Stage 1

This is the first step in trying to produce a serious portrait. Wish me luck?

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Hare

The Tate is in a state of flux - around have of the gallery space is closed due to a major refit which will go on until 2013, no one appears to have noticed what is happening in London in 2012 but that is another story. They have also left the main hall of the building empty other than a series of relatively small sculptures, including this one by Barry Flanagan. It was all too much so out came the iPhone and this was the result, along with quite a bit of post production on the ipad afterwards.

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Steve McQueen

One of the most powerful contemporary artworks I have seen was produced by McQueen, a Turner prize winning artist and film maker. Queen and Country is a set of UK stamps with the photographs of military personnel who had died in Iraq. I found this portrait of McQueen some time ago and it had a great impact on me. I believe the photographer took it at Cannes, where McQueen was promoting a film and if my memory serves me well it was a bit of a rush job but nonetheless McQueen came across as a larger than life character.

So I have had this bubbling in the back of my mind for some time and now I have produced my take on the portrait again using Brushes but this time in a much looser fashion. I think it is effective and I feel happier with this than the other paintings I have made over the last few days.

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Same person, different points of view

Over the past couple of days I have been driving myself mad by looking at other artists work with the iPad and I think these two images explain, in part, why that is. They are based on the same person but with quite differing results and I think it is clear which was made on the iPad using brushes. (just in case it is not it is the one on the left)

Now I like the brushes painting but it doesn't have accuracy of the drawing made on paper using graphite which is what I am striving for. Of course in a great part this comparison is fatuous for a whole lot of reasons but I think it does show that when I use Brushes I still have a steep learning curve to negotiate. However, on the other hand perhaps this is really the wrong way to go and I should forget other artists work and just develop my own style and embrace that. Who knows how I will resolve this question?

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Pushing the envelope

The last painting I made felt like I was hitting my head against a wall. Much as I tried I just couldn't take it any further. Well a good night's sleep helps provide a bit of prospective and so I have produced this. I feel it is a marked improvement on the last painting however with one or two flaws, not least of which was the choice of the colour of the underpainting which meant that no matter what I did the final result was not quite the colour I had intended. Of course this could have been overcome if I had not decided to produce the painting as if I was in the real world i.e. all on one layer, rather than putting the underpainting on a separate layer and then painting over it on a different layer. All valuable lessons for the future.

Perhaps the most important lesson, however, was to get the original drawing, upon which this is painted, as accurate as possible. For me this is really quite hard given the way I work in the real world but it was worth the frustration it created whilst trying to achieve this.

Overall a good start to the new year...lets hope that it bodes well for future endeavours. Happy New year.

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Hitting the Talent Wall

Another day another attempt to get better at something - so here is my latest attempt at a Brushes painting and I have come to realise that there is a talent wall and I have just hit it. I have also realised that the talent wall can be moved further and further back the more you practice and so this is mine at the moment. I hope that I will be able to move it further away as I go on but for now this is as good as I can make things.

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Battling with exhaustion

Hyperbole of cause but this is the hardest I have worked on a painting in one session. I have been researching other Brushes painters on line and frankly I am a raw beginner compared to some. But I suppose we all have to start somewhere so here is my first stab at a serious Brushes painting. This took me the best part of 3 hours to complete there are still many things wrong with this which I might try to correct but I am now feeling drained. I think a period reflection is in hand but the first thoughts are that this better than I feared.

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Can't Take Brushes Seriously

I try and I try but I just find making an image with Brushes a bit of fun. I look at some of the work that some people make with Brushes and I wonder how they are able to do that as I find myself just having fun when using brushes. I know you can do a lot more with the technology but I just don't seem to be able to do this. Take this drawing of Sean Connery. I started out with all good intentions but very soon I lost interest in making a serious sketch and drifted off into the 'fun' territory. I suspect part of the problem is that I find the whole drawing experience when using Brushes so very sterile and cold - there is no organic feed back from screen that you get with paper.

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In the clearing stands the boxer....

The words of the Simon & Garfunkel song came to mind when I look at this...it is all the more apt as the drawing was based on Steve Bruce who has just been fired by Sunderland...and he carries a reminder of every fight that fought on his face.... It really is conducive to the creative process sitting in the bar of the hotel as this is one of the most interesting Brushes drawings I have made.

