Uh-oh! There's what looks like a scary visitor coming! Will he gobble us up or be nice and friendly?
I'll reveal all tomorra! If i'm not eaten by then. Speak soon! (hopefully) Davy. Happy St Andrew's Day, and look who's shown up - it's our mysterious visitor from yesterday - my ain wee Nessie!
Seems to be getting along ok with Wee Hamish and Hoots Toots Haggis! The line at the bottom is a nod to one of Robert Burns poems, which has significance to any Scots travellers out there, or anyone who's away from hame! My Heart's In The Highlands Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North, The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth; Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love. My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer; Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe, My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go. Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow, Farewell to the straths and green vallies below Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods, Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods. My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer; Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe, My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go. Robert Burns, 1789 The poem reminds me of when I was a wee boy at my granny's farm. Running through the bracken on the hillsides, scaring each other on the swing bridge, and falling into 'whin' bushes disturbing the poor rabbits that were hiding under them. As I always say, what a glorious wee country we live in! Hope yer having a creative day! Speak soon, Davy Wow, time has flown so fast since my last posting. I've been here there and everywhere and up to my ears in paint and canvases, graphics tablets and pens! This week i've decided to catch up with a design i drew months ago, but just couldn't seem to get my head round finishing it. I'll explain more tomorrow - but in the meantime here's a wee sneak preview! Hope you're having a creative day and i'll see you tomorra!
Davy 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 Art is all about connecting with people. I know as artists we sometimes play up to our lonesome in the garret type of reputation, but it's great to connect with other creative buddies. I'll usually spend one or two days a week over at my friend Tom's studio. You can see below the droll vibe that happens there. Always a good disco beat and he always feeds me well...sometimes too well as my wee belly can attest to! Hope you're having a creative time and dancing to your own wee disco beat.
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 I was saying yesterday that the idea for my next painting was based on a sketch i did last year. This is it below. I've toned my canvas and marked it out with a rule of thirds grid, and tomorrow i'll sketch him on it with acrylic paint to see how he looks. Will pop up a pic of the results.
Speak soon! Davy Today's lil doodle courtesy of a couple of brushes from the pixelmator app. Have a creative day!
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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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