Monday, August 30, 2004

some navel gazing...

i have just been reviewing this blog....

  • firstly notice there are no ads any more... did you mind them?
  • second the format is looking a little tired to me... should I look for a better layout template?
  • third are the pictures in an cceptable size/format..? ... i hope you realise you can click on most images and get a larger version.
  • finally is there too much text?... i've become a little too expressive... and maybe that's wasting band width...

    I've also just been offered 4 gmail account recomendations, so if you want one let me know.

the series continues

more works from last thursday... these are from a series of the reclining connie ...& ones I'm quiet proud of..

whilw i've already vented my frustration at Yahoo.. it must be said that it is pretty amazing to be able to sketch someone, modelling on the other side of the world...

the sketch below was my main watercolour and was based on raw umber... it produces nice deep shadows & the colours soon got away from me.... but I love the rich glow... i think gaugain might have approved of this one... I think the pose has made a wonderfull composition

connie in darker/richer colours (pencil over watercolour) Posted by Hello

.... a lighter touch

connie is a lighter watercolour wash on wash Posted by Hello


this watercolour was orginally in the discard pile but I like the light on her tummy and boobs, so I carefullly washed in a little more pure colour (the yellow and pinks) and drew in a limited bit of detail using coloured pencil... (mainly the hair & face) although the composition isn't the best, i like the freshness of this one... & I hope norman lindsay might as well

comments & emailing

this is just a reminder to get commenting... well if you have a
favourite sketch... lotta is way out ahead... but they is still a couple of days to go...

there are no prizes, no special awards... just the fun of being selected... for the sketch with the most comments..

I've also activated the email to others setting (a new feature of blogger)... click on the little envelope icon and your can email the link to that blog entry to a friend... let me know if you like the feature... or NOT! (and I'll take it off)
dream's red bra (watercolour) Posted by Hello

These sketches of dream are also from last thursday

dream in pencil Posted by Hello


last thursday was a bit of a sketching marathon... & i'm still updating some of the sketches from then... if you don't recognise dream ... it may be because I haven't captured the smile (well that was bear's comment)

Saturday, August 28, 2004

remote (ie not on-line) & enjoying real life...

Friday was a busy day... the main task being to get two large water tanks up a sand dune... i had disquieting premonitions of old blokes chase the rolling over-sized barrels down the hill.. stella artois style... like the ad in the snow where an antique citroen saves the day, but not itself.. well the worries were unfounded but it was a decent
amount of hard work all the same.

Today I pub day here in victoria.. not sure what that means but some pubs are
giving free beer with lunch... and why not we also get a holdiay for a horse race...a large pepper steak and a free beer were much appreciated... I got 13 in the quiz

(reminds himself to update this message with links, this entry has
been emailed in, a blogger feature I really like, well done googletwo points... for gmail and blogger.. yahoo you are still yet to score

well I've had to take away half a point from google becaus of all the funny caharcters like this --> …) instead of this -->... when I email in my blogs

The good the bad & the ugly

thursday afternoon & evening were good... plenty of sketching... including a couple of special sittings, mainly outside the big bellied ladies chat room... I'm keen to experiment with my techniques... what i am trying to do now, is to use a couple of conventional shaded pencil sketches to establish form and shape.. this seems to help me find expression and personality onto this i usually like to finish with a few heavy darks to suggest a bit of details... like mouth, eyes and shadow in the hair... at this point the sketches neatly sort themselves into two distinct groups... simple & delicate successes or heavy & dull disasters... i never scan the disasters.. so girls not panic

the next and more spiritual step has become... getting out the water colours and mixing a very dilute neutral wash... i have favorite sable hair brush... it seems to know what i want to do... i like to use the first wash to halo around those areas that will become highlights... this first wash soaks into the paper quickly... so i have to look hard & let the shadows take on there own form... then a less dilute wash to add a bit more depth... every time I do this i'm never sure what will happen... this is the life and depth time for my watercolour... bad washes go straight into the bin... the good ones are given time to semi-dry... the dark washes can progressively have more colour... but i like to take time now... doing more looking than painting.. silly typographically challenged chatting seems to help keep my focus... at the moment, the final step is to use coloured pencils to add pure colour to bring out a few key details... the pure colour over a neutral wash is pretty magical... its the reason I can stop before I overwork the details to death, a majour problem in my earlier work... so that was the good

raw umber and ultramarine blue in watercolour washes 


the bad was of course yahoo... i've decided there are no excuses for its badness... I think yahoo is going downhill... fast... It is frustrating the hell out of me and a lot of those I sketch... so what to do about it? I don't know..!! but I'm open for suggestions... maybe google should taken them over...

the ugly... well that was me... my friends were horrified at my sketching all afternoon... dressed in my chinos and red jumper.. apparently I'm a fashion liability... so I've been forced to buy some new shirts and jeans... and run a number one clipper over my beard. so girls another reason not to panic.

