The Hat Series

Watercolour & gouache on paper

more computer art attempts

In a busy house tonight, lots of coming and going ... and getting ready to go out ...must be time to try out some rapid sketching in corel painter. The watercolour is nicely like a real wash, and those washes can be dried at the click of a button :) and ...and it is a big AND ...the felt pen tool can be any colour, even a light pinkish purple that has strong coverage over the underlying image ...wow such artistic freedom.

"exploitation" of nudes within art

I'm becoming a bit more opinionated than usual in my discussions with colleagues about the value of nudes in art ...not so much the nudity versus porn bandwagon that so many social networks seem to be hoping on (and something I am just straight out bored with) ...no I mean real art. I haven't been exhibiting my nudes ...mainly because they are a more personal part of my art journey (ok posting them in here means they are not so private anymore) So my opinion may not count for much, BUT I'll give it anyway. In very general terms the nudes in contemporary art look a bit old hat or mass produced and trite, a few are there to shock but the rest just sit their blandly, not grabbing your attention. Cleo hidden away in Young and Jacksons still celebrates life & femininity. A lot of art in the private calleries doesn't. I blame political correctness, timid artist are becoming scared to slather on the sensuality, lusciousness of paint and arousing colour. All the same I have been savaged by more than one feminist friend, coincidentally all with the same argument saying that porn has over exploited nudity and everyone is bore with it. Come on...

Perhaps I'm getting old but surely painters are allowed to be sensual and erotic in their painting of nudes. May they do with colour,with feeling, with a wink in their eye. I know of two great female artist (both shown here) that have a wonderfully refreshing perspective on the modern view of commercialized nudity . The first is Sophi (aka Carolyn Weltman, an example of her work is on the left) who's art for engineers I have mention before and the second Hazel Dooney (an example of her work is shown above) who's self.vs.self blog is a way better read than this blog you are reading now. May there be many more. Perhaps I need to start exhibiting my work.

Que le meilleur artiste toujours peindre le nu feminin.

mood in pastel

I had my rant about strong colour in pastels in the last blog post ...so now I'm using them in a more muted colour schemes ...not to disprove my own rules, just to show that pastel is a lovely way to capture mood and feeling

red satin dreaming in pastel

red satin dreaming pastel
Originally uploaded by sigh clone

The power in pastel for me is in its rich colours, not the smudged out weak colours that fashion industry know as pastels. Soft artists pastels are almost pure pigments (ok there are binders and fillers in them) so I like try and use that power, just enough smudging to get the tonal gradations but I reckon the media leads itself to powerful full on strokes or contrasting colours. I had a lot of fun sketching these red satin sheets against delicate skin tones

hand .vs. computer

I'm still playing around with computer generated painting via Corel Painter Essentials. I do really like the programs BUT I don't really like the tracing paper it kind of stiffles my action ...maybe I need a bigger tablet? I don't really want to draw lines anyway ...they become so restrictive. SO what about the eye dropper and "taking" my colours from the photo (under the tracing paper) ..its also a very nice feature BUT I tend to get very bland washed-out colours ...not the colours I would choose by eye ...maybe I am being a little harsh. Here are two portraits of the same saintly friend from flickr. I trust you can recognize my hand drawn effort.

two minute torsos ...some more

Whilst pastel doesn't lend itself to ultra fast sketches (the tones need to be worked and blending reworked before the pastel looks rich!) I still like the two minute torso exercises as a way to lead into a fuller exploration of gesture & posture & composition & ... the list goes on and on ....what is working well for me at the moment is to do this quick torso sketch in watercolour ...then begining of the pastel ...I have even rubbed pastel over a watercolour ...life is to short not to exploit and enjoy it ...even when painting

framed

Checking around the photo "hosting" sites, like twitpic, yfrogger, img.ly ...etc and reading all the "fine print" in the terms of use ...it is pretty obvious that many sites now consider nudity offensive and not to be posted! ...some still say pornographic, but most now just use the words nudity or nude!


