Mixed bag.

RedHead:

Whatever made me think of a Red Head? They are a fabulous 'In Natural State' source of behavioral anomaly. Often it is heard that a man cannot figure out a woman. If this is true in any sense at all - then beyond that .. not even other women can figure out Redheads.   Don't you just love em' ..?

Trying to capture the differences between ordinary things in life brings all sorts of confusions and hilarity. Sometimes my pencil is on my side - and sometimes it just isn't!

 Example:

This was a sketch/doodle I was trying in order to establish a position. I wanted the subject to be open to view - without actually being 'open to view!' The artists among you will understand the fine line which exists between unintentional pornography and downright smutt! After-all .. smut with one 't' is hardly smut at all! 

Footnote - Aren't feet wonderful!

I never understood 'foot-fetish' and I think a lot of the visual treats on show for free on any beach or street have been wasted on me. Summer brings so much exposure to these odd shaped things at the end of women's legs that I rarely take them under my notice ... then, almost by accident, I discover a difference of character in all of them that is a very difficult thing to capture but can, if you take the time, add so much to a drawing. I tend to water-colour my drawings - just give them a bit of life. I think that somewhere in me there has always been a frustrated cartoonist. I love the energy in cartoons and characters whom' we never for a moment doubt that they are flying, crying, grinning or falling! All art is true art - but some artists are truly artful.

Art for me has never been only about the finished product. I guess it's always very rewarding to look upon a piece of work  and remember all the trials and tribulations that went with trying to put each aspect where you feel it will look best. I enjoy that too - but so much more the actual process of a clean sheet/ board generating an idea .. then on towards the initial strokes and building the whole visage. Each part comes together, or not, as you weave the story that's in your head. The organic growth of something all your own and watching as it takes on a life (which let's face it - sometimes isn't what you'd planned but can look somehow better for it!) It's a lot like another passion of mine - Writing.

 When I write fiction I have no idea most of the time how the sentence will end. Often I have less idea what the story is about than the keyboard I'm using seems to  have. I should learn to converse with it! (I once completed a novelette  from start to finish in ball-point pen and that was very much the same thing.) It's not that I've no idea how the story starts and develops, then concludes and ends - more that the journey is allowed to generate its own energy and take life and direction also from there. Sorry - back to pictorial Art.

I love 'art' in any format that draws/ paints or pictorial-ises  in general. I don't care if it's a pile of stones or sheet of old iron.  For me, there is as much imagination in some of  the iconic superheros of American lore drawn in the various comics as there is the 'Masters' and historical musings, children's picture-books or billboards in the streets of our cities. Some of the European comic artists are genius and I always love to browse their examples as and when I have time. Wander through any gallery and there will always be that 'special' piece which moves something in you. I make no order of standard or hierarchy of ability - they all talk to me from least to most and by anyone's barometer of what belongs where. I don't necessarily like them all or find them appealing, but .. although aesthetic preference isn't an accurate measure, 'nice art'  is 'nice art!'

My own taste is almost always toward the female form - being the most advanced design on this planet and intrinsically complicated inside and out! Women of all descriptions are captivating simply by the core values of my youth. This social and geographical denial of exposure to the feminine human form, birthed in me a fascination for all things female. Call me what you like .. I merely voice the view of many adolescent young men of a generation where there was no internet/ multi-channel tv or access to flesh that wasn't their own. If you're pondering  on 'geographical denial' then imagine yourself in 1970's Northern Ireland on a summer day with a raincoat, umbrella and, more often than not, cloudy dark skies. Try then to picture semi-clad women in summer mood, scented with the oils of southern Europe, and how out of place they would look in a duck-pond like this small province. That sounds a little dreary .. which is exactly my intent. NornIron is not the place for sun-worship!

Years down the road and a lifetime apart from the mystery of hidden beauty - things are not the same. I believe that they never will be. Conversations with younger folks these days sometimes show the void between what we were .. and what we are. I make no impart of how I feel the 'new' civilization sees humanity or the beauty of women/ men or anything else that this life introduces. My appreciations are my own. My art and writing is my own - and for my own amusement. When or if I write or draw for someone or something else - then I will adopt and adapt.

Charlotte

Inspirations come from the most unlikely sources and generally so far removed from what results that we sometimes look at our own offerings and wonder where on earth they generated. Instead of wondering where the picture has been - sometimes it's better to just let the image take you where you want to go.

