Simon's Blog: February 2011

The results of the first week of portrait course

Whilst waiting for the windows upgrade to complete I thought I would work on my work from the portrait course I attend this morning. This is a iPhone capture reworked and developed in Brushes on the iPad. The original drawing was made in pen and ink on paper. The original was a reasonable likeness of the model and so this might be but my memory is not what it sued to be so I can't actually confirm this. Anyway, that is beside the point I think that the result is a very interesting drawing/digital image.

As for the course it is really too early to say but the first impressions are very positive. Diane the tutor is very enthusiastic and puts everyone at ease. I hope this continues and this proves to be a very worthwhile course.

Sent from my iPad

The upgrade starts

Well I have started the process and things are already getting complicated - ran the compatibility check and I have a couple of issues - one being iTunes which I think I have corrected. Just restarting machine as requested and seeing what happens then. Oh if life were so straightforward!

Sent from my iPad

A Mixed Night For The Social Network

This is a real bizarre article - I suppose it is hardly suprisng from a tech blog site - but the author seems to have taken it as a slight to the whole tech/social network community. Having seen both Social Network and King's speech i don't really think that there was anything between them for best film - either could have won. However, Colin Firth was much better in his role.

Sunday 27 February 2011

Oops too impatient

Well the last three entries are because I tapped the screen three time on my iPad when the Posterous link didn't seem to work.

Sent from my iPad

Here's Who You Think Should Win The Oscars [INFOGRAPHIC]

this is one of the silliest things I have seen in a while. Not sure how you associate what 'the buzz' on the internet has to do with the voting in the Acadamy Awards

Here's Who You Think Should Win The Oscars [INFOGRAPHIC]

this is one of the silliest things I have seen in a while. Not sure how you associate what 'the buzz' on the internet has to do with the voting in the Acadamy Awards

Here's Who You Think Should Win The Oscars [INFOGRAPHIC]

this is one of the silliest things I have seen in a while. Not sure how you associate what 'the buzz' on the internet has to do with the voting in the Acadamy Awards

Towing the company line

I happens to be in the local Apple store today and whenever I spoke to any of the staff in there about the forthcoming release of the iPad 2 I got the same reaction - a shrug of the shoulders and 'we don't know when the new machine is com in out' or words to that effect. Now whilst this perfectly correct for all the staff to come out with the same line means that this must be what they have been told to say. Even when I spoke to more senior technicians they came out with the same line, even though it is fairly common knowledge that Apple appears to have a fairly regular release cycle for new machines. Are well we will have to see what this week.

Sent from my iPad

Read the bloody instructions!

It is really easy to read the letters XP isn't it. Well I didn't find it so and as a result I thought the whole upgrade procedure to Windows 7 was really over the top. I just couldn't understand why this particular upgrade was so complicated and why I would loose all my system info and programmes. It just didn't make sense. So I did a bit more digging and according to the Microsoft website the upgrade from Vista to 7 was suppose to be very simple and I wouldn't loose any data at all. Why the confusion?

Well the answer is simple I had missed the afore motioned letters XP at the top of the instructions in the upgrade box. Now I have suffered from this form of word blindness all my life and in my past profession I developed strategies to overcome it. Now that I am a man of leisure I tend not to need these strategies and so I get myself into a pickle every now and then. I have no idea whether this is dyslexia or some other problem but it can be very frustrating. In short I should take my time and carefully read the instructions. However, it is very difficult teaching an old dog new tricks. User error I'm afraid.

Sent from my iPad

The journey begins - I'm upgrading to Windows 7

So the here we go. I've unpacked the upgrade packet, read the instructions. It would seem that the Windows 7 upgrade is a major process which rips the heart out of the computer and will result in me having to reinstall all my programmes. This, in itself, is not such a bad thing but I've never had to do this before with an upgrade. Goodness only knows how long this going to take so the only way to find out is to do it. Here goes....wish me luck????

Ps - I know the irony of sending this blog from an Apple Corp product but there we go.

Sent from my iPad

Saturday 26 February 2011

Drawing dark skins

Well I have reverted to type by using pencil and graphite. I felt so much more comfortable with this and I think it shows.

Sent from my iPad

Friday 25 February 2011

MiFi

Just checked and of course you can get MiFi in this country -all the major phone companies provide such a service.

Sent from my iPad

How to convert a Wi-Fi Apple iPad into a 3G iPad with MiFi | Video « Wonder How To

via wonderhowto.com

Interesting video - not sure if this will work in this country

Simon Marchini Photography - Welcome

via simonmarchini.co.uk

This is a test of using the Posterous bookmark functionality on the iPad.

