New Year's resolution working a treat!

As you can see my New Year's resolution is coming on nicely. I have not felt this good in a long time - really feel I am getting some definition and things are looking pretty good. Oh and the exercise I am doings having it's effect as well - some day I might have a body like this - fat chance!

One of my New Year's resolution was to try and make better drawings of the human form - I started this at the end of last year with the female form and now it is the turn of the men. The photo I used wasn't as well proportioned as this drawing, well I think it is better - more body builder than this classical torso and I feel I have been able to correct this. This, after all, is one of the fun things about drawing. Off to London tomorrow to OD on art - usual come back exhausted but inspired.

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Working with light and shade

Just made this drawing as an exercise in light and shade - interesting first attempt.

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Hockney driving

A quick sketch based on something I've just seen on the tv.

I'm on line at:

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http://simonmarchini.posterous.com

www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Lenora Crichlow - boy was she hard work!

Before there is any misunderstandings I have no idea what the actress Lenora Crichlow is like. I am sure she is a perfectly nice person. However, when it comes to drawing her it has been a real pain. Earlier this week I made a reasonable stab at capturing her using Brushes but after that I just seem to loose my ability to make a likeness of her. This was really frustrating. It was there somewhere but could I find it.

Rescue was on hand. As a I mentioned in a previous post I reverted back to basics and bang the skill came rushing back. This afternoon I decided to put this to the test with Lenora and thankfully I was able to pass. The sense of relief and satisfaction is well I can't think of the word but whatever it is that is it.

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An hour of my life

This is how long this took me to draw. I have been having a mini crises over the past day or so - I just couldn't seem to make a likeness of the person I was trying to draw. My skill had evaporated. However last night I seem to have relocated it by, well there is no easy way to say this, looking and then looking some more and checking and finally I seem to have rediscovered the ability to draw.

Now I am sure much more experienced artists will laugh at this but I did feel for a few hours that I had lost it. This being said I did discover new ways of portraying the face which are really quite interesting so perhaps it wasn't a total waste of time.

If you are interested this the actress Fiona Shaw.

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Happy 1st Birthday, iPad

How time flies past...one year old and something that has changed the way I run my life.  Now that is some sort of endorsement.

Happy 1st Birthday, iPad
http://mashable.com/2011/01/27/ipad-one-year-infographic/

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Walking through Jumanji

Last week and friend I spent some time in Oxford.  We visited the Ashmolean, which is a revelation in itself and well worth another visit.  However, the main point of the visit was to visit the Pitt Rivers museum to see a really interesting exhibition of the photography of Wilfred Thesiger in Africa which reflects his many visits to many parts of Africa.  Both of these would be a star of any other visit but they pale when compared to the main collection hall of the Pitt Rivers.  Many people  have written many words about the '...Victorian Displays...' of the objects.  My own reaction was to think of the film Jumanji.  It had that strange jumble effect of the film - you just don't know what you will find when walk around the next corner of densely packed glass display cabinets.   

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Work in progress

Well I don't seem to have screwed things up too much so far - early days yet!

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If David Hockney can do it why can't I?

What a stupid question. There is a million reason why David Hockney can make drawings and paintings that I can't - if ever there was a truism this is it. Yet this has inspired me to have another serious attempt at making another drawing using Brushes - I just saw what Hockney could do with the iPad - perhaps I was missing something. And it turns out that I was - the will to approach the medium sensibly and forget about the detached feeling I now get from drawing using the iPad.

And you know what I seem to be able to make a reasonable stab at a a likeness - this is far from finished but it does mark an interesting first step. I wonder how I can screw this up over the next day or so? Only time will tell.

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An experiment in getting my hands dirty

I've been messing around with oil pastels this afternoon as part of a first step into painting. I have played around with these before but now I am going to seriously work on this. Let's hope that after a couple of months I am able to produce better results than this experiment - time will tell.

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In bed with Tracy Emmins - a fine minute sketch

Not really. But a strange thing has happened to me - a 2001 moment. Suddenly, I understand what the jaw bone can be used for - perhaps Saul on the road to Damascus? Well forget all this hyperbole and frankly ridicules self engrandisment What the he'll am I talking about?

