Photography

I've reached a point in the course about photography. I've always taken loads of snapshots, but its a long time since I've really tried to create a photographic art work. I got out my old SLR and was about to rush off to buy film, when my youngest son pointed out that my digital SLR can actually be used manually. To my shame I'd never tried! After digging out the manual, he's absolutely right! 
I spent yesterday afternoon running around the garden experimenting with exposure and f numbers.


Here are the results on my wisteria buds. Pretty neat eh? Just got to work out what I did.......

Abstract?

This is my latest art work

No not really, it's the bottom of my watertray with 3 curly paperclips, I discovered it today all dried up and desicated, nice though!

More Prints

Well having said I'd given up, guess what happened, yes I made prints that I liked!

Light and dark- tonal exercise

Things have been a bit quiet on the production front this week. 
All my time has been spent making stencils and collagraphs and I have very little to show for it! I have spent a lot of time trying to get ink to do what I tell it and failed miserably...like a naughty child, it does not want to behave!
...so for a little light relief I spent the early hours of this morning doing pastels whilst listening to BBC Radio 4 on the internet.


The programme was "How the Mighty Have Fallen"!- a history of obesity!

The task was to copy an old master, concentrating on tone and shading.

This is a bit of Lucian Freuds "Benefits supervisor resting". 1994

I think I learnt a lot, especially about shadow and shading and highlights. It has pacified (for a while) my bizarre desire to paint a fat person. My teenager says its "disturbing".


On reflection I think she simply isn't fat enough!

Print making

I'd been looking forward to this section and as a wet weekend approached, went out and bought inks and bits and bobs to get started. After several hours I had very little to show for it, a few rather dismal blobs in horrid colours, not deserving of the term "monoprint". As I was clearing up, rather than waste ink I combined a couple of plates and like magic the following suddenly appeared.

I know they don't look much but they're a start!

These are my efforts at collagraphs

I got quite excited with how well the stitching came out, the little bits of cotton tails reminded me of IUCD strings, so I made a uterus for it to go in!

Then I got really over ambitious and thought a baby would look good.....

???twins.....maybe not!

Hands!

I'm struggling a bit at the moment.
Not sure where I'm going. Feel a bit flat. So I've decided to not think too much and just get into the habit of practice. "Practice makes perfect" Right?


Since I like doing figure work, getting all those arms and legs looking like arms and legs regardless of position is a challenge. Foreshortening (the technical term) I actually like! It really is what makes or breaks a picture or image. My mentor has given me some websites to check out. www.princetonol.com
www.posemaniacs.com    www.istockphoto.com
Interesting sites. I wish some of them had some real people though, old, fat, ugly!
I will definitely use posemaniacs, which I have shown my son, who is into manga drawings big time!


I have resorted to what feels comfortable and has that emotional link, which seems to be so important to motivate me. Sorry guys, its my family again!

  

Symbolism and Surrealism

Well this project was a bit of a challenge. I'm not used to having to imagine stuff. I wasn't much grabbed by the exercises suggested, but enjoyed browsing the internet looking at Dali, Picasso and a chap called Hieronymous Bosch (Dutch painter, 1450-1516 approx). What a fantastic name, our next guinea pig will definitely be Hieronymous, or possibly Jerome as apparently that is the English translation (not so much fun, but fine for a GP).

I particularly liked this painting

What amazing faces

I later found out that maybe he didn't paint it at all......possibly a "fake" a few hundred years later, still pretty good.

I decided I'd do a sort of modern parody, I liked the four in the corner and concentrated on them.

This my effort, I'd explain it but that wouldn't be in the true spirit of symbolism would it? I'm not too pleased by it, kind of lost interest a little half way through, but fun to try something different.

I miss my hubby

My husband is currently away, boy is the house quiet without him, no mess, no music, very calm....boring!!


I decided after the life portrait that I need a bit more practice on faces and eyes, and constantly thinking as I am of my loved one, I decided to paint him. I was thinking of 5 portraits, a sort of quintych, well we'll see....

This is him.

I'm quite pleased with it, isn't he gorgeous? Just another four weeks til he's back.

I've hung it up at the head of the breakfast bar, so he's with us when we eat!

and as for the eyes, I'm very happy with them.

Life drawing

Well having given up with the video/dvd. I thought I ought to at least try some life drawing.
I attempted some self portraits.  Well what a palava that is! How do artists do that???
Nowhere in my house is a mirror big enough for me to use easily.
The little mirrors all catch me a funny angles, with bizarre foreshortening, and how do you not get the camera in the picture?!  I guess I'll just have to talk someone into photographing me. I prefer to work from photos, the light doesn't alter (cheating I guess), but hey if it's available use it!!! You can't tell me Leonardo wouldn't have had a digital SLR!

I look as cross as I was!

Painting on alternative surfaces

This task I wasn't looking forward to, not because its not worthwhile, I have over the years painted all manner of things, murals, eggs, even scooters. But the DVDs just can't get the essence of life drawing, not their fault, but to have someone in the room, or even taking your own photo allows you to put you mark on the picture, move around, get your own angle. Doing work from the stills on the dvd isn't the same. If I learnt one thing in the last month its that I need some emotional tie to any picture/project I do. These didn't have much.


First the sketch

I liked the bottom half of her (no disrespect).


Then for the "alternate surface", feeling as uninspired as i did I grabbed a redundant box sitting in the corner, 

I enjoyed the way the legs curled around the box, the shiny surface made the paint slip around a little, I quite liked that too.

I added two strips of copper foil to the bottom, I think it picks up the colours and reflects the light. So after all that whinging I ended up with something not so bad!

Self portraiture

Next task is to produce a painting that says something about you, a self portrait in the loosest sense. I was only allowed two colours plus black and white.

I chose a beautiful cobalt turquoise that i saw on special when browsing the art shop and a burnt umber.

I really didn't know where to begin, after a few false starts I just went with the colour.

it so reminded me of windy seascapes, I began to think of Cornwall where I used to live.

I remembered all those fantastic books I used to read to the kids, MIchael Foreman, Michael Morpurgo. I got out some old photos and had a go at St Ives wharf, Alfred Wallis style.

Just playing really but then the picture below arrived.  I love it! It sums up my dreams and my past and my future. Not happy with the faces, but then you try doing skin tones with just white and brown!

The quote is from a Jack Johnson song (credit to him), and in the song is "Love is the answer, at least to all the questions in my heart." God I wish I could write lines like that!

Light on the human form

This is my first life model assignment, taken from a static image from a life modeling DVD.
I'm pleased with the colours and happy with the skin colour in particular. I like painting people, such a challenge. I found some good internet sites, plenty of inspiration out there.
I like Lucien Freud, I like that his portraits aren't beautiful, yet they still are!

Art Course

I've decided to keep a blog of my art course, a relection of my struggles, haha.
I am doing a distance learning course, which means the internet and blogs are a useful source of inspiration.
I started a month ago and would like to document how it goes..

Would be interested to have any feedback