Thinking about Pre History - Iron Age Fort

So you have this bright idea - how on earth do you progress it? Well that is the first question that needs to be addressed when starting to think about the Prehistoric project. Fortunately I know something about Iron Age Britain so this might help but not at the moment. Instead I have decided just to sketch out some basic ideas - an Iron Age fort, an Iron Age man and the so on. Just how these all fit together I haven't got a clue at the moment but somehow they will.

Beyond the artistic I have been researching the Iron Age quite extensively over the past few months so that may well give me some clues. I suspect I may well be spending some time in the cotswolds - especially around the Gloucestershire, Oxon, Warwickshire borders. The more I think about this the more interesting it gets.

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A doodle or sketch - not sure which

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Kedleston Hall

I have just spent an enjoyable afternoon at my friend David's McMillan fundrasier.  One of the things that looking at all the art on display has inspired me to is to make a new series of photographs.  I have decided to give the project the title of Pre Historic and no doubt over the next few months I will be building up a portfolio of work so that I can put them all together in a new book which I would hope to publish in the spring.  That's the plan which of course I'll completely ignore but there we are.

So why Kedleston Hall?  Well why not - I just fancied making an image and this was the first one that came to mind - that makes a grand total of 12 photographic images I have made this year.  Not bad going even if I say so myself. 

Simon Marchini 

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

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An ironic banksy

And who said the Americans don'y get irony

Simon Marchini 

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

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Article: Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field Lives On

Really good article, if a little bitchy.

Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field Lives On
http://gizmodo.com/5946966/

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Another time saver from Apple

So you want to buy something from the Apple stores wall display and you can't find sales person (whatever the approved apple term for them is) well now you can scan and go.  I used the new service and I have to say it is really easy.  What the app does is that it turns your iPhone into a barcode scanner and then charges you for the item.  Once this is done then you simply pick up you item and go.   It was really simple.  Of course you have to have an iPhone and an iTunes account but I suspect that there are few Apple users that don't have either.

So what did I buy?  The Trackpad and it is really good.   Given the size of the iMac screen I found that I was zooming the mouse all over the place and after a while this was becoming tiresome.  The Trackpad seems the answer - although it is taling a little time to get use to all the functionality - over 20 years of using a mouse can't be forgotten overnight!  Other than that I think it should be a good investment.   

Simon Marchini 

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

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Dima Rebus (dimarebus.com)

Now these are wonderfully interesting watercolours.

Dima Rebus
http://dimarebus.com/

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30+ Photorealistic Pencil Portraits

I look at these incredibly crafted pieces and my heart drops.  Not because they lack craft but because they lack soul.  I may have said this before  but to  paraphrase Hockney..." where is the poetry?..."   Plus all of these are copies of other people's creative work, i.e. the photographers or graphic designers who created the image that these are copies of.

So lets celebrate all the craft here, not just the artists who created the drawings.

30+ Photorealistic Pencil Portraits Of Famous Celebrities
http://www.modny73.com/artwork/30-photorealistic-pencil-portraits-of-famous-celebrities/

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iPhone 5 Camera Sensor Pitted Against Canon 5D

I read this and couldn't help myself - I just had to scream at my iPad - "What is the Point of This!!!"   The canon is better even at its worst setting and what would happen if you closed it down to, oh lets say f8 or perhaps the light conditions are not so bright or perhaps at night or perhaps you want to change a lens or...the list is almost endless.

This reminds me of the old logical problem..my cat has four legs, so does my dog therefore my dog is a cat.  In fact this has more point to it than trying compare, at best a £50 pound camera and lens with something that costs so much more.   

Oh some times I just want to scream!

iPhone 5 Camera Sensor Pitted Against the Canon 5D Mark III
http://www.petapixel.com/2012/09/24/iphone-5-camera-sensor-pitted-against-the-canon-5d-mark-iii/

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Beautiful Oil Paintings Using a Palette Knife

If these paintings are as striking in real life as the images on line are then they would be worth seeing.

Beautiful Oil Paintings Using Only a Palette Knife
http://twistedsifter.com/2012/09/oil-paintings-using-only-a-palette-knife-leonid-afremov/

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Is it a painting or is it a photograph?

