The girl with a dragon tattoo

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.

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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

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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 

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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 

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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!

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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 

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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

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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

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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Night owl no 2 - Jools Hooland

Here is part two of tonight's night owl production. Guess who the subject of the programme was.

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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.

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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.

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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 

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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.

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Bizarre silliness

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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 

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Calke Abbey

Another wonderful day at Calke - not too many photo ops - the light was too harsh.

Simon Marchini 

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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 

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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 

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Life...so much more sublime ...believe in better

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Video: Gun Control Laws

Need I say any more?

Gun Control Laws

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Love Shack - just get down

Simon Marchini 

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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 

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The last temptations

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This is my dream..a song for the asking

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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.

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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 

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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 

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Red lady

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Lady in the black hat

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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 

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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/

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Available for free in the App Store.
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Colour sketch

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Red hand

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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 

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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!

I'm on line at:

www.flickr.com/photos/guthlac
http://simonmarchini.posterous.com

www.simonmarchini.co.uk

I hope you enjoy

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Just messing about

After spending hours working on a painting it was really fun just to mess about.

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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.

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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?

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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 

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