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!

WIP Thurs 7th May 2015

Some of the works in progress on the wall today - there are fifteen paintings here, two of which are possibly finished. I'll decide the next time I see them.

As you can see the majority are still lives - presently I am thinking a lot about pattern and composition and using things rather than people lets me explore this more. I'm not sure all of these paintings will work out, but the trying should give me ideas of how to do better next time. Sometimes you just have to take a risk!