next... middle tones

manuela with middle tone
Originally uploaded by sigh clone.

The next step is to add middle tone, a less dilute yellow ochre... the start to locate some of teh darks using a purple

the underpainting(s)

manuela wash02
Originally uploaded by sigh clone.

This may be a litle risky.... but i decided to let you all watch the work in progress, as a step by step stage.... this is my first wash to get the light and shade areas defined... I'm using a diluted crisom damped with a little purple... two colours I think help he skin tone shadows look warm

I've left the washes very wet at this stage and not worried to much about the pooling or bleeding of colors... the wetness lets me blend the shadows and the accidents of colour blotching often make for more interesting "life" and engery in the fial work... sometimes they just ruin it... so this stage is full of risk... but such is life

uploading art onto your ipod

uploading art onto your ipod
Originally uploaded by sigh clone.

Loading artwork (and photos) into my nano ipod was not all that difficult in the end... it was the lack of instructions or more specifically how to find them, that surprised me...

if you are in the microsoft world, like me, get itunes 7, then when your ipod is connected you will see the photo tab (as shown above)... all you have to do is identify the subdirectory where you have the artwork (photos)... I called mine IPOD, how original... the only other tricky bit is putting the images on a bit of a diet... i found reducing them to 640 by 480 works well... but you can go as low as 320 by 240...both easy to do with picasa... the download process reformats the image anyway and altough you can save higher resolution you will not be able to see it and you'll just use up space on your ipod

if you have an apple Mac epic empire epic has a video tutorial on uploading from a mac

next sketch

Manuela in a hat Soft pencil 4B on paper

Art on my Ipod

Art on my Ipod
Originally uploaded by sigh clone.

It did take a fair bit of manual (if thats what it could be called).... and some net research... but finally my art on my ipod....

i know know why there is not more art of mobiles and ipod... like there should be... and is starting to be on the likes of blogger, myspace and flickr... the technology has been keep "secret nerds's business"... hidden from the easy to use... free to share... universe... is this becuase "they" (not sure who they are actually) want to charge... commercialise it... like the scams to get you to download "free" ringtones but pay a fortune... do any artist actually benefit fom such arrangements... whould they want to...

rant over... there should be more art around on technology... and there might be if it was easily to do

a new project begins

i thought it might be fun for you to watch as i develop a new set of sketches through to final paintings

looking for my coy friend

I've spent a lot of my on-line time looking for my friend becka (not sure is thats the right spelling)... I thought I had corresponded with her on flickr... but alas no trace there... nothing in hotmail (although I had been "deleted" yet again... and nothing in gmail... what is going on... am i getting old and forgetfull... but even an old bloke remembers coy charm and a sly smile... not to mention a full and sensual figure

Can anyone help be find becka so i can ask if I may post her picture here... opps (hope you don't mind bec)

Do you like the new layout?

It's done in blogger beta... i
changed about a month ago... I like it, it's probably easier for me to
work with... especially loading pictures directly...sorry flickr, I think you're being superseded on that front... theire is also a spelling checker!

I have been having some eye troubles (extended periods of double vision, due to cornea scaring)... so I'm
on a computer fiddling free diet at the moment... looking for
everything that stops the squinting... keystrokes... ime
consumed... and it is all GOOD

Now to get back to sketching

Understanding the passion

Pencil sketch of passiflora

Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.

quote from rita may brown

Sorry if this means nothing to you... but art is becoming so like passion to me... i start with a blank page... draw the pencil over it... the image takes shape... I see it from within... there is little that I can do... just surrender to the shades... the lines... build a dark here... a smudge there... then suddenly I msut stop... before my concious mind take control and removes the tenderness... ok its unfinished but it is all i can do and I love it... that is what drawing can bring me to... it is passion... it is arouse... i see the beauty within


I think i am learning to understand gauguin's "à la recherche decstasy, de calme, et lart."

ART for all

(mage with dumper a new flickr toy}
do we still need the sterile display place in museums... well yes... but with the internet and devices (computers, mobile phones, ipods, pdas) so connected i see there is really no limit to who much art can be displayed and enjoyed... yet

hmmm look around do you have any art to soften and personalise your technology... buggar neither do I... yet!

that's better

taking a stance

why so much theft?

THIEF
Originally uploaded by DirtyRatBastard.

