Caricature or what happens when you don’t know where to go next

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Guthlac

 

Tyrion

 

Some times I find I don’t know which way to turn – this morning is one of those times.  I have made an outline of the Game of Thrones character Tyrion Lannister – a subject I seem interested in at the moment.  The problem I’ve got is that I don’t know where to take it from here.  Do I make a graphite portrait or pen?  Do I use water colours?  Or how about a combination of all three or none.  I really don’t know.   As  a way out of this impasse I thought I would make a quick sketch or the character and see if that could give me some ideas as to the way forward.  Not sure it has as it is really not a very good caricature which really doesn’t help.

Such are life’s little problems – ha ha

 

 

 

 

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The first ever piece

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Guthlac

This is a work in progress but here is the first artwork produced in my new studio space.   The one great thing about this is that I can just leave it out and then come back to it after a while and then work on the piece again.

Tyrion

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New studio space

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Guthlac

Well here goes … I’m starting to use my new studio space …. Yippee

Simon Marchini
http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Strange Light

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Guthlac

We’ve just had a rain storm blow through and with it came a strange orange glow in the sky.  Nature always comes up with the best ideas.

Strange Evening Light

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Playing about with kids crayons

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Guthlac

Some time ago I bought a pack of kids crayons and have been carrying them around with me in my arts bag for a while.  This afternoon I thought I’d just have a go with them and the results were interesting.

photo 1 photo 2

It is fascinating what you can produce with so called “Children’s’ toys.

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Sketching

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Guthlac

A few days ago I decided to put a sketch pad next to my computer.  In the past I had passed the time whilst waiting something to happen whilst working on the computer by doodling on any old scrap of paper I had to hand.  However, I’ve now decided to formalise this process – hence the sketch pad.   These two sketches of the character Tyrion Lannister are just examples of the sketches I make.

Tyrion Tyrion

 

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Making my iMac sweat

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Guthlac

Two more panoramas from this morning’s shoot – these really made my iMac sweet and start to behave like it is a bit under powered – both are over 300 MB in size in their original format – clearly they are not that size here.Battle Flats - Billa Barra View South West from Billa Barra

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King Arthur and Photoshop Panorama

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Guthlac

It was a really beautiful morning and what better way to enjoy this autumn sun than to go out and make photographs.  Of course at the moment I’m pursuing my Deep Time project and so that was what I did.

Bardon Hill from Billa Barra

I decided to visit a local nature reserve over a local outcrop at Billa Barra – a fascinating name in itself but that is another story.  Billa Barra is also another outcrop of Pre Cambrian rocks that form the chain of ancient hills over which Charnwood Forest lies.  However, this part of Leicestershire has an other claim to fame as one of the possible sites of the famous Arthurian Battle of Badon Hill.   The main Charnwood Hill is called Bardon Hill and land below it is known as Battle Flats – see how it starts to fit together.  What is less well known is that across the Battle Flats runs two ancient roads – one Roman and the other a prehistoric salt road – serendipity strikes again.

Anyway the light was so lovely this morning that I just had create a panorama of this.  Now my Canon G1x doesn’t have a panorama function – thank goodness – so I had to use the much better Photoshop CS6 version and I have to say it made a wonderful job of combining 6 images to create a panorama of nearly 320 MB in size. (This is pale reproduction).

Yum Yum.

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Variations

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Guthlac

Just messing around today with ideas in my sketch book and came up with this:

tyrion tyrion

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Strange connections

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Guthlac

Every now and then I sometimes wonder if there is something strange going on just outside of my conscious mind.  Perhaps it is serendipity, perhaps fate or perhaps a random interaction of cosmic particles passing through my body making neurons  in my brain connect in strangely attractive ways.

The Deep Time project is a case in point.  This project started much earlier than I recall and must have been simmering in my subconscious whilst I was working on other projects – not least of which was my historical research which slowly  took me to the prehistoric world of central Britain.  At the same time I started to get interested in the Green Man, an ancient creature/entity that probably dates from way before Christianity.  On the surface none of these are directly connected, although the Green Man and Prehistory are in a way.

However, yesterday I was just thinking about the Deep Time project and its relationship with stone circles and I started to sketch out some thoughts and low and behold a version of the  Green Man appeared in the sketch along with Bronze Age barrows and old churches.  Since then I’ve been thinking about the Green Man even more and its possible relationship to Deep Time.  Suddenly all the strands started to pull together in a wholly unsuspected way.  Very strange.

Deep Time Sketch and Green Man

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