Working away today on the Glasgow gymnast.

This is still the second oil layer that i'm on so it's a mix of 1 x thinner to 2 x fast drying medium. He's starting to get a bit more 'presentable'.

I think I told you I painted in the blue background to help 'tighten' him up from the original 'sketch'. Usually I like to put in a background pattern..but..I'm kinda liking just the plain blue at the moment.

I've still to do his chest and balancing arm in the second layer, but am still pleased with the progress so far - there's something I really like about the way his leg seems a little like a statue covered with lichen. Whether that remains will depend on my frame of mind by the end, especially after getting his hands into shape, which are always a challenge for me, and driving me to distraction as demonstrated below.

Yep, I know I looked fairly serene on the camera, off the camera, however...aaargh!

​The soundtrack in the video above is actually from a wee lecture video from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston site on youtube. Click here for their page. 

You should really give them a look - they're free, and such a fantastic resource. 

Hope you're having a creative day!

Speak soon, 

​Davy

I've been working on this image of  gymnast I saw in Glasgow a little while back. He was amazing the way that he could balance on one hand - the hours that must have went in to practise that move.

I've spent a few hours myself so far on the image - it's a tricky one as i'm trying to keep the proportions in good order. Finding myself in a bit of trouble with the torso and length of the arms i fell back on my trick of mapping the piece into thirds. This helped a bit, but my brain was still tricking my eyes into believing that the arm balanced on the  'prop' should be a lot thicker to cope with holding up the body.

It's only by the third pic that you can see i've thinned out the .arm, plus also adjusted it to be the correct angle.

I've had this piece upside down and on its side whilst painting it. I know it'll cause me  few more headaches before it's finished!

Hope you're having a creative time of it yourself!

Speak soon, 

​Davy

Toning up the Glasgow gymnast tonight.

Doing this layer in oils mixed with a wee bit of thinner.

I've told you before that i do like to paint with either the radio or documentaries playing in the background. By chance the video below picked up Francis Bacon speaking about painting from photographs. More about this technique in a later post, but for the moment i'm going to get back to building up my hunky gymnast!

Hope you're having a creative time of it.

Speak soon!

Davy

I've spent today copying my little sketch of the gymnast on to a toned canvas.

To help with proportion i divided the canvas up into thirds using some string. Fleshed out the canvas sketch a little and will go in and refine him a little more tomorrow.

Still at the underpainting stage where i'm using acrylic paint. Looking forward to blocking him in with oils though!

Have a creative day and speak soon!

Davy