Simon's Blog: February 2013

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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