husband Jess has been struggling with his hearing aid. He is slowly becoming more and more deaf, and it has been very difficult because he had a job talking on the phone most of the day. Two months ago he got a new job in his firm, that will keep him of the phone. It has been such a relief, and it's like getting a new husband.

Since my family was scattered all over Denmark we have use Facebook to keep up with each other.   

There are two little people you might wonder about, and i can tell you that my fairy twins Ebbe and Selene, is doing well, we are of on adventures from time to time. 

Marianne

Images: Self Portrait 2011 and my latest paper doll

You will find it as an ACEO card in

Nidlongdir's Art fire Shop

I have been a bit quiet  lately, because I am working on my book, but I had so many family businesses lately, that I am behind my planned schedules.

Ebbe and Selene are both growing, and I am wondering if it's about time I find a house or a cave in Nidlongdir, where they can stay.
I feel that keeping my lovely pair of fairy twins here in the human world is wrong. It's a bit like keeping a wild animal trapped. I would like to set them free in their own environment, and I think there will be some changes in Nidlongdir that will make it safer for them to go and live there.

This doesn't mean I won't be their mum. I will always love them, and I will properly settle in with them in our new home in Nidlongdir. There will be lots of new adventures to tell, and I will naturally keep you updated!

The Nidlongdir website is going to undergo some chages, I would like all the visitors of Nidlongdir to be able to follow me, so the whispering library will be moved to nidlongdir.blogspot.com where you will be able to find the old stories and new updates. The maps will stay on www.nidlongdir.com.

The book I am writing about Nidlongdir, will take you back to the beginning of Nidlongdir. You will follow King Apple Core, The first born of the 12 fairies found in my apple tree, and the first king to rule the Apple Fairies of Nidlongdir. 

Have a magic day!

Marianne

Nidlongdir - ArtFire Artisan Studio

Hi Friends,

I have been concentrating on painting the last couple of months. Ebbe and Selene say hello and send all of you fairy blessings!

Camilla has persuaded me into opening a shop on Art Fire with my original paintings. I will be selling some of the orginal illustrations for the Nidlongdir stories.

www.artfire.com/users/Nidlongdir

After a lot of work on rewriting the stories about Nidlongdir, I have decided to rewrite the entire story, because there might be some issues with the word Dragonia. It turned out that there is some sort of game called Dragonia, and I don't want to get into any copyright problems, so Dragonia will be renamed Danagonia.

About my famely.

My mum is going to move to Copenhagen, to live closer to my sister. My son Bjarne has started at the university in Aarhus, studying Media Scienc, and he has moved into a new flat with his girl friend Cecilie. Camilla and her husband Christan both got a new jobs as teachers in elementary school. My husband Jess had his hearing device eaten by our dog, but now he got a new set, and we can talk again without  shouting. I myself, have been busy with the famely, painting, writing and garden work.

Soon the dark time will come to Denmark the days are getting shorter, and I have bought a big box of candels to lit up my windows at night.

I hope you all are well. I am sorry I have been away for so long, but this summer has been a bit of a challenged with all my family moving around.

Fariry blessings

Marianne

Sometimes I wonder if I can strengthen the light and shadows in my paintings, but creating the changes could be fatal to the painting. Therefore, I use Corel Paint Shop Pro to solve my problem. Above you see how I changed the light in the original painting.


I wanted to see what happed if I created a darker cast shadow on the giant's face under his hat. I also changed the light and shadows on the pine tree and the sun, to see how that would work.

Here I used a warm dark brow for the shadow, and I brightened the chins with a yellow. I used the air brush tool in Corel Paint Shop Pro. If you click on the air brush tool, you can change the settings. I used the following settings: bleed mode: normal, and opacity 5. The bleed mode defines the way the air brush works. The opacity defines how thick a layer of paint the air brush applies to the painting. If you set the brush to 100, there won't be any opacity art all, and if you set it to 5 like I did, the air brush will only apply a thin layer of paint. When I do this kind of experimenting, I add a new layer to the painting, in that way I can delete the layer if I don't like the result. I also save the image in many versions, so that I can go back and compare them later.

I didn't like the brown shadow on the gian't face, so I did a new tryout with a greenish grey colour.I think this version is better, and I also like the way the sun got more 3D by adding a deeper shadow and a brighter highlight When you work with light and shadows, it is importuned that you decide where the light comes from.In this painting the light source is coming from the left side.

The big hat and the landscape would properly cast a dark shadow on the giant's shoulders, so I went wild and added a very dark shadow at the bottom of the painting. I think this is a bit too dark, but I like that his nose seems to pop out of the painting in this way, so I might try this on the real painting.

After a coffee break, I came back and darkened the edges of the painting to frame the giant's face, I think this works better, then just adding a shadow at the bottom of the painting, but I won't go as dark as this on the real painting.

Besides experimenting with light and shadows in your painting you can also try out ideas for composition in Corel Paint Shop Pro. I felt that I needed something to balance the large tree to the right, so I decided to add a planet in the background. I think it improved the balance! I used the stamp tool in Corel PSP to do this.

Overlapping is one of the ways to create depth in a painting, so I tried to add one more tree, and some birds to see how that would work. I like the tree, but the birds will have to go!

If you don't have Corel Paint Shop Pro, you can use any other paint soft wear, like the free Sumo Paint or Photo Shop.

Now I am of to paint! Tomorrow I will show you the result of all my experiments!
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Copyright: Marianne Mathiasen

I am working on an acrylic painting for my son's new flat. Actually, I started this painting a year ago, and never finished it, but my son kept asking me to finish it, so that he could have the painting.

Sometimes I get stock with a painting, and need to decide how to move on with it. In most cases, I just set it aside for some time to let it rest. On this painting, I needed to finish the landscape on top of the giant's hat, but I needed new inspiration on what to paint. My son is moving away from our home town Silkeborg (Denmark), to study in Aarhus, and he has been worried that he will miss Silkeborg terrible. I had some old water colour sketches from Silkeborg, that I did when he was a child, so I went through my sketch books to find them.

This spot is called the Sky Mountain, actually it just a hill side, but I have painted this view many times during the summers we spend on the lacks around Silkeborg.

This is a spring painting of the same view.

As you can see I used the two water colour sketches as inspiration for the giant's hat, and I am quite pleased with it! There are many ways sketches might come in handy, and this is only one of the ways!

Sketches are not just something painters use! Try to look at my daughter's blog called Watch My Sketchbook Come Alive, where she shows how she uses her sketches! I am still working on this painting, and I will show you how I get on with the painting tomorrow!

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Copyright: Marianne Mathiasen