Given that the net and particularly the blogsphere is essentially free... (ok you can make money our of adsense and links to others, if you really want to)... I am puzzled why there is so much theft... identity thief, pinching ideas, text and the thing that is really bugging me is image theft

Things are getting so bad on flickr their is now a new stolen pics group... specifically to out people who pinch photos and post them as their own... thats fine and I won't hesitate to post people who pinch my stuff.... but it does require that i find out about it. The other trend on flickr if to pinch stuff off pornsites and post it... usually in inappropriate groups... in the groups i moderate i simply delete them but it is becoming a chore... still I think i own it to the other group members.

For instance flickr do have the issues of copyright and image sharing well thought out and they use creative commons, which i have also used to register this blog and the images in it (read the copyright or wrong section down a bit of the right hand side). Trouble is it seems a lot of folk ignore this

So what to do about it... actually I don't know... shaming the guilty is a nice civilized way, but it does require finding the culprit... i worry that things may just get so bad that is not wise to post on the net at all! Is you expect others to respect your ownership of images... or anything!

accidents & progress

kelsie05
Originally uploaded by sigh clone.

Sometimes art is relaxing... sometimes stressful for example this preliminary is a wash for a portrait of kelsi... The trouble is with such an angelic result I am to scared to do any further work on this one!

So I'm coming to the view that my trial and error approach to watercolour is ok.... sometimes the wash captures what I want and sometimes it doesn't... no one needs to see the failures... so all i need to do really is keep painting... looking for the glow... the tonal gradation... the right colour... the little infections an highlights that let me "see" the personality of the sitter... all this things are way superior to slavishly copying the detail from a photo... ignore the lines follow the tone... I think i am getting places in my journey... its just that i wish that could be more than accidents and coincidences


this is my first post from flickr via the new "enhanced interface" to blooger beta... worked like a charm... so there is lttle excuse not to post.... now all i need to hope for is similar improvement in reliability for yahoo messanger... or is that to much to ask?

uploading.... fixed at last

wow... in blogger beta the image upload options are still the same.... BUT the upload works first time... and fast.... congrats someone...

I bought myself a new set of watercolours... proper winsor & newton ones... I love the purity and intensity of the colours..... and transparency in washes... i trust my regulars vistors will notice the difference

notice the climate change?

the political correct brigade went into overdrive about a stripper that performed at a climate change conference recently held in Oz... seems the lady was still in her undies as her ballons were being popped when some indignant females stormed out... they kick up such a stink that the conference lost its government funding... so thankyou ladies... not only does australai not honour the kyoto protocol, we wont be letting our scientist confer with the rest of the world anymore....

the big pity is that before i could get my sketch to paper ron tanberg of the age had already had his "Any one noticed tgeh climate change" punch line publised. Well done mate... but i liked my lady so much i had to post it here.

don't worry be happy

I trust you notice the changes... i'm now in blogger beta... with promises of more improvements to come... thanks blogger & google.

I am sorry I haven't been on-line and posting here much lately... I'm having a couple of eye problems... well more like double vision problems and i am finding close work and particularly peering at a computer screen very troubling... so I'm just relaxing mostly... and taking the medicine

catching up

While I haven't ben on the net a lot lately (sorry ladies)... but I have been soring through my older sketch books & paintings... one thing that has struck me over and over again... i like a lot of my unfinished work much more than the "detailed" work... most of it will probably stay hidden but here is a simple pencil sketch that I think conveys the sensual form more strongly than a finished work might

the man with no name

Did you ever see a man
who did walk down the street
white robe with no shoes on his feet
and on top of his head place a box with two slits
and the sign from his neck said
"I do not exist"



lyric from Miserere off the CD "two shoes" by the cat empire

(please but don't try and download a free/pirate .mp3 copy of this song,, support the band... get a copy from itunes or buy the CD)

the delicacy of washes

watercolour has sort of taken over my work... yet I probably don't like it that much... it is totally unforgiving... and i have to abandon a lot of my sketches... even at the very first wash.... yet the delicacy of those first touches of the brush onto the white paper... are for me... the most powerful stage... that is when the creation works... or it doesn't


the painting then seeems to grow out of a latent image... its a kind of magic.. perhaps it is the goddess controlling what I see... or maybe how I see it... i think thats what drawing is all about seeing

peacan

gauche on paper

sophi's choice

I like to champion originality and creativity on the net... i worry it seems to be waning... BUT I came across carolyn's great website art for engineers... don't be discouraged by the title (ok some of you guys might have got excited, but put your tools away... ok the screwdiver & spanners) its well worth a slow and considered viewing

Carolyn's lines are beautifully sensual, and simple... yet strong & passionate, but it is her use of colour and control over watercolour that is amazing, very translucent and perfect for her art that weaves in and out of various erotica themes...and poetry... (she even uses lots of ellipsis... like me! which I am lead to believe shows she has faith in her readers)... you can even own her work at very reasonable prices.... he most compelling reason to visit her site, is her own admission "I'm just a lady who loves to draw too. ;)"

