Saturday 2 March 2013
Testing Email Blogging
One the great features that I used when I moved to Posterous was the ability to write a blog in my email client and then post it. Since email Posterous is soon to be no more I've had to test new ways to do this. Getting word press to work has been a breeze but I didn't realise that this could easily be set up with blogger. Now in hindsight this was really stupid but I have no discovered that I can also do this in blogger so this is the first joint blog via email since Posterous.
As spring appears to be well on the way I also though a nice photograph of a Daffodil would help...so here is it.
[tags Wordpress,Blogger,Blog,Email,Daffodil,Spring]
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Closure of Posterous
As you may well be aware Posterous is closing down in April 2013. I have now moved my blog to Wordpress at:
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Friday 22 February 2013
Conforming to a stereotype - I'm in my dressing gown
There are some days when one just cannot help oneself. Today is one of those days. As I write this it is around midday and I'm still in my dressing gown! Many people think that when you retire, I prefer the term superannuated, you just stop, put your feet up and watch Jeremy Kyle. I have admit that on occasion I've actually done that but that is not my normal routine. However, today is one of those days - although I've not been watching Mr Kyle's poisoned pill.
So why is today different? Not really sure although I was out late, for me at least, last night so perhaps I'm feeling a bit tired. Whatever the reason I'm sitting here writing this in my dressing gown. And you know what I really don't care. One of the things I've learnt since becoming superannuated is that life is a much broader church than the 30 plus years I was working for Queen and country and if, on occasion, you feel like sitting around in your dressing gown then more the merrier! After all for the past month or so I've had a massive out pouring of creativity and so perhaps I need a day just slobbing out. Perhaps but I just don't care. This is how things are today.
BTW the reason I was out late last night is because I went to see Richard Thompson at Birmingham. Now I didn't really know that much about Richard Thompson before last night and it was a real revelation - Thompson is beyond doubt a world class guitar player and the drummer and bass player on stage were pretty good as well. However the most fascinating thing last night was that the audience was mostly superannuated as well but this didn't stop them getting down with Thompson. Clearly grey power rules!
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Wednesday 20 February 2013
Sketching an idea
I'm back to the melodrama and this idea came into my head - so I had 20 minutes to kill and this was the result. 
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday 19 February 2013
Posterous
Well the one veritable has happened - the Posterous service, which was bought by Twitter last year, is to close so in the not too distant future I'll be changing by blog site again. Over the past few weeks it has been noticeable that the Posterous service has been declining so this come as no great shock. It just means sorting out new way of publishing things and all the hassle that brings. Sent from my iPad
Nick Fury
Whilst watching The Avengers...whatever they are called... I just felt like doing a little drawing on Brushes - this is the result. 
Sent from my iPad
Saturday 16 February 2013
Recording what I'm doing
Over the past few weeks I've been spend an awful lot of time perfecting my digital painting technique and today I thought it would be a good time to try and record just how I do this. This was, inpart, as a result of a request from a friend but it also has a broader purpose. In the past I've worked on something on the computer for a while and become very professant. I then stop doing that activity for a while and I come back to to only to find I've forgotten what to do - hopefully the guidelines that I drew up will mean this doesn't happen when I move on from digital art.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Thursday 14 February 2013
Having fun with melodrama
Just kicking back and making a quick melodramatic sketch based on the melodrama theme I've been working on for the last week or so. 