Yesterday I went to the Ashmolian in Oxford and saw some exceptional work of art. Somehow I felt effected by them. When I got home I sat down in front of the TV to try and catch up with all the programmes I had recorded. As I did this I started to sketch the people I say on the screen. Slowly I started to draw them in a different way - something I had never done before. I have no idea why I did is but suddenly I was able to make really good likenesses of people with little or no effort. Sketch after sketch just seemed to come together in moments. I have no explanation for this and I am now frightened that this is just a passing phase and I will soon drop out of the zone - god bless mental health! But while it is lasting it is wonderful.

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Doing a de Vinci

Oh Chiaroscuro how interesting you make a drawing.   I am starting to work on a drawing of three Russian men.  It is based on three unknown men I saw on TV the other day who just seemed so full of sorrow and power.   I have been too frightened to start and so I have been looking at a photo I captured of the three for a couple of days.  It is really quite a complicated image and to be truthful I am not sure I will be able to make it.  However, any journey starts with the first step and so I have made a couple of preparatory sketches for two reasons.  The first is try and get something down on paper and the second to actually work through the problems created by this project.  I suppose these represent either side of my brain, the emotional and the rational. 

This is one of the sketches and it was essentially an experiment in Chiaroscuro.  Much to my surprise it worked out really quite well.  Now I am starting to wonder if I should just concentrate on each man on their own?  I'm not sure at the moment but I have to say it is a fascinating problem to address.  I wonder of de Vinci had these problems?

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

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Untitled

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King Kenny's eyes

Over the past week I seem to have been sketching faces I see on TV. One of these was Kenny Dalglish. Yesterday I decided to make a more in depth study of Liverpool's best player of the last 40 or so years. This took me over a day of working and reworking but eventually I captured a likeness that I found acceptable. I have now started to work with colour in my drawings, introducing it were it is required. Here I have coloured his eyes and this seems to add to the work - capturing Dalglish's hawk like eyes.

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Decaying Hastings

Good it has been a tiring day.  Up at 4am, out on the road at 5am, over 400 miles in one day and some fresh winter sea air.  I'm knackered!   By the time I got to Winchelsea the light was going and my creative juices were no longer flowing.   Anyway had a very interesting in old Hastings.  The rest of Hastings seemed to be slowly decaying into the English channel - however a cold and bleak winter's day is not the best time to see an English seaside town so I think it is fair to give Hastings the benefit of the doubt.

I decided to take my G10 instead of anything bigger and this produced a mixed bag of photographs - oh how I wish Canon hadn't upped the Pixel count on this camera - anything above 200 ISO and you are starting to struggle to produce anything usable.  The later incarnations of this camera have had their pixel count reduced - a sensible step towards usability.

Played around the iPhone on the way down and I will work on these over the next day or so when I have recovered.  Not long before I am in bed!
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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On the road again.

Early start this morning - out of the house before 5am! Going to just outside Hastings with friend who needs to get some camera gear fixed. After this we are going to Winchelsea to see what it is like - hopefully capture some interesting details.

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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Hubris - well I am not so sure

Hubris is such a great learning tool. The other day I was so pleased with myself when I thought I had captured Scarlet Johansson's likeness. On reflection I hadn't or at least to my satisfaction. Hubris. However, this made me have another attempt and again not quite right. This was getting frustrating and then I took. Step back and looked again at what I had produced and suddenly it struck me that, whilst they weren't likenesses they were nonetheless very good drawings. The woman in this drawing has a beauty that Johansson doesn't. This isn't to down play the actress but rather to say that she has inspired me to produce something beautiful and in the end that is more important than any false pursuit of a likeness that is false.

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My new toy - thank you google

I have just down loaded the google app for the iPad and to my great joy it has a voice search facility. As with all these application they either work brilliantly or very badly. I have just tried to search for the '...artist Ingres...'. This was too much for the system and it came up with some wonderful options - including 'Jobs in breast' ( the mind boggles). So thank you Google for your new toy, it is much appreciated.

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Another stab at Scarlet

Had another go at trying to make a likeness of Scarlett Johansson and this time I think I might have got it a bit better.

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Doing a Vermeer

I was watching the Girl with the Pearl Earring last night and it inspired me to run off a sketch of the said woman. Initially I wanted to make it a likeness of Scarlett Johansson but this quickly got away from me and as I tried to recover this another woman started to appear who seemed to fit the requirements much better so I went with her. It really is hard this art business, one moment things are working out just right and then the next bang! The whole thing goes wrong. You just have to have faith that you will be able to pull it off in the end.

