Wednesday, December 16, 2009

yes ...but the food is great


One thing about having my studio out he back of a french patisserie and cafe, is I get the most wonderful day old cakes for morning & afternoon teas ...just things like a decent coffee morning and afternoon are a great plus in temselves ... not sure it gets anymore art done but it sure is the right way to live ... just in case you are worried i am geting to pampered, I do help out in the cafe from time to time
alixxx reclining

Friday, December 11, 2009

watercolour sketching

lotta 5 watercolour
lotta 5 watercolour,
originally uploaded by sigh clone.
It has been a while since i painted something to post in here ... I'm still painting but just not for my blog much ... had a lovely email from a web fiend which included some christmas photo that inspired me to get the brushes out ... problem is I had no watercolour paper .. not too bad i thought, i could handle it ... the washes don't glide on standard printer paper the water sinks in and goes a bit greyish ... the second wash didn't help ... normaly that would starts to bring on the translucency . . it sank in as well and looked even muddier ...damn ... used a few pencils to put a few colour highlights in but I certainly miss that 300gsm archers

Saturday, November 21, 2009

why is nudity so misunterstood?

Saw this posted on You Tube by Blunty3000. It does so many things right, starting with acknowledging the other contributors, looks at the human form as beauty, uses the censored blackouts sensibly but most of all it demonstrates that nudity can be treated a perfectly normal form of artistic expression.



Nude
"Consider this video both a love letter to the Human form, and an open letter to any and all either interested in the nude in art, or are confused by it, or have trouble telling what is art and what is porn, or simply want to explore what goes on between model and artist in the creation of artistic studies of the naked human body.

Thank you to all who helped me make this video, It simply would not have been possible without you. Thank you to all the artists who either offered their work directly, or allowed it's use through the Creative Commons copyright license, Your generosity is greatly appreciated. :)" ...Blunty3000

Thursday, November 19, 2009

changing scanners

my long suffering scanner died yesterday... in an acrid flash of something electronically amiss it breathed a last vile breath and just stopped .... we never really got along ..she, I called my scanner a she, she always kept me wondering what my image would turn out like ... too dark, too litle, crinkle marks, not eogh contrast ... no matter whoi adjusted the control she would still just always insist on the last word and over tweek something ... ok i found her infuriating ...BUT I had grown accustomed to her face



So soon i have to learn to use another mistress ...just fpr now I'm making do with a multi-function printer that will do some basic scanning, ok scans quiet well and without the fuss

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

tagging people in flickr



I only just noticed, the new people feature in flickr ... because a few people where identifying themselves within my photo stream. It is super easy to use. Just look for the add people under the people in this photo heading ... its down on the right hand side of the main photo display page ...then type in their flickr name or email address ... suddenly they are famous. You can add people to your photos or they can add themselves to yours

ok famous, is a slight exaggeration ... more precisely tagged in public, and this may have a down side ...a lot of folk including good friends of mine are paranoid at the moment about what the net knows about them ...so I'm probably leaning towards the etiquette that people can tag themselves, rather than me do it ...and on that note I normally ask those i sketch before I post them on the net

Monday, November 16, 2009

the alley cat



I have no idea why I sketch the alley cat sitting on the fence ...i normally throw things at him (or her) ... i'm not a cat fan ...they are vicious killers and torturers of anything smaller than themselves ... they are definitely;y not affectionate pets, they treat their keepers with only contempt ... I can not see why anyone wouls like them ... in fact anyone with a cat as a buddy icon, or post photos of cats in their ablums gets the heave ho from my contacts. So just watch yourself alley cat, i'm bigger than you

Saturday, November 14, 2009

something to watch



I started to prepare a post today but my scanner breathed its last breath half way trough and kind of spoilt the flow. So I though i;d give you something from youtube to look as as a reward for stopping by.

what good is a sketch blog without sketches


Some sketches of eyes & ears on normal copy paper using a new type of charcoal stick. Like a conte only oily. Quite like it.

PS It's been so long since I uploaded an pictures blogger asked me to reaccept the terms of service ... maybe I should have read them ... ok nobody every does ;)

Sunday, October 04, 2009

some on-line sketches of friends

Opps

sorry about the black box (seems I'm deemed un-safe on flickr again) andits been a while between post ...i'll be back sometime soonish ;)

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Saturday, August 29, 2009

too many web 2.0 places

I have been a sucker for the new social networking place ...like a kid with a new toy ...i pick up and play with each new offere like blogger (here), flickr (i'm considered UNSAFE there so your need to be a member to see my work), last.fm, bebo, tumblr, & twitter ...now I have a small gallery in ipernity...