How to add a Posterous bookmark to your iPad | Video « Wonder How To

via wonderhowto.com

This is a bit tricky but looks like it might work

Using the Posterous Bookmarklet - Posterous Help

via posterous.com

Yet another test of the Posterous functionality

Another test - linking to YouTube

This is a test of the YouTube function within Posterous:

Here is the link:

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

Another Test Blog

The first didn't seem to work here's another test #End

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

Test Blog Entry ((Tag: Test)

This is a test of some of the Posterous features.

#End

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

Arrrh

I think I may have paired this last year but matters not it is lambing season and so it would nice to recirculate such a cute little chap. The worrying thing about lambs is that older they get the dumber they look is it that just me?

Sent from my iPad

Checking for typos

I have notice: that the number of typos I am making is increasing. This is, in part, due to may typing skills, it is also due to my word blindness issues but it is also due to the iPad keyboard which is really not up to much. Actually scrub the last as I am sure that there are many people out there who are more than capable of making the iPad keyboard work for them. So in the end I guess it is mainly down to me and my large unskilled fingers.

Anyway the point is typos and grammatical howlers are going to be a part of my out put. So if that offends anyone who stumble's by this blog.

Sent from my iPad

Negative Positive

When is a negative a positive? I'm not sure I have an answer to this but I like this drawing Nd I will let you decide which is which it.

Sent from my iPad

Thursday 24 February 2011

735

735 hits today - not bad..not bad at all. This is the number of hits I have had to my Posteous blog and Flickr account. How many of these are discrete individuals is impossible to say. Oops - make that 736 - another hit on the Flickr account.

So what does this mean? Not a lot really other than to give my ego a little tweak.

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

Producing iPhoneagraphs

Over the past few days I have been playing around with producing iphoneography in a total 'i' environment, that is captured with the iPhone and post produced and published using the iPad. This has a number of advantages, perhaps the most obvious would be the immediacy dialog when used in conjunction with Dropbox. I don't think I will totally move away from the PC for post production, especially when producing more abstract works, but for day to day production I can see me working more and more with the 'i' environment.

Sent from my iPad

Cambridge # 3

More student cyclists.

Sent from my iPad

I hate this at the moment

As with all my art projects I hate what I have produced - this is no exception. However with a day or so to reflect on this then I might not hate it so much...perhaps.

Sent from my iPad

Drawing dark skin ...again

Still working on this question. Still come up with a satisfactory answer.

Sent from my iPad

Cambridge # 02

Apart from the the students and possibly their tutors charging head long along the cramped steers of Cambridge the other thing yesterday was the rain and the people. Whilst it wasn't a down pour it was, nonetheless, damp most of the day. This meant that there were a lot of umbrellas around which, given narrowness of the streets, meant getting about without getting Owed in the eye quite difficult.

Sent from my iPad

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Cambridge

Just back from a day out at Cambridge. Very tired at the moment but one overriding impression is bicycle. Throughout the town centre you had to be aware of the the blasted things being ridden at varying speeds through the crowds or traffic or both. I need to give a bit of thought about what I have seen so will not doubt come back to it over the next day or so.

Sent from my iPad

Meryl's mouth

First stab at this - needs some work doing on it - practice makes perfect .

Sent from my iPad

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Meryl's eyes

Having messed around with Meryl Streep's portrait I have decided to get serious and start to make really good drawing. As I am going to use pen and ink I need to get a really close examination of the face. This is the first preliminary sketch of the eyes. I suspect I will be making many more over the days.

Sent from my iPad

Meryl Steep - sort of

More pen and ink. This time a sort of portrait of Meryl Streep - the new Iron Lady. This shows one of the problems with pen and ink - once you have made a mark then it is very difficult to correct. In this case I have made her face too narrow and so you end with, at best, a caricature which is what I think this is. Nonetheless I like this drawing which, let's be honest, is all that matters.

Sent from my iPad

A bit of a pen and ink

So there I was last night watching TV and I suddenly felt the urge to make some pen and ink drawings. This, in part, was as a result of watching a programme about the illustration for Alice in Wonderland. So for the st of the evening I produced a number of sketches of people I saw on the box. They are not meant to be a likeness but just drawing for pleasure and on this basis I am really pleased with the way they have turned out.

Sent from my iPad

Monday 21 February 2011

40 mbit

It has been almost a week since I upgraded to BT Infinity and started to get 40 mbit broadband. As with everything to do with the internet things aren't exactly what they say on the tin. My actual speed is 32 mbit but this is still nearly six times quicker than before. Now the big question is - is it any better than before. Again the answer is yes and no. The yes part is that the BBC iPlayer is now really good with no freezing at all when used with Ethernet network. However, when I use the iPlayer on my iPad it still does freeze which might suggest that the WiFi may not be up to carrying the bandwidth. Apart from the greatly improved video services the normal internet is not that much quicker. This, I believe, is down to two things; Firstly the sites couldn't load that much quicker anyway unless they had a lot of video content; The second is that some services have more demand placed on them than their infrastructure cope with and so it doesn't matter how quick your internet connection is it still won't make things any quicker as the server at the other end can't provide you with the content. An example of the latter is Posterous which seems to have quite a lag.

