Have Some Fun!

It's important to have some fun with your work every now and then. I should try to follow that mantra more frequently but deadlines get in the way of sketching for fun.

HOWEVER... I took the day off yesterday and did a bit of plein air watercolour painting by a bridge in the Bowood estate at the back of my house. Perhaps painting is not the right word, more sketching with a brush in the hope that the more colour I add it will look better. Maybe I didn't succeed but it was still fun and very relaxing.

Alternatively if you want the end product to be good without having to think about it you can always copy something, I think they call it Fan Art.

As part of my rough sketches stage for my recent painting of North Parade Bridge I had to come up with a creature design for my hidden Greek Goblins. I thought to myself I need to get my monster juices flowing so after dismissing the usual options (get bitten by a super spider, expose myself to extreme super power inducing radiation and declining a drink from Dr Jekyll) I decided to do a smaller copy of a Paul Bonner creation. Needless to say copying got me in the mood for producing an original design which I was rather pleased with.

Bath Prize 2012 Painting Finished

I finally finished my painting of North Parade Bridge yesterday after blocking in the trees and adding a camouflaged Kobalos (Greek Goblin) of which I have shown in a detail below.

Little Owl Under North Parade Bridge

Watercolour

 

Detail

Bath Prize 2012 'WIP' Part 3

It's starting to come together now with my painting of North Parade Bridge, everything that I've posted so far is now close to being finished which has enabled me to make a start on the overhanging leaves.

You can see I've laid some tracing paper over the sky so I can sketch the basic outline of where the leaves and the odd branch are going. I shall then transfer the outline and draw with a brush instead to avoid obvious pencil lines.

In other news, mixed media artist Carmen B Norris has posted photographs of the Swindon Open Studios event from last weekend - click here to view them. Don't forget the Open Studios shall be on this weekend too so if you're nearby please drop in.

Bath Prize 2012 'WIP' Part 2

I've been gradually scratching away with a paintbrush this week. Below you can see how the painting has been progressing.

Don't forget you can come and see the painting in person and the artist attached to it this Sunday at the Swindon Open Studios in the Reference Library (rear of Central Library).

Bath Prize 2012 'WIP'

I've just started laying in some colour for my Bath Prize entry. As you can see the sky is very clear which hopefully will provide a nice back drop to the over hanging branches I hope to add once everything else is painted.

In my previous post regarding this piece I eluded to a certain creatures appearing in the composition. I have decided to add references to the Goddess Minerva as a golden head which once made up a large Roman statue of Minerva was uncovered in the Roman Baths of the city in 1727. The head is magnificent and I hope to produce more art to do with the artifact.

The references I have included are a small owl also known as Athena Noctua (Athena was the Greek goddess who eventually became known as Minerva in Ancient Rome). The Owl represents wisdom and as you can see the owl is very wise to not hang around as Kobalos (Greek Goblins) are eyeing it hungrily.

On a slightly different note I shall be taking part in the Swindon Open Studios this Sunday 9th and 16th in the Swindon town centre Library 11am-3pm. Click here for more information.

Finished Illustration For A Children's Book...

To follow up my previous post (click here), I can now show you the finished illustration.

I ending up working with ultramarine watercolour as an under-painting which can work fantastically well when you glaze colours on top, especially if you want a cool 'night time' atmosphere. So lots of thin glazes later I was finally able to build up the darker colours in the tree and the grass. I've found by building up the same colour wet-in-wet in clumps I can give a convincing impression of grass tufts.

For the finishing touches I used gouache, particularly on the fur highlights and the odd blade of grass.

Illustration For A Children's Book...

Previously I have posted a map for a children's book and now I can show you the beginnings of an interior colour illustration for the same book.

Above you can see the two roughs I produced to flesh out my favourite thumbnail sketch. On the top is a line drawing designed to show where it character appears in the composition, beneath that is a smaller sketch that outlines the basic values in the composition.

I quickly came to realise that a simple 3 value structure would apply to this painting - dark foreground, mid-tone middle-ground and light background. Dan dos Santos has done a fantastic post about this compositional technique on Muddy Colors.

So here we have a more detail sketch which shows the value structure I was after. As you can see the car has done a disappearing act and the main characters have been enlarged and their poses tweaked.

Hopefully in the next week I will get permission to show you the finished illustration.

'Lansdown Road' Watercolour Finished

Despite the very long intervals in-between painting 'Lansdown Road' I finally completed it a few weeks ago. I'm sorry I haven't posted the finished piece earlier, for some reason I thought I already had! 

All in all I'm quite pleased with the final results although maybe I could have pushed the contrasts a bit even though it is supposed to be a hazy spring morning.

(Detail: can you see the seagulls? They really were there!!)

The Bath Prize 2012

Already it's that time of year again, I can't believe it's close to a year since my success in the Bath Prize competition. For those of you who missed the call for entries there is still time to sign up and get your personal location to paint. For more information click here, the deadline is the 16th of September.

As for me I shall of course be entering. My assigned location is North Parade Bridge which is the next bridge down river from Pulteney Bridge. North Parade Bridge might not be as picturesque but the potential to create a striking composition by using it's large river spanning arch is clear. I visited the bridge with my camera one Sunday morning and managed to take same interesting shots. I particularly like the water reflections on the underside of the bridge and the resulting shadow being cast on the river and down the far bank-side.

Even though all I have managed so far is a thumbnail (above) I'm confident I can produce a watercolour that has lots of nice contrasts and a strong composition. I'm also planning to include something flying under the bridge and a few other slightly hidden creatures.

For those of you who would like to sample what the Bath Prize previous winners have to offer, get yourselves to the opening of the 'Best Of Bath Prize' exhibition in the Stall Street gallery in Bath. There is also an evening event in the gallery on Friday 24th, unfortunately I cannot be there.

Lansdown Road WIP

I've had this painting on the back burner so long that it's starting to congeal. However during my stint in the 'Best Of The Bath Prize gallery on Saturday I took the opportunity to get stuck into the shadow work on the right side.

The end is in sight, one more full day and it's done but I'm not sure when that shall occur as I need to start my entries for this years Bath Prize. More on that later.