It's been a busy few days. Along with personal projects and a new commission, i'm editing together a promo for my painting 'Innocence And Experience'. These handsome guys are now for sale at Saatchiart.com online as a limited edition and also as the original painting itself. I have a strange feeling at the prospect letting these guys go. You see, spending so much time with them has been a real pleasure. From the first concept which was basically just a line sketch on paper, to refining them with each layer of paint, honing them to be the people in my mind, and trying not to make them look too 'polished' - the concept that these figures are almost dreamlike...almost sculpted from stone, but never quite 'finished, trapped between fantasy and reality. The blood sweat and tears that went into producing this artwork, however, I feel has been time well spent, and i'm glad you've all been following along the journey with me.
Yup, i'll be sad to see them go, but to be honest if they stay much longer i'm going to have to start charging them rent! Here's the link for the limited edition. I'm only releasing a 100 of them worldwide, so if you've been following along with their story and they tickle your fancy then treat yourself. https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Printmaking-Innocence-And-Experience-Giclee-print-Limited-Edition-4-of-100/654306/3614188/view And here's the original painting. https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Innocence-And-Experience/654306/3616884/view Have a look and a read of their story. Hope you're having a creative day too! Speak soon! Davy What about this one? Better? Darker? More contrast? I was standing with a few 'proof' prints of my 'Innocence and Experience' painting, and asking my poor flatmate his opinion. "They all kinda look the same" he says. And to be honest that was pretty much it. I had spent yesterday printing out variations of the piece. Fine tuning a wee bit of brightness and contrast here, a wee bit of cyan, magenta, and yellow there. Looking over them with a magnifying glass...standing them on top of the actual painting itself...parading from room to room to where I might get the best light to see them with. In the end my eyes were going doolally. I decided to give them a rest overnight. And yup, on closer inspection, today's keyword will be 'subtlety'. What I had thought yesterday were marked differences in colour, contrast and brightness, were, on today's viewing, actually very slight variations. "No one would be able to tell the difference" he says. "I would though. There's no way i'm sending out anything that I wouldn't be happy with" I said. And trust me, reader, these are the kind of things that keep artists awake at night. The brightness, the contrast, the colour...how much border to leave for matting, to what looks good in a frame...to the weight of the paper and it's texture - and yup - I went through 17 different types to get the one that i'm happy with for my artwork. It had to have the right white point, and thickness and feel in my hands. It's worth it though. If you end up buying one of these limited edition prints then you'll know that the whole process from start to finish has been done by me. From painting, through to photographing the artwork, to colour proofing and printing. You'll also know that i've been a bit obsessive about it and that if i'm not happy with it then it doesn't even get sent out the door! And after all that 'alchemy' the final print is below. I'll pop up links to where you can buy these handsome chaps asap.
Hope you're having a creative day! Davy Had a wee arty flying visit to Glasgow this afternoon. First stop to hang the Duke of Wellington Equestrian Painting as part of the 'My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys!' exhibition. He seems to be getting on well with his new 'stablemates'! He's part of a pop up site-specific exhibition through the Virginia Gallery taking place at Luke and Jack's bespoke boutique at 45 Virginia Street, Merchant City, Glasgow. The exhibition lasts until the end of March so pop in and have a wee Gander. Feel free to take the horse in a wee carrot too! Second stop was to Trongate 103 to the Project Ability gallery which has an exhibition all about cats. So many different styles - and so much fluffy cuteness, then down through the Glasgow Print Studio (Ink) gallery to Street Level Photoworks, where they are having an exhibition on 'Rock Against Racism', again well worth checking out!
Third stop was to the art shop to buy a couple of new large brushes. I have this big 36" x 28" canvas to work on, so big brushes is the order of the day! Will keep you up to date with the progress of the new painting...when i've settled on which subject i'm going to tackle - i have a few in mind! Fourth and final stop was to Cafe Wander at 110 West Gorge Street, Glasgow, where some of my illustration work is hanging. It's a fantastic place - not only great food, but lots of art on the walls too. Whilst I was in Cafe Wander there was another artist (Jeff) delivering a couple of new pieces - and they are fantastic! David Bowie and Elvis but with a really fresh take! Well worth making the trip in for. Well, i'm off to put my feet up now. Speak soon, Davy It's been a day of proofing and printing here. I'm preparing a limited edition Giclee print run of the Duke Of Wellington painting. It's an interesting process - time-consuming, but the geeky perfectionist in me is enjoying it. It involves fine tuning the image to ensure it's as close to my original painting as possible and then choosing which paper type to print on - and wow there are a lot of paper types out there to choose from! Some of the papers have a fab texture to them too. He's really feeling good to the touch!