Ipernity is often refered to as a flickr clone, superficially it is ... but for me the big difference is you can upload video from a FREE account ...all my web 2.0 playing is very definitely based around not paying :)

AND for the record I still resist FaceBook ...not sure why, haven't tried it but those who where so initially enthused just put me off ...had the feeling it was second life without the fantasy avatars

See you on the interwebz, some time

Thursday, August 27, 2009

watching paint dry



I must admit I have had a lot of problems with my washes getting way to wet as I develop watercolours ...particularly of naked flesh .. the delicacy & transparencies of watercolour is beautiful ...and a little hard to control... but thin layers of colour ontop of each other give a luminancy to the original work (which is almost impossible to capture in a scan like this) ... the down side is the washes need to be thin and WET ... VERY WET .. which crinkles the paper and any further pigment added will bleed out into the already wet zones ...waiting for the paper to dry takes hours, and the creative urges soon dissipate ...the solution is painfully simple ...use a hair dryer to speed up drying ...and keep the creativity flowing.

dancers

dancer 01 dancer 02 dancer 03

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Siren is also the name of Tara Moss's new book

Tara Moss is not only a great looking model, she is an exciting writter ... her latest book is out in australia today. Its called Siren not sirenS ... haven't read it yet but who could resist with a teaser like this -

ENTER A WORLD OF BEAUTY AND DANGER, OF FRENCH CABARET AND TERRIBLE REVENGE


after Gavin O'Neill photo

girls drawing back

sketches by kim
Self portrait by unknown artist
I don't always get my way, sometimes my subjects get cheeky ...take my pencils and sketchbook and draw themselves or friends ... who am I to argue?

Thursday, August 20, 2009

venus reclining

venus reclining
venus reclining,
originally uploaded by sigh clone.
This is another sketching exercise ... my skills at taking the video haven't improved ...not up to YouTube quality just yet ... but hopefully ot lets you see what I do ...how i work the washes ... and my mistakes and errors ...and the feeble attempts to fix them ... but most of all i want you to see feel the image coming together ...it takes about 5 minutes but i have made sure the video is small enough to be low-bandwidth friendly ... sketched from the natural curves group on flickr ...its a private group but if you are nicely you can join


Wednesday, August 19, 2009

wow ...i'm worth something!


Not sure why I even checked ... but you can even get a quote on the value of your web site ... is it the indepth content that brings the crowd? ... ok maybe its just the boobs :)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Wet & Overcast & Sketching

I did ask if anyone wanted to be illustrated on twitter... but only one reply and that was probably a bot ...so I returned to flickr for yet another torso challenge in watercolour.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

sirens



The painting "The Crucified Venus" cause a real stir back a long while ago in Australia. Some of the controversy is covered in the film Sirens



Sirens (1994) - The best free videos are right here

This is a good film ...much more to it than just the speculation of seeing elle naked ...have we really progressed very far? ...is good art recognized? ..must nudity be always confused with pornography? ...are religious images sacrosanct? ...or was Norman just a naughty boy?

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

ear ear (again)


who could not help being a bit distressed at a gory item wrapped in newspaper ...not a gift of love that I think anyone would like to have to accept? poor rachel!

just had a massive argument with some fellow artists about the Kaufmann claim that gaugain cut off van gogh's ear ...it wasn't about the ear abd who did it, over who and why? so much as what was the deeper disturbance between the two artists. Van gogh insisting (quiet rightly) that art needs to be grounded in what we see ...landscapes need to be painted in plein air ...while gaugain insisted (maybe just to rattle van gogh) that it was the artist imagination that made the picture ... the artist just needed to be inspired ...and then his mind could do the rest ...it was me against everyone, the rest of the world maybe ...but i was adamant that your need to have the visual reference ...studies from life ...that what makes for a great nude ... then I was called a hypocrite and deluded ...you see I often sketch from photos or direct from the computer screen ...but isn't that also a visual reference ...ok I know I'm outnumbered, but i still think vincent was onto something.

