WIP 23rd September

Finally a painting week - 5 probably done paintings and three more started.

Some studio tidying/clearing as well, as it is Open Studios on the 3rd and 4th October. It's really nice to have some space again and to get some new finished works up on the wall.

As you can see two of the new paintings are the 12 x 16 inch size - and one is my first big paper mask painting. Can't wait to see what these look like finished, as they look pretty strong already. The other one doesn't have as clear tonal differences and I'm more nervous about it but the plan is for there to be some subtle painting things going on, to counteract the dramatic subject matter. Next week you should be able to see how I've progressed - I might completely change my mind.

WIP 16th Sept 2016

Another mainly drawing week - as you can see I've been doing more 12x16 inch drawings as I really like this format and am planning a little series - out of the 14 drawings I can see me painting about eight of them, to join the two paintings I've already done. (you can get a glimpse of those in progress back at the start of August ). I've also started planning some bigger paintings, but feel I'm still very much in the beginning stages of this - and I feel that I'm going to need some time and experimenting to get this right. So for the time being I'll mainly be sticking to smaller things, under a couple a feet.

Oh, and I've started tidying in preparation for the open studios at Hanson St on the 3rd and 4th of October - would love to see some of you there!

WIP 9th September

A bit of a drawing week this one, partly because I didn't have a lot of studio time and partly as I wanted to explore the 12x16 inch format more. One of the changes that I'm planning is working with a more limited range of sizes and this one seems to fit a single figure quite well. Not all of these drawings will become paintings as some ideas are just better than others - the top right in particular I think should be a smashing painting, although I prefer the ones on the left as drawings.

So I had a day painting, in which I may have finished the top two and have made progress on the other two - if they have dried enough they will get more done tomorrow, with the little cat probably being finished then. The other one I suspect will take some time - not least because the aluminium is new to me and I'm still not decided if I'll leave part of the surface bare or not. Any opinions?

WIP 2nd Sept 2015

Mainly painting again this week - started four new paintings and done more work on six others, from changing the background to fully finishing. Eight of these should get finished over the next week and then I'll move on to finishing the five still lifes that have been in progress since before May. It will be a relief both to finish the uncompleted works and to get a batch of new paintings up on the walls.

Although I'm itching to get started on some bigger paintings based on the drawings I've done so far that might have to wait a few weeks until after the Open Studios at Hanson Street in the first weekend in October. Up until then I'll mainly be limiting myself to smaller works - I've been having ideas about a new series of works, all 12x16 inches. The plan presently is to spend Saturday doing drawings in preparation for these, so we'll see how it goes.

WIP 25th August 2015

Finally (finally!) I've managed to spend a whole day painting - woohoo!

So what did I do? Well, I finished the two back views that you could see a couple of posts ago but they are now at the framers so aren't in this pic. I'm very pleased with them, which is good as they are the first paintings done entirely post-op and as part of the new project.

I also got started on a new little portrait and put a basic layer of colour on all the paintings I had started the week before. In the coming week I hope to finish at least a couple of these. And I did some work on paintings that have been up on the wall for months - there's a little more to be done with the still life and a lot for the girl with the hat. The dragonfly winged lady though is done which is a relief as she has been causing an awful lot of trouble and at once stage I was worried she was just on too small a scale for me. But in the end it was the colour that needed balanced more than anything.

What else? two new models and two new drawings as well as the start of a studio clean/re-organisation and a trip to Edinburgh - it's been a busy week!

WIP 19th Aug 2015

It's been almost a fortnight since my last WIP and this is what I've done. Not a whole lot, really, but through a combination of car trouble, visiting the Edinburgh Festival and photographing new models I've only had two actual painting days.

One of which was my first full day painting since the op. As well as finishing the teacakes I started four new paintings. I'm starting small, since I have a lot of small canvases lying about and I have various ideas I want to try, so the bigger ones will have to wait a little while.

WIP Thursday 23rd July 2015 - Composition

This week I was reading about perspective and thinking about composition - I think I've been making progress and am quite excited about what I'll be able to show you next week.

WIP 2nd July 2015 - a day late, sorry guys!

Had a busy day and night yesterday (was at the Glasgow Print Studio opening of Comic Art: Millarworld and beyond, well worth seeing) so didn't manage to post up my last two weeks efforts.

Sadly I'm still getting a lot of pain in the hand so am limited in how long I can draw. Which is why there are only 5 drawings. But I do think things are getting better, and having less art making time means I've had more thinking time and more reference gathering time - which I really expect to get the benefit from over the next few months.