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Tron

So what exactly is this? Well it is a digital image of a real world drawing manipulated in the virtual world to produce something that could be mistaken as a photograph. This is somewhat apt as it is based on a character from the film Tron Legacy which is, in part, about the capturing real world people in a digital domain.

So does this answer my question as to what this is? Well no but I like the resultant image and I guess that is all that matters.

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Dr Who

Messing about with Brushes and Photoshop on the iPad today. As a result produced this half decent Dr Who montage.

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Generic Hollywood Beauty

Another Brushes iPad drawing. Not sure who this really looks like but it does have the Hollywood studio feel to it. I find myself drawn, no pun intended, to creating a more poster look with the iPad, I suspect this might have the artificial feel to it all.

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Julie Walters

This is a bit of a break through for me. For months I have found it almost impossible to draw anything on my iPad. I just hated the feel of the cold inorganic screen compared to warm embrace of paper. It just left me dead. Then yesterday the latest RA magazine came through the post and there were a series of drawings (paintings?) made by David Hockney on his iPad. So this morning it was out with the iPad and try and create something - this is the result and I have to say I am surprised and pleased with the result. Once again a great artist has inspired a muggle amateur to do something I suppose that is the beauty of art.

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Frank Skinner

A bit of fun - a combination of real world drawing and brushes - I like this.

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Messing about

Hardly ground break analysis but all super hero women are well - super. That is they have the shape of some strange female form that frankly is hardly ever seen outside the confines of the cosmetic surgeons table. Anyway, I was looking at a DC magazine this morning and I thought it would be a bit of fun to make my own super hero or should that be heroine. I spent no amount of time trying to make this anatomically correct and this is the result - half ghost women. I think it will be a winner. Actually it was just an excuse to try and create something using brushes - I still don't get the buzz out of this that I used to but it is a bit of fun.

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Working with brushes

Once more unto the breach... Or something like that. I made similar sketch this afternoon with paper and pencil and found that far more rewarding. I just can't get my heart into using Brushes - I know I have been moaning about this for a while but I am trying to over come my ambivalence by just working with the program. It just has no warmth and feel the same way that paper does.

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Messing Around

Another combined digital couple - I really love using the combined power of drawing, iPhone, brushes and Photoshop with the I ecosystem to produce something new from it's component parts.

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Brushes Painting - a bit of a mess

For some one who spent many hours working with brushes I find myself less and less able to use the package. Some how I no longer can connect with the process. For me it is all too clinical and detached. I know like the touch feel and dirt of making an actual drawing on paper rather than the antiseptic cation via the iPad. I loose patience with myself and my ability to create an image - for me it is just too complicated way of making a drawing. In short I suspect it is me rather than anything else. My how I have changed!

This is a case in point. I have made a number of drawings of this photograph of Jim Broadbent with a varying degree of success however none had the detached feel of this work. Is this a good drawing or something else - well I think that is a lungless question. What I do know is that I didn't derive the same amount of pleasure from it's creation and I think it shows.

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Mr Anderson

Last night I finally got around to watching the matrix revolution, an utter waste of money and demonstrates that an awful lot of money cannot save a movie without any real purpose other than to make lots of money. According to Wiki the Matrix Trilogy grossed worldwide $1.6 billion for a total $300 million production cost. Guess I am in the minority.

I am sure there are many people out there who disagree with me and good luck to them. I just found the movie really boring. Thankfully I was watching it on Sky + so was able to fast forward through much of the movie.

Anyway, the reason why I was able to fast forward through the movie was that I had paused the action to make a couple of sketches of Mr Anderson and agent Smith. They were just a bit of fun and I thought nothing more of them. This morning, however, I had a brainwave or brain fart whichever suits you. What if I used brushes to combine the two sketches? Is that possible? Well the final image below shows the result and I think they work together really well. It has a real comic book feel to it and an interesting expansion as to what I can achieve using the iPad. It does open some interesting questions to exactly how these would be classified are the 'real' art or digital or both. I really don't care I just like the result.

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Ink pad - now this could be fun!

Just bought the app Inkpad and already it looks like it is going to be great fun. It's a vector map app from the creator of Brushes, another must have app for the iPad. I hope it proves to be the great hit I think it will.

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