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.

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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.

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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The Dark Knight Rises - Cat woman - Day 1

Simon Marchini 

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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 

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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 

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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...

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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

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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 

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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 

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End of New year's Day

Simon Marchini 

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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 

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