More progress

All the pencil work is done. I've kept to simple line work in most areas and only slightly hinted at where the deep shadows will be to keep the watercolour clean and not contaminated by the pencil lead.

Colour-wise I shall attempt a more restrictive palette, maybe just four colours. Having just read James Gurney's brilliant 'Color And Light' it seemed the right thing to do if I want a more harmonious colour scheme. Also I will be more wary of the colour reflecting into the shadows which could be a challenge.

Progress Shot

Progress can be slow when you're having to work on other things at the same time, however I have managed to get started on the final piece for my Brian Jacques homage.

To the left you can see my initial sketch and the reversed and enlarged print of that sketch that I used to trace and then transfer onto the stretched paper (right). As you can see I've just started to reinstate the details with pencil on the final piece.

Rest In Peace Brian Jacques

 
I was shocked when I heard about sad passing of Brian Jacques, author of the superb Redwall series. I pretty much grew up on his books so I felt the only way I could honour his life was to create some art!

Above is my first foray with pencils. I'm planning to work on this is in Watercolour and Gouache keeping the palette restricted but warm.

Rockwell's America In England, Dulwich Picture Gallery

Last week I finally visited the Norman Rockwell Exhibition in Dulwich. WOW!!!! What an artist. I thought I knew his art reasonably well from books but seeing the original work blew away any preconceptions I had.

One thing which surprised me most was the seemingly random scale he worked. In his 'Norman Rockwell Visits A Ration Board' I was amazed to see how small it was (13 1/2" x 23 1/2") akin to Millais' 'Isabella'. Hung nearby was a famous Christmas Saturday Evening Post cover 'Knight Looking In Stained Glass Window' which was massive in comparison at 44 1/4" x 34 1/4". The smaller painting contained much more detail and depth but the larger was more striking and impressive even though it was for a magazine. Maybe Rockwell had more time at his disposal for the Christmas image and possibly hung the canvas in the festive season, who knows?

The technique was sublime and characters rich. I could barely move for fellow gallery goers gasping (say that after a few shandies) then laughing, running over to a friend and pointing out something new.

The setting was rather nice too. Dulwich is a very upmarket pat of South London, crammed full of parks, colleges, and what look like to me, mansions. While I was sat outside waiting for a certain somebody to come back from a tea hunt I took this panoramic. Not five minutes after I had packed my camera away a fox shot right across the grounds, just my luck. I'm afraid you'll have to imagine it in the photo.

Click here for some videos about the exhibition.

Experimentation

At a want for a mangle printing press I tested out a theory today that I've had swilling about in my barren brain after seeing Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. For the moment I'm going to keep quiet about the process but I can show you the results.

There are lots of elements that need revising but overall I'm quite pleased with the final outcome. Unfortunately there was a good amount of tweaking done on photoshop which can take away from the textured plate tone so somehow I have to get the image near finished before digitizing.

Right I'm off to look up the PPPs (printing press prices) :-D

More roundtable artwork...

I was fortunate enough to work on another article in the same magazine issue 'Euro Humpty Dumpty' featured in. Top you can see how the portraits were laid out in MT and above is my favourite portrait so far, he's called Steve Walters.

In comparison to my earlier attempt at the roundtable feature this one was much more successful. I can categorically put this down to better reference photos. I don't know if a professional photographer was used during the session but it looked to me as though a quality camera took the photos rather than a mobile phone. Previously I used reference from a mobile which was a bit of a struggle, the contrasts were poor and often a lot of facial features were blurred.

See Dan dos Santos' post on Muddy Colors about the benefits of good reference models.

Humpty Dumpty Euro final artwork

Here is the final coloured artwork that was worked up from the roughs in my previous post. I was up against it during the whole process for these three illustrations, so there are a few things (albeit small things) in each illos that scream 'YOU COULD HAVE DONE BETTER!' but on the plus side at least I can paint a nice brick wall under pressure.

The main illustration at the top was the last thing I worked on - save the best till last and all that. I decided early on, before adding watercolour, to brush in a burnt sienna acrylic underpainting to give the background a warm haze that would react well with ultramarine washes in the shadows. This technique is something I have been developing and hoping to incorporate more into further work. For the reflected light on the windows I used a pale mixture of cerulean and titanium white gouache.

Time-saving and/or multi-tasking

Often I find myself (as do most people with other jobs, kids and responsibilities) working on sketches whenever possible. This could mean while you wait for the bus or are sat on the train, in a pub or just simply waiting for the washing machine to finish. I haven't quite got to the point of leaving a sketchbook by the toilet but I keep one in my faithful rucksack so it's always handy.

A case in point would these roughs I worked up stood at the counter of an art shop. I wasn't a customer waiting patiently in line, instead I was on the other side taking advantage of a lull in people buying peel off stickers. Without the time to do a million and one thumbnails I stuck with my first idea which is more often than not the better.

Stay tuned for the final artwork in the next edition of 'Don't tell the boss I draw during work time!'

Happy New Year!

Phewy! Now that the festive season is over we can all go back to normality except normality for me includes a mortgage. Wohoo! (I'm not being sarcastic, I'm actually pleased)

Heres what I was working on coming up to Christmas 2010:

They are portraits for a regular debate feature- the 'Roundtable' in Management Today Magazine. The style is in keeping with a previous Roundtable illos. However I stuck to using watercolour with pen and ink because it's often best to use a familiar medium when doing portraits, a single mistake can throw a likeness completely.

Ainulindale Finished

The painting is now finished, I transferred the 'singing heads' then thinly added highlights with Titanium White. I await the final verdict (scary stuff)...

P.s Happy Birthday Emily :-)