missy malone

Hi all. This is a drawing I am using as my guinnie pig for some illustration tests. It is of Missy Malone. The photoref is by Miss Rain Photography. I have been making a set of ilos using this and the vendetta linework as tests for a new body of work. Been having great fun playing. Will post more soon!

closeup

Twins

This is a digital illo that started off as a lunchtime speedpaint. I have been doing a few pieces playing with a more illustrative aesthetic. Silly subject as the speedpaints often are but I really enjoyed how this one developed. I used ref from Mr Janum stock over on deviantart for the girls (amazing body of ace stock ref photos).

Bits and bobs

Hi everyone. Bit of a mixed bag this time. There are a couple of drawings that are part of some illustrative stuff I am doing. They are of Vendetta Vain from the last Dr Sketchy Nottingham.

We also have a 2 and a bit hour painting from life done at the Malt Cross Life drawing group and a 15 minute drawing in compressed charcoal from the week before. I recently bought a book of Sargent charcoal drawings and am going to do studies of them. Here is my first. I nearly gave up but was glad I persevered. I struggled with the tooth of the charcoal paper: getting back to the white of the paper was hard. I imagine I just need to practice... tips from any experienced charcoal-ers are welcomed!

En Plein Air

I have managed to squeeze in 3 seperate en Plein Air painting days into my easter break. I think its the most fun that I have had paintings so far and will be doing it as much as I can in the future. All of the following paintings are 30cm wide and were done on my little pochade box setup.

The first trip was to Bluebell forest near my parents farm house. It was an interesting day: my debut at doing plein air work in public. It was much less of an ordeal than I had suposed it would be though. People were kind and despite it being very busy i was not interuppted all that much. About 2 hours each on these 2.


My next trip I was accompanied by the excellent Mr Sean Donaldson a fellow concept artist from my team at work. We journied over to Dimmingsdale near Alton (of Alton Towers fame). Dimmingsdale is a mind blowing location and I think we will be revisiting it again and again. We were spoilt for choice but settled down for the afternoon in front of the famous chained oak. It is in a bad way but was a very exciting subject to paint. Sorry for the glare on this photo! I think this is about 5 hours worth of pretty intense painting.

My final trip we got together a little group. Neil F Roberts, Aidan Wilson and Jon Cave (excllent fellow who runs a life drawing group at the Malt Cross on wed evenings in Nottingham) all met in a car park off of the A52 (sinister I know) and then went location hunting in the vicinity of Belvoir. It was an ace day.
Neil got me to take some wip shots of my first piece (i also included a photo of what I was painting):

We then went to a lovely country pub, had a pint of ale and then set off to find location 2, based on the barmaids recommendation! We got a cracking view of Belvoir castle from a nearbye village. Ace! Here is my last one on the easle.

Present

Hi all.

I painted this last week for my finest of friends Hannah, for her birthday. She is a truly splendid individual and it was great to make her a gift that she really seemed to like.

The painting is of her son Ted on the beach in Barcelona with his lovely auntie Heidi.

This one is on linen canvas and took around 10 hours. I have also included a wider shot so you can get some idea of context. My paintings never look so good on the blog as they do in the flesh and a friend suggested I take photos that show something of the surroundings in them.

Dr Sketchy April 11

Dr Sketchy Nottingham was particuarly ace today. Fun fun! These are all very quick... a whopping 15 mins on this one: 10 mins:

5 mins:

15 mins.

Cheers !

Studies and practice!

Hey everyone.

I am going back to the fundamentals for a while. I recently spent a morning at the studio of the wonderfully generous painter Marcus Hodge. You can see his work here: MARCUS HODGE

He was educated in Spain and is a tremendous direct painter. I cannot thank him enough for the time and expertise he gave me. He reviewed a selection of my recent paintings and then set me one hour to do a Sorolla self portrait study. The main aim of this was so he could see how I currently approach a piece. He then reviewed my terrible attempt and then proceeded to demo on the same canvas how he would have approached it. It was incredibly enlightening and has given me a great deal to consider in my work.

After that last studio painting taking so much time I was ready to get back to doing some studies and Marcus provided me with a few pointers as to what might benefit me the most. First up are a few master studies. I have limited myself to one and a half hours per painting on these. They have been great fun to do. Master studies are one of those things that I did digitally but really had glossed over. It is so interesting to paint from something where someone else has already solved all of the difficult decisions for you!

These are all oil on canvas board 40x34cm (I Think!) First 2 are Velasquez and the 3rd is a Sargent.

These next couple are from the portrait group as normal. They were done before I met up with Marcus. They are both done using the Zorn limited palette (well an equivilent one: titanium white, yellow ochre, cad red and lamp black). I still can't get these done in the hour and a bit painting time but I try!

I painted this next one in the garden on saturday. An hour and a half. It is my father in law Phil. He is an excellent chap and kindly sat for me. I wanted to take it further but got bored bless him!
This last one was pretty much a disaster but since this is more of a journal than a portfolio I will share it here. About 5 hours Plein Air in my front garden. The subject matter was tough and my greens are just foul! The first of many to come, onwards and upwards eh? haha!

I don't know if anyone actually reads my blog but if you are interested in representational painting then I would heartily recommend these 3 books as being incredible useful:

Richard Schmid: Alla Prima
Harold Speed: Practice and Science of Drawing
Harold SPeed: Paining techniques and materials.