Thursdays efforts

Here's todays work on the portrait. Added lots more modelling in the faces, did a bit of work on the clothes, changed the background...basically added more paint to everything :) still needs more, I haven't got the balance of skin tones quite right yet, but it's going in the right direction. As the paint has built up I've been able to used some stronger brushstrokes, these are starting to come together nicely. The new background works much better, the previous green one was too strong, the painting is quite 'in your face' with the style of skin tone and brushstrokes and the green was just fighting too much. I've also worked a bit of framing into the background with a roughly painted black border, it's a minor graphical element but adds a nice little touch I think. All in all this is turning out to be a very useful experiment.

blocking in....

Blocking in a bit more form tonight...some bits going well...some bits need more work...but generally a reasonable evenings work. I'm trying to pull the likenesses together as I go and they're certainly better today....

Acrylic Portrait part 2

Did a bit on this acrylic portrait the other day. Sploshing in the colours and playing with the brushstrokes atm...I've lost a bit of the likenesses while doing this, but the whole point of this particular painting was to experiment and see what happens, so I'm not going to worry about that, will just keep on playing until it looks okay :)

Pencils...finished...

Finished...:)

Pencils...

I got a really nice set of Faber-Castell pencils the other day. Mainly to do tree pictures, but I also thought I could try some portraiture work with them too. Started on this self portrait this evening...slightly sinister looking? Anyway, the pencils are superb, very smooth, I'd highly recommend them :)

If it appears I'm starting lots...and not finishing anything at the moment, don't panic...I'm trying not to...I want to get lots of different pieces on the go, so I can switch media more quickly and see what works best with whatever subject I'm exploring...again, not a way I've worked in the past, but I'm hoping it will yield some interesting results. As ever, time will tell...

Acrylic portrait

Started on a double portrait in acrylics today. Not sure how well this is going to work as I tend to like the time oils give me to push the paint around...am going to go about this acrylic in a different way, no under painting as such, but I've blocked in the base colours today and will probably keep adding new blocks of colour as I go...all a bit of an experiment really :)

Trees in Charcoal

Well, this week I started my part time regime, spent a fair chunk of it tidying up and getting a few new bits and bobs I needed... but eventually started playing with some charcoal...I'm planning on experimenting with these tree pictures in painting, drawings, lino etc...Anyways, here's the first charcoal effort. It's definitely closer to what I'm after than the large painting...but I'll come back to that next week...I did this one on a old piece of watercolour paper which i think was a bit too rough in texture, but I'm reasonably pleased with the overall effect...there's more atmosphere and the bond between the two main trees hopefully comes across as being more symbolic...

2nd phase...

Here’s a bit more work in progress on the first tree portrait…quite difficult to photograph as it’s a very dark painting…might add a few more leaves to the canopy, need to do a bit more with the ground and the main trunk highlights then need to go on. Once that’s done, hopefully all that’ll be left is a few splashes of colour here and there to balance the whole image…

A change of focus...

Well this blog has been rather quiet lately, but that is about to change!

Starting next month, I shall be cutting back my day job to 3 days a week, which means I shall have 2 full days to focus on painting...I've cleared up my painting space, purchased some new paint and brushes... and am getting all the boring little jobs out of the way, so I can have 2 proper working days at the easel...

My first aim is to start producing work that forms a cohesive series rather than individual pieces that bounce from style to style...this is something I've been doing to some extent with the watercolours already...I think I need to do it with everything I try, in order to explore ideas and techniques more fully than I've done in the past...I'm also hoping that a "body" of work will, ultimately, be of greater interest to galleries...

So, the first "series" I shall be exploring is called..."Portraits of Trees"... a slightly odd title, but what did you expect :) . I'm aiming to produce 10-12 largish canvases, in acrylic, pushing the lines I've been developing in the watercolours...I may also paint all of these trees at night...that is the trees are seen at night, not that I'm always painting at midnight...although that may also apply. The first stages of the first picture can be seen above...

Progress on this first one will take a little while, but once we're into November, things should pickup speed :)

Acrylics...

I've been wanting to have a go at an oil landscape for a little while, the plan being to try and transfer a few of the watercolour ideas across to see what happens... however, it occurred to me that the drying time of the oils might limit the usefulness of this when layering the effects and potentially painting them out in the open...Acrylics were obviously the way to go, but I've not been a big fan of them in the past...but, for some strange reason I was feeling very restless today, so went out and bought some large (and expensive) acrylic brushes and attacked a canvas to see what would happen...

and this is obviously the result of that...:)

I've only just finished painting it, so need to look with fresh eyes in the morning...but I think I'm reasonably pleased with it, there are some interesting effects happening...perhaps I'm onto something...I hope so :) certainly painted this one with some passion...I'm knackered now...;)

Varnishing...

Didn’t manage any painting this weekend as the day job is encroaching on painting time as we wrap up our current project…still, nearly done :) Anyway, I collected a few old friends together…and varnished them…it was quite interesting to see them together as a group…I must do some more portraits once work is out of the way…:)

Another sunny day...another painting...!

And here's another from this afternoon, found myself with a couple of hours free, so headed down the Cassington road once more. I spotted the view yesterday as I was walking home and it looks really good at 7.15...lovely shadows...might try and paint it again later in the week if the weathers good...anyway, gave it a go today at around 4.00 ish and came up with this...I've accentuated the scale of the hills a bit and shrunk the field...again, quite pleased, it's got a bit of life to it...am looking forward to assembling several of these...I might just get the body of work, to view as a whole that I'm looking for...was also reading from Hockney's "That's the way I see it" yesterday...I love the honesty in his painting...I find I take comfort and confidence from seeing what he does...looking at what he's done, seems to free me to try stuff like this...dunno why, that's just the way it is...

It's summer out there...

A lovely afternoon so I wandered off down the Cassington road in search of something to paint...after stumbling through the stinging nettles in a few fields, I settled on this view as I liked the shadows being cast on the crops...this also meant I could paint in the shade...:) quite pleased with the results... I'm finding a bit of a rhythm as I'm painting, getting a balance between the different marks and becoming more comfortable "letting go" and allowing the painting to find its own way...am feeling quite good about the watercolours at the moment...just need to keep the momentum going :)

Watercolours from Wales

Just back from my holidays at a farmhouse called Gesail Gyfarch, just above Porthmadog in North Wales, while the weather wasn’t perfect (for holidays or painting) I had a very enjoyable break and managed to fit in some painting time...and here are the results…

I’ve pushed the “white” marks on three of these further than I’ve done in previous paintings and I think the effect has worked well. I’ve tried to focus on painting what I feel about the place I’m in, rather than just directly painting what’s in front of me…Generally trying to inject the “passion” needed to distinguish my interpretations of landscapes from everyone else’s…I think I’m going in the right direction :) certainly something to explore further in future pictures…

lily

Nearly a month since my last blog…not very impressive is it…my day job has definitely been getting in the way of any evening artwork energy…must do something about that once my current project is finished (which should be in the next 6-8 weeks)…Did a little scribbling over the weekend and finished off this design for another card this evening, I still want to get a set of 6 of these flower cards together and these are quite nice to work on when I’m not overflowing with artistic juices…so to speak…