Taking The Reins!!I was recording that wee voiceover and the word for reins went completely out my head..."bridle straps" I called them...doh! Ah well, I never promised to know much about horses. I did, however, have to jump off one years ago when I was 12, and out pony-trekking. My big horse, a huge black beast so he was, called 'Atlas', started fighting with another one. Well he bolted off into the woods and me, like a character straight out of Thelwell's cartoons was hinging on to the reins - I ended up having to jump off like Indiana Jones as I was feart of where we were heading. Can't believe I got back on him (with a lot of encouragement from the guide), to finish off the trek. Here's today's wee video of the progress of the painting, with a 'fascinating fact' to follow. Today's wee fascinating fact is that the monument is listed in the 2011 Lonely Planet guide as one of its "top 10 most bizarre monuments on Earth!"
Hope yer having a creative day! Speak soon, Davy Well, it seems like i've been working on the poor auld Duke here for ages! At last, I seem to be on the home straight but I thought instead of keeping posting pics i'll just film a wee piece to camera with some history for ye. Spoiler alert - I didn't know he was Irish until today! I always thought he was English. Ach well, every day's a school day! Hope you enjoyed yer wee bit of history!
Have a creative day and speak soon. Davy If you remember the wee ginger monkey from the blog post "Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Monkey" where he photobombed my pics for my pop up exhibition at Cafe Wander, then you'll remember how the wee imp likes to sneak into my studio and have a crack at painting. He's a right wee Monkeylangelo Bananarotti!
Still, he looks like he was enjoying himself! Hope yer having a creative day. Speak soon, Davy Today was one of those days that I was struck with 'canvas fear', or 'paintbrush paralysis'! If you've ever put brush to canvas you'll know exactly what I mean, especially if working in layers. The fear that whatever you do now will spoil what's gone before and that there will be no way back. I just stood there gawping at the piece this morning. My paints were all made up, brushes all clean, medium all mixed, but I just couldn't get started. I did that thing where you start bargaining with yourself...i'll just make a cup of tea first, then, ok i'll just put on a washing first, then ok, i'll take out the recycling. I'm used to canvas fear when i have a pristine new white canvas out the wrapper. My coping mechanism with that barrier is to put a toned raw or burnt umber and white mix colour over it. Psychologically for me it's an easy way of starting and also helps judge tonal values when i come to painting the actual figure or scene. After an hour, having done all my chores, and almost heading out to ask if anyone else needed any chores done, and having made a second cup of tea, I picked up a size 6 filbert and added some tone to the left hand guy in the pic below's cheek. Barrier broken...even if it was the wrong value tone and took me another while of chasing oil around his face to try and correct it. I'll have a look at him tomorrow with fresh eyes and see where to chase the oil paint.
Hope you're having a creative day! Speak soon Davy Added a splash more colour to the background of "Innocence And Experience" from the 'Wallflowers" series of oil paintings I'm working on. I enjoyed painting the fancy pink flowers, and they matched the look I was going for - old wallpaper styling of the 50s/60s. However, moving on to the various green leaves on the vines I just couldn't settle on the right shades at first, as each particular type needs to have it's own little palette. When it came to the leaves in the middle of the two guys, the ones that are wrapping around the flower head, I thought, why not embolden them with some lines. They look a little blurry at moment, but i'm thinking of them a couple of layers from now, with added detail, and hopefuly they'll look pretty sweet. Hope you're having a creative day!
