I have decided to work on a really complicated painting of Galadriel from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It may well take me some time to complete as I have decided to make this a photorealistic digital painting.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings
Starting to think about Hares…again. I was examining many of the paintings of Hares and the one thing that I have noticed is that many artists play fast and loose with the anatomy of the European Hare. Of course this doesn’t matter unless they are trying to make realistic images. So I’ve gone back to basics and started to look at skeletal structure of the Hare. Way too early to say whether this is going to lead to anything.
First things – medical report – still feeling the effects of the autumn bug I’ve picked up – I thought that I was feeling a lot better yesterday and soon found that I wasn’t as well as I thought. Such is life.
Anyway, this morning I was wondering around the garden and I saw that the vine leaves had turned into a wonderful russet red with marvellous golden veins so I just had to capture this – I used both my ageing iPhone and my Canon G1x. It is really interesting to use two different cameras in such a small space as they give the user different creative options – well they would if my favourite app KitCam would work. Unfortunately it no longer wants to on my iPhone – whether this is down to iOS 7 or the age of the phone or both I have no idea. All I know is that at the moment it isn’t working however as I have other photo apps this isn’t a problem.
The approaches you have to a subject with each camera is very different. The iPhone is looking at making the final image in camera with the aid of whatever app you use. The Canon is more about capturing a clean image for post production in Photoshop. Of course the image quality of the Canon is outstanding when compared to the iPhone – and this is is the case with any smartphone given the compromise of sensor size and the glass or plastic used for the lens. Smartphones are, after all, incredible general computers designed to deliver all manner of services to the user rather than specifically designed machines with only one purpose. Nonetheless, both have their place and it really is interesting to use then side by side from time to time – if all the apps work that is.
Still not 100% but getting better…doodling today and suddenly I found myself going all Chinese – apologies to any Chinese artists who might come across this doodle !
Simon Marchini
http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk
Most of the time News Corp is able to hide it’s own self interest but there are times, no matter how much they try, the need to spin things in News Corps favour wins out. One such occasion is the on going dispute over European Rugby Union competition. For those of you who may not be aware the dispute is between the English and French clubs and the rest of the Rugby playing countries within the current competition structure. There are many sticking points but needless to say it is all about money and who controls the game, which probably are two side of the same coin.
This dispute has been dragging on for ages and yesterday there was a meeting in Dublin intended try and resolve things. As a result of the meeting the following headlines were produced by the leading Rugby reporting papers of England:
“New European Cup Finally Agreed” – The Times
There is one more piece of evidence you must know before judging the validity of these headlines. The current European competition is broadcast by Sky Sports, 40% owned by News Corp. News Corp also owns The Times. The new Anglo-French competition would not have Sky Sports as their broadcaster. With this in mind now reread the headlines and ask yourself which paints a picture that favours the current status quo.
To be fair to the Times there report does highlight that there are still some sticking points i.e control of the competition and the broadcasting rights but this is well down the report. And yes these are still the biggest sticking points as this is all about the money and who controls it – so perhaps you might have thought they should have come a lot higher in the piece. However, the headline really does reflect any of this and would lead the casual reader to think that everything has been sorted. It clearly hasn’t.
As with everything we have personal prejudices and I’m no different. I believe that BT Sport’s coverage of the Rugby this year has been first rate. They have thrown money at it and have added real interest to the sport. Sky has always seen Rugby as adjunct to their real bread and butter – Premiership Football and really let things slide. Should BT Sports get more Premiership Football then this balance may change but at the moment they are the home of Rugby Union club competition.
It is amazing what a bit of competition can do to improve things and this is what BT Sports appear to be doing. Plus they have just as deep pockets as News Corp so won’t be bullied by them like all the other rivals have in the past. Long may this continue. However, when your competition owns much of the print media you can expect things to get a little rough if you go up against News Corp’s self interest.
As for the pawns in all this European Rugby Union we have reached the point which was always going to happen. The professional clubs need money to progress and the freedom to go out and generate that money. This means that the old structures, those run by the national unions, are going to collapse, possibly along with a number of the current clubs over which they preside. What will probably come out of all this is a British Isles, the geographical term for the archipelago off the west coast of mainland Europe, club competition and a French club competition. They, in turn, will play each other at a European level. It will take some time to get to this point and there will be an awful lot of blood spilt along the way but it is the only way forward. As for the national unions – well their role will be to look after the amateur and International games as well as law making and refereeing. The professional game will be left to it’s own devices.
Simon Marchini
www.simonmarchini.co.uk
It’s mid afternoon now and I’m starting to feel a little frail (perhaps too much of the drama queen about that me thinks!) But I’m really feeling a lot better which is a great thing. The only problem with this is that today has been such a wonderful day outside I just want to get out – which is not the best thing for my recovery. I should feel a lot better tomorrow just in time for the rain and winds to return. Such are the the cards that life deals.
The sketch is another from today’s attempt to try and do something. This time a neo- classic male nude
So day two of the bug I’ve picked somewhere and I am starting to feel a whole lot better – certainly a lot better to how I felt yesterday when I felt really weak. No doubt many woman out there would have ploughed on regardless but that is whole different story. As for me this seems to be a recurring problem – every autumn I pick up something that takes a while to go away. There really isn’t anything you can do about these things – as my doctor will testify – other than keep warm, take plenty of fluids and let nature take its course – which of cause it will.
Anyway, just to show how much better I’m feeling today I made this little life drawing sketch – it is something I just couldn’t motivate myself to do yesterday.
I am sure I’ve written about this before but I am always amazed where creativity comes from. This sense of wanting to make something that wasn’t there before is, perhaps, one of the defining elements of what makes us humans. Other creatures may have some form of self awareness but none as far as I’m aware takes the next step and creates some abstract thing out of that awareness. We humans do.
This afternoon I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do so I just sat down with a pen and paper and just let my mind wonder – suddenly these ‘masterpieces‘ appeared. Where did they come from? Of course you can be rational and place the source as the subconscious – that maelstrom of being of which we have no real knowledge yet drives us forward in many strange ways. But is that all there is – competing neurones randomly firing to create the spark of an idea? Or is there something more, something beyond our understanding helping to shape our ideas? This would seem to me to be the essence of the debate about the Devine and I have to say that the thought of something beyond me guiding me doesn’t feel that satisfactory. It suggests predeterminism and if that is the case then what is point of life at all if we are just going along for the ride.
So beyond the metaphysical why do we doodle? Well for me it is just for the pleasure of seeing what comes out. You start with a line and then follow it until it fires off another idea and so on. I once went to an interminable management meeting which was only lightened by the doodle that one of the staff attending was creating. She was following the procedures and able to fully contribute yet this creation slowly grew across her copy of the meeting’s agenda. In the end the senior manager stopped everything to comment on the scope and imagination shown in the doodle – it is a shame that the same couldn’t be said of the rest of the meeting.
So doodling makes us human and helps us pass the time – a noble pursuit after all.
Simon Marchini
www.simonmarchini.co.uk
I think I’ve taken this as far as I can
If all else fails go back to what you feel most comfortable with…that seems to have been the way I over came my my problems with the Tyrion piece. So far so good.
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