2 minute torso

watercolour on paper

inner thoughts on my palette

i am grappling with the realization that i may do much better with only a few colours... and mixing the tones i need ... rather than rely on a rainbows of pre-mixed paint... ok, ok some where gifts (those sets with black and white) ... but it really doesn't matter which ones i start with... i do better when i am forced to use a more limited palette ... so does that initial palette really matter ... probaly not .... seems if i have just a warmish and a cool yellow, a warm red a rich but cool red a deep warm blue and lighter but cooler blue, that could be just six tubes, i automatically would have every other colour, or thats is the theory .... still the shadows in skin tones would be hard without a (sap) green and a violet, or is that me making excuses?



the morale: be happy with what you have and do your best with what you have got.

deeper into the washes

Another limited palette watercolour

Thanks Gillie

He will be forever a legend

looking for the essence

I have been doing a few set challenges over the past few weeks to try and sharpen both how i see things and the physical side of recording that, I've already posted some of my 2 minute torso sketches... well here is te first of my limited palette (just using the colours, very diluted crimson, ochre, violet, & burnt umber ) watercolours ... my aim is not to get to hung up in a finished work but to work with simple washes to get tone and shape... i am starting to think that is the answer with waytercolour it the less you do the more magic might stay... well I am quiet pleased with this one and the number of views it got on flickr on the first day ... suggest the "less is more" approach might be popular ...



... then again i might be deluding myself, my model, Tcotta1 a flickr friend, is very popular among her clothing optional friends and especially the terra cotta inn... she is also the nicest person, unlike a lot of the "nude is rude" fraternity that are so often complaining about my stuff. I wish there where more folk that appreciated the beauty in the human form.... especially in healthy well adjusted females ... the world might be a nicer place.

what is your TMI?

I started worrying about how many tweets i had to read each morning to stay in the loop... the answer is probably none... but anyway it got me thinking is there an optimum measure of the right weight of follower and friends on twitter... maybe its something like the BMI... brilliant why don't I create a TMI (the twitter mass index)... and it is easy to compute just divide your followings by twice the number of followers... that's your TMI



On the low end of the scale with TMI's less than a half are the socially thin. the introverts that as likely as not to have the "I am only giving updates to my friends" playing over and over. They probably also literally only type in what they are doing.

At the high end are the dangerously obese twitters that just take in everyone else's musings, their motivation may be manifold but it is most likely they are voyeurs, peeping toms and trolls. Often they may just copy you and because you are not following them they think no one will notice. Closer around the TMI of two are the just excessively talkative and group seeking overweights... most harmless but take up a damn lot of bandwidth

So that leaves the happy tweets around the TMI of one.

All pretty straight forward really...

So why the factor of two... why not?

hauntingly addictive

I found this wonderful little piece on a cafe del mar compilation, while looking for some music for one of my (notorious) tapas and cocktails events tonight... the soundtrack to such events is as important as the freshness of the food and spark in the cocktails ... but this little melody is so addictive i've listen to it about 20 time already.... if you dare listen, you may have trouble getting it out of your head? ... you have been warned

who is your valentine?

If you are looking for an original valentine gift this year for your special someone, why not consider my little valentine bear on cafe press. The bear is cute enough but the chocolate on the t-shirt are my unique art and being virtual are 100% fat and calorie free.

2 minute torso

pastel on black paper

inspiration...

watercolour on paper

....maybe not l'inconnue del la Seine but a modern inspiration, an ophelia of flikr .

hold still ... this is serious (no it isn't)

hold still
Originally uploaded by tonx

If you enjoy your coffee ... appreciate a great barista when you find one ... and love their art with the frothy milk then this little bit of whimsy must appeal .... Tonx's Absurd latte Art Challenge



don't try this at home kiddies

the Funbag Fascination Calendar

Ok I know no one was actually impatiently waiting for this... but i do appologise I am over a month behind schedule... it was un avoidable, i'm sorry... but I hope the wait was worthwhile










This year I've designed the calendar to fit neatly inside a CD jewel case (... i'm sure you have a few old ones lying around, if no they are cheap enough to buy... getting them reused is so part of my art on technology push) also this year I just used various fd flickr toys to help construct the calendars thanks fd (aka big huge labs)... here are the instructions on how to make a neat desktop calendar

1. download the calendar pages above, (you will have to click onto each, to get the full size image and then use save picture as... from the right mouse click within your broswer to save a copy to your computer)
2. print them out actual size (12cm square, that 150 DPI if you are into that, or just use the CD cover setting in your printer if it has that) ...you will normally get two per page) ... printing on photo paper looks great, but thicker/matte card is better than just paper
3. cut them out and slide them into the CD cover

... you now have a neat desktop calendar

more detailed instructions here

J'ai coupé mes yeux pour voir.