This weekend I'll be at the comic-con and then I have to do some really boring grown up stuff, so might be another fortnight before there are more drawings. However, I should move on from the single portraits into more imaginative grouped figures in this time - which is really exciting! Watch this space!

Liquid Pencil - WIP Thursday 18th June 2015

Liquid Pencil (made by Derivan) is my new favourite medium - using it lets me draw on the same scale as my paintings, really giving me a good idea of whether to progress or not. I also find it much easier to control tone than with charcoal, and using different pencils, graphite sticks and powdered graphite along with the liquid version lets me get different textures fairly quickly.

The above three drawings were done today in under six hours - so although drawing first may seem a waste of time, it really isn't. All three show potential to become drawings - although the top one (at 18 x 27 inches) is just a wee bit too big and if it becomes a painting I think would look better at maybe 15 x 24 inches.

Presently I'm working on doing portraits of each of my models before moving on to more complicated, several person compositions - doing this seems to make it easier to get a likeness later on as well as just generally being quite fun.

W.I.P 28th May

A week ago on monday I had carpal tunnel release surgery done on my painting hand.

So normal painting/drawing hasn't really been possible - instead I asked for volunteers to come and pose for me. The response was amazing, with quite a few lovely people being very willing to come and let me do a quick drawing and painting and then take loads and loads of photographs.

These little studies are a gathering of these little first impressions - over the next few weeks I will use these and the photographs to start putting my ideas together by making drawings and then finally paintings.

Which is very exciting and I'm sure will be great fun - everyone so far has been absolutely lovely so that this has possible been the best sick leave I've ever had - even if the actual hand continues to be pretty sore.

WIP 14th May 2015

Well, doesn't look like an awful lot of progress, as I've only really had one painting day since last thursday - as you can see the only big change was darkening the big double flamingo still life - and comparing it with last weeks photo I think I've gone too dark.

Not so clear is various bits of fine tuning, which should let me finish pretty much all of these in a couple of days painting with a bit of luck.

This is what I did when not painting.

And what fun it was! The lion and unicorn masks are based on instructions in an old school book, the helmet I've had kicking around for a while but have never found the time to put together, the little rabbit head is from the internet somewhere and the rest were pretty much made up as I went along.

The plan is that over the next few weeks, while I'm recovering from carpal tunnel surgery, some models and I will get to play with these props (and others, out of shot). If you'd like to be one of these models, please contact me - it would take a couple of hours at my studio and much talking and you will eventually get repaid with a drawing. All types welcome!

In The Studio - day 19

A wee update of what is going on in the studio

Another layer has been added to the kitty painting - really just darkening the darks and finding the pattern on the blanket. Hope to finish this in one more go over the next week sometime - you can see the earlier stages at day 12.

In comparison with Day 3 there hasn't been any huge changes - two new tea cup paintings started, two much closer to being finished and one done. Various bits and bobs have been done on the portraits as well so that they are pretty much all at the stage where they have had most problems sorted and just need finished. I haven't had the time to do that recently though as need at least 4 uninterrupted hours - here's hoping the next couple of weeks will be better!

Drawing Tank Girl, Mew Ichigo and a Skyrim Warrior

Painting people has made me think a lot about how we present ourselves using clothing, hairstyles, make up and so on. Therefore when I went along to the Glasgow comic con in July I was fascinated by all the cosplayers - it was amazing to see how far appearance could be pushed and fascinating to see 2d images like Harlequin come to life.

So I thought of them when I decided that going back to basics by spending some time drawing.

There are a few compositional things I'd like to explore, tonal stuff to work out, and some basically just messing about to see what happens - this is much easier and quicker with drawing than painting. For example, with the Mew Ichigo drawing I was thinking about telling the story more with the white than the black. The Skyrim drawing explores vagueness versus sharp line whereas Tank Girl was my first drawing on white for many years - much harder to get the tonal balance right.

Anyway, these drawings and others will be for sale at Hanson St Open Studios, 4th and 5th October - come along and tell me what you think.

Hanson Street Wasps Open Studios 4th and 5th October

It is Open Studios time of year again and Hanson St will be open for 12 till 5 Saturday the 4th and Sunday the 5th of October.

This year I will have several paintings on show from the recent exhibition as well as drawings and colour studies, so a wide range of sizes and prices.

My studio mates are as always showing terrific stuff - you can see more and keep up to date at Facebook .

