Progress...

Blocked in the main colour of the second figure tonight…spent a LONG time, just sitting looking at it…might be the drink, might have been a profound moment of thought…who can tell the difference…anyway, VERY pleased with the way it’s going at the moment, not sure quite how well the end result will turn out…not actually too worried about that either…am learning a great deal from the process of painting it and currently think I’m onto ‘something’….will be VERY interested to see what you all think of the final picture…showed the first stage to some other people today and was surprised by the fact that they didn’t know exactly what it was a picture of…Seems VERY clear to me, but I guess it would be as I’m painting it…I actually really liked the fact that they couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be…I like the idea of the viewer having to do a little work to discover the meaning of the painting…

First proper post of the year

Started on this today - “The Broken Boy and The Smooth Girl”.

I was telling Lorna on Friday night, how I liked the freshness of the sketches I’d been doing, letting ideas form directly on the page resulted in some lovely flowing lines…but when I’ve transferred those sketches to paper/canvas for final painting, some of that magic in the lines is lost, the spontaneity is lost…

So, I’ve worked this up today directly onto some watercolour paper. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to paint thematically and an idea for the materials I wanted to use (watercolour and then ink lines over the top), but no plan for the composition.

I’ve spent around 3 hours working up the drawing, building different sections at a time, constantly rotating the paper, reworking and reworking. Then I spent a couple of hours working on the first figure.

As I’ve mentioned before the aim with this is to form a bridge between the watercolour landscapes and the allegorical acrylic pieces I started last year. I’m planning on doing a few of these over the next couple of months and then the one I like the most I’ll enter at the RA…off to an interesting start I think :)

a new year

Once again a long gap between posts. Christmas and then away for new year and now I’m working full time for a couple of months, so quite busy…but all that is really just an excuse for laziness…or not quite dancing with the artistic muse, something like that…I haven’t felt like painting for the last month or so…haven’t actually done much of anything…vegetating you might say…maybe I’m just worn out…

Anyway…here are a couple of scribbles I’ve done recently, some ideas for the RA summer exhibition (this years theme is ‘Making Space’), some just ideas from songs…nothing thought through, just a scream of conscious via the pen…one or more might develop into something interesting…or they might all end up in the bin, time will tell…

I’ve been thinking about trying some of these more allegorical ideas in watercolour and ink…I’d like to build a connection between the watercolour landscapes and the style of ‘The Golden Key’ painting I did…I want to introduce the ink over the watercolour and the swirls to add strength to the designs and give me more control over figurative elements within the picture…I don’t have enough control with the masking fluid to depict figures…

I find myself starting the year torn between exploring the swirling/golden key styles further or returning to the traditional methods to present ideas…subjects and themes can easily cross styles…and there are pros and cons to both artistic directions…but which one is the best use of my feeble time…any thoughts? :) x