My art classes start again next week and it will be interesting to see who returns from last year. It will also be interesting to see what they have made, if anything, over the Christmas break. I feel I have moved to the next level, whatever that might be, over this time. Another few months of this and I think I might be ready to take the next leap - painting. Now that will be fun???

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From the freezer

Thankfully we are back into a more normal, whatever that might mean, winter and for now the frozen tundra has gone away.  However, it looks like it may well return over the next few days.  So here are a couple of photos I made during the last ice age!
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Pastels

More experimentation. I can now make an acceptable likeness of my father - well at least the last two drawings are turning out like him so based on this I have decided that the aforementioned fact is correct. So much for statistics!

Given this I have decided to work on what the final production will look like. One idea is to make it with pastels so this is what I have been trying out. I have discovered a technique that seems to suit me at the moment. I make the drawing with pencil then shade it using Letraset promarkers (note to Amazon my new order of these has yet to turn up - whine & whinge!). Finally I work on the drawing with pastels. These I blend and rub out and apply and so on until I finish up with something interesting - I find it interesting and really that is all that matters at the moment. The whole process takes about an hour or so but I sully take a break in the middle to give me time to get some prospective on the drawing. Quite an interesting image emerges from the whole process and this is yet another idea to add to the others I have had whilst developing the project. I must admit I am finding whole thing fascinating. The rest of the day I have been working through my photographs. I had cut the selection down to around 60 but then found some more I had missed so I am back to around 80. My target is between 40 - 50 so some serious soul searching is to be had. Deep joy.

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Working with my father

Well the New Year is well under way. People are going back to work - oh how I am glad I no longer have to do that! All we need now is for schools to go back and we will be back to normality. So what I have I been doing? Well most of the morning I have been working on the year book. Looking back at a whole year's work it makes one realise how one's life can change. In the afternoon I started working on another sketch of my father. I hadn't done anything for a couple of days and thought it would be worth while going back to work on him. What a different a couple of days makes. Now I am starting to really understand the face and relating what I remember to the photograph I am working on. I guess this comes from working the problem, not that my father is or was a problem. Well he was but then we all are in our own way.

The photograph here had a lot more contrast than the drawing which in itself is very interesting as it gives me new ideas and possibilities. Funny how life works out.

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Another year over and a new one just begun...

So that was 2010 and what a year it has been.  I started off with grand plans which I have set out at length in this blog only to find by the end of the year my life has gone in a totally different direction - I have no idea how this new year will end up - rather exciting isn't it.  Anyway, the reason for all this reflection is that I am starting to think about my 2010 year book.   I started this last year after threatening to do this for a number of years.  It is an interesting way to reflect on the year just past and to create something tangible to hold and keep rather than all these digital files.

So where to start?  Well I have around 700 images to work through and select the 50 that will go into the book.  I will then select the most relevant blog entries from the last 12 months to produce as complete record as I can.  One decision I have made already is that I will not include any of my drawings.  whilst this is a year book I am going to keep it as a photographic one.  This may well change but not this year.   Let the sifting and selecting begin.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Web Site Blues...

I have just spent sometime trying to set up one of my friends new web site only to fail miserably.  I have no idea why it won't work but I suspect the 'free service' is little more than a con (perhaps I am being unfair on the unnamed company as this may all be user error.  If this is the case then their set up process is crap!)

This made me re visit my site and I have made one or two more tweaks.  The first I linked the site to my Posterous blog instead on the Blogspot version.  I have also introduced better integration from the Posterous blog and the web site.   The final thing I have done is posted a new intro photo.  All this took about 15 minutes which reinforces my view expressed above.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Our carriers have proven over time to offer a very efficient and reliable service. However...

Whinge, Whinge Whinge.   That's what I feel like doing.  The Royal Mail has yet again proven that they are not able to deliver items on time.   I have placed an order with Amazon and they have been up front about the problems they are having with the postal service.  Interestingly, they only use Royal Mail if the order was placed in the morning, if you place an order in the afternoon they use a private carrier and guess what - the is delivered on time.  I think there is a lesson there somewhere.   Here endth the whinge.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Battling real emotions

I have set my self a new goal, I suppose you could call it a sort of a New Years resolution, only it is not. I am going to make a drawing of my father. Now there are a number of problems with this. The first is that he died nearly four years ago, which is a bit of a restriction but not the biggest problem I will have to over come. The biggest problem is all the emotional baggage you bring when drawing someone you knew really well who is no longer alive (that's putting it mildly!)

