Having second thoughts?

pastel over watercolour on paper

My latest on-line project to hand drawn selfies posted by others, seemed like a good idea at the time, but has not meet with much enthusiasm. Perhaps it is was too many naked breast and just the whole nudity thing corresponding the leaking of a lot of naked instagram and snapchat celebrity images. I hope not.

Anyway I would appreciate conmments and feed back on weather sketching selfies is art? or whether it is even appropriate for the public social web?

PleaseArtMySelfie on tumblr
Selfie sketch book on flickr (I'm considered UNSAFE so you will need a flickr account to see me)

You might also find me on google+

I'm tweeting a bit again

“Forget the LOLcats put some #art on your favorite #screen today” http://t.co/pmBLqpXexe pic.twitter.com/sysMSZchVe
— norton elissen (@sighclone) October 20, 2014

One place you can find me is on twitter. Even though I do feel "I am shouting into the void" I can see this is a legitimate place to reach a larger community of potential art appreciators

Pastel progress

The underside of the social web

I know I haven't been posting in here much, I am still drawing and enjoying life. It was just that I was having a welcome, albeit long, break from the havoac of trolls and hackers. Luckily blogger's comment spam filter did a good job sending a lot of low life stuff into libo. I do apologize to the few wonderful people who's true comments where also quarentined. They are now back on public display.

The saddest thing about this is I don't really care, but I do understand how powerless you can feel. I think the lesson remains "don't feed the trolls" (without the oxygen of exposure and response they wither away)

Is the selfie the new art form of this millenia?

Gouache on card

charcoal smudges

Experiments in Gouache

Pastel Play

Keep on sketching

#Hashtag Congestions

 

I'm changing my sketching hashtag from #shortblack => #espresso to avoid continually crashing into @Sandra_Sully 's news sheet, sorry sandra
— norton elissen (@sighclone) July 16, 2014

Sketching is good for your health

The social networks have changed a lot while I have been giving them a rest, they seem to be a heck of a lot of ego and stalking rather than a place of collaboration and conversation, but it might just be me missing the point. However I have found the discipline of sharing one sketch a day (well almost daily) very rewarding and should I think it is better for my health. That 10 to 15 minutes of concentrated seeing and mark making and appreciating a good coffee has done good thing for my blood sugar and pressure, but perhaps less so for my waistline (ok I am exercising as well, weather permiting)

You can watch me on twitter @sighclone or on Flickr in my short black & inspired album.

Posemanics for gestures sketches

For those that are fans of quick gesture sketching. It is fun and good for your health as well as your artistic skills. I have found a get website called Posemanics, which gives you a wide variety of poses and just 30 seconds to perform them (you can set the time longer but only two 90seconds)

Did you miss me?

Its been over a year since I've visted here, thought I'd better get rid of the cobwebs. I can see a lot of links are broken (c'est la vie) but I thought it is time to get posting some sketching again. I have begun over on twitter with a shortblack series most days I will post a simple quick gesture sketch. and if the work out I might post them on flickr in an album called short black & inspired

#shortblack and #torso #sketch #pencildrawing WARNING #nudity pic.twitter.com/5RRQoh1vd9
— norton elissen (@sighclone) June 23, 2014

See you around

Buggar, I must have disturbed the trolls nest again

Hmmmmm, by all the returned emails it looks like some hackers are trawling through my old yahoo account contact addressed and somehow impersonating me on gmail. So if you get a group email from me, Its unlikely to be me and don't click on the link in the emails

SO  STAY  SAFE  FOLKS

Hello ..again

It has been a long long time since I posted it here. Too long! I'd moved to pastels some time ago and loved them as a rapid medium, you sketch and paint at the same time but... I could never get the detail I wanted and I always seemed to struggle trying to finish them, and instead I would ruin them with overworking. So my pastels where put aside for a while. Recently I have been inspired to return to the 2 minute torso idea, ok this is more of a gesture sketch (taking a fair bit longer than 2 minutes) and figured if I started smaller and didin't get fixated with the gradient of skin tone and detail, and more importantly stopped before it was to late I might have a chance of doing better and I must admit I am charmed by my fist attempt at a 10 minute toso pose and a shy first time model.

The impressionist knew that shadow colour was all important and how we interpret skin tone has as much to do with the colours in the shadows as it does to the very brightest colours in the areas of highlights  Blue, mauve and purple under a light pink or ochre may not be for everyone but the cool shadows then doesn't distract from the warm highlights.

Returning to the torso

I must admit updating this blog has been a low priority, and unfortunately my painting and sketching time has also suffered. So i'm starting back slowly. This "half torso" took me considerable longer than 2 minutes But I had fun.

experiments in skin tone

It would appear every artist has their own recipe, often kept very secret, to getting decent skin tone. I have previously blundered along doing everything in "full colour", sometimes a little luridly so. Lately I'm becoming taken with the idea of many washes in similar if not the same colour/tone. I feel it brings a luminosity to any watercolour. The great master of the many washes was John Sell Cotman and the more I read about his work the more I love the technique. Recently I bought some of Windsor and Newton's Cotman Range, they may only be "student" quality to some but they do definitely have beautiful coverage in washes, and particularly the yellow ochre, which I think bring a delicious goldenness to skin tones and at the same time doesn't muddy the other colours (which I have found previously in more expensive paints) Anyway I've been experimenting and I think I have come across a set of four colours that really do give great skin tones. I trust John Sell is not turning in his grave. Another watercolourist I really admire is Norman Lindsay, but no one yet has come out with a range of his colours, that I'm aware of.

Long time no post

I must apologize, it has been so long since I posted here I had forgotten how to do it. Maybe it was made harder by changes in google+. No worry. Its time to get inspired by the torso again and do some serious art. Here I have a wonderful model and I have been experimenting with more and "thinner" washes.In this case i got the paper so wet it crinkled badly as it dried, maybe 130gsm next time. All the same I like the delicacy of tone that comes with more than one wash is the same basic colour.

Not a 2 minute torso by any means, but one I am proud of. all the same