What a wonderful Christmas movie this is, actually it is a very powerful and thought provoking movie but Christmas movie? Well according to Sky it is a Christmas movie otherwise why would they be showing it on the Sky Christmas movie channel. Are well I suppose at least it is after Christmas. Sent from my iPad
Thursday 27 December 2012
The work continues
So another couple of hours work - well sort of - and the painting is coming on a treat. Now I'm facing a problem you don't face when creating a painting in the real world - which is the best version. This particular version is not the actual painting but a separate file that I have tried some digital manipulation on. Now what if this is better than the painting file? Which is the real painting? Oh this is very Warhol or perhaps Munch and I guess I don't really have the an answer - yet.
Pip pip and away we go.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Wednesday 26 December 2012
Boxing day work
Well I think that will do for tonight. Things seem to be coming together quite nicely but there is still a long way to go - I think this is a common theme with me and I have got a bit of a reputation for not completing things. Anyway, as I have made this painting I have felt more alive which I guess means my cold would seem to be abating - lets hope so.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Stinking Cold
As the day goes on the worse I seem to fell - great for all the plans I had at Christmas. Anyway I have decided to try and do a bit of painting in Photoshop to try and make me feel a bit better. This is the result so far.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Grids - the thing not to do with a thick head
Well that was a wonderful waste of half an hour of my life. I'm feeling a bit groggy today, cold related not drink - mores the pity. However this didn't stop me from wanting to make a new painting in Photoshop. This time I was going to make it more of a much more life like painting so I would need to lay a grid down over the source and the document I was going to paint on. After much faffing around go the two documents the same size and so was able to lay down a grid. Yes this was fine so now to label the grid with numbers across the top and letters down the side. Again no problem with the source document. Then I moved to the painting document and did the same. I was out by one line. After much head scratching, checking document sizes etc I still couldn't explain it. It just couldn't be happening to me! Well it wasn't. I finally rechecked the letters down the side and found that I had missed one line - hence the discrepancy. I'm not sure how many choice anglo Saxon terms I muttered to and about myself as I corrected this. Something you really need when you you are still feeling the effects of a heavy cold. Happy Boxing Day! Sent from my iPad
Tuesday 25 December 2012
Christmas Ideas
This afternoon I thought I would just create something in Photoshop - we aren't having our Christmas until this evening - so I made a very basic sketch of the head of the Michelangelo statue David and took it from there. This is the result.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Monday 24 December 2012
Santa Claus - messing around with a Christmas Theme
Not long before good old St Nick will be travelling over head in his sleigh - of course he has already been hard at it for almost 12 hours given the time difference etc but let's not let reality intervene. So I thought it would be fun to have a pop at painting Santa and was the result. Quite pleased with it actually. Merry Christmas ....Ho Ho Ho 
Sent from my iPad
Merry Christmas
Well it is Christmas time so may I wish anyone who might stumble upon my work over the next day or so a Merry Christmas and have a wonderful and fulfilling new year.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Christmas Robin
There was a time when I was very keen on adding Keywords for every little aspect to my photographs. At times I went a bit overboard and added keywords to photographs that weren't correct - this is one of those occasions. According to the keyword then this is a robin yet I have it also recorded as a red kite - I suspect the second part is correct although I haven't seen a kite this close outside of a zoo so I can't confirm that. This was captured in 2005.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Friday 21 December 2012
Back to Basics - day 2
Well it has been a real struggle but in the end the young woman is starting become and interesting face and therefore an interesting portrait. I have learnt that trying to treat digital painting as similar to real life painting is not that useful. I watched a video on you tube about painting with photoshop and that showed me how to create a copy of the photo you were basing your work. Now I have no idea why you would want to do that - but this is something I've banged on about before with photo realistic drawings and painting - they leave me cold. However, the video was really useful in opening my eyes to the possibility of using Photoshop to enhance the image you create. This is really a good time to say well duh - after all that is exactly how I create my photographic art but i resisted it you a while but in the end it helped to create a much more powerful image.