Brunette:

                 
                      Sometimes you don't need to go anywhere at all - just sit and watch the world go by.

                                                                             And by ...

                                                                         
                                                                          And by ...

                                                              so ... feet and bums then!

                                              My goodness there's a theme emerging here!



Other Media:

I've always wanted to try a palette knife. I don't know what it is about the fact that you're painting with a blade/ flat edge .. just something about the fact it's not a brush or pencil - or for that matter a tomato.

This was my very first attempt to 'block in' an outline of a car I wanted to have in a painting. It's plucked from my mind but gets the idea down for me to see if I can make something of it. Obviously acrylic but the lessons were a bit obscure:

1.   That I enjoyed doing it.

2. That I liked the look of it and do not want to do any more to it!

3. That palette painting and me weren't going to be great friends!

I tried other stuff too:

This is mostly palette knife and has been rehashed a dozen times when I couldn't live with the hair and various other aspects of the mix. It is still in a state of 'current' but looks very different. Pics to follow - but a long way from finished. Acrylics again - but blocked-in and encouraging me to get back to it.

The car pics and bike pics were what coaxed me to get the ArtBox out again. I had wanted a theme in my living room of cars and bikes and boats. Something in me wanted, and still wants, pictures of old cars crashing through the desert as if in some pre-WW2 Paris-Dakar. I guess the actual WW2 progression of conflict doused folks' taste for that type of excursion for a while.  I digress.   I seem to have come away from that idea for the moment and I spend most of my creative time doing pics of nekid ladies! (Not just feet!)

No idea where it'll end up but really enjoying it. Sometimes though, when one revisits a painting to 'fix' or 'make better' .. one merely confirms in the mind that the thing was cack from the start and should have been burned. Case in point:

So the structure of the face now (so that I can come back and soften/ detail the features) has become harsh and aged. I will have to blot the head yet again and that just sets the whole thing on that back-burner where, in truth, it should go!

     It's actually beginning to look less like the subject than it did when the canvas was new in the shop!

                                              At least I got the foot completely wrong also. Doh!

All joking aside - this is a part of what I enjoy too. The corrections and planning, identifying the areas which need work (my art experience right from the beginning needs rubbed out and re-drawn!!) All good fun. I will finish this and others. It may be re-drawn a number of times, but hopefully will end with something that is close to what I wanted.

People ask me to do stuff sometimes and I often wonder why. I guess its back to Art being just that - 'Art' and all that entails. There are things I love that others don't, things I don't that others do. Perhaps folks see something I miss and want me to recreate that in imaging them .. who knows? I wasn't expecting requests .. but they come nevertheless!

Doodling.

I sometimes find the distractions run to any number of versions of the same thing or, completely random stuff. This M3W* was a quick note (I sometimes draw pictures as notes instead of 'notes about pictures I want to draw) for a transport device perhaps used by a comic character. I muse from time to time on characters for storyboards and comics. I promise myself all the time I'll develop something cartoon-ish for a storyboard which, in the right setting, would be either a comic spread or cartoon. It'll never happen - but its great fun planning.

* An M3W is a Morgan Three Wheeler car/ motorbike which actually has been in production for a very long time. Morgan's first car was actually a three wheeler. They re-invented it in the past few years to it's current mode. A very nice machine. Go on .. google it!

Again the fantasy of characters comes through in the sketches and doodles. This one, in miniature, a pilot inspired by watching  Hayao Miyazaki's 'Porco Rosso' cartoon. If you haven't seen it - then this isn't familiar to you but I'd recommend it. Living so close to a multi-island lough - one could have written any of these type stories as if they were right across the road. Miyazaki does it so well that any form of emulation, though flattering, would be a very poor imitation. The inspiration remains and this doodle results. In mind - it's entirely owed to the use of mechanics (old type flying technology)  as opposed to digital computers of the current age (sort of Red Baron' over Top-Gun'.) Even the noises of the translated cartoon version take me back to when engines were engines and a crash was a crash. Watch it and see for yourself.

It would be nice to be able to live one's life through these antics - sort of an acceptable fantasy of a time gone by. In the pursuit of this we almost mimic ourselves into the plot whether we deserve to be there or not. We change a few things to try and fit in, but it's the same old us' that jumps into the cockpit or behind the wheel. All great fun and eventually we hope to get the girl. Who could blame us?

