Simon's Blog

Working on the Female Form

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Guthlac

More work completed on the Nude No2 painting. Still more interested in tonal ranges than detail.

Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted in General | Tagged Digital Painting, Nude Woman | Leave a comment

Last night was my weekly art class and this time we had a male model to capture. Now I don’t know if it is just a local thing but we normally have a female model to draw but not last night. It takes a little while to start to get one’s eye for the different forms but I’m quite pleased with the final drawing. In this I concentrated on the tonal ranges as much as the form and as usual I was just getting to grips with the drawing as the time was up. In the past I found this really frustrating but now I realise that you can only do what you can do in the time allotted.

Of course one of the things I admire about all the models I’ve encountered is their ability to sit still for 30 or more minutes. It sounds daft but it is a really difficult thing to do, especially whilst keeping a pose.

Simon Marchini

http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted in General | Tagged art class, life drawing, male, model, nude | Leave a comment

Sex really sells

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Guthlac

I know I’ve written about this before, and do doubt again, but I’m really amazed as to how you can so easily attract attention to your sight by using sex. yesterday I blogged about a new painting I’m making of the female form. I also posted the image to my Flickr account under the pretty boring title Nude Woman No 2 and that was it. The painting is far from complete and it hasn’t been posted in any group on Flickr – yet already it has had 26 hits. The previous nude paintings I have published to Flickr still continue to attract attention. Sex REALLY is a way of drawing attention to yourself….so those Mad Men ad men were right along. This really isn’t a revelation.

Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted in General | Tagged Female Nude, flickr, Sex | 1 Comment

Calke Abbey

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Guthlac

Having spent a wonderful spring morning wondering around the parkland at Calke Abbey I thought it would be fun to put together a little album of images I’ve made in the past at Calke. Some I believe I’ve posted before but not in wordpress.

Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

: This an oak woodland in the nature reserve at Calke Abbey

: 20090106 40 mg 6955 birds feeding on a wall calke 0007

: 12122006 7123 sheep and tree calke 0001

: 20100515 1d n7i9714 dandelion seed heads calke abbey 0017

: 20130228 dsc02284 sheep calke abbey 0020

: 20121216 dsc02212 tall trees calke abbey 0019

: This an oak in the nature reserve at Calke Abbey

: 20091221 1d n7i7890 nuthatch calke abbey 0008

: This is one of the man made lakes in the nature reserve at Calke Abbey

: 20100515 1d n7i9730 dicentra spectabilis calke abbey 0018

: 20100101 5d mg 9928 trees at dawn calke abbey 0009

: 20071018 mg 2552 tree lined road to calke abbey calke abbey 0002

: Nuthatch on branch

: 20100406 1d n7i6629 lamb calke abbey 0014

: 20100515 1d n7i9492 bluebell woods calke abbey 0016

: 20100101 5d mg 9937 copse calke abbey 0010

: 20100322 1d img 2926 old potting shed calke abbey 0013

: 20100322 1d n7i6250 daffodils calke abbey 0012

: 20100101 5d mg 9952 copse and road calke 0011

: 20100513 1d n7i9412 cowslip calke abbey 0015

Posted in General | Tagged Calke Abbey, Derbyshire, National Trust, Spring, Walk | Leave a comment

A question of likeness

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Guthlac

I back working on the female form and the photo I’m basing this painting on has an interesting history in itself. It is allegedly a fake of a minor Hollywood celebrity’s head photoshoped onto the body of a model posing. Now by the standard of this type of photographs on the internet this is very well done and the resultant photograph really isn’t anything to be upset about – apart from the rather large problem of the humiliation that the woman involved in this may well feel.

Leaving aside the gender politics of this photograph the question arises of likeness. Just exactly what does that mean in this case? Of course what does a likeness mean in any painting? For me I assume that if the artist is trying to make a portrait of someone then it is beholden on the artist to ensure that the finished article does have some resemblance to the person. This is loaded with Phd’s worth of value judgments – none of which I intend to explore here. Instead, I’m just going to apply that rule at face value to this painting but of course a likeness of who? The photoshoped celebrity face or the unsuspecting model underneath? Well actually neither. For a start I don’t want contribute to the humiliation of the woman in question so I’m deliberately changing the face and as far as the body is concerned I’m trying to explore the relationship of tones to one another so am not actually looking to slavishly copy the body either. So it will make for an interesting exercise…I think?

Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted in General | Tagged Digital Painting, Internet Fake, Likeness, nude, photoshop | 1 Comment

As far as I can take it….I think???

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Guthlac

Another hour or so working at this painting and I’ve probably taken it as far as a I can. I think that Ms Knightley has end up looking rather like a stern near eastern governess for the time of the Devine Augustus. However that probably is my imagination running away with me.

Simon Marchini

http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted in General | Tagged Augustus, Brushes, Digital Painting, iPad, Kiera Knightley, Roman Empire | Leave a comment

Brushes Painting or is that a doodle?

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Guthlac

Whilst watching some thing mind blowingly boring I started to doodle this. Not quite sure where a doodle ends and a painting begins.

Simon Marchini

http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted in General | Tagged Brushes, doodle, drawing, iPad | Leave a comment

Another stab at Keira Knightley

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Guthlac

I really don’t know if I’m unusual, well I guess I’m a bit strange but that is a whole other story, but I just can’t stop worrying at something. In the past this has caused me a lot of problems but know I’m able to channel these feelings into more positive endeavours, namely to improve my painting skills.

I have been trying to make an interesting painting of Ms Knightley for an awful long time and some how it never quite turns out. I’ve been at it again this week and here is the start of my latest attempt. I have no idea whether I’ll be more satisfied with this one than I was with my earlier efforts – I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.