Speak soon, Davy For the last couple of days i've been painting leaves and flowers for the background of an oil painting i'm working on. It's been detailed work, and therefore these wee finicky brushes...like painting with an eyelash. But, it got the job done so all well and good. I'll be doing much the same on another oil painting tomorrow, so I wanted a little change of pace...a wee palette cleanser, and the choice was to work with charcoal. Now, the last time I used charcoal was about twenty years ago at an art class in the evening and apart from getting my good white jeans 'maukit' I quite enjoyed the process, and I always meant to invest in some charcoal for myself. Time passes though and my interests lay elsewhere in other media, but a couple of weeks ago I bought a wee charcoal set. I opened up my A3 Pad and started drawing... aaargh.... I had forgotten how to use charcoal...well, ok, it was making marks on the page...but not the marks I wanted to make. My wee dreams of classical sculpted statue drawings etc were blowing away in the charcoal dust. I decided to watch a couple of videos on youtube to see how to use it again. Trust me - if you want to know anything - go to youtube! I tried again to make some marks on the page (1)...still very ropey. Okay i'll try another sheet of paper (2)...maybe if i scribbled all over it in charcoal then i could add chalk to it, or rub out bits - it ended up looking like, at best a poor man's Rothko, at worst, a black cat sitting in a coal bunker, at midnight during a 'power cut'! The next sheet of paper (3), well i drew a circle to try and shade it into a little ball...yup, i had gone from dreams of classical sculpture, to round little balls within three sheets! I added legs and a bum beside it...which looked like a melted action man doll...a big pec beside that, and i started working out what i was supposed to be doing...until i tried rubbing out...and it went wonky! Righto - there's a barrier I needed to fight through. I was all for giving up, but the obstinate side of myself just wanted to keep trying. I WANT MY CLASSICAL STATUES!!! It was then I thought of the renaissance and all the 'schools' and workshops that the great artists attended. What they had to do in the beginning was to draw from sculptures, to copy works painted by their 'Masters'. So, I thought, If I want a nice big torso then have a look at some of Tom Of Finland's work. Two minutes later I had chosen an image and started drawing. I'm glad I did, as i'm now getting used to using the materials again. The charcoal and the chalk - how hard to use them, how light to blend etc. I'm not going to finish this piece as it's just a copy of someone else's work, but i've done enough of it that it's given me confidence to go on and do a few of my own. Here's the evolution of my 'trial and efforts' today - So, today's lesson is to just keep going and try to break through any barriers! Give yourself the freedom to experiment, and not to judge your first efforts too harshly!
Hope yer having a creative day. Speak soon! Davy The poor old Duke - I hadn't tickled him with a brush since October. The Christmas season came upon us, and i was busy adding new designs to my online shops. I was also lucky enough to receive a kind offer to display some of my illustration work on Cafe Wanders gallery walls, so it was fun to curate that collection. Some pieces have gone to England, France and even as far as Paisley! I've added more to the wall, in case you want to treat yourself to a wee 'heilan coo' etc I've also been busy with the other figurative paintings of "Innocence and Experience", and , "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys", from the "Wallflowers" series, but today was the Duke's turn. Subconsciously I think i've been avoiding him as I'd started off both the face of the horse and the Duke's, along with his little traffic cone hat, using wee finicky brushes. It was a thought to try and work on his jacket etc with those same wee brushes - it would take forever and a day. I just stood staring at him, sitting there, jauntily astride his big beast, when i grabbed the biggest brush I had (Da Vinci size 10), plopped it in some medium, then a big dod o' paint, and just attacked the horses neck. Again and again pffft, plop, swishhh, and before I knew it I had laid down some tonal values. These will serve as a guide for the next layer up when i work on the details. I'll leave hm to dry for a few days and come back to him with fresh eyes.
Hope yer having a creative day. Speak soon! Davy Firstly, Happy New Year! I hope 2017 brings you everything you wish for! Me, well, i'm looking to devote even more time to painting - perhaps even revisit some of the half finished canvases I have tucked away, guiltily hiding in the corner! Today though, i've been working on "Wallflowers". It's a nice size of piece measuring 32 inches by 20 inches, and i'm enjoying working to that size. I've been concentrating on the fella on the right's back, building up the muscle form. Looking forward to the next layer where i'll work in more detail on it. The next stage with this piece will be adding finer detail to the plants and insects, birds in the background. It's actually based on the old wallpaper designs of yesteryear, hence the name of the "Wallflowers" series name of which this piece "Innocence and Experience" is a member. Hope you're having a fantastically creative day too.
Speak soon! Davy |
Whit's he up tae noo?The blog posts of David Brodie, a Scottish artist based near Glasgow. Archives
October 2018
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