Monday, August 03, 2009

not getting out of line


I haven't been drawing as much as I'd like ...for a start I don't like the cold and I prefer to sketch & paint on the deck ...but the health fiascoes of the past few months have slowed me down ...but i know i need to get back in the saddle and keep the mark making, marking marks, making lines and making shades .. just making stuff ...keeping the eye hand coordination subliminal not labored ...art is as much about seeing as actually making the lines ...that is why I need to sketch

“People only see what they are prepared to see.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009

its not funny, its art



poor bianca, she doesn't get art ... or is it us ;)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

sketching from flickr (again)


circumstance has conspired to restrict the amount of time i have spent sketching ... yet i yearn for the challenge of analyzing the tone and composition ... coordinating my hand and eye ...letting my arm feel the turns and gestures ...have my brain distill the colours and how to build the washes ...watercolour take practise ... and what better way to tune the skill than to paint a delicious tease from flickr ... merci elli

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Shut up you are making me hungry


Melbourne has always been a food obsessed place ... not in a bad way, just savy about food, fresh ingredients, rich cultural diversity and tastes, a decent restaurant culture from the simple (eg the age's cheap eats) to the ridiculously opulant (and they get no free advertising from me) but lately the conversations äre becoming very focused ... and its because of a TV show ... masterchef ...everyone is watching ...it eclipsed the michael jackson saga here, more popular than the current sporting draw cards the tour de france and the ashes (that's true cricket to the heathens and we have started poorly I'm afraid) ...something more important than sport is so un-melbourne! ... then tonight little george let the cat out of the bag with two four letter words FOOD PORN ... yes that's what we all need to stop thinking about the global financial crisis, tax and other bad stuff

Don't get me wrong this is not wanton GLUTTONY or depraved use of edible items in exploitative sexual acts, it is the thrill we get about imagining our next meal ...we need to be excited about eating, it is a survival instinct, and you don't just need TV to do that ....I belong to a food porn group on flickr and I have noticed a lot of tweeters post photos of what they eat, MegaNom has a particularly delicious tastes ... the only problem I have with all this is ...damn am I hungry

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Beaux Gestes


Most often I get questioned about what is my style and where did it come from. I don't paint like my cartoons and I don't paint like the artists I admire (eg Gauguin) ... so where does my style start ...my theory is it is is not a conscious thing, it is much more physical it comes from the interaction of my eye and hand ... and it very much related to how I hold the brush and flex and bend my arm ... i don't paint in a slow considered way ... it don't even use pencil construction lines any more ... i just pick up the brush .. mix the colour and dab it here and there, my hand just does it guided by my o copy, but I eye but not its slave ... my mind and ego are looking away distracted ...music helps ... ok i do work from photos or a computer screen a lot so that is already resolving the perspective and giving a two dimensional thing to copy, ... but to be honest I look more at the tone than the lines ...confusing isn't it ...I struglle to explain it just love to do it. Four or fire gesture sketches and I'm away in the creative place, time, logic and sensibility vanish, this is a place of colour and emotion and .... and... no one knows until the wash drips of the brush as it flicks this way and that.




Like ideas & words, gestures have a life of their own.
Laurence Wylie

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Curves on Curves



Pencil Sketch on normal bond paper

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Iranians can longer see the twitterverse

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

What you will see in Iran when You try to use twitter today!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The story of twitter(so far)



This wonderful illustration is from monolith's article that begins
...Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Seems every where you turn these days that little blue bird is staring you right in the face


Are you part of the Twitpocalypse?

Monday, June 22, 2009

remember neda


remember neda, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

Remember Neda ...even with an offoicial ban on "public" mourning ...and even if the truth gets "officially" shredded!

Neda ...a needless murder


neda ...a needless murder, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

The murder of a young teenage girls, out watching the crowd with her father (apparently not joining in the protest) is a horrible and callous act. The anguish of a doctor trying desperately to help her. The fact that it was caught on video and posted on YouTube does means now the whole world knows. But will the world remember? Have we forgotten east timor already?

I would like other artist to capture their feeling of this event, and like picasso did for guernica leave some powerful images, and other works so the world can not forget.

We need peace not more bloodshed.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

about counting votes


counting my vote, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

My view is that the depth and size of the responses to the elections in Iran, have caught politician on all side out ... well off guard ... with not the slightest idea of how to respond .. which is good. it may mean they listen to the people ... BUT I am worried that peace and truth will be the next casualties.

The movement may not last past friday prays, I worry that we will see east timor all over a gain ...my fear is the Basij & maybe security forces loyal to Ahmadinejad may run amok .. The slogan will change from "Where is my vote?" to "Who can we trust?"

From afar we need to keep public the message that people have a right to see their votes counted, we should not meddle in who the vote is for.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Support Iran Protests! #Iranelection

There are now about 900 entries on flickr, but many duplicates, related to protest and demonstration in support of free elections in Iran

Congratulations to the many, mainly young folk, who are posting so the world can see.

Truth is the first casuality



Things may be already getting very nasty in Iran, these are just kids, and it is worth noting that a lot of mis-information may be already circulating, even on twitter and blogs.



