Project LV One – Day 244 – Mary and Joseph

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Guthlac

Ink drawing of Woman

So it is Christmas and I had prepared a great piece on another grey day in paradise – unfortunately as I write this there are blue sky outside so that sort of destroys the starting point.  However, the main thrust of what I was going to say still stands true – we in Britain do live in as close a proximation to paradise as you can get for a human being.  This is not to down play the great social problems we suffer and it is reasonable to suggest that evil does from time to time visit this green and pleasant land.   However, when we consider what many of our human brothers and sisters are enduring today – today is another day in paradise.

Some might be risking their lives on the seas of the eastern Mediterranean – knowing that there is a great chance they may never see land again yet compared from where they came that is a chance worth living.  Or perhaps the young children in west Africa who have been orphaned by the ebola disease. Or maybe the many millions in India who have to struggle just to make enough money just to feed themselves let alone their children.

I could go on but I think that would be labouring the point as I am sure you get the picture.  We have so many things to be thankful for here in the rich and prosperous west that we forget how lucky we are to be born here.  Many people in this country criticise the Royal because of their great wealth and influence by accident of birth but in truth we all have the same luck – just ask the huddled masses at Calais.

So whilst you are enjoying yourself today then spare a thought for the many not so lucky around the world.  Be truly thankful for the bounty that this world has given to you and remember this day was the start of a journey that ended with some being nailed to a cross for all of us.  Yes Christmas is the festival to celebrate the arrival of the son of god.  Whether you believe that or not is another matter.  What isn’t is that we should thank whoever we feel reasonable for our good fortune, however small.  There are many more out there who have it much worse than us.

Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you have a great time.

Man in Profile

 

 

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Project LV One – Day 243 – My and Rene

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Guthlac

Model head - colour

Anyone examining my Pinterest boards will notice that over the past few weeks I have been taken by the work of René Gruau.  I find his simple use of line and colour very appealing.

Pocahuntas

If you had read yesterday’s blog you will also know that I hold the artists who worked for the Disney animation studio in high regard.  They have a similar approach to René Gruau in that tried to distill the character they were animating down to very simple lines.  Of course the reason is that, when making a movie, the drawings had to be reproduced by their thousands and so any complicated design or colours would have made any sense of continuity in the movie nonsensical.

Peter DinklageWhich brings me to Peter Dinklage.  I made this drawing earlier on today.  He has such an angular face that it well suits the way I draw.  The connection between the three?  None really other than they were all made this morning.  Maybe one day someone might want to make some of it, which I doubt but never say never, until that day arrives the drawings should stand on their own.  To quite a rather hapless Tory minister, “End of”.

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Project LV One – Day 242 – Jungle Book

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Guthlac

Jungle Book Group

There is something satisfying about copying genius.  Many art historians would dismiss the work of Disney animators as merely illustrators but this would be so wrong.  If you examine the art work closely it has the simplicity of design, these were in the time of hand drawings and colouring, yet they were flexible enough to be able to portray the emotions of the characters.

I was thinking along these lines when I started watching Disney’s Jungle Book this afternoon (the first time in a very long time a real oversight on my part) .  Today it is very easy just to use stock images to create a background upon which to manipulate the computer generated imagery, back then every thing had to be drawn and hand coloured.  The time consuming nature of this leant to the lean drawing style of Disney and within this environment some of the most influential artists of the 20th century flourished.  They may not be as well known as some of the so called ‘greats’ of 20th century art but there work has touched and influenced more people through out the world – the original ‘pop art’?  Perhaps.

 

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Project LV One – Day 241 – Painting

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Guthlac

Hazel 007

One of the joys of being a relative neophyte, if you can be such a thing – neophyte is probably a binary state but I digress, when it comes to art is that you just take things as they are.   I’ve done my bit for Queen and country and now it is time for me to explore things I have never done before is probably the best way to describe why I make art.  However, on my travels through this exotic and strange world I have come to realise that art is the way that many people make their living and they have a rather intimate relationship to their studio – something I have to say I don’t have.  This thought has been rattling around my head ever since I read  a recent blog written by my friend David Manley as he says goodbye to his old studio.