Mystery sitter

I must I've really got into the rolf harris star portrait show...it is totally fascinating watching different artists tackling the same subject applying very difference techniques and approaches... Give a self taught old bloke a bit more confidence... and a little less inhibition to share my muddled techniques... and how i might approach sketch someone new

I generally start with some quick pencil work,... maybe a preliminary layout sketch... then something with soft pencil wher i rub in the graphic to define the shade and form... i often do a few of these

Then I might get out the watercolours and try building up the same form and shade using washes






special thanks to my anonimous sitter

Why Wednesdays?

I was reviewing my site counter statistics and was pleased to see that my traffic is about 50% return visits... thanks for commong back folks... i hope it is still original and interesting enough for you... the other surprise was in the most popular day.... why on earth is wednesday (woden's dae) the best day to read my blog?

good hair day

I'm not sure why there is such a tabu about pubic hair these days... its very natural and definitely adds to the senuality of the female form... if it does offend you I'm sorry if this is too confronting, please just go and read a different blog (and please please don't leave childish messages or send flame mail)... special thanks to love love...


watercolour on paper

Reciprocal Portrait

My attempt to draw suzi (soft pencil.... drawn approx. 10 years ago

portraits of me

Whilst looking through my sketchbooks I came across a bit os nostalgia... prtraits of me by a former girlfriend (Suzi, she is the lady that encouraged m,e to become net literate and look to the net for inspiration for the on-line cartoon bar idea.... hmm still in planning)... anyway shw was a delight full of energy and always creating things. The biro sketch is a diidle she did on the first day we meet. The paper cutout was about my inner self... the clown!.... she often did cut-outs as a "party trick", and seldom took longer than a minute or too.

Inspired by form

just a doddle or two is good for the mind.. thanks fr the inspiration passiflora

the thrill of new shoes

Being a bloke I guess I can not appreciate the excitement of a new pair of shoes... but i can worship in line the curve of the ankle... the lifting of the arch and the emphasis of legs ascending above... art is easy to find

direct computer art

I will have to admit I have been glued to the TV, the past two tuesdays... & i'm not normally much of a tv watcher... I am truely fascinated by Rolf Harris's Start Portraits... this week one of the artists (charlie wells) worked directly onto his computer screen with his touchpad... amazing... looks like fun

I could do that...

Well I could but maybe I need more practice

Breasts, Not Bombs

Visit Breasts, Not Bombs and consider exposing the hypocrisy of our world, show your own or encourage other to expose their breasts, it is time to get everyone thinking about life, nature, love, and peace... is that so hard?

In trouble again!

banned
Originally uploaded by sigh clone.

Well that was a surprise... and just because I ordered a short black with the last danish in one of the discussion streams... still life could be worse it could happen in real life... thank thank god for melbourne's coffee shops (the non starbuck kind)

Now you can see where I have been sketching

sydney07
Originally uploaded by sigh clone.

I've come across a marvelous new "toy" in flickr called geotagging which means I can store the location of my sketches so you can then click on the link, like the one below, and it will take you to a map (or satellite image, if you prefer) and show you the exact location (well within a few meters)


See where this picture was taken.



Not all the sketches in my travelling pencil photoset are geotagged yet... but you might enjoy following my travels

Too Hard to Pick

Too Hard to Pick,
originally uploaded by sigh clone.

This PhotoMosaic was created with fd's Flickr Toys for the next barmaid cover girl... it is too hard to pick a cover girl barmaid, this time I like all the smiles.... so everyone wins

1. at the pub.JPG, 2. Untitled, 3. IMG_1745, 4. Untitled, 5. Think of a happy place, 6. Shenanigan's Irish Pub

flickrelief

flickrelief
Originally uploaded by skunkpiks.

There are a number of groups on flickr that has become active around the terrible things going on in the lebanon.... trouble is most are taking sides... and there is absolutely no moral grounds that either side can take.... but that doesn't mean the tragedy should be ignored here are a few groups worth some of your time, consideration & refelction
http://www.flickr.com/groups/52634424@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickrpeace/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mundouno_/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/savelebanon/

A friend returns

I had a pleasant visit on my IM yesterday... from an old friend... she was as happy, chatty and could not sit still, but i still love sketching her... i especially like the pencils sketch below

webcam sketch

some like it hot... others t00_h0t... webcam sketch in softpencil