stop by and have a coffee

As well helping out as a real barista, i've been playing with a new web 2.0 toy thingo .. called digsby, not sure how to describe it but is sits on my computer and monitors my social network stuff (ok not flickr) but it has a neat little widget (its down on the right a bit) that gives me a little chat window ...so i've made it into a virtual cafe, where you can order coffee, or anything really, and have a chat (it know when i'm online and when I'm not) ... so stop by and say hello

some pencil work

soft pencil on paper

How sweet it is

I have been thinking about using honey as a paint medium ... yes it does make a really sticky transparenty mess by itself ... but then i read this, and tried adding some bricklayers oxide (used to colour mortar and cement) ... the honey takes up the oxide beautifully and it dilutes done to some a wonderfully natural colour ... the washes take a while to dry but that only makes it better to work with ...i think i am onto something wonderful here, but like so many of my discoveries the old master where onto to all this ages ago.

new palette

pastel over watercolour wash on paper
I've decided I needed to change my watercolour pallette, both the palette itself (the new one is a lot bigger) an the colours, with a cool and warm version of each of the primary colours. my aim is to get better washes under skin tones. whilst this sketch is finished with pastel the underpainting is watercolour washes in my primaries 9see the bar/test strip at the top of the sketch. indian, red, crimson and ultra marine all very dilute ... then some cad yellow in with the indian red as a slightly heavbier glaze

the radiant rose

pastel over watercolour wash on paper

loving the feel of pastels

i showed a couple of artist mates the open shirt ... and we quickly got in a deep technical discussion about using pure pigments over a wash ground ...and the importance of the pastel pigments, and their bindings ...ok i wont bore you ...what i discovered is already well known ... pure pigment pastels, and being australian, i use naturally art spectrum range, over a coloured ground is essentially mixing the colour on the art work itself .. it adds to the vibrancy ...mixing the same colours in paint on a palette first tends to muddy the colour, the more contributing colours in the mix, the more media used the duller the resulting colour. Using thin washes and glazes of one colour over another is another way to achieve this but no where near as rich as the pure pigment results



ok i'm not claiming to be einstien or anything ... its just nice to be able to understand why and how the colour works ... so here are a couple of videos I found on You Tube to verify that what I stumble onto is legit art, and already know by the real artists ...maybe its a my right of passage, or something similar, into secret artist business ... as Gauguin once said with the research comes the ecstacy and satisfaction of art

the open shirt

exploring the power of colour as tone, ...colour as passion and arousal ...the open shirt with its glimpse of the desirable must become art for arts sake

adoring the colours

Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitary use of colour to express myself more forcefully ... To express the love of two lovers by the marriage of two complementary colours ... To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light tone against a dark background. To express hope by some star. Someone's passion by the radiance of the setting sun.

thus explainded Vincent Van Gogh

...could not have expressed it better myself ... but maybe what i enjoyed most was getting my hands dirty again

refinding the lines

things are still somewhat blurry and strong back lighting is both a painful to look at and so beautiful to see.

blogging again

after what seemed an eternity in the darkness I am back on the road to recovery, just impatient to actually do stuff and live my life ... eat drink (sketch) and be merry .. that kind of stuff ...dark glasses, darkened rooms and just pens and scrap paper aren't really living ...buggar it time for a decent coffee ...and buy some art materials

from sketch to paint

same model & pose as my previous 3 minute torso

red rose

watercolour on paper

the painting class

bedroom eyes

watercolour on paper

(3 minute) Torso

I'm back out in the open air and wanting to paint ... so i thought I'd start off with a two minute torso exercise... well it took more like three ... but such is life

Fauv'ing it up

my first foray in paint .. well paints and crayons, was turning very boring ... then cincy's webcam went kind of solarized and changed to aqua-bluish tones ... it gave me an idea to paint her as two side ... one hot ...one cool ...ok ...and then the colour got away from me ...a fauve moment!

bodyscape

retracing a few steps

my vision is returning in jumps and start ... maybe fogs and mists dispersing is a better description, but my right eye is still very prone to infection and clags up frequently ...this is an excellent excuse not to go shopping (yet again) ... so yesterday .... or was it the day before? ...I found myself trying my arm at sketching from the web once more ... was fun, even though the sketch was hazy ... I felt I was back on the way to being creative again

my big day out

i have finally done it ... gone out by myself ...even used public transport and no one seemed to notice my bleariness ... it was such a big thing ... means i am on the mend

I don't mean to be ungrateful, i have been looked after very well ... i;m just yearning for bloke stuff ... not shopping malls and endless conversations about relationships ... just a beer and a yarn about sailing or sport ...and meals with meat!

well i made it got to my destimation and home again :) life can be a series of small steps.

watching art grow

if you are into trhe performance of painting ... there are a few good "time lapse" videos of works in progress ... and Paul Cumes does a few good ones (like this). Just not sure why he needs the glove?