Bringing in the Harvest

There are some ref photos that really jump out at you.  Just asking to be painted.  The source picture for this particular painting did just that.
The photographer was Diane Fletcher and the picture appeared on the Paint my Photo website http://www.paintmyphoto,ning.com/  I love the Olde World feel to this picture.  We are transported back to a bygone age when life was simple but the work was hard.  Even though this painting is too small to show individual features, you have the feeling that the family may be smiling.
Initially the painting had no background colour, and something didn't seem just right.  The first watercolour that came to my hand was a tube of Viridian.  I immediately threw it back in the box - then had second thoughts.  I turned the paper upsidedown, moistened all the area above the heads and dropped the strong green colour in.  I have to say that I wasn't sure at first, but now I like it. 
When preparing the finished photograph for posting on PMP, I decided to have fun and play around with the colour balance.  I ended up with a nice sepia version of the image.
The sepia vesion got me to thinking about using coffee as a painting medium.  So now you can see there is a direct link between this Harvest painting and the Coffee man in my last blog.
Funny the way things work out.

I have been trying out all different types of art recently.  Was into hand-shadowgraphy for a while - had an urge to return to pyrography, which I enjoyed doing years ago.  I'd also love to have a try at sand art with a light box, but how do you do that as a hobby?  It is a stage show first and foremost.  I would need a video camera, overhead rig and a large light box.  And although I have contacts in the entertainment world, I can't see me lumping all that gear around to gigs.  Much easier with my little briefcase, pencils and paper!

The picture posted above is another little experiment.  This was painted with instant coffee mixed with a drop of hot water and allowed to cool.  Turned out looking very much like one of my old woodburnings.  It is a tricky medium to work with.  I had to work from light to dark.  Once the coffee is on there, you can't budge it.  No lifting out or washing off.  the darker areas which were added last were painted with the dregs.  Small granules of coffee can still be seen in the darkest ateas under his nose.  I had left the area around the eyes as white and very carefully added some faint details.  I wanted to capture the sunlight which is reflected in his eyes.

This is a coloured gentleman from the Bahamas, but I can see a vague likeness to Steve McQueen in his eyes.

Now I tweet

Joined Twitter a few months ago but never really used it much.  That was until I was given an ipad2 for Christmas.  Now I am on Twitter everyday.  Much the same idea as blog writing, though smaller.  Microblogging, I think they call it.
I have found a few twitter people already with similar interests to me and I'm sure that I will find more.  As for painting . . . I haven't been doing much since Christmas.  (ipad2 fault!!!)  I do hope to take up the brushes again soon though.  I have one commission waiting and a few motifs that I have my eye on. 
Back working as a caricaturist.  Been to some interesting gigs, including a job at Celtic park!  Got to see the game for free too.
As I haven't done much painting, I don't have many images to display here, so I thought I would add an old Silhouette that I did as a sample for my website.  It is Martin O'Neil's profile.  I worked for Martin at his private Christmas party when he was the manager of Celtic FC.

The benefits of cropping

In my last blog entry I added a picture of Rollo, a Labradoodle, taken from a photograph on PMP, (Paint my Photo)  I decided to crop the reference photo down to concentrate on a few points.  Mainly the tilt of the dog's head and the texture of his hair.
Jean Haines must have been reading my mind because a week later she posted a challenge photograph on her blog for all her fans to have a go at.  This photograph was also cropped right in, excluding the background and forcing the artist to concentrate on capturing the textures, colours and the tilt of the head. 
It's a fantastic way to approach paintings of, not only wildlife, but other motifs.  Jean uses this close cropping on many of her own paintings. 
Isolating the subject is a fantastic learning tool.  It also removes many error traps like unsuitable backgrounds, wrong proportions, weakness in painting things like paws or hands.  Above is my submission for Jean's challenge.  I won't say that it was easy, but I felt that I had already painted a very similar study just the week before, so I knew exactly how I wanted to approach this.
It is also a worthwhile exercise to have a close look at yor own completed work.  Would that picture that you were not just too happy about look better if it was cropped down into one small part of the work?  Worth thinking about.

I have been on a learning curve recently.  (Isn't that almost always the case?)  I have found inspiration for my art from a few distinct sources.  One being the 'Jean Haines' blogspot - and the wonderful atmospheric artwork of 'Charles Reid'.  Both artists use light and colour in the most expessive way imaginable.  Thanks also to my good friend Laura Moore for her constant belief in me as an artist.

Artist's block

I do a bit of writing so I have experienced writer's block quite often.  Now after six months of painting almost every day I have found artist's block after coming home from my holiday in the sun.  Funny thing is though, I painted almost every morning whilst I was away.  I liked to rise early and work on the apartment balcony while the weather was still cool.  My 'block' set in when I came home.  I'm sure that I am getting over it now.  Joined 'Paint My Photo' along with a few friends so  I am getting plenty of encouragement.

Anyway, I decided to do my own version of St Mark's square, Venice whilst I was away.  I very much admire Jean Haines version of this, but hopefully my version adds something different.  Looking forward to doing lots more over the next few weeks. 

self portrait

Had a go at a self portrait this morning.  My concentration was such that I ended up looking a bit glum!  It was a worthwhile excercise though.