Preoccupations (Drawing)

[IMAGE] A6 double page ink and watercolour

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Absent Mind 27 Sep 2007 (Drawing)

[IMAGE] A6 ink

Hate, Love, Ill, Work (Drawing)

[IMAGE] A6 ink and watercolour

A Good Workman (Drawing)

[IMAGE] A6 ink

Noodlers Bulletproof black ink with Cross ATX.  Could this be the beginning of something beautiful?  We’ll see.

By the way - there’s no wisdom in that drawing.  Just over celebration of a new pen after a grumpy disagreement with other pens.

Powerstation - Work In Progress (Painting)

Just lately I haven’t been able to get the image of the powerstation in the next town out of my mind.  I mean that in a good way - it fascinates me. It’s not your traditional landscape filled with beauty - but there’s something about Powerstation Approach that I love.

So I revisited photographs from earlier in the year and decided to try another painting.

I don’t usually go public before a painting is done - just in case it goes horribly wrong.  But my sketches for planning have gone ok today and I’m excited about having a new project after a long dry spell … so I can’t wait to share!

It’s a challenge - to try and show you the viewer the beauty I see when I drive past these cooling towers.  We’ll see if it works

I started with my source photo, did some digital adjustments to get to grips with the colours and light/shade (I’m still learning and exagerating these in Photoshop really helps me).

I tinkered with the street lights.  The one nearest the camera really messes with the composition.  I tried moving it further away in Photoshop but it still overpowered the cooling towers and unbalanced it.  So I took them out … and it works ok for me.

I did a couple of loose sketches (look at those wonky boxes!).

Later I did another sketch - getting to know it better and finding my style/interpretation of how I see it.

I was worried about the colour of the cooling towers.  In my first sketch with colour wash earlier on it just wasn’t working.  I tried to remedy the colours and ended with a bit of a muddy mess.  I don’t want that to happen on the final piece so thought I had better do some planning and experimenting!

The first colour study works really well.  Looking carefully at the source photo and being faithful to the colours in reality worked out!

But the chimney on the far right didn’t seem quite right.  Something is wrong.  Loking at the source again I saw I had overlooked the shadows of the steam from the neighbouring cooling tower.  So I showed that in my second study.  I don’t know if it’s the way I hatched the shadows, or something more fundamental - but it’s still not quite right.  I may have to tinker some more before I start on canvas board for real.

Oh.  Also … to get a feel for the shapes and lines I did a quick digital trace of the source photo.  It turned out pretty well.  So much so that it rattled me for a moment and I wondered if I should carry on with trying to do an acrylic glazed painting.  But the glazing is a much more subtle technique so the finished piece should be quite different in feel to this.

I’m looking forward to finding out!

So there we go.  Not bad after two months of struggling.

A Bad Workman (Drawing)

A Bad Workman Always Blames His Tools

Grrr.  This expression is all about pens to me.  I can remember my teachers critical know it all face when I was trying to explain that good handwriting and good pens go hand in hand (although not that eloquently).  Pen failure means failure to present well on the page.  Just because a bad workman always blames his tools doesn’t mean blaming one’s tools is a sign of being a bad workman.

Some tools are better for a job than others.  While Michaelangelo might have been able to work wonders with a biro I’m sure a modern day fountain pen would have given him chills - to see the way the ink flows effortlessly and every mark is the way you intend.

As it turned out this drawing didn’t really illustrate my point.  Because all 3 pens sort of did ok.  Although the PITT failed on ease of use with a light wrist, the Lamy failed on any marks other than a straight line following the nib and the Parker - well, it’s just not cut out for my kind of drawing - it’s all heavy with the ink with no tolerance for light gestures.

I can learn to adapt to any.  But I’d rather the tool worked with me than against.  For now.

Shortlisted Photo for Schmap Online Guide

This is rather interesting.  One of my photographs (hosted on Flickr) has been shortlisted to feature in an online guide to Plymouth.  The Schmap Plymouth Guide will be published in October and it’s free to readers.  There’s no fee but I will get a credit and a link back to my Flickr photo.  Hmmm. 

Well I’ve said yes to the submission and they’ll let me know if I am to be published.

It’s not my favourite photo ever - having been snapped in a split second pause whilst being wheeled around Saltram’s gardens by Paul.  And I would have taken more effort with the composition but was limited views from footpaths due to my wheels that day.  But hey!  It’s not bad and it’s great to be included.  Plus Saltram gardens were really lovely with a fairly wheelchair accessible route around them and it’s good to be associated with something decent.

I did start taking photographs for an online guide who paid for submissions before I got ill.  Pity Schmap don’t bung you a fiver or something considering you agree to give them licence to use it for as long as they want however they want, as long as they credit you.

Will let you know if I get published

Ideas in the Dark (Doodle)

[IMAGE] A7 -ish

Scrawled in the dark when I should have been sleeping after listing 4 or 5 inspirations of arty things to do.  Here’s hoping I can now execute them.   But they came after realising I was putting pressure on myself - so I’m not to do that today now I have ideas!

Absent Mind (Drawing)

[IMAGE] A6 ink

The Squashing of Humanity (Absent Mind)

[IMAGE] A6 ink

This is one of my meditation type drawings.  When I move the pen on the paper (often quite deliberately and conciously) whilst thinking over a certain subject.  So the drawing isn’t necessarily a refelction of that subject - but as I made every line thinking about it, figuring it out - it seems so to me.

Another Lamy effort.  I will get this nib to like me and bend it’s flow to my will.  That or it will guide my drawing in another direction.