BUT that is not the real shock ...the real issues is in the "fine print" that might try to suggest that the owner is responsible for the content and it must be his own (ie they is the copyright holder)


...BUT and it is very legally worded when you post anything you are given them (and anyone they want to share it with the right to use your image "royalty free"

Art ...orginal art ...is not welcome ...I'm getting the message

Does this offend you?

Ok I admit it I like to sketch nude ladies ...what is worse I often like to do it quickly ...do gesture studies, two minute sketches of torsos, I have been posting this on the net for some time. Some sketches have been heavily criticized, by self opinionated wankers (the wankers bit is my opinion btw) but I hope enough people see beauty in my work as well. However I suspect I am fighting a loosing battle over the censorship of nudes on the social webs ...and that is because these places quickly adopt the manners and conventions of the crowd ...and that is unfortunately that nudity must equal porn ..it doesn't! I know that! I'm a grown up!

For a while there I thought Flickr had got it right offering a content filtering system that let you mark the content safe, moderate (and they had prepared good guidelines, so this equals exposed breast) or restricted (full frontal nudity and other things offensive!) They also had 18+ groups for grown ups. All was ok but then they started marking folk like me unsafe, which means if you don't log in and click that you are old enough to look everything I do is hidden from you. At Least they didn't remove my account. From recent discussions in some flickr groups a lot of accounts have been summarily suspended. The anti nudity witch hunts are probably increasing, yet I think there are just reasons, there is way too much stolen porn and other folk's photos and artwork being re-posted in flickr and all across the net these days. It is theft and plagiarism gone feral and it is distasteful ...Unlike my art!

The real rub for me came today when I discovered I have been suspended on TwitPics, presumably for posting the sketch above. No reason give no correspondence, just messages at the end of links that image no longer exist and member suspended. Such is life.

So Artists may soon not able to display their own original and real art, if it doesn't conform to the latest web stampede/fashion on popular social networks. The trend is worrying, aussies should particularly watch out for the net censorship noose (aka clean feed) proposal Senator Stephen Conroy is fashioning for australian web users (he is suddenly quiet about it at the moment? that's right there is an election loaming, but the stupidity is still their on the books).

Vive Le Art

chalk on my fingers ...again

kool portrait,
originally uploaded by sigh clone.

I haven't used my pastels anywehere near enough for a while ...I like being able to apply the rich pigments directly mixing the colours on the surface ...but i think i need to have a watercolour wash of use coloured paper to really see that richness ...which doesn't scan well by the way

...Vive le pastel

dark torso

I've started to find my own way to work in corel painter essential ...I like to start with a little bit of "borrowed" colour into a quick background wash,(broad wash brush) then add a few tiny little details (using the edge cloner brush) or just tracing some free and easy fine lines (using the 2B pencil brush and purple colour) and splash or two on the nipples for interest. Still not quiet 2 minutes but getting faster and freer. Hard to image it is done on the computer ...or am I pulling my own leg?

giving it a red hot go

Its winter here now and has been cold, rainy & cloudy for a few days ...great time to stay inside by teh fire and watch the rain ..and maybe practise with my hand at painting on the computer ...I have a new wacom bamboo tablet with corel painter ...still in the learning stage ..those demos & tutorials make it look easy but ...but ...ok there are lots of buts ...and hows? ...and arhhhh! So there I was with a blank canvas and staring out the window with a bad case of "painters" block ...just as the sun was setting it was beautifully silhouetted against a large banksia tree and some dark clouds ...strongest of warm colours (almost the colours of the aboriginal flag) ...I had to go for it ...and it was easier than I expected. Choose the brushes (impasto followed by opaque arcylic), select & mix a couple of colours and wow ..you can push the colours around on the canvas just like real paint...not as hard as the instruction seem to make me believe.

I think I could get used to this!

the apron

the apron
Originally uploaded by sighclone

watercolour, pencils & felt pens on paper

Stop nagging me gmail!