So how to approach this? Well I have no real time constraints so I will make numerous preliminary sketches just to try and get the right look and feel. I am working from a series of photographs I made back in the mid 1970s when I had my first camera. Now here is another emotional baggage moment as my father is the same age in the photo as I am now. Again this is an interesting question - what tense do I use? The photo is nearly 35 years old and so I should us the past tense, yet the image is of a person frozen in time so is it is? Or should it be was? I rathe prefer is even though it may not be grammatically.

Using a photograph as a prime source for the work is also interesting. The photograph has no life it just exists where as the art work will always have life and emotion or at least it should have. Perhaps this is one of the a sons why I am less motivated to make photographs at the moment? I am looking for animus rather than lifeless. Who knows.

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Back to serious drawing

Before I start I have been asked to point out that none of the women I have drawn and posted are known to me. They are all based on photographs I have found on the Internet.

So I have moved away from the Madison Avenue style book and back to what I know best - drawing based on observation and more observation. I found that when you spent too much time working out the correct proportions you ended up making drawings that were just not life like. The rules can become more important than what is actually in front of you. This is a bad mistake.

This is not the first attempt I have made to capture this young woman. Yesterday I tried to capture this likeness using a large graphite rod. It didn't work and I ended up producing something that was much more impressionistic. There was nothing wrong with this but it really wasn't what I wanted to do I now realise. So today went back to paper and pencil spent some time looking and measuring and looking some more. Slowly the image emerges but it is a struggle. As I was working on this it struck me that if you had asked me 6 months ago if I could draw I would have answered no. Now I can and I think that is a sign of real progress. It has been hard work but now I feel I am starting to get somewhere. There are still many things I need to work on and improve but as the year is slowly coming to an end I think I can feel very proud of what I have achieved. Let's hope the new year is as rewarding as this has been. Goodness only knows where that will take me.

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Ludmilla - the evil Russian temptress

This is straight out of DC comics or Marvel. It was produced by following one of the style guides in my favourite art book of the moment. Isn't she so evil and Bonesk!

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Corrupting Madison Avenue

Reading further into the Drawing the Head and Figure book I was given at Christmas it is clear that it was designed for designers and artists working in a Madison avenue advertisement agency in the late 50's to come up with some art work for the latest product. Think of Mad Men and you would be about right. Now a days we have Google and it's almost infinite resource of photographs to help inspire the budding copy artist. Back then I am not so sure so you would need rules to help make sure your person looked like a person. In short this is a style book - you want a man and he has to have a chiselled WASP look. The children have to have a Norman Rockwell quality and the women demure and slightly rounded. There is even a section on how a women's nipple will move as she moves her arm towards the ceiling.

Anyway, I have tried some of the simpler exercises and they are really quite fun. However, I have let my 21st century aesthetic intervene and the women has turned into some burnt out Hollywood star who has too much of life's disappointments written large on her face. Nonetheless, it is really great to have every step laid out for you - you want brunette hair then your pencil strokes should be like this and so on. What a wonderful book.

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Prescriptive Drawing - the 1950's way

I am working my way through my figure drawing book - c1950. May how prescriptive it is - take for example drawing the neck and shoulder lines. Here we are shown 11 different angles/types and the anatomy of the women is discussed in some detail for each. Not once is the reader told to look and look and keep looking. Instead it is all about the angle of clavicles and there relationship to sterno mastoids or something like this.

Now this is actually very useful advice and I must admit to have actually learnt a great deal from this. However, and this is a big empire state building type of however, it really sucks the joy out of drawing. An art drawing of a woman should also try and capture her humanity and femininity far more than the how the skin lies over the deltoid muscles. As an exercise in drawing technique this is very useful. As an exercise in capturing the essence of a person it is next to useless. However, call me old fashioned, but I believe you do need to understand much of what this book is talking about. You can then junk it if you wish but at least you will have the information in the first place.

Oh how things have changed in the last 50 years.