So overall well worth the investment and really at no extra cost. Let's hope the long term experience is as positive as the first impressions.

Sent from my iPad

Sunday 20 February 2011

How do you draw dark skin?

This is not a particularly good drawing for a number of reasons but I am not too bothered about that at the moment. The main question I was trying to address was how do you make a drawing of a person with dark skin? I'm not sure I have answered that question yet but this is my first attempt. Clearly I have some thinking to do.

Sent from my iPad

Friday 18 February 2011

Wild Game Hunting

Not sure whether this is a very good drawing? I seem to have rushed this and wasn't too concerned about proportions so I can't say I am too happy with the result. I even don't think the post production on the iPad worked. So as usual this has left me wondering how I could improve on things.

Sent from my iPad

Thursday 17 February 2011

Learning about paper

The other week I bought some cheap sketch pads an initially I thought I might have made a mistake. However, now I am using graphite and suddenly what appeared to be suspect paper seems to have come alive. Of course another reason could be 'user error' i.e. I'm the problem not the paper - which is likely. Anyway, whatever the cause for the earlier confusion I now love the paper and perhaps these were a bargain rather than a waste of money.

Sent from my iPad

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Kate Moss

Graphite drawing processed through brushes and Photoshop - not a bad effect.

Sent from my iPad

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Dead Man

Does this look like a dead man?

Sent from my iPad

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition

Every year a lot of American sports TV seem to rave about the Sports Illustrated (SI) Swimsuit Edition. Well this year I have taken the opportunity to but a copy and well to say I am underwhelmed is an understatement. The women are uniformly beautiful and wholesome and the photography is perfectly competent. However, the combination of the two creates something that is really uninteresting. In an age of all access Internet photography this whole concept seems so 1950's. This is a shame as the place to go to see first class sports photography. It also has been an innovator over the years and yet their idea of what make interesting and dare I say it sexy beautiful photography is stuck so far in the past. I have no idea why this.

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

iPhoneography triptych

I am not sure whether this can be viewed very well on line but I have been working on the idea I had this morning for cutting up parts of an iPhonegraph. This time I have a triptych out of the results. Certainly making me think.

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

Chopping up the iPhone

Well I have done it. I have chopped up my iPhone. Just kidding?? Actually what I have done is start to chop up iPhone photographs and then reassembled them. I really like the results and it does open up whole new avenues of exploration of the photographic image. Is this original, I doubt it, but it pleases me.

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

Monday 14 February 2011

Old Russian Man

I can't recall how the old man this is based on actually is - I based this on some one I saw on TV. I love drawing with a pen and then adding a tint by using Brushes. I think it works really well.

Sent from my iPad

Texture and the maelstrom

Sent from my iPad

Sunday 13 February 2011

Another variation

This is purely a digital image. I made an image with the iPhone in such a way as it distorted the new drawing I had made. This was then edited in Photoshop and Brushes to make a unique digital image based on a drawing I had just made.

Sent from my iPad

Oops - should have used pencil

Perhaps pen and ink was not the best thing to use or more likely I didn't really make best use of the equipment I had. Anyway, in the bleak mid winter at Dawn with, perhaps, a nearby volcano making the sky come a light.

Sent from my iPad

Doodling

Watching Mike Leigh talking to Tim Marlow at the cation museum and I thought I'd have a go at a cartoon.

Sent from my iPad

Creating a high dynamic range image.

Just created this image using a form of HDR . This was created using only one image. I tried this technique with an iPhone image and the result was very poor.

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

A digital landscape - very iterating

This is a truly hybrid creation - part live sketch, part digital manipulation. The sketch is pure fantasy that I drew whilst watching some art programme last night. The subject was Turner and suddenly I felt the need to sketch something. Now I am not for one moment claiming to but that make a 'Turner' but that this was inspired by his work. Actually it would be more accurate to say I was inspired by Paul Nash - but that is another story.

Having slept on work this morning I decided to digitally manipulate the result by first making an image with my iPhone, then transferring it to the iPad and finally manipulating the resultant image by using a combination of Photoshop and Brushes. The result is a totally new work, one that is far more interesting than the original, actually the spell check had corrected my original spelling of interesting to iterating and I suppose that actually is really good description of how the image was made. Welcome to the world of digital iteration.