So will there be a day 3? I'm really not sure.
One final thing we are all still here - so much for the doom mungers.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Going back to basics
Having failed to really get to grips with the earlier photoshop painting I did I decided to go and have another go - this time just trying something simple and within my comfort zone - a portrait. Well one and half hours later this is the story so far. Lets see what tomorrow might bring.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Thursday 20 December 2012
Sunday Girl
So it is back to photoshop and trying to create some form of painting - this really isn't as simple as it might be as I seem to be able to produce something interesting using Brushes on the iPad. However, this just isn't the case and whilst this is an interesting image I can't say I'm satisfied with the result. Still you have to start somewhere.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Night owl no 2 - Jools Hooland
Here is part two of tonight's night owl production. Guess who the subject of the programme was. 
Sent from my iPad
Becoming a bit of a night owl. No 1
Over the past few months I have found that I'm staying up later and later. One of the things I seem to be doing at night is drawing and this is an example from this evening - it's based on some renaissance statue I saw on some programme I had recorded on my sky box. 
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday 18 December 2012
Deck Twelve
Over the past few days I sort of lost my nerve when it came to producing likenesses of people. So I decide to take the plunge and just sit in front of the TV and sketch what was on. This was the result and I have to say it turned out a lot better than I feared. In fact it was rather invigorating just producing half a dozen or so quick sketches. Perhaps I'll do it again. 
Sent from my iPad
Not sure if I have posted this before - another from the archive
This is an iPhotograph I produced sometime in the early part of last year and looking back at I think it is bit more interesting than I thought at the time. Now I'm not sure if I've posted this before.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Monday 17 December 2012
Reasonable representation
Not a political statement but rather something you really must try and achieve if you going to make an image of a bird - in this case a Waxwing. This was produced by a mixture of drawing with a pencil and then colour added using Brushes. Not a bad result. 
Sent from my iPad
Sunday 16 December 2012
Another from the archive
Not so far back - just 18 months. The significance of this image is that it one of the last I captured with my old camera gear. For the tech minded this was captured using a Canon 1D mkIII, Canon 300mm f2.8 plus 1.4 converter. I think it may well have been hand held as the exposure was 1/2000 sec at f8.
I picked up a similar set up not too long ago and it weighed a ton - strange how you quickly forget these things!
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Calke Abbey
Another wonderful day at Calke - not too many photo ops - the light was too harsh.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Waxwing
This morning at Calke I had a slight pang of longing - last year I sold all my photographic gear which I had built up over the years with the purpose of capturing wildlife photographs - especially birds. One of the best ares locally for this was Calke Abbey. So there I was standing with my small Sony, taking some unsuccessful time lapse photos when up above were a flock of Waxwings. Now Waxwings were one of the birds I always wanted capture on camera but never managed and at that moment I just wish. Then reality crashed in a I remembered all the reasons why I moved and I regained a sense of proportion. Still for that moment I just wished.
So now I'm left with drawing the little blighters, a quick sketch attached and the surprising thing is I get as much fulfilment from this as anything I might capture as a photograph. The attached photo is now the best I can do - hay ho.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Saturday 15 December 2012
Lilac Wine - I feel unsteady
I think I have pulled out as many interesting images as I can from this set of photographs I captured on the 17th of October 2008. Must be something of a record only just over 4 years to process. Better later than never I suppose.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Thursday 13 December 2012
Cold weather photography
The other day I was reading about some place in Siberia where it is winter for over 200 days a year and the temperature can drop to - 50c. Luckily the winters where I live aren't nothing like that, in fact by international standards the winters in Britain, even the far North of Scotland, are really quite mild compared to what the should be - thank you gulf stream. Anyway that doesn't stop me from feeling the cold, especially when I'm out in the fading gloom of a another frozen day. Seems that the frosts are to be replaced by nullifying fog - it seems it is true we Brits really are world champions when it comes to grumbling about the weather!
