D-Xirable Art! Rachel Anderson's Paintings!

Hello my wonderful and amazing loves,

I came across this painter/artist not too long ago and I enjoy her work so much that I decided that it would be nice to highlight her work on my blog.

Rachel Anderson is another one of my favorite painters. I love how vibrant, bright, pretty, and magical her paintings are! They are really beautiful and amazing! I also love how she paints dreamy women/fairies/mermaids and how she creates such mystical and fantasy worlds.

Rachel Anderson

I have been fascinated with the world of fantasy since I was little, when my parents began reading me books like Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. From then on my imagination was incurably overactive.

At an early age I began attempting to bring all the characters and stories in my head to life on paper. But it was not until about 2004 that I actually began to really learn the basics and improve my skill to become a professional artist.

I have always been fascinated with the spiritual realm - what it might look like if we could see it and so forth - so that influences my art a great deal. I love nature, and all the beauty that lives within it. The idea that there is an unseen world of magical creatures that are interconnected with nature and suffer if we harm it is very inspirational to my work. Our world can be sad and cruel at times, and I hope my artwork can bring some joy and magic back into it.

~Rachel Anderson (via http://www.silverstars.us)

Here are some of my favorite paintings by Rachel Anderson:

Rachel Anderson's - Andromeda

Rachel Anderson's - Astraea

Rachel Anderson's - Aurelia

Rachel Anderson's - Birth of a Star

Rachel Anderson's - Birthstones: Amethyst

Rachel Anderson's - Birthstones: Ruby

Rachel Anderson's - Birthstones: Sapphire

Rachel Anderson's - Forget Me Not

How do you create your art?

I create my paintings in Photoshop using a pressure-sensitive graphics tablet. The tablet has a "pen" that you use instead of a mouse. For those not familiar with digital painting, my process is similar to painting with oil or acrylic in that I create my paintings from scratch, stroke by stroke, using the brush tool.

Although my painting process has changed and loosened up a lot over the past few years, you can check out these tutorials I wrote a few years ago to get the general idea of how I work.

What programs/tools do you use?

I use Adobe Photoshop CS (adobe.com) and a Wacom Intuos 2 tablet (wacom.com).

How long does it take you to finish a painting?

It can take as little as a week, or as long as a month (or more!). It really depends on the size of the painting, detail involved, and time I have available for painting. My attention span is very short and I lose interest easily. So it can take months or even more than a year for me to get around to finishing a painting if I don't keep at it.

It took me about a week to finish Sunset, which is 12x18 inches, and relatively simple as far as detail goes. And Luna Moth took about a year, painting on and off. That painting is larger, 16x24 inches, and has a lot of detail. It's hard to say how long it actually took to paint without breaks.

~Rachel Anderson (via http://www.silverstars.us)

Rachel Anderson's - Iridescent

Rachel Anderson's - Lily of the Valley

Rachel Anderson's - Luminescent

Rachel Anderson's - Birthstones: Aquamarine

Rachel Anderson's - Mirabella

Rachel Anderson's - Birthstones: Blue Topaz

Rachel Anderson's - Birthstones: Emerald

Rachel Anderson's - Birthstones: Garnet

Rachel Anderson's - Birthstones: Peridot

Rachel Anderson's - Opalite

Rachel Anderson's - Rose

I am also greatly inspired by turn-of-the-century illustrators like Arthur Rackham; Pre-Raphaelites, Neo-Classicists, and Romanticists like Waterhouse and Bouguereau; styles like Art Nouveau; and modern fantasy artists like Brian Froud and Kinuko Craft. The list of artists I admire could go on and on.

~Rachel Anderson (via http://www.silverstars.us)

Rachel Anderson's - Serenity

Rachel Anderson's - Snow Fae

Rachel Anderson's - Titania

Rachel Anderson's - Twilight Shimmer

Rachel Anderson's - Ultramarine

Rachel Anderson's - Winter Rose

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed this post about Rachel Anderson's paintings! 

Her paintings are incredibly beautiful and mystical! Here's the link to her artwork and website - http://www.silverstars.us/.

With love,
LaTasha B.
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