Over the past few weeks I’ve been having one or two problems getting the proportions of a human body correct when drawing free hand. I’ve worked out a new technique and I thought I’d try it out a reasonably complicated pose, in this case cat woman. Early indications are that the new technique might have solved the problem I was having.
Simon Marchini
I’ve now decided that Velazquez has risen up my list of greatest painters. I know this is a ridiculous thing to do but in truth we all do it. We can’t help it, it’s what makes us humans – making some order out of a chaotic situation – it’s part of being self aware. I’m a Beatles man no no it’s got to be the Stones and so on. And then we have our favourite song and so on.
For me the human face is king, I can’t help it. Somewhere deep in my sub conscious there is some unknowable force that leads me in that direction. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate abstraction, really like some of the most abstract but ultimately it is the human face and form that really rocks my boat. When this is your particular thing that Velazquez is right up there with the best and now have spent some time really looking at a couple of his paintings he has risen in my estimations.
Now as for the painting I’ve just made. Well it is not quite the likeness of the original but that doesn’t matter – it’s the use of tone against each other that I have found so rewarding to start to understand. In fact as I write this I’m really quite proud of what I’ve produced. Who’d have thought you could make such paintings with an iPad and £3 app. The world is a continual surprise and thank god for that.
Simon Marchini
Day 2 of this little painting. I had meant to work on this some more last night but I left my iPad at a friends so wasn’t able to do so. In a funny way this helped because I was able to sleep on things and then go back to the painting afresh
When painting this I also set myself some rules, oh rules the killer of creativity. In this case I was only going to use shades of red, orange and pale yellow and only one brush type. On the whole I was able to keep to this, the most obvious exception being green for the bottle but this really couldn’t be helped.
I’ve enjoyed this a great deal and probably learnt more than I care to say – however the biggest lesson is that, well, Velazquez was a painting genius – no prizes there for original thought!
Simon Marchini
Yet another test of the email system! I have posted to both my Blogger account and WordPress account. The Blogger account seems fine but the WordPress doesn’t seem to have worked so this is a post just to WordPress to see if this posts ok.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Had half an hour to kill so I thought I would start on a painting with very restricted colours and hues….this is the result from the Velazquez painting of Woman frying eggs c 1618
Simon Marchini
There reaches a point in any painting when you can’t take it any further. I think I’ve reached that point with Nude Woman No 2. I’ve included a progress image just to show how the painting evolved over the past two days.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
In truth there are a number of things not quite right with this photograph – but I quite like it.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
More work completed on the Nude No2 painting. Still more interested in tonal ranges than detail.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
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
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