Quite recently I had the opportunity to get up close (and almost personal) with some of Gauguin's original art... the quality of the painting disappointed me a little... but the genius is really in how he "sees" his art... his technique suddenly hit me in the face... when i was scanning this sketch... he hangs his figures on a violet frame work... something I kind of fell upon in watercolours... a different media to his but the colours are the same... when you glaze over this outline in ocher or crimson, the transparent layer of pigment moves out of the violet and creates a beautifully warm shadow that lifts the figure forward, a sensual reality that almost jumps off the page.... no amount of looking at your model (or a photo of them) lets you actually see that shadow but that inner "artist" eye can visualize it.... next with a bit of practise your hand and brush learn how to see the shadow as well

"I shut my eyes in order to see." ... Paul Gauguin

the joy of ... a torso in just three colours

This is a nice loose wash and glaze with only three colours ... violet ...alizarin ...raw umber ... demonstrating yet again... in art less is more



Watercolour on paper of a friend (walkabout) from flickr

"go walkabout" is a great aussy term that just means you have (or want to) buggered off and pursue your own agenda, it is of aboriginal origin... traditionaly a three or more month aimless meander is their right of passage into adulthood.

Now I'm here .... and you're here

Holly Throsby - Making A Fire

[via FoxyTunes / Holly Throsby]

I know its so bloody hot at the moment... well not exactly now... but over the past two weeks... it is high sumer here in Oz... so why the heck has this little tune got so much into my brain... its about being cold outside but holly doesn't mind she is making a fire... I think its the frail voice, the oboe and the reality about I'm here and your here ... or is it i am very disturbed that they are lighting a fire and they have left the dorr open!! ...anyway it is posted here for you to make up your own mind

cocktail time.... on twitter

I've just decided my twitter friends might need a bit of a lift... lots of uming and arhing, sigh, and boredom... so it might be time to start having some virtual cocktails of fridy nights/saturday morning

Ok here is the first one its called the rhythm of love... and I learnt how to mix it in tahiti

Firstly about one thirds fill a cordial glass with midori
next squeeze and pulp a whole kiwi fruit into the glass
carefully layer in creme de cassis and fresh double cream

that's it...

2 minute torso(s)... continue

This is more of my self imposed practise... 2 minutes to capture the essence... well at least the light and shade... on my very favorite subject the female torso... this was a conventional watercolour but just using a limited palette of 4 colours... I have finshed the final work below with a little pencil work (not included in the 2 minutes)

more art on CDs

Have I a started a trend of art on CD... NO! I may have got a few people excited but I'm not the first to try it...

Mathew Toledo, has written a very comprehensive blog article on how to paint your own CDs. It also emphasizes using the right paint to "fuse" to the plastic... If you want to do you own CDs... please read his article.

Apparently the recent nine inch nails CD changes colour when it is heated

You can also "Print" your artwork onto a CD, either using a specially "precut" peel off and stick down CD mattes or one of the many new thermal and/or inkjet printers that can take a special printable blank CD. There is also lots of software to help with the layout.

A pretty amazing way to "burn" your art onto the face of your CD is to use lightscribe (you need a compatible CD drive)

harder than it looks

I'm new to using Conté Crayons, they were invented by the same guy that invented the modern pencil (graphic inside a wooden stem) Nicolas Conté. they are harder than pastels... they are made of fired clay and wax as well as natural pigments, such as iron oxide, carbon black and various clays and produce a sanguine tones like an old sepia photograph. They took me by surprise... they act more like a sketching device (eg pencil of pen) on standard cartridge paper, maybe because of the square shape and hardness. Their soft pastel cousins, which I think should be used more like paints...like a textured paper with lots of tooth.

The big triangle

The big triangle is a marvels visualization to help the understanding comics, created by cartoonist Scott McCloud

but it also is very relevant to understanding art in general

doodle-a-riffic-torso

roller ball & marker pen with a little paint on paper

my new friend Kate

I have been befriended by kate on bebo... not any kate ....kate modern


Watch More Videos Uploaded by www.bebo.com/MyKateModern

Put simply kate modern ia a modern twist on the old who dun-it, but rather than just being a rerun bit of entertainment, it is a project that runs right through the social networking fabric, a kind of reality TV meets miss marple with the opportunity's of audience participation... the video above probably gives you enough to figure out what it is like, but if you like there is plenty more to my newest BeBo friend.

So like mediavladski i'm left asking is bebo the new ITV?

art on technology (the humble CD)

art on CD, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

Putting art on technology, is a bit of a personal campaign for me, as regular readers will know

If you don't start enriching the sterile face of personal technology, your lives might just be a little less rich and uplifting...

one technology that is ubiquitous these days is CDs ...so it was a pretty simple step to think using that empty space, on the front of any home recorded CD, as a canvas. If you intend to still use the CD it may be wise to test you paints out first, on a CD you can afford to destroy... many marker pens and paints do not stick/set and could gunk up your player... I used matisse derivan "dimensional" acrylics and they bonded to the plastic well.

This was a 2 minute torso execise (see below)

second 2 minute torso (on a CD)

this is the second 2 minute torso, also using acrylic paint (on a CD, see above, talk about art on technology! and the CD still works!)