Experimental Soldier

This is not some futuristic film but rather me just trying things out. Not sure whether it works but at is stage in my development I don't think that matters. It is all about making neurones connect and the more you do it the more they connect until hopefully one day something new and interesting is born. Well at least I am try something new, for me at least, so that it good. One final thing, I started this whilst watching the Disney film Band5lam - now I have no idea if this had any effect on me but it did make me want to create this. Pick any meaning out of that if you can.

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Soldier

This was inspired by a photo of a traumatised veteran from the Afghan war. I hope it shows the silent power of the man trying to come to terms with some unknown circumstance.

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Bleak House women

I'm watching the Bleak House DVD. I am not sure which character inspired this but here she is - my Bleak House woman.

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Going a little off the rails

I have just come back from a great day in Nottingham consuming art - metaphorically rather than literally - and have felt the creative juices start to flow again,  So I have returned to one of my favourite subjects - Lady Gaga.  I have just been playing around again with quick sketching and come up with this.  I suspect there are a whole series of influences in their but whatever!  I find it interesting - I think??
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

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Sierra Nevarda

It is always very strange how things come together. I have just bought a new book entitled - 'The hidden art of designers, illustrators and creatives'. This is a book based on the sketch books of the afore mentioned people. It is a fascinating insight to the strange and wonderful world within their respective minds. One of the sketch books was full of quick landscape drawings done with pen and ink. It inspired me to create this based on an Ansal Adams photograph. I find it really refreshing to just to quickly sketch out something like this.

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Ed Milliband - what a start

Well I know honeymoons are getting shorter but you have to have a lot of sympathy for Ed Milliband.  I have no idea how he will turn out as the new party leader and the reality is that no one else does either.  This has not stopped whole sections of the press rubbishing him from the moment he was elected.

If this were not enough he has a disgruntled elder brother David Milliband to consider.   It is immaterial whether David would have been the better leader, this also has a lot of question marks hanging over it too, he should do the decent thing and resign from politics and find something else to do.  As long as he is there he is going to be a figurehead around which all the disgruntled MPs can gather.  I also suspect that this might be the best course of action as far as his  personal relations with his brother are concerned.  Nothing good will come of his staying put, let alone getting into the shadow cabinet.

As for the policies that Ed Milliband will put forward who knows how they will work out.   He doesn't have to rush things over the next year either as the government will become very unpopular by itself.   The best thing for Labour is to play a long game and assume that this parliament will last a full five years.   They should reject any short term love in with disaffected Lib Dems and try and work out how they will govern post 2015.  There are going to be a whole series of pit falls that Labour is going to have to negotiates themselves, not least if the public sector unions try and flex their muscle.  This might seem sensible for the unions concerned but for Labour it will be a death knell as it will only amplify the fact that Ed Milliband was elected by the union's votes.

So it is going to be hugely difficult for Labour over the next 5 years but it vital to the country that we have a viable opposition.   Should this not be the case then maybe Ed Milliband is Gordon Brown mark 2 or worse Michael Foot and Labour will have to start thinking about governing in the mid to late 2020s.  Now that is a freighting thought.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

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Perhaps I should let the water colour dry??

Perhaps I might have been just a little hasty when castigating my ability to create something worthwhile with water colour.  Perhaps.   One of the problems I have with all this art stuff is that I have no terms of reference against which to judge things.   The water colour is a case in point.   I have no idea how long it will take the painting to dry and then what will be the result.  This will only come with experience, time and perhaps professional help (this will not be the first time that I have needed professional help!)   I suppose in the mean time I will just have to continue banging my head against a brick wall until I manage to beat something into it - not sure how many metaphors I mixed there.   Anyway, I just have to keep going. 
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

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

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Another disaster session with water colours

I really am not very skilled at using watt colours at the moment. I just don't seem to be able control the flow of paints - I'm afraid to say it is all a bit alien to me. I have got so frustrated that I have gone back to the iPad for some solace and punched out this quick water colouresque drawing. Now I can draw hares well enough but I just can't paint them using water colours. The good news is that my art class starts at the end of this week and so I would hope that by the end of that course I will have a much better understanding and control of the water colour process.

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Hares and Rabbits

I had a great day today at my good friend David's coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer Relief.   It also gave me a chance just to see how artists work.  I am fascinated by other people's work spaces and this morning allowed me to explore this mild passion of mine.  It really is amazing to see how different people arrange there lives.   It was also inspiring to see so much creativity on display and also rather humbling.  All in all a great day out.
 

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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Hare

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Hares

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Man in snow

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Not sure whether I am happy with this or not.

This is based on the famous Dorotheia Lange image from the Great Depression and I am not sure I did it justice at all.  Still it is a measure of how far I have come that I am not satisfied with quite a good drawing.
 

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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Why? Why? Why?

I am sure there are many reasons why you would want a 200 mega pixel camera but at the moment I can't think of any.  So my jaw dropped when I read that Hasselblad are developing such a camera. In truth, of course, this isn't a 200 mega pixel camera but cleaver use of software that combines four 50 mega pixel image together.  I just don't understand why you would want to do such a thing - this makes me think of digital zoom which is fatuous I know but the whole concept makes no sense to me.   However, as I am never likely to but such a camera I guess Hasselblad won't be too worried.
 

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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Developing a style

Another faulting step forward.  I have started to draw more than just the face.  I still have a long way to go before I am happy with what I am producing but I have to say I am making progress.  

I now date the sketches that I make, not for any vain glory but rather as a means of judging the progress or lack of it I am making.  I only started this in September so it far too early to say how successful this is in helping me develop.  However, the skills I have started to develop over the past month are;  first - start to make the drawing a true likeness ( this is a prerequisite for a portrait and is a difficult skill to master!);  second - to add some depth to the drawing - to give the illusion that drawing is more than a selection of graphite marks on a piece of paper.

One final thing.  To my great surprise I have discovered that I really enjoy the creation of a real object - something you can touch and smell rather than a virtual object.  Now this may seem somewhat strange given that I also like the use of digital post production.  But this is not the end of the production as I then make a print which is what I feel is the final object.  God I am series of contradictions - much the same as every other person on the planet - long may it be so.
 

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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I have a problem with Brushes

I do seem to have a problem with brushes - well more than one but I think the others may well be addressed if I could overcome the main problem. So what is this problem? I just can't concentrate the way I appear to be able to do so when using paper and pencil etc. However, with brushes I find the maximum time I can give a drawing is 20 minutes. After that I loose interest. I can't say that I am overly bothered by this but it's does mean that anything I produce is, at best, a sketch. However, this being said I love sketching wi brushes and so I don't feel too bad by this - just a little frustrated at times. I'll live with that.

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Kingfisher

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Fallow deer

I am trying out my iPad as a sketch pad. When I am outside I normally sketch standing up. I have no great artistic reason for this - it is just the way I like to things. So the last couple of sketches were just that - quick snap shots standing up.

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Hare

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Final drawing of Pete Rose

For tonight but certainly not the last one ever

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