Sent from my iPad
Goodbye Huffington Post
I've had enough of Huffington post's obsession with celebrity .... I should have known better but we all learn don't we ... so it's goodbye Huffington Post I will no longer receive the latest nonsense about which unknown 'celebrity' has lost 1000lbs since giving birth or had her boobs enlarged or whatever. I feel better for that. Sent from my iPad
Wednesday 13 February 2013
Hit me harder I'm getting rewind
Well I've taken this portrait of Scarlett Johansson as far as I think I can take it. I'm quite pleased it has turned out the way it has - whether Ms Johansson would be pleased I suspect I'll never know.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Monday 11 February 2013
Practicing Life Drawing
With only two days to go before my the start of the life drawing class it is not time to get down to some serious practicing. It is one thing to create a nude drawing on the computer but it is something else to do it in the real world. So it is time grind out some reps. Although it has to be said drawing from a photo is not the same as the real thing - life drawing is just that and no photo will really replace that.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Friday 8 February 2013
No more sex
That's it - I've had enough of sex. Today I created the second painting in my 'sex' series and I suspect it may well be the last. I spent the first part of the morning searching the internet for images to 'inspire' me. Needless to say I found a wide variety of imagery but eventually I found something that I thought I could work with. So as I was mapping out how the painting would work and blocking out the underpainting I started to ask myself why I was doing this. It felt really quite sordid and so instead of trying to create a 'classical' reproduction of the reflection of the woman I started to create a pixelated version of her - it seemed more appropriate - reducing the body to just tonal values - removing any sense of humanity.
I have no idea whether it worked or not but I feel quite pleased with the result. If you wish to view the painting then click here:
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Thursday 7 February 2013
SEX SEX SEX! Oh the Joys of Sex
Before anyone of temperate disposition faints with the vapours please let me make one thing clear - this is not about hairy hippies from the 1970's, you'll probably be over 40 to get that reference. No instead this is about how sex increases the hits I've got on my Flickr account. Over the past day or so I've created a lovely little painting of a nude woman kneeling on a red cushion. It really is not explicit in any way, unless of course if you consider bare breasts which I don't. Anyway, I posted a couple of progress photos on flickr under the heading Nude Woman V1 and Nude Woman V4. I didn't publish any of these images to any group so as to try and generate any interest in them. Normally this type of action might generate a few hits but nothing more than 10 at the most.
That of course is without the power of SEX. Between these two images I have generated nearly 100 hits in just two days - unheard of for me. However this is nothing compared to Nude Woman Kneeling - Final - the final version which to date has generated 140 hits on its own. The cumulative effect of this can be seen in the daily activity graph. I have an idea of a painting I may create to really test just how powerful the drawing power of sex is. It won't be too explicit but I will use this to test the drawing power.
Now all of this should come as not surprise, which at one level it doesn't, nonetheless it is quite shocking to see how powerful a draw sex is. Of course there is another posible reason for the increased traffic - the painting is so good that lost of people want to view it. Only time will tell.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Tuesday 5 February 2013
Picture: Shared by Simon Mayo on Twitter
Shared by Simon Mayo on Twitter
Sent via FlipboardThe Richard III car park has updated its signage: twitter.com/GOTTSCHALK82/s…
— Harry Gottschalk (@GOTTSCHALK82) February 4, 2013
Sent from my iPad
Monday 4 February 2013
The history of the world in three minutes
marcbrecy.perso.neuf.fr/history.html Download the official Twitter app here
I'm on line at:
Wednesday 30 January 2013
Oh no I don't do landscapes
Well I thought whilst I'm away I'd try my hand at some landscapes or cityscapes or similar. Big mistake. Every time I try to make anything in these genres I quickly realise that I have no interest in them at all. I think this is because I have spent most of my adult life creating landscape photographs and I just can't switch between this and a more traditional artistic approach. Give me an interesting face to try and capture and I'm in heaven - a landscape makes me reach for my camera. It is crazy how we are wired but that's what makes life so interesting.
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
Sunday 20 January 2013
Dodgy Mickey
I bought some cheap water colour pencils yesterday with the intention of taking them away with me...when will I ever learn that you get what you pay for?!? Anyway, I thought I'd try them out on some familiar characters that might pop up on my holiday. 
