Hello ..again

It has been a long long time since I posted it here. Too long! I'd moved to pastels some time ago and loved them as a rapid medium, you sketch and paint at the same time but... I could never get the detail I wanted and I always seemed to struggle trying to finish them, and instead I would ruin them with overworking. So my pastels where put aside for a while. Recently I have been inspired to return to the 2 minute torso idea, ok this is more of a gesture sketch (taking a fair bit longer than 2 minutes) and figured if I started smaller and didin't get fixated with the gradient of skin tone and detail, and more importantly stopped before it was to late I might have a chance of doing better and I must admit I am charmed by my fist attempt at a 10 minute toso pose and a shy first time model.

The impressionist knew that shadow colour was all important and how we interpret skin tone has as much to do with the colours in the shadows as it does to the very brightest colours in the areas of highlights  Blue, mauve and purple under a light pink or ochre may not be for everyone but the cool shadows then doesn't distract from the warm highlights.

Returning to the torso

I must admit updating this blog has been a low priority, and unfortunately my painting and sketching time has also suffered. So i'm starting back slowly. This "half torso" took me considerable longer than 2 minutes But I had fun.

experiments in skin tone

It would appear every artist has their own recipe, often kept very secret, to getting decent skin tone. I have previously blundered along doing everything in "full colour", sometimes a little luridly so. Lately I'm becoming taken with the idea of many washes in similar if not the same colour/tone. I feel it brings a luminosity to any watercolour. The great master of the many washes was John Sell Cotman and the more I read about his work the more I love the technique. Recently I bought some of Windsor and Newton's Cotman Range, they may only be "student" quality to some but they do definitely have beautiful coverage in washes, and particularly the yellow ochre, which I think bring a delicious goldenness to skin tones and at the same time doesn't muddy the other colours (which I have found previously in more expensive paints) Anyway I've been experimenting and I think I have come across a set of four colours that really do give great skin tones. I trust John Sell is not turning in his grave. Another watercolourist I really admire is Norman Lindsay, but no one yet has come out with a range of his colours, that I'm aware of.

Long time no post

I must apologize, it has been so long since I posted here I had forgotten how to do it. Maybe it was made harder by changes in google+. No worry. Its time to get inspired by the torso again and do some serious art. Here I have a wonderful model and I have been experimenting with more and "thinner" washes.In this case i got the paper so wet it crinkled badly as it dried, maybe 130gsm next time. All the same I like the delicacy of tone that comes with more than one wash is the same basic colour.

Not a 2 minute torso by any means, but one I am proud of. all the same

Two Minutes, plus a few

I've started back seriously sketching again (best therapy there is for a broken body & soul) but alas the flow is taking a while to arrive. My attempts at 2 minute torso are taking more like 20, and I am muddying the colours, BUT it is ART. I love doing ART. Long Live ART.

Picking up the pieces

Man is it complex finding out which of my social identities have been hacked/compromised. I know who I am but a lot of the NET seems to believe otherwise, sometimes its a password that has to be changed, sometimes its a lot of weird junk mail, but the sinking feeling is that you will never know who has parts of your identify wrapped around their bad behavior. Rather than give in the the childishness I'd rather press on, just being me and making it hard for those who pretend to me me and/or steel my art works. So some of you may find some of my social networks are closed and some of my artwork is removed from the web, sorry but I'm withdrawing from risky places. Those that have stolen stuff beware of tineye, I will find you, and expect your ISP to get a stern take down or DMCA notice. I know that just encourages hiding elsewhere but I am patient and so pissed off now, you can be certain I will hunt you down again and again.

“You see, cuckoos are parasites. They lay their eggs in other birds' nests. When the egg hatches, the baby cuckoo pushes the other baby birds out of the nest. The poor parent birds work themselves to death trying to find enough food to feed the enormous cuckoo child who has murdered their babies and taken their places."

"Enormous?" said Jace. "Did you just call me fat?"
"It was an analogy."
"I am not fat.” ... ... Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes

Having got that little spray off my chest. Finding your feet again on the social web is a little like finding a lost wallet. What adventure did it have while out of your safe keeping.