Friday, August 27, 2004

the first in a series

I had organized to sketch connie today a few days ago... and was looking forward to it... but in the eman time I'd made the mistake of upgrading to Yahoo messanger version 6... I'll refrain for further comment now... to avoid the lible suit... but its totally buggared`up my attempts to sketch on my web cam... so frustrating!!

connie looking happy at the start (pencil) Posted by Hello


I like to start with a graphite pencil sketch... notice there are only hazy lines and a lot of smudging to establish tone... I'm also finding that the quicke I get the form in the more real it looks... or an I having myself on here...

more special sittings

yet another coloured pencil (pure colour) over a watercolour wash.... I think this is a nice way to get the skin tones to jump out... I hope norman lindsay would understand...

terry having a break (watercolour) Posted by Hello


terry relaxing (graphite pencil) Posted by Hello


with yahoo playing up so much... i've had a few nice special sittings.... with more relaxed poses and time... the shading is my main aim with the pencil sketches... to get the shapes looking right...

Thursday, August 26, 2004

graphite pencil sketch of stormy (from her profile photo) Posted by Hello

deja vu.... so its not only me

i was amazed when I read this article... same scanner... similar problems... HP pavillion... scary... and the same bloody phone lack of support from india.

What a woman really wants - TheEdge - theage.com.au

but I actually do like my new hp scanner, but I use it from my toshiba note book... which has lots of memory.... but i'm not a fan of the HP director... I prefer to use the aquire button in corel draw and corel paint...

but the pencil sketches don't seem to work on the scanner.... oh so you should not draw on the glass! Posted by Hello

in a pickle

an unfinished pickles (pencil over watercolour) Posted by Hello


I started this and got side tracked by the usual yahoo bootings and other technical stuff. yet I liked the underlying wash colours and got to work with the coloured pencils

cincy has a new cam and wonderful skin tones

Cincy has a new webcam, and I was hope to get realistic colours (coloured pencil over watercolour wash) Posted by Hello


cincy was busy in her chat room... so I hope this wasn't aimed at me...

cin being very cheeky (fast graphite pencil rub) Posted by Hello


carried away with colour

Ill was a wonderfull model, but a little worried... she seemed to be studying the screen very carefully... probably following the chat... not my irractic brush strokes...

A watercolour of ill finished with coloured pencil Posted by Hello

the underpainted wash was very light so I followed norman lindsay idea and just rubbed on pure colour using coloured pencils... i like the results... very fresh looking and letting the colours glow

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

graphite pencil sketch of ill Posted by Hello

Monday, August 23, 2004

living life at both ends

its been work, more work at my place or party central since I've been back.... not that i'm complaining... but my net time has been a little restricted... melbourne where I'm staying is a pretty sports mad place, which is good...! however with the olympics having most event in the middle of the night, melbourne time... the sleep deprivation is starting to show on the general citizens... everywhere you go there are big screen TVs convering the olympics... the sceen below was of a group or girls at a pub around midnight last night cheering for the australian womens basketballer... the opals... racheal sporn, had just scored on a penalty shot

supporting the opals Posted by Hello


This is just a light chinese ink wash with some soft pencil detail, wet on wet. I was really taken by the effect of the shadows looking into the light... it is probably a 3-5 minute sketch... i was pleased with the result

Friday, August 20, 2004

so close and yet so far..

i’ve kind of got side tracked... its very pleasant here, half a continent away from my destination... but here is a travel tip, rather than worry I’m just going to order another cool beer, or two… maybe three, & enjoy the sunshine ...

taking in the sun (ink wash) Posted by Hello



the light is so different up here, strong & the shadows rich in colour... i really wish i had bought my paints, and suitable paper.. oh well its back to pencils & paper borrowed from the qantas club... i will certainly sketch tomorrow... make that a maybe

waiting for the next flight pencil Posted by Hello

a week that was

i've missed my blogging, and sketching, but I'm heading southwards.. & looking forward to a cold beer.. or two.. then..