Sent from my iPad
Saturday 19 January 2013
Messing Around
After spending the best part of a week trying hard to make something that was almost a "classic' style digital painting I felt like this morning just letting my hair down, if I had any to do that but that is a whole different story, and just produce a sketch using Photoshop. In truth it got away from me a bit and I'll no doubt repair much of the damage this afternoon but I feel the sketch has certain merit to it.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Friday 18 January 2013
Painting an Icon - David - Almost Done
Day four and I think I've almost done. The final question to be answered is what to do with the background? Should I leave it black or perhaps try and create something from Florence or Rome? I suspect neither but I'll wait on this a while and see how the mood takes.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Thursday 17 January 2013
Hours closely examing a man's body
I know this is sounding a bit purvey but its not, well I don't think it is. I have spent the last 3 days working on the painting of Michelangelo's David and today I have been fine tuning the details. To do this I have had to examine the sculpture, or rather the series of photographs I'm working from, at close quarters. The first thing to note is that Michelangelo must have done exactly the same thing. Now given his sexual proclivities I suspect he didn't mind that however it did produce a wonderfully alive sculpture. Again, far more knowledgable art historians can no doubt write about his techniques and where they sit in the pantheon of sculpture, to this simple soul it is just a wonder of human endeavour.
Now we come to the tricky bit, in ever sense of the word, the penis. I had spent a couple of day trying to work out how I was to capture this, perhaps suggest it by use of light and shade was on option. In the end I decided to define it as well as I could, this after all is what Michelangelo had done so who am I to argue. This meant that I spent a goodly part of the afternoon looking at a photograph of a sculpture of penis. It is up there with one of the strangest things I've done. Oh life is full of surprises.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Wednesday 16 January 2013
Les Misérables
Well what an experience. I'm not going to go thorough all the great things about this production. Instead there are just three points I would like to make:
Anne Hathaway was simply outstanding - without her raw and powerful performance the whole film would have sunk into a an abyss of pity - instead Hathaway's breath taking performance you wanted to find out what happens. Beyond Hathaway there were some wonderful performances from virtually every cast member - apart from:
Amanda Seyfried - she is the one actresses that really could have been helped by pre recording - her voice has, what I believe is a timbre, which after a while I found annoying. This was a real shame;
The final point, and I don't think this fault of the film but rather the production, boy was it too long - I think it is nearly 2 & half hours - just too long. Perhaps on the stage it works but not on the big screen.
Given all these things it was still a fantastic film, with a stunning production and an enjoyable experience, if only half an hour shorter.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Understanding Michelangelo
The more I work on the David painting the more I appreciate the devine genius of Michelangelo. I know he was part of the revival of classic sculpture and there may well have been classical sculptors with his talent but that just doesn't take away the sheer brilliance of the man. Every feature has been hewn out of the living rock - however he achieve this is just ... well I'm lost for superlatives. Perhaps this is the lasting lesson I'll take away from this exercise - understanding what it takes to make a work of art. Not a bad lesson.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Tuesday 15 January 2013
Hard days work at the marble
Well after about 4 hours work I have decided to call it a day. I have just about exhausted my artistic powers, such as they are, for one day. David is slowly coming together and I have to say it is shaping up really well. Of course I'm now facing a dilemma - just how much detail should I include before I consider the painting complete? I have no answer to this question and I suspect I won't have until I've finished the work but it is an interesting one as Michelangelo has included virtual every visible vein and tendon so am I true to this or should just suggest with a slight tonal shift. I suspect I may well find answer somewhere between the two or perhaps I may well create two final paintings - I'm after all using a digital medium so I should use that to me advantage.
Interesting times.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Another Icon Painting
Well this is perhaps the most ambitious painting I have ever tried - no strike that it is. This is a painting about perfection in almost every sense, the subject is perfection produced by a devine and so I have to rise to the challenge - not much pressure there then. I always you have to push yourself to see where one's boundaries are and this certainly does that. Wish me luck!