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Wednesday 12 December 2012
Mixed media
I'm starting to see what happens when you mix digital with actual drawing. I suppose I've been doing this in some small way for some time but now it is a deliberate act. The images are a lot more interesting than in their original form so it will fascinating to see how this turns out. One word of caution - I could just as easily get bored with the whole thing in a day or so - one of the joys of having a butterfly approach to much of what I do. 
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday 11 December 2012
Art History
Some time ago I created a chronological list of artist from the medieval period to the present day - its aim was to help me to understand when which artists were active. I'm now trying to recreate this as a computer document. It is not as easy as I thought!
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Monday 10 December 2012
Flooding
I've been through the archives today and found this image from January 2008 of flooding near to where I live. Now this looks really bad until you realise that this is a flood plain and is actually part of the flood defences for Leicester some 5 miles down stream. The reason why I mention it is that this was the last time we had any meaningful flooding and that the latest flooding has been as serve as this. Now I don't really know what this means - apart from the fact that it does not disprove in anyway global warming - I just thought it was an interesting observation.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Sunday 9 December 2012
Saturday 8 December 2012
End of Day 2
So the end of the second day working on the portrait. I didn't spend as long on this today but I feel it is moving forward and I am also trying not to rush things. Also I have just completed my third video which took just over a day to edit - not bad for a 3:57 long video or should that be video art? I have no idea where video art ends and film making begins and frankly I'm not that interested - unless I got nominated for the Turner then that would be totally different. This is not going to happen.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Friday 7 December 2012
Geotagged iPhone Photograph Leads to Fugitive Software Tycoon's Downfall
Geotagged iPhone Photograph Leads to Fugitive Software Tycoon's Downfall
http://www.petapixel.com/2012/12/07/geotagged-iphone-photograph-leads-to-fugitive-software-tycoons-downfall/---
Sent from Zite personalized magazine app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com
http://www.petapixel.com/2012/12/07/geotagged-iphone-photograph-leads-to-fugitive-software-tycoons-downfall/---
Sent from Zite personalized magazine app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com
Sent from my iPad
Thursday 6 December 2012
Wednesday 5 December 2012
End of Day 1
Well that was a good day. I have started to get a grips with the portrait that I want to create and I think things are coming together. This took over 6 hours, on and off, to get to this point but there is no rush so who is counting?
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Forgot how exhausting painting is
Well I've dug my paint brushes out and started a 'real' painting. It really is exhausting after a while - what a wimp I am! 
http://simonmarchini.posterous.com www.simonmarchini.co.uk I hope you enjoy
I'm on line at:
www.flickr.com/photos/guthlachttp://simonmarchini.posterous.com www.simonmarchini.co.uk I hope you enjoy
Tuesday 4 December 2012
Just messing about
After spending hours working on a painting it was really fun just to mess about. 
Sent from my iPad
Who is it?
There reaches a point when you have to say enough is enough and I think I have reached that point. I'm reasonably pleased with the result - I say reasonably because I also think my work is rubbish when I walk away but when I revisit after a couple of weeks then I change my view - just shows what I know. Anyway - who is it? This is an interesting question as it is nobody or rather I wasn't trying to make this into a likeness but rather just to produce an interesting painting. Now I could say who was the inspiration for this but what is the point as the final painting is nothing like the original photograph. 
Sent from my iPad
End of day two
So far so good. The painting is starting become a very interesting image - however there are so many things that I need to do on this I really don't know where to start. At least I have resolved the colour of the jacket - I think? 
Sent from my iPad
Monday 3 December 2012
Web Site Redesign
Well I've put it off for far too long. I have redesigned my web site. In truth what I have done is streamline the methodology of by which I post items to the site which in turn has meant that I can redesign without too much messing about in HTML/CSS etc. I think it is clear and simple to use but only time will tell.
The one part of the sire I haven't redesigned is the history section. One day I might get around to this as well. One day!
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
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