I've decided this gmail is pretty nice.. if you have ever been traveling and have tried to use unreliable, slow, foreign keyboards, with uncooperative staff.. etc .. etc.. you'll know to follow the backpackers and seek out the places they are crammed into… such as small cyber cafes, barely furnished old shops with white wash or newspaper on the windows and uncomfortable plastic stacking chairs.. i've even found a laundromat where you can access the web.. presumably while you watch the washing dry.. anyway the frustration of trying to email from such places can be overwhelming.. especially with all the graphics and self promoting ads of hotmail and yahoo.. now gmail does have ads.. but they are only a short line of so of text…best gmail is up and ready to send very smartly.. it also doesn't drop out half way through typing an email, a feature the others really need to emulate... this blog is even emailed in using it... pretty hitech for an old guy.

nice to see that comments are still coming in... remember the sketch with the most comments wins the sketch of the month title

Sunday, August 15, 2004

special assignment

well i'm back and fit for work and an urgent trip has come up.... so
no more blogs maybe for a week... at least I'll be warm...

be good

the suspense

I was reading about my my renewed art hero this morning and can across a quote that made me go straight away and scan and post this sketch of babi....

norman lindsay was quoted as saying "I never sit down to a watercolour without enduring the suspense of an experiment designed to go wrong and very often it does go wrong. The percentage of comparatively suscessfull experiments is about one in four of my output."...

a watercolour I decided not to complete Posted by Hello


this watercolour of babi has lain unfinished for many days now, I was too scared to touch the face... doing the washes was a lot of fun but the paper got to wet and I did the sketched of her eyes and just left a hint of the facial expression... concentrating at the time of the dark.. I've been experimenting with ultramarine blue instead of purple... and I then intended to used some brunt umber mixed with it to overpaint to get a heavy shadow... I had just lightly formed the eyes and mouth with this mix in the half dry wash... but it looked so nice I stopped... and I've been too scared to return.... except for a little line of vermillion on her lips... now I think I might let you judge the experiment....

needless to say I don't upload my unsuccesfull experiments, I hope, but I have a way to go to reach his one in four successes... although scrolling down stormy's, click's and care bear's latest watercolours are all different experiments & I'm pleased with them... and i'm defitinetly learning to stop before I ruin things.
reworking babi's sketch (darkening the shadows) Posted by Hello

The tempest & a the importance of a smile

i hope hurricane charlie, i thought hurricanes were supposed to have girls names, hasn’t cause any grief to any of my BBW friends… the power of nature can be pretty awesome at times and gentle at others... that is life... it is sad that 19 people have been killed but over the same period 160 people were killed at gatumba refugee camp in barundi, then there is the situation in the sudan... the sad part is that disasters has been firmly predicted and would have been easy to avoid if enough people cared

One thing I've noticed is that my technique of just building up the shading... seems to capture expression in a better way than trying to draw lines around facial expresions... the expression just appears... but the big worry has been the number of models that look very worried (see click girl below)... I'd prefer my models didn't look scare of me... c'est la vie (yet again)

a very kissable smile in pencil Posted by Hello


you may have noticed that I haven’t been writing much about life outside the net and sketching… well I’m trying to avoid a major stormy situation... and anyway I promised not to..!

Saturday, August 14, 2004

a quick watercolour & a big insight

it might be nice to appear famous… click girl had been chasing me for days... but I soon learned she wanted a sketch of herself most urgently, not for herself but as a present.. then I realized a really big thing about trying to be an artist...

click girl wants a portrait (watercolour) Posted by Hello


to an artist, a work is a performance, everything gets absorbed in the act… to everyone else art is a product… so I trust this performance was suitable

say hello to your mum for me

Norman Lindsay: Looking Up

Norman Lindsay: Looking Up

when I was adding the text to care's sketch, I looked up norman lindsay on google and found this site...

I definitely know that love of beauty of women and their bodies... and i totally aggree with the the moder theories that praise of female beauty cause anorexia, and that nudity causes violence against women... is such a load of bull..

i for one will stay firm in my praise for the beauty of women

More of lotta

I know there are a lot of lotta fans out there... and this should keep you happy... actually this watercolour was so much fun... lotta is a real gem... i know i've got her looking a bit worried.. and i think she was... but sketching form webcams is a lot of fun...

lotta having fun in her favourite nightie (watercolour) Posted by Hello


well i do realise that i'm a klutz with the technical stuff of computers and my webcam... but lets us raise a toast to the lovely ladies of Yahoo BBW chat.

pure colour over modulated tone...

a friend took me to see some norman lindsay watercolors... I was amazed... exactly the technique I've been searching for... the delicacy of the wash and capture of light is totally amazing... I am very familiar with his work in other media. his story the magic pudding was a favorite book of mine as a kid, & I love his cartoons... yet I had ignored his female nudes... not sure why... his watercolours are just amazing... move over gaugain... apparently he didn't like the post impressions... saying he could smell the human jungle in them... whatever that means

a more delicate watercolour of care Posted by Hello


This is an attempt to follow his example, get the tone right and then add some pure colour, care bear's complexion is wonderful it glows and a challenge... this is a salmon over a litle grey wash... finished with a graphite pencil for the shadows...
a sultry storm in watercolour Posted by Hello

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

A pencil sketch in a series of babi Posted by Hello