Those still with net access will be working hard to get the truth out.

SO 2) don't dilute the conversations
2) those tweeting could be putting themselves in grave danger
2a) don't post ISP address or twitter names etc
2b) Become an honorary Iranian, this will overwhelm any clandestine attempt to locate tweeters by the Iranian "security" force (& the feared Basij malitia)
3) follow the hasthags like #iranelections or search for "where is my vote"
4) try to source your news from reliable source (eg SBS Australia's assessment of the situation)

Thursday, June 04, 2009

return to the two minute torso


I have returned to this simple painting exercise to try and get my washes flowing more freely (... i eneed up letting them get way too wet) and my tonal balance back (I want rich glowing skin tones again) ... it just practice but practice makes perfect doesn't it?

afyter drying, new washes, and show more drying

"Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” -- Picasso.

Monday, June 01, 2009

its all in there



I have long admired Helmut Newton's delicious black and white photos of sensual and erotic women, what i didn't realize was he was living and moving in the same haunts of Melbourne, he as a refuge, as I have the privilege to inhabit now. better still i have just discovered he was also a follower of the new objectivity, a movement that developed in Germany before world war II out of and in opposition to expressionism. Here was Helmut working away as a fashion photographer developing his skill and style at the same time the angry penguins where ramming expressionism justaposed with surrealism down the establishments through. Who said art was boring?

The point of my photography has always been to challenge myself, to go a little further than my Germanic discipline and Teutonic nature would traditionally permit me to.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Public art is not immune

Seems it not just in cyberland that art is a little misunderstood, covered in grafiti spray, stolen and melted down (This allegedly happened to a Henry Moore sculpture) focus of public scorn or removed on health and safety grounds

The Art Fund, in London, recently hosted a debate entitled "Can The Public Be Trusted to Choose Public Art?"

Will true art become another causality of the cliches of fear an uncertainty that some call the global financial crisis? I hope not. I hope that artist make art despite what others tell them to do. But more importantly I hope that they can sell their art and not have it stolen, defaced, or degraded my indiscriminate exploitation.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

L'art pour l'art


"L'art pour l'art" translates roughly into art for art sake (same name as the 10cc song) is the true bohemian anthem, art is valuable and worthwhile because it is art, political correctness, moral correctness, functional and value for money are just sentimental concepts that can obscure the truth in art. Why then are the interwebz so filled with crosslinkings, embeddings, mash-ups and RT (retweets) ...is this copycatting just straight theft disguised as homage ... do people have so little to occupy their minds that they have run out of originality after just 400ish characters (approximately three tweets)... surely with our ability to share over the net we should see creativity blossoming ... but has originality and beauty been stuck back with things hand drawn ... I for one hope not ....i just don't know how to tackle the great blandness and formalized sameness (me-too-ism) spreading through the social media sites ... worse is the blatant copying, or plagiarism ... or as I am coming to believe just simple theft!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

garden is a metaphor

I have been told that the garden is a metaphor for life ... many times ... I never understsood what was the point ... but this humble leaf stopped me in my tracks ... made me rethink ... reminded me I could so easily whither (and die) ... damn that is a metaphor I don't want to know about ... roll on spring and the new growth ... the rejuvination

Monday, May 11, 2009

macabre message?




I'm still under the weather and struggling to get the art stuff happening today was a lovely day ...i wanted to draw beautiful and exotic fruit and flowers ... ok I tried but the looked like crap ... then the fullness of the apples turned into sculls .. the macabre stuff looked way more beautiful ...i trust I am no turning into an Edgar Alan Poe

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

ear ear

The theory that Gaugain was the one that actually cutoff Van Gogh's Ear is quite believable. Gaugain was skilled at fencing and the pair were quarreling a lot and had basically fallen out at the time of the incident. However there does seem a lot of sensationalism, for example, the speculation that they were fighting over a prostitute, would they really make a secret pact to keep the incident quiet, how secret can you keep it when you give your ear away? And wrapped up like a gift? How many destitute artists carried swords at night in 1888? the other medical issues poor Vincent suffered. All a bit too conspiracy theory-ish for me in the end.

"Near the brothel, about 300 metres from the Yellow House, there was a final encounter between them: Vincent might have attacked him, Gauguin wanted to defend himself and to get rid of this 'madman'. He drew his weapon, made some movement in the direction of Vincent and by that cut off his left ear." Kaufmann said it was not clear if it was an accident or an aimed hit.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Painting @ElliGirl




Watercolour on paper

Wednesday, April 29, 2009