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Sunday 13 January 2013
Not sure....why is everybody so serious
Well I'm still working on the Duchess of Cambridge portraits and I'm not sure about this so far - however I've taken it as far as I can today - need to sleep on it. Anyway, I've been reading some of the really bitchy reviews of the official portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge - I'm just glad I don't have to do this for a living. Some of the views seem to be better placed in a forum rather than a national newspaper. For the record I'm not a so sure about the painting but I as I haven't seen it in the flesh, as it were, I think I'll reserve judgement - however I've seen far worse "official" portraits than this one so maybe a certain amount perspective should be applied.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Saturday 12 January 2013
Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus - another icon
Well I seem to be trying to paint icons at the moment. This portrait was inspired by the lukewarm reception for the first official portrait of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus - just how hard would it be? Well I'm really quite pleased at my first stab - on and off it has taken me most of the day. Again two things come to mind - first plagiarism - this is, after all, based on a photograph I found on the internet. However, I feel that I have sufficiently altered my painting to make any suggestions moot - especially with a woman who, over the space of 18 months is possibly the second best known woman in the world, after her husband's grand mother. The second is that because the Duchess is so well known any suggestion of plagiarism is pointless - her face belongs to the world - such as Marilyn Monroe's. One thing is true though, there are very few photographs of the Duchess that are not formulaic either some had taught her very well or this is image chosen by the picture editors. I suspect it is a little bit of column a and little bit of column b.
Anyway, I've found an image that is very similar to the new official portrait and so I will try and create my version - should be an interesting chalange.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Countess of Strathearn's eye
As there seems to be a bit of controversy over the new official portrait of the Countess of Strathearn I thought I'd have a go and see what I could produce. Here is just a sample of what I have produced so far
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Thursday 10 January 2013
Moving on to another icon
Well that is enough of Batman, for a while at least - I suspect there is more to come from that source. No this time I'm looking at creating a painting of possibly the biggest icon of the modern era. I wonder how this is going to turn out?
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Sunday 6 January 2013
Comic Book Batman - the Dark Knight Rises
Well I have started to develop the final and most important character of the painting - Batman. This is based on the underpainting I do for all my paintings - it looked so good that I thought I should keep a copy.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Saturday 5 January 2013
Dark Knight Rises - Bain
I have started on what is my most ambitious painting, a Dark Knight Rises montage of the three main characters, Batman, Cat woman and Bain. The biggest problem I am facing is how to make it unique rather than a pastiche of the PR shots for the film. I'm not sure I have come up with an answer to that yet but like all problems the more you work them the more interesting solutions you come up with - even if some of the solutions are off the wall.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Friday 4 January 2013
Peterborough
Well it has been 24 hours and I have recovered from my day at Peterborough. That makes it sound like the place is some staging post on the road to hell which it certainly isn't, in fact it really is quite a pleasant medium sized county town with a new town bolted onto it. In many ways it suffers from a split personality as a result - the medieval heart fighting the modern world. On top of this you really do notice that it is now the capital of the the settlement of people from the east - not the first time in its history.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Thursday 3 January 2013
Killing time
Getting a new passport quickly means you have to spend four hours killing time at Peterborough. Still not long now before we can get the passport... 
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
Missing David
Killing time at Peterborough Museum - came across these dressing up cloths and this reminded me if how my friend David loves to dress up - see previous photos 
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
Wednesday 2 January 2013
Young Woman
Well I've taken this as far as I can. Most artists seem to know when something is as good as they can make it. Well I've reached the point of no returns and so that is it. Two weeks time I may re open the file but that is a whole other story. The second image gives a feel as to how the painting developed.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Reflective Mood
At the start of a new year I always find myself looking back at what I made the previous year; think about the progress I have made and perhaps where I'll go in the future.
It is far too early to answer any of these points - however as part of the process I have made this tryptic of paintings I made in the earlier part of the year. At the time I was fairly dismissive of all my paintings I created in my art classes - now I'm not so sure.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Tuesday 1 January 2013
New Years Resolution - Young Woman
Well we are all supposed to have made a new year's resolution which, if you are like me, rarely makes it out of January before it is heavily modified or abandoned. This year I have made a resolution not to make a new year's resolution - not sure what will happen come February but we'll have to wait and see.
This image is my first painting of the New year. It is actually the first attempts at blocking of a portrait I'm working on but as I was working on it I thought how very strange a spooky this looked so I kept a copy of this stage. I have since'd enhanced it even further and now it looks like some strange clone that is being made in an align cloning facility - which I suppose in one sense it is. What will the New Year bring?
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
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