Sent from my iPad

Saturday 12 February 2011

Playing around with Corfe Castle

I bought three cheap sketch books the other day and initially I thought I had made a big mistake - it really wasn't that good for portrait drawing, or at least I couldn't make it work. However, I have discovered that it is ideal for less delicate work - in this case playing around with pastels and the like. In the digital image made from the sketches the colour has been depended and made more intense - which is an interesting idea for the real drawings. However this is just playing around so. May not take it any further.

Sent from my iPad

Just messing about

Well I am on anti booties at the moment and feeling a bit and the weather so I don't really feel up to anything more serious that just messing about with Brushes.

Sent from my iPad

Wednesday 9 February 2011

It is done!

After weeks of soul search and procrastination I have done it - I have published my 2010 portfolio of photographs. Last year I was really concerned about including some of the text from my blog - not this year. Instead I have only included the photographs - the blog entries can float about in the ether. I really don't think my mindless ramblings are that important - certainly not important enough to save them in a book anyway.

So it is all about the photographs. I wondered whether to include one or two digital art works I have created but rejected this. I want this book to reflect my photography.

Well if you want to take a look at the book, why not buy it makes a perfect birthday gift (ha ha), then just click on the link and you will see last year's work in all its glory?

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1496602/32c06a43b49cd9a6108cf7dc3415999a

Untitled

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Big game hunting

Over the next day or so I am going to be working on this drawing of an elephant. This is just the first outline which might have a hint of Disney at the moment. It will be interesting to record my progress as I do battle with the drawing. Let's hope the best man wins.

Sent from my iPad

Monday 7 February 2011

Messing about with Leo

It is a while since I tried to make some animal drawings and I think I can see the difference. In the past I was happy with a rough likeness now I want it to be more accurate whilst at same time to try and reflect my reaction to the photograph. Some time ago I blogged about some artist who was making a perfect copy of a photograph - I just couldn't see the point. These words have come back to haunt me because what am I doing but making a drawing from a photograph. I hope that this is more than a just a copy, which of course it isn't because I have heavenly cropped the original photograph. This gives the drawing a totally different life to the photograph.

Sent from my iPad

Saturday 5 February 2011

When will I feel better?

I am getting really bored with this virus/bug thing I seem to be suffering from. It started back in September and has hung around for months. It comes and goes but I just don't seem to be able to shake it. Over the past two weeks i have been feeling really great and getting some worth while, by my standard, work outs on the exercise bike. However, by Wednesday of this week I was really starting to feel the effects of the bug again. By Friday I was really under the weather. The good news is that I am now starting to feel a little better so lets hope that I can have a week or two with this, whatever it might be.

Today I decided to experiment with soft pastels and to be honest it was a disaster - well in the morning anyway. I tried to 'paint' with the pastels and really got nowhere. (see photo #1) I suspect I need to read the books again and work on something a little simpler. Just before I gave up this morning I turned the paper over and tried again. This time I just went for it and attacked the paper with pastel and charcoal. I just left this feeling down cast. This evening I went to clear up and suddenly the drawing seemed to come alive. I attacked it with vigour, just letting myself go with the pastel and suddenly a very interesting drawing was born. I am not sure what lessons I have learnt from today just yet, I need time to mull things over, but I feel the second drawing has real promise. Strange how leaving something for a few hours helps clear you head.

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Playing with light, shade and digital manipulation.

Yesterday I bought a new sketch book that had black paper instead of white. The idea was to try and work with white and yellow rather than the usual shades of grey of graphite. This is o e of the first images I produced. I then thought it might be an idea to process this further using Brushes and Photoshop on the iPad - the I age first being captured by my iPhone. So the question is this - just what exactly have I produced? Is it a photograph or drawing or neither or both? I know this is far from an original question but the availability of more and more powerful digital manipulative technology so easily available, note that no PC, Mac or Laptop was used in the production, that we are now reaching a point of maturity in the application of technology that none of the o.d rules apply at all. The image has made subtle changes as a result of the different technologies applied along the way. Oh it was so much more clear cut 10 or so years ago when film was still king. A drawing was a drawing and a photograph of the drawing was just that rather than taking a life of it's own. Simpler times?

Sent from my iPad

In the corner with Vincent

What an exhausting day I had yesterday. However, it was a good type of exhausting as I spent the day in London with my friend David. We started off at the British museum and the excellent '...Picasso to Julie Mehretu - modern drawing...' exhibition.

We then made our way to the Courtauld Gallery to OD on impressionist brilliance. Actually the Courtauld is so much more and yet it maintains a very intimate feel, as well as being far too hot. This is where I cam across these two women. Initially they were deep in conversation totally oblivious to one of the masterpieces of west art just feet away from them. It was only when the man joined them that they seemed to notice the painting on the wall. Aren't people wonderful!

Simon Marchini LRPS

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