An Artist's Diary & Sketchbook

Putting more thought into it.

2009-02-15T01:07:00.002Z

This may be a new topic I consider undertaking....I'm going to take photo's of faces from different wars/conflicts, so soldiers, civilians...etc and reinterpret them either digitally or traditionally, trying out different colour palettes and painting quite loosley while still trying to stimulate an emotive response from the viewer.

I think these will be produced quite large:

Please feel free to pass on any views, comments or feelings you have on this topic!!:thumbsup:

The first here was taken from a ref photo of a Marine in the Iraq war:

William Orpen - "The English Nude"

2009-01-24T15:31:00.000Z

My study about 45 mins.

Master Studies

2008-11-06T20:48:00.002Z

I try and do a few of these, you lean so much from the artists at the top of their game.

The reclining figure is by William Merritt Chase & The other (still a work in progress) is by Seignac.

2008-11-06T20:44:00.000Z

Time Flies.......

2008-11-06T20:37:00.002Z

Well time flies when Yom having fun!

It seems some time now file my last entry, married life and work have gotten is the way of me doing anything of late, but here are a few things I've managed to get done!! And some wedding pics!

Married Life Approaching

2008-06-29T11:45:00.003+01:00

A week today I'll be a very lucky married man.

So I don't think I'll have much time for doing some arty stuff while on my wedding day or honeymoon.

I have started a Digital piece which you can see here, still a lot to do on it, probably finish it after the festivities!!

Life 11/6/08

2008-06-11T18:06:00.003+01:00

Not really been doing much of late as this blog can account for; But have managed to be getting myself to a local life group.
Here are some Life drawing I have been doing over the past few weeks, differing media and sizes.
Hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed creating!!

Trying A Little Waterhouse

2008-03-14T15:41:00.001Z

I have been looking at the work of John William Waterhouse, most famous I suppose for his pre preraphaelite "Ophelia" painting.

Here I tried to get an essence of his work, did this with no real reference, so skin tone an lighting were imagined, maybe if I had a reference it might have taken less time to paint. This took about 8 hrs and it still isn't at a completed stage, but I learnt enough from it that I can put it to one side for a while.

Quick Figure Sketches

2008-03-11T20:49:00.001Z

Did some quick sketches of the moving figure. Just trying to capture the figure with quick gestural mark making. These took about 5-10mins.

2008-03-05T15:27:00.003Z

I've signed up for a Life class that begins next month. As well as the traditional media, I am hoping to take my laptop and wacom pen and tablet so I can do some digital drawing/painting.
So here is a figure study as a little practice session:

Digital Portrait painting Step by Step

2008-03-01T11:57:00.002Z

2008-02-29T03:18:00.002Z

Another tonal study, which I plan to push further and get a smoother more harmonized feel to it.
Again painted in Corel painter.

Tonal Study in Corel painter IX

2008-02-29T00:28:00.003Z

Still playing around with values and creating form with shape and form. Couldn't resist a few fluid lines to suggest the hair though.

Painter was great for getting the oil 'painterly' look after working with photoshop.

Website Done

2008-02-27T14:48:00.003Z

Finally changed my website into something that I like, it's a long process, redesigning and playing around with different features. But I think now I have it where i want it!!

Combining Styles

2008-02-27T10:18:00.002Z

I'm still trying to integrate my own linear and expressive way of working into the Maughan technique of blocking in and working tonally.
Here is the latest drawing, pastel pencil on acrylic primed watercolour paper.
I mixed a mid grey colour for the midtone and then started blocking in areas of shadow, then added highlights. The pencil was a little scratchy and didn't cover too well so I think a charcoal pencil or willow will work better next time, might even invest in some white soft pastels!!

Lifted

2008-02-23T16:38:00.016Z

My future wife (scary thought!! This means I'm growing up!! :D) and I went shopping for wedding rings today and went to a nearby town called Batley, where they have a large converted Mill, which has been made into fancy shops, and cafe/coffee houses.

There is also a "gallery", which I use in the loosest terms, as the majority of work was twee, Jack Vetriano copies and photoshop manipulations printed on "Limited Edition Giclee Prints".

Heart saddened at the thought that this was the state of "Art" in the UK today, I ascended an escalator to be greeted by a magnificent charcoal portrait that was about 3ft x 4ft, a really nice expressive piece of work. On the same floor in a tiny corner was some more exceptional pieces, mixed media, black and white and just as impressive, but on a smaller scale.

The works really gave my heart lift as this was the kind of work I am just drawn to. Sat there was the artist Norrie Harman, I asked him if he had a website and got chatting, he was really a nice guy, we swapped websites, and discussed art in general.

I'd like to post his website here in case you missed it on my links page, some really nice work, well worth visiting: norrieharman.com

You can see an example of his work above.

Mengin 'Sappho' Detail Study

2008-02-23T00:18:00.002Z

This is an A4 drawing of a detail from the painting 'Sappho' by Charles Mengin.
I recently visited the original in Manchester City Art Gallery and was quite surprised as it towered about 9ft tall.

2008-02-21T18:04:00.001Z

This is the finished study:

2008-02-21T17:29:00.002Z

Ok so here is the progress so far, I'm thinking this is about 1.5 - 2hrs into this, slowly and lightly building up the values!!

Study WIP using Maughan's Technique

2008-02-21T15:42:00.003Z

I'm doing a pencil study using Maughan's technique of defining shapes and using value to create form.

I've just started but thought I'd show the early stages. I am using a portrait drawing of mine as a kind of reference:

I'm also having to think about it a little differently to normal as I would normally be drawing this on a 'Half toned' piece of paper, and adding the highlighted areas right at the end with a white pastel pencil, with this being on white paper, I have to think about the highlighted areas as I go.

Here is the beginning stages of the drawing. Mechanical Pencil on A4 Sketch book:

A Long Night / Morning

2008-02-21T11:42:00.000Z

This is going to be my little blog area where I will be documenting my working process as well as just giving my thoughts and feelings about my day to day artistic pursuits. This first entry won't be very long as I have just spent 3-4 hours redesigning this site, in the brief hope of it looking more professional.

I have decided to limit the number of images and sections for easy navigation, (as I would post any image in here regardless of quality). Now I hope I have seperated the wheat from the chaff and the work on here will be at the higher end of my skill scale!!
I will also from time to time post Works In Progess here and also Step by Step Demos.
I hope you enjoy looking around the site and that you keep popping back to check out the new stuff!!

Still working on this website, decided to add a photography section, so have been resizing and uploading pics, but going to call it a night now. Still have to upload some Lanscape photos tomorrow, and try and get some drawing done.
I have recently bought "The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Head" by William Maughan, and I'm using it to teach me a new way of drawing and seeing, it's quite a challenge, learning to se shape rather than my usual line, but it's a great book and one well worth getting.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0823003590/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader

You can see a couple of the studies here in the portrait section:
Portraits

Still awake tinkering with the website, started playing with fonts in photoshop. As this is a free website, it is extremely limited to things like type fonts, and so I have typed the home page title and Bio in PScs2 and popped it in here as a picture, seems to work fine....Ok, definately time to shutdown, both myself and the PC!! Night.

Finally think I've finished the above posts were done last night, it is now 11:50am and I think I might be done......I have created this blogg as a seperate entity to my website on advice from fellow artists...thanks guys, you know who you are!!