I guess this video is just another demonstration that drawing any form of distinctions within art is ultimately pointless.  Yet I still try to - what does that say about me? 

Simon Marchini 

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

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Exploring Local - the problem with Apple Maps

A thoughtful analysis of how things probably went at Apple - hubris anyone?

Exploring Local
http://blog.telemapics.com/

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Iron Age Man

I am starting on a project to create a large drawing/watercolour of an Iron Age community with a number of people prominent in the drawing. The question is what do Iron Age people look like? This is an interesting question as the answer is we don't really know. There are late Iron Age bog bodies that give some idea and descriptions in Roman and Greek sources, notably Julius Caesar, but even these only give a partial answer for numerous reasons.

So the approach I have taken is to look at the life style and see how the people living that life style today might look. Fortunately there is a group of people who fit the description - farmers and so I have been looking at older farmer faces and builds to see where that might take me.

The next question is clothing. Again the evidence for this is somewhat mixed but they certainly had woven cloths, perhaps a form of tartan. The final question would be stature. Again the bog bodies provide a possible answer in that they were significantly short with a body developed by hard work in the fields with scares from battles.

So I am trying to create an image of a short, tough, weathered faced individual who might only be no more than 20 or so years of age but has spent a lot of his life outdoors. With this in mind this is one of my first stabs at trying to capture such an individual.

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Inspired Marilyn

This drawing is based on a Marilyn image which, if I'm honest as got away from me. That being said it might not be such a great likeness but its a great face and to be quite honest I don't care that the likeness anymore - I just want to see what face appears in the end.

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Welcome To Apple’s iOS6 Map

The mapping system is a joke at the moment - I tried to find my address on the satellite and found that it is covered in cloud - perhaps that is caused by the stream coming out of my ears!  Even the detail I could see isn't as in depth as Google.

Welcome To Apple’s iOS6 Map — Where Berlin Is Now Called “Schoeneiche”
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/welcome-to-apples-ios6-map-where-berlin-is-now-called-schoeneiche/

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Kingswear's Dart Princess ferry thief

Well if you're going to take a vehicle you may as well make it worth your while!

Kingswear's Dart Princess ferry thief 'Jack Sparrow' jailed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-19661144

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I am as yet imperfect. But I'm learning

So said the sage of Cupertino Siri...I've just updated to iOS 6 and one of the first things I wanted to try out was the much vaunted Siri and it didn't disappoint. I read somewhere that this is the Microsoft paper lip of the iPad generation and from what I've seen at the moment that about sums up the program. No doubt it will get better but I won't hold my breath nor will I use it. Goodness only knows what Martin Scorsese's diary was like after Siri had butchered it.

Still it does make for a great parlour game for about 5 minutes. Sent from my iPad

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Who is Marilyn Monroe? Asked the Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy

Who indeed is Marilyn Monroe? I haven't got the first clue and having examined many images over the past few days I really don't think no one knows. Undoubtedly there may be a few people still alive who actually did know the woman but they must be an ever decreasing group.

For the rest all we have is the myth based on what? Well a bunch of variable movies and almost limitless images circulating to enforce and enhance the image of a mysterious creature. She really isn't a human being anymore but semi goddess. So we are served up Marilyn the sex goddess or Marilyn the exploited play thing of a President who is as much a Demi-god as she or perhaps a woman just trying to make her way in a mans world or all of these or none. On a more practical level the week has been a fascinating experience - trying many things before coming to the conclusion that I am, at heart, a really conservative artist who likes nothing better than to sit down with a pencil, graphite or conte, and try to make the best likeness I can. I think I have succeeded in that endeavour in some small way.

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NPP | National Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 | The Australian

Of course it is impossible to say for certain from the Internet but in principle the photographs in the Australian version of the portrait prize are of a higher standard than the British.

I wonder why that is?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/gallery-e6frg6n6-1226012006561?page=2

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Marilyn No - Mad Men....maybe

This was a drawing that really got away from me, which at one point was really annoying then I just went with the flow and just enjoyed creating this Mad Manesque image. Sometimes I think you have to remember that this is supposed to be enjoyable and rewarding as well as deeply frustrating.

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