I'll pop up more details when the Duke is ready to ride on out! Hope you're having a creative day. Speak soon, Davy Done and dusted...and the 'fear of finishing'.Well, he's done...my auld pal the Duke of Wellington. Phew!
I actually daubed the final brushstroke last Sunday, but had to let the paint dry so that i could perform the 'oiling out' process on Thursday. It basically means rubbing in some painting medium to bring out and saturate any oil paint colours that may have 'sunk' a little, looking a little 'matte' compared to other parts which were 'glossy' - now he looks more 'unified'. But, at last..he's actually done. I have to admit though, he took a little longer to complete, through an irrational 'fear of finishing'. It's something that I have to occasionally battle through to finish a piece, and I think quite a few artists get it. I'll try and explain it a little. When you're in the act of creating something, you enjoy the process so much that you don't want it to end. Mix in some self doubt that maybe a brush stroke would have looked better being 2 millimetres longer, or shorter, or lighter, or darker, and you begin to focus on that one little brushstroke rather than the whole piece. Oh no, the whole painting is off..maybe people won't like it because of those 2 millimetres, or colour...oh hell...i should throw it out the window! Then the subconscious kicks in and you find that you just can't add any more to the piece - not one wee brush stroke. You sit down for a full day of painting and end up just staring at the canvas for hours. That's when you know you're finished. But then what? It's done, finito, like when a singer comes off the stage and goes back to the empty hotel room...the sense of deflation. The 'slump'. What should be a success has now become the 'what now?' Obviously there's ways of coping with this, and recognising that it can happen is one of them. Understanding that it's just a process that we go through. Starting work on a new piece and giving the newly finished one a couple of days to 'rest' before looking at it with fresh eyes. Thankfully the 'slump' is now gone and i'm working on another couple of pieces, so i'll be back to blogging more frequently. You know it gets bad when a friend messages you to ask what's happening with your painting as he hasn't seen you posting on facebook etc. Ah, the life of a tortured artist! To end this post I was going to write a quote, but while googling for one, I came across a blogpost over at cheapjoe's which also has a take on 'the slump', there are quotes aplenty there. Check them out here. Hope you're having a creative day! Speak soon Davy I'm at the stage now with The auld Duke that it's time to strengthen the lights and shadows to really make him 'pop' off the canvas. My plan is to give myself the weekend to achieve this...but me and the timey-wimey stuff, we're hardly bosom companions. Hope yer having a creative day!
Speak soon. Davy Painting Pillars With The Duke Of Wellington!Instead of my usual fascinating facts' background on the Duke Of Wellington, I thought i'd best spend the day finally painting in some more of his physical background!
Today's been spent working on his pillar. I'll need to remember to tell you my story of the time I tried to bluff an answer about pillars in an art history exam at university - i'm still cringing about it to this day! Tomorrow i'll add in the rest of his surroundings, though i'm still swaying at how defined to make them - the idea is to make you aware of them but the Duke of course has to remain the main focus. I'll be glad when they are done though as it will give my eyes a better chance to see how dark to make my final darks and how light to make my final white's. Thanks for having the patience to follow the Duke's progress so far. Three weeks ago I told a friend that i only had seven painting days left in him. Lesson learned - there's just been so much more detail to add than I originally thought - I really think I could draw him from scratch without looking at any reference photos now! As soon as he is done though, i'll be adding him to my pop-up exhibition 'My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys' based in association with the Virginia Galleries at Luke and Jack's (details here). Hope yer having a creative day! Speak soon. Davy A wee bit of info on how the Duke Of Wellington got his traffic cone hat! Hope yer having a creative day!
Speak soon! Davy 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 |
Whit's he up tae noo?The blog posts of David Brodie, a Scottish artist based near Glasgow. Archives
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