WASPS other studios are open on different weekends throughout October - details at WASPS open studios

Tidy Studio

For those who missed the Open Studio event - you won't see it this tidy too often.

Hanson Street WASPS Open Studio Event 5th and 6th October

Less than a week to go!

All the paintings are painted and most of the drawings drawn, as shown in my last post although several of them are still with the framer , who is having his usual annual sale during the event. Most of the booze (prosecco and spritzes will be served, as well as water and juice for the sober types) and nibbles (teacakes and ameretto biscuits mainly) have been gathered.

What needs done now is the scrubbing - the next couple of days will involve much elbow grease - those windows need cleaned again! - and I will post a picture of how it looks when sparkling clean. Better, though, is to see it for real, so do come along if you are able. Otherwise I'll have to eat and drink everything myself, which may not be popular with the husband!.

Also, to recap, here is how the studio when I moved in - Day 1 and Day 2 . I do have more photos of the progress after that and will look them out and post them tomorrow - as some of you know, I underwent shoulder surgery a fortnight after moving in, which stopped me typing as well as painting for a while.

But now it is full steam ahead and I hope that my visitors at the open studios will inspire me over the next year - feedback, both good and bad, is very important to me and I feel helps me progress. So don't be shy in telling me your opinions!

Drawings of Roses

WASPS annual open studios will be on the 5th and 6th of October - not next weekend, but the one after.

This will be the first time I've taken part as a tenant and not part of the life group - which is proving quite terrifying. There is a lot more organising than I was initially prepared for - but thankfully is now almost done. Just some elbow grease to go!

These drawings will be on show - it has been years since I've done this kind of detailed drawing but it was a very useful exercise while I was figuring out ways to paint them. Sometimes, especially when working with tonal values, changing from one media to another can really illuminate matters. And I feel the results are quite fetching, too.

So do come along and see them.

Life Drawing - Oils in 40 Minutes.

Well, today I'm cheating as I painted this at yesterday's life drawing session. But I didn't get the chance to photograph it yesterday so here we are.

It was painted in two twenty minute blocks - a long pose, which this particular group is quite keen on. You may notice it is the same pose as the watercolour, but from a different position - looking down and from behind rather than from the floor and on her right. Long poses are great as they give me time to paint but bad as it tends to lead to static poses, often lying down. As I am mainly sit on the floor (shoulder problems means that using an easel is difficult) this means I often get very foreshortened views. Luckily not yesterday - partly as I got the use of a table, so could paint standing up.

The board was pre-painted with leftovers of the palette - from this painting I suspect - which enables me to go straight in with the darks and the lights - a technique I developed first in watercolours. The mid-tones are then added on and in this one I wanted to exagerrate the difference between neutrals and brights - so pushed the reds. This was an experiment but may well feed back into my other paintings.

Which is why I go to life drawing - to try things out. Success!

Hanson Street Open Weekend 2012

It's that time of year again - the Hanson Street Open Studios!

This year I will only have the one little painting on show with the life drawing group - we normally have a live (clothed) model during the day in the big room in the right hand corner diagonally from the front door. Our work is shown on the walls of the room and is generally an eclectic mix - despite all being based on work done in the life room! Mine, for example, is a little oil painting sketch, done in about an hour and a half.

As there will be a cafe, I will be around most of both days, and will try and have the time between coffees to actually do some painting - although not in oils! Watercolour and ink will be my mediums, which will be quite a challenge as the model will be clothed and I therefore have to take into account different textures.

But I will also definitely take the time to explore other artist's studios - such as Linda O'Grady, Frank To, Joe Hendry and Moira Buchanan.

Also this week will be an opening of a mixed show at Art Exposure on Friday the 5th October from 5 til 8pm. I have a small selection of the oil painting life sketches as well as a teeny landscape and figurative work on show. My work has been selling well this year (both works at the RGI have sold already) so this is a good chance to see them before they move on to nice new homes and maybe even get one yourself.

Oil Painting Figure Studies

A quick post today, just to show what I've been doing in the life room recently. These figure studies are all done from life, generally in less than an hour.

Since I don't have much time, they are pretty small - I now keep a supply of boards ready prepared in various colours - these ones are away to the framers presently, so I can see how they look framed up - then I will decide on a couple of colours to use more consistently. At least in theory. As you may have noticed by now, I can't seem to resist experimenting . . .

Working with limitations - both time and size - seems to stop me overworking. Maybe if I get a studio I'll put them up on the wall to remind me to stop!