I have never seen my studio as a work place, somewhere I go to find camaraderie and inspiration but clearly for many people, I guess that David is not alone in the appeal of the studio, it is far more than somewhere to paint and make a mess doing it with out too many worries.  Perhaps I still am a  neophyte after all.

Pallett

Talking of painting those of you who pop along to this blog from time to time will have notice I am working on Hazel again.  I would love to say that I suddenly had a rush of inspiration as to how to rescue a rather disappointing painting but the truth is much more mundane than that – I just couldn’t leave it sitting on my easel in the state I had left it.  So rather than high flying imagination just a sullen realisation that I just couldn’t leave it like that.  I’ll let you decide which is the truer artistic impulse.

 

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Project LV One – Day 240 – Up with the lark

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Guthlac

Amy Adams

When you have nothing to say then say nothing.

 

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Project LV One – Day 238 & 239 – The Radical Nude

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Guthlac

Nude Woman and Horse

A combination of things meant that I didn’t post anything yesterday – these things happen.

Hazel - Final

 

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Project LV One – Day 237 – Onedin Line

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Guthlac

Silly Face

Busy old day doing al sorts of things so everything a bit of a rush – listening to Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia as I write this – not sure why I mentioned this but there we are.

 

 

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Project LV One – Day 236 – Have a Nice Day

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Guthlac

In the Shadow of War

I certainly did whilst visiting the Djanogly art gallery at the University of Nottingham.  The banana was nice as well – which is more than can be said for the website…not good not good at all.

Cup and Bana Skin

 

 

 

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Project LV One – Day 235 – I am a Rock

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Guthlac

Marco Polo - Kubla Khan

Hiding in my room,
safe within my womb.

Paul Simon

I don’t know why but these few works fascinate me…silly really but there we go.  Yesterday I spent too much my time watching the latest Netflix blockbuster Marco Polo.  It really is a strange mix of Kung Fu movie meets Game of Thrones (GOT) and follows the exploits of Marco Polo at the court of   Kublai Khan.  It is utterly preposterous but this isn’t the series main faults.  No the faults can be summed up in two parts:  Firstly it is six episodes squeezed into 10 – really some of the episode in the centre are not worth mentioning (IMO); Secondly, and I guess this is the biggy,  we know what happens in the end – Khan becomes emperor of China, starting the Yuan dynasty, his son never becomes emperor nor does his scheming ‘littlefinger’ finance minister and finally Marco Polo comes back to the west.  These are not plot spoilers but know historical facts.  Compared to Game of Thrones, where nobody knows the end as it has yet to be written, there is no tension.

Beyond these flaws it is a good old sex and violence romp with a new twist on the sexpolitation movie, technically speaking I guess Polo should be classed as soft porn, where in an early episode one of the lead characters fights three soldiers who have been sent to rape her by her brother, GOT again, in the nude which includes some very interesting use of cart wheels.  Another high point is Benedict Wong‘s Henry the eigthesque portrayal of Kublai Khan. Unfortunately, the women’s roles tend to be there primarily to get their kit off in one form or another, which is a shame as they seem to have some rather good female actors.  Another fun game you can play is try an guess the nationality of the east Asian actors from their accents – I never really knew that 13th century China had so many different accents in the court of the great Khan.

All in all this is a really silly but watchable load of nonsense.  It will never be a classic but there are far far worse series on TV so if you have access to Netflix and you want park you brain at the door there are far worse things to watch than this.

Man in Hat

On a different note the second image has nothing to do with Marco Polo also I wish I had through through my positioning of the sketch of Kublai Khan!  Such is life.

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Project LV One – Day 234 – Old man take a look at my life

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Guthlac

Old mand with cow Skull

Christmas is coming and so we see the end of another art class with the usual sense of disappointment, not in the teaching or my fellow students but in myself.  I come away always feeling that I could have done so much better.  I haven’t made a photographic image of my work from today so instead I have included three little sketches I made, one of which is the tutor giving a demo.

Geoff demo-2 Geoff demo

Why is it that I find far more satisfaction from these than any major piece I may embark on?  Why indeed.

 

 

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