I must admit once the sun comes out, I feel i'm well on the road to recovery ...ok a bit slower than before but my creative juices are starting to flow ...and I know I've missed a lot of conversations and posting but I get a guilty conscience whenever I look at my gmail account ... its nagging me ... UNREAD EMAILS ...UNREAD BUZZes ... buggar it they can stay unread ...sorry if they are yours ...I have my life to live ...those things that slipped under the cracks may just have to stay there

C'est la vie

Joanie sketch

Quick sketch, not exactly a torso, but close enough to two minutes. Testing out some new Neocolour II water soluable wax crayons, with some pencil and wash as well.

That is some cyber woman

You would have to admit that the cyberwoman on tonight's re-run of Torchwood, puts those cyber nasties on Dr Who to shame.

Auto vs manual

I've had time to review the tutorials that come with Corel Painter ...and i've tried out their auto paint and trace features ... the three images about were created in only a minute or two using avrious auto-paint options ...look they are effective but in the end I am unimpressed. The colours are nice in the modern painting example in the middle, close to those I might choose. But sadly the auto Van Gogh of the right is an embarrassment to the poor guys reputation, particularly the colours, also the watercolour sketch on the left lacks the transparency and delicacy that makes watercolour such an appealing medium.

Ok could I do better? I choose this photo, of a flickr friend, for a "two minute torso" exercise, that I have found enjoyable and a way to test out new techneques or just shapen up my work. so here is my first computer generated two minute torso (ok it did take more like 18minutes because I was still learn and doing a lout of s)

I used the chalk and pastel brushes because the marks they left where close yo want I get when sketching. So I started with my favorite pale blueish purple to start the shape of the mid tones, adding a couple of colours in the darks. When sketch I also often just have a few reference smudges or colour patches over on the edge so I can judge the relative tonal values

Next I added strong colour using a wide and fast infill squiggles. Then I got the blend tool and smoothed them into the previous areas.

I have repeated these last two steps several times, building up the form ...and i do like how it lets me do that ...however I gave up at this point ...normally about know I would put in a few "detail" lines with a pencil, generally with a quick open flourish ... just to bring a few key parts into detail ...alas my detail line work is still a bit clumsy and I was consigning all my work to the place (where ever that is)

So my final conclusion is I actually love the my bamboo fun tablet (it won't stop me painting of sketching conventionally) it is a terrific tool. Expect to see more or my work created with it, Yt I am unlilely to start selling my direct computer art anytime soon.

too much fun

I actually went to buy a new scanner (my old one died a far while ago, they don't seem to last for me) and I got side tacked by a slicky shinny thing called a bamboo fun. Its kind of a cross between a touch surface and a graphic pen tablet. It is just a few flat pieces of plastic molded together really, maybe heavier than it looks with a pen and a usb cable. I liked the black small ones but the bigger one only came in grey ... I really needed the room for my hand to flourish rather that colour cordination with my laptop ...so grey it was.

The really best part of the story is how easy it is to use. Take out of box and plug in ...not hard at all. Ok there is one big limitation as a mouse substitute it is really hopeless and clumsy ...or maybe I haven't got the hang of that part yet! Once I loaded up corel painter essentials which came as part of the deal I was hooked. I could rub with my finger press hard or soft with the pen. change the drawing "brush" from feltpen to soft pastel to a bristle brush, even a smudge. It was very natural ... so natural I haven't read the instruction manual yet (its on a pdf file somewhere) or the tutorial videos they can wait I'm having too much fun

sick of being sick

Being under the care of the medical profession is a time consuming business, and I'm so so sick of it. Clearly no one knows what is wrong, ok I've had all the test and scans & xrays but i just want someone to listen to me not the machines ...whinge over ...the drugs are making the symptoms bearable ...just

What I want want know is some time to be creative

oh yes and sorry for the lack of posts lately, I not one who likes to use excuses, maybe I can focus some that inspiration and creativity into more posts :)

The yellow bra in pastel

Pastel on Paper