Sometimes when the comic side reaches out within the framework of the fantasy we critically see ourselves as 'not that funny!' The idle pen can easily overcome by quietly reconstructing the mindset and extracting from the gloom something our own sense of 'what's expected' feels more humorous than the truth.

This dude below is more likely to sing you a bad cover-version of a folk-song than tell you about how to mix your fuel to get the last bhp from your radial engine. Because he's 'less likely' does not make him 'less capable' - but you'll have more fun hearing him sing and subsequently more faith in the boffin above telling you about engines.

Then the mind relaxes and goes to 'chill-mode' finding that serenity which is almost already on the page before the pencil moves. You look and think - 'Haven't been out sailing for a while.' For the moment you are there .. in the serenity of the silence of the sea and the cool of the evening light airs. Hardly a breath to sail by - and a life time to try.

 Then with a thump you're back on track and fishing the depths of sanity displacement for something 'new' to drive the story on - or rescue you from the block that sent you off-tangent in the first place.

                                     But all you can come up with is drivel .. or more accurately .. doodle!

I seem to tend towards daydream in doodle often. Perhaps wishing I'd done something with it years ago and developed and learned. Like all things that come later in life when you've time for them - there isn't time left to learn from the beginning. Still fun though.

Somehow cars from waaaaay back seem more full of character when doodled. Something like this bouncing down a western street with dust and onlookers flying .. Don't know why, but that's always been a picture I wanted to paint and have on the wall. It could be as simple as an image from yesteryear haunting my childhood memories from a movie that 'stuck.'  It will come .. but not any time soon.

Then the story aspect kicks in and you're off on your own little adventure. I wonder if all blokes do that? Do their brains work that way? Do images lock into the subconscious to be retrieved as and when the wandering thoughts melt into fantasy?

                             Then the head starts to plan a proper full size drawing to see what it's like ..
and before you know it the fantasy has moved on! In a nice way .. but on.

Sometimes drawing what you like helps to relax the mind. You come back to what you were doing with a refreshed sense of focus .. or not! Maybe this also is just a character!

                                                     .. and back to bums and feet! Love it!

Just something about the feet being bare and the ass on show that makes the whole thing casual and relaxed. It's not that it says 'I don't care' or 'I'm totally relaxed' .. more that it has a look of  'Lost in what I'm doing' or 'Unaware of how I look' .. or a combination of similar.

                                                              Bums and feet .. yeah!

.... and back to sitting watching the world go by. For me this is a minimum of lineage to portray an identifiable picture. Experimenting in 'doodle' format is great fun. There's no real doubt about what you are seeing.

Experimenting with tones and colours is also interesting. It may not properly example skin-tone and texture .. but thankfully 'art' is art and it's always free to interpretation.

Pose or posture can be erotic, suggestive, casual or many of the other things we like or do not like to see. My answer to this is either look - or don't. If I drew all my females standing against the wall in similar dress I doubt if anyone would look past the first proof.

Erotic to a point .. but if you actually look harder - do you not see 'Helpless? Confused? Bewildered?' It's still just a line drawing - but there's a definite mood there. You can't possibly know if she's been stripped, robbed and dumped in an alley or sitting on a beach wondering what's keeping her ice-cream. Art to me has all of these interpretations yet none .. if that is what you want to see. It should be open to the viewer to connect in their own way, or them to decide what's going on. If we needed to explain what was happening then there would be speech bubbles or dramatic action lines. The possibilities are endless - and in that lies the magic.

                                     


                                                                and back to relaxing. 1 .. 2 ... 3 .. zzzz

I was playing with very simple skin tone because I'd mentioned it earlier. I think this will always be difficult because I don't really use conventional colours for my art. I'm not a portraitist. What I was looking for here was differentiation between shapes and curves/ details of the body. Another painting for experiment and thus not a complete work. I enjoyed it and I guess I learned from it too. The feet in an earlier shot were particularly expressive to me in what I was looking for. Sometimes I don't look at the work for a few days then revisit and see what jumps off the board. Sometimes it's a lot - sometimes not. It's just another aspect to the enjoying of the process.

Now where is she off to???

Occasionally they turn around. 

This was a trial at defining depth. The left arm 'in front' of the leg, the right arm behind the leg but also the left foot a similar distance back from events. It worked for me. Again I enjoyed the experiment.

                                                                       And on it goes ...

Sometimes the most simple effect has a surprising result. There is something about this that I like. Again, reflecting back on the 'palette knife car' - the unfinished aspect of it appeals to me.

