just a bit of fun

"That's quite interesting camouflage"

For Illustration friday's topic camouflage

Colour in a torso

water colour and aquarella pencil on paper

seems I am not the only one to have their use of colours in a torso questioned... far greater men that I have walked there before me

"Try to explain to Monsieur Renoir that a woman's torso is not a mass of decomposing flesh with those purplish green stains with denote a state of complete putrefaction in a corpse."
Albert Wolf on Renoir's Nude in Sunlight.

But I will not give in, the female torso deserves colour, and appreciation, and so does life

Bullying & throwing out the baby with the bath water

seems like a lot of folk are getting a bit over excited and carried away now with the censorship issues over on flickr... (see also my earlier blog)



I think the flickr self-filters are a good thing, they do give you the freedom to express yourself, but act responsibly.... my worry is about all those that try to impose their will on others and there has been a lot of unnecessary name calling and bullying... here is just one example

Tantrictim
Originally uploaded by Sassy Fox

this guy doesn't deserve to be recognized, because he seems to be a campaigners for the rights to express and make our own judgment and yet he has so many images that have been taken from others, time to grow up mate... and as for calling, those that point this out names, well that is totally childish and bullying is not acceptable behavior for creative folk... delete yourself or tantric one (you wish)! not the groups you have gained control of.

she was magnificent

watercolour and aquarella pencil, this is an immensely personal work that has taken me a long time to do.

TWICE or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name ;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame
Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be.
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing did I see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is
Love must not be, but take a body too ;
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid Love ask, and now
That it assume thy body, I allow,
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw I had love's pinnace overfraught ;
Thy every hair for love to work upon
Is much too much ; some fitter must be sought ;
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme, and scattering bright, can love inhere ;
Then as an angel face and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,
So thy love may be my love's sphere ;
Just such disparity
As is 'twixt air's and angels' purity,
'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be.

.... air & angels by John Donne

Censors will steals your eyes

Censr steals your eyes
Originally uploaded by pioforsky

There is a fair bit of buzz going on in flickr at the moment... the sad part is it will not be reaching the places it needs too ...in singapore, korea and germany (yes germany) you may only be able to get in to view safe content (no opportunity to do otherwise...) but in china you now have no hope of even getting in at all... its not just flickr affected, many blogs are being taken down or barred ... when I was in sinagapore even I recieved a email from my ISP questioning the appropriateness of the nudity in this very humble blog

the saddest part is that it is not about nudity, nipples and sharing more intimate photos/moments, which you can legitimately do by appropriately using the flickr's self filtering system ... the actual reason is just political and obsession with control and power.... giving people the opportunity to actually see and express what is going on is what is at risk!

Please blog about this yourself.... raise the concern with everyone you can ...the freedom of what you can hear and see is as precious as the freedom to express yourself

a postcard in RL from SL

today i got a postcard from second life ... well I really did, from my friend in there Wings Ares, she's quiet a stunner and she has visited LeMusiqueFire and wanted to share that with me... its not everyday a postcard arrives from the virtual world, with a nice note as well... something worth sketching and as i began I realised that I more clearly understood what it was about SL (Second Life) and all the glamor that had previously distressed me ... it is so super real in overwhelming detail but at the same time spooky and way to difficult to sketch ... I had the urge to simplify, just take in the mood and romance of the place... leave out the detail...and soon i realized an ultra-reality virtual world doesn't need an artist... well a human one ...the computers can do all that if you have the time and money.. (there is a lot of shopping to do in SL) you can surround yourself with delicious textures and colours and things that are so difficult to collect in RL (Real Life)... but then i realized just as soon that others can create beauty with love, and romance, and relationships ...all I have is some pastels and paper.

That spooky side of of ultra real amination & robots was called the uncanny valley (others now call it scary valley) by japanesse robotic professor Hirishi Ishiguro... for me I guess I was scared by it and yearn for that softer more primal exotic notion that drove gauguin to the pacific and glorious colour!

inviting the colour in

bit by bit i can see my art... actually becoming decent art... I have let the colour start to position itself and lift the mood, using bolder strokes, an am leaving the detail till the very last minute... having a model full of life, joy and understanding helps

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dared to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

...from the invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

a surprise sitting

I was sitting on yahoo... waiting for a different friend... when suddenly an old friend cincy said hello and even posed for a quick sketch... thanks

fragrancy of the tropical light

Whilst I am back in the cold now... I loved the light in the tropics, the richness of colour in the shade... the vibrancy... it doesn't photograph that well and capturing the richness of colours in watercolours is a challenge BUT colour is the key ... exactly as the impressionists realised over a century ago .... art without colour is art without passion and soul

la couleur est la vie

sketching in paradise

for illustration friday's topic your paradise