I roped my friend Tom in to help with filming the other day...and michty me it was freezing. Here's a couple of pics from the upcoming promo to advertise one of my paintings. They say the camera adds so many pounds..but I think it's more the Christmas food that was making me look as round as a barrel.
I'll be editing the footage this week, so stay tuned as to where you can buy the limited edition of the Duke Of Wellington painting. 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 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 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 |
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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