 

Sometimes doodling helps to get the pose you want .. maybe even the picture in your mind looks complete until you put a few lines on the paper and you see where the highs and lows are. My slightly over-elaborate sketches tend to become finished works in their own right because  I've taken too much time with the pre-article - then begin to look for something else to do as a more involved 'work.' I'm such a twat sometimes.

These doodles (mostly 10X10 ins on watercolour card) often inspire me to think that I could stage a fuller image and subsequently reap greater light and shadow, tone and spread. This one made me laugh as the chance of getting the subject to lie in any of the local waters around here would result in me being able to complete the entire pastiche of my own work in variants of blue! Even at summers' height - I fear it would still be a study in goosebumps!

Another little notion which courses the afternoon is 'If you take more time with eyes .. does it give a picture more life?' - Well I think it's probably obvious that 'if you take more time' with anything,  then there are always gonna be improvements .. to a point. How many times have you gone too far? Wished you hadn't changed/ added/ re-aligned that last piece of the drawing? So it's not always productive.

This guy below is a very quick drawing of a character (comic) in my head. He is very loosley based on someone I worked with for many years. Amazingly I have not seen this guy for a long-ish time but there is a structure about him which remains in my interpretive pencil. Once you dot the eyeballs and colour them - they seem to make him thoughtful/ intent or even curious. Exaggerating/ elongating the various features just short of caricature will change him enough to 'cartoon-ise' him without offence. The rest is down to how you utilize him in script or imagery.

Down here we have another image very very loosly based on a  long time ex colleague from waaay back in the distant black & white of my past. The eyes this time (albeit)  smaller and more distant, still remove the focus from the 'imagery' and transplant it into her 'moment.' As in most art you want her to look oblivious to your presence - but these moods aren't as easy to portray in line drawings and doodles where you don't have the elaboracy ( Hey! I make up pictures ..  so I can make up words too!) of  detail. Sometimes the eyes are a great tool. These simple exercises for me are a great way to look back and see if I caught what I was trying to catch. The imagery leaves a lot to be desired but for me (the person I'm doing this for) I can quickly assess whether I got it .. or didn't.

This one was all about the blanket. Could I put it where I wanted it and make it believable. The rest was merely a sketch. As in previous doodles I like to try and put the front/ back/ sides of the picture where they proportionately belong. Again, just a quick look back and I can see that I placed it all where I intended it to go. Later, when I put all these observations together - maybe I'll have something to hang on my wall!!! (The End Game!)

Again trying to make the leg look like the knee is closer than the thigh. All great fun and so much a part of exploring the pastime, but as you look at it and then compare to other pictures - maybe done for other reasons (blanket etc.) you realise that they also show the same use of technique.

For the moment, getting back to a little time spent on the eyes - I think it gives even a very simple drawing life. This can largely be down to the chosen colour in a lot of examples .. but life all the same.

Even before they take form on the page there is a 'life' of sorts. 

It's funny how cack things looks sometimes. I don't really take enough time to make 'art' all it could be for me - but I sometimes rush things so much because I only have a short time before I have to move on to something else. Some folks say you should make time' or wait until you have proper time' - but if I did that I'd never either make it' or have it.'

I bet there's a lot of that around. When was the last time you just stopped everything and said to yourself 'Right! I'm gonna concentrate on this one thing for as long as it takes!'  .. My life just wouldn't allow for that. Too many people and things etc..

I've been trying to do something with this for some time.  Obviously it has a personal connection - but that probably detracts from the project. It's a bit like drawing someone you know. When you've completed the work - if it doesn't look like them .. or even does, but there's something 'not quite right' then you'll never be happy with it. This pic of my boat is already heading that way!!!

This pic looks quite like the subject but the eyes are too big along with a number of other little things which make her almost someone else! Ha ha - though maybe that's not such a bad thing!

Above and below are the continued mental exploration for characters who may or may not inspire me to at least try and cartoon-ise some sort of narrative. Even 'Bakes & Balloons.' (My NornIron phrase or description for those little comic strips which, though usually for jokes, are an 'art' in themselves!)

Strange how unlike the original intention a thing can go!

Trying to get the cartoon look sometimes doesn't quite go according to plan either. A bit of bad planning in the crossed legs department  - sends you straight off into that other ' *?* ' area!

Sometimes a picture can almost birth it's own story-line. And sometimes it