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The iPad in 2011

I am not the first person to say this but 2011 could well be the year of the iPad. When the product was first introduced there was still quite a bit of confusion as to how the product would work. 7 months on a lot of companies are starting to develop apps for the iPad. The latest I have downloaded is so that I can record programmer on my sky+ box. This is so incredibly ingenious that it makes you wonder how you never had this in your life before. Getting away from the giddy excitement the really important lesson to learn is that there is a conversion between the different technologies and especially the iPad. I now find I have mine sitting next to me as I watch a programme and when anything interesting comes up, such as '...where have I seen that actor/ress before?...'. I have my trusty iPad on hand to allow me to dive into IMDB or Wiki or google to try and answer the question. As the programme I'm watching can be paused then I don't miss any action. No doubt as the year progresses even more things will start to merge. Makes for an interesting 12 months ahead.

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Drawing the head and figure

I have been given a wonderful book for Christmas called 'Drawing the head and figure'. It is a Haynes manual of how to do this. It breakdown the body into it's individual proportions and then explains how to capture these in a drawing. It is a great text book in it's own right but the real reason I like this book is that it was first published in 1963 - the illustrations are much older and have a 1950s feel to them. I spend half my time working on the exercise and the other half deconstructing the illustrations for their hidden message. If you followed this book to the letter then your drawings would turn out like Hollywood movie posters of the 1950s. Quite brilliant.

I have also decided to try and work on these exercises on the iPad. Over the past few weeks I have found myself neglecting the iPad for real world drawing and I would like to try and redress this.

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When things get away from you...oh and I have a cold

Well it wouldn't be Christmas with out getting a cold and as I write this this Christmas is stacking up as usual.  My wife is stiff suffering from flu like symptoms and I have started to get a cough and splutter.

So It has been back with the sketch book and doodling.  Something drawings worked and some didn't.  That is life I suppose.  The only question which one is which.  I am not sure.  Anyway, if I do come down with a heavy cold then I may not up to writing for a few days.  If this is the case may I wish anyone who comes across this blog all the best for Christmas.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Learning to work with the pen

The more I work with a pen the more confident I get with my ability to obtain something interesting.  It is the old refrain '..the more I practice the better I get and the better I get the more I practice...'  or something like that.   The inability to easily correct any mistakes when using a pen means that you have adopt different approaches.  This in turn leads to different creative opportunities.  The trick, I guess, is trying to work out what these opportunities are and weighing them against their disadvantages.  Much like life.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Doodling and illness

Well thanks to the British education system my wife is suffering from a bad cold.  My son came home the other day with a heavy cold no doubt contracted at his university.   Being young he spent a couple of days feeling sorry for himself and then bounced back.  However, for the people who live in the same house with him it is taking longer and having a effect.   Now I have had a flu jab and this might have protected me from the worst effects.  However, my wife is suffering.

Now here is one of those Mars and Venus questions.  Why are women so crap at illness?  We men are the true professionals.  When we have a cold we devote all our attention to it - none of this carrying regardless - we are ill so that is the only thing that matters - front and centre.  We demand to be cared for and nursed back from death's door.  Women on the other hand have this totally baffling attitude that they must carry on.  They come up with arguments that they have got too many things to do to stop.  These are just incomprehensible to the professional male - when you are ill you are ill - period.  

So I have managed, just, to get my wife to sit down and just do nothing.  Almost impossible but some how I did manage it - perhaps she really is ill?   Anyway, I have had to run around and do things but mainly I have spent time doodling whilst making sure she rests - yes she require constant obs otherwise she would be about 'doing things' .  The doodles can be spilt into two.  The first group are based on characters and photographs I have found on the internet.   With these I have been experimenting with the restrictions that pen and ink place on the doodles.   You have to be precise with the mark you make and any mistake is very difficult to correct.   With this in mind I made the Buzz Light Year and Woody sketches (I'm sure the Disney Corp won't mind but I guess I will find out shortly if they do).  Another interesting thing with these sketches is that the slightest mistake  and you change the whole character of the person - manic Buzz is a case in point.

The second group are based on people I have seen on TV whilst sitting with my wife.   I find myself people watching and missing whole sections of plot and find I have to pause the programme and then go back and watch it again.  However, this is a wonderful source of interesting people to draw or at least sketches and doodles on.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Mark making technology

Before Gwyneth there was woman. This is the first attempt to make a drawing using Letraset promakers. The only thing is I added oil pastels and came up with a whole new way, for me, to make a drawing. However, the key mark making technology in this drawing was the choice of using a pen for the initial outline rather than my more usual pencil. This meant that every Mark I made was permanent and so I had to ensure it was exactly where I wanted it to be. To be honest I was intimidated by this and the initial sketch wasn't as flowing as I would have wanted. However, it does give the drawing a strange 'Dan Dare' look but does highlight the importance of mark making, the technology you use and how you, the artist, reacts to the opportunities and restrictions placed on you.

Still it does mean that she is a stern looking alien female and I think it won't take you too long to realise who I used for the inspiration for this - missing nose anyone?

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The ears are sad...

Having just reread my latest posting I have to say that relying on auto correct on the iPad throws up some wonderful sayings. The latest is '..the ears are sad...'. Now I'm not sure how ears can portray sadness in humans but clearly the drawing some how captures this! Perhaps I should read the stuff I post before I post it but where would the fun be in that?

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Gwyneth

I am still surprised where inspiration comes from. I was watching that excellent movie sliding doors last night and suddenly was inspired to make a quick sketch of Gwyneth Paltrow. The sketch didn't really look too much like her but that wasn't the point. It was the inspiration that was important. As the the film progressed I worked on the sketch using Letraset pro markers to add a little depth and colour.

This morning I couldn't get the sketch out of my head so I decided to create a large drawing from it. This time I used the pro makers mixed with oil pastels to produce Gwyneth. Now she is not. Likeness per si but rather what the actress might have looked like if she hadn't lead such a privileged life. Actually that is not far as whilst the the drawing developed I moved further and further from the actress to someone completely different. My Gwyneth has the sad lost eyes of someone who has faced a hard life whilst at the same time retained her femininity and dignity. The ears are sad but they still are full of life.

So thank you Gwyneth for the inspiration I hope you like the drawing, if you ever see it.

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Sketching with Brushes

There is something really quite fulfilling spending half an hour doodling and sketching with brushes. It is totally inconsequential which makes it so much more rewarding. Life is far too short not to have a bit of fun every now and then. Here is my bit of fun this morning.

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Nude

I have found this photograph of a well round woman on the Internet - this is actually harder than you might think as most nude women tend to be undertaking degrading behaviour. Anyway, I am fascinated by this woman and I am not sure why. The more I draw her the more I realise that I am attracted by her curves and these are leading to a more abstract result.

In This drawing I have used only curved lines. This was a deliberate decision on my part and for a state I couldn't understand why. Then I realised that it may well have been the curves that attracted me. Everything is curved. I have called this series of drawings 'modern women'. I suspect this is a reaction of the depiction of women you see on TV, film and all other media. There seems to be a rejection of what is real in favour of some strange emaciated figure that has no real relationship to the modern world. This is hardly radical, I know, but you can't help what motivates you.

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Curves & Colour

Well I've let myself go and this the result. I've no idea where she came from and I'm sure many art historians can point to the influences and they may be right. What I do know is that she makes sense me.

Having store back and looked at the drawing I think I will remove the face - it doesn't add to the work which is turning into mother earth.

I'm on line at:

www.flickr.com/photos/guthlac
http://simonmarchini.blogspot.com
www.simonmarchini.co.uk

I hope you enjoy

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How real is real?

Day two working on the female form. I have christened this drawing 'Modern Woman'. The idea behind this today was to mKe as realistic drawing of the woman as I could. However what is real? I am not sure now as having spent the day trying to create the most realistic drawing I realise that this is controlled by your technique and the materials you are using. In this case I am using charcoal and try as I might I can't get the control I vet with pencil. I could, of course, use charcoal pencils but I enjoy the tactile feel of charcoal in my hand so I have decided against this.

So how real is she? Well in one sense very real but in Nother not. She certainly isn't a photo real drawing and I am glad of that. I have seen many such drawings and paintings and I always come away thinking why? I think there is a wold world of difference between drWing and photography, both bring something special to the experience but they are not the same.

Is she better than yesterday's attempt? Agin yes and no. In short she has a life of her own - indeed I am referring to her as 'her, rather that it which probably says more about how real anything is.

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A mornings work

Well I spent two hours this ,owning with amply proportioned young women and things are coming along a treat. I am deliberately taking my time to see how that might improve things. So far this is proving to be a worthwhile tactic.

I am using my new easel and this has also proved to be a great success as well. All in all considering everything else that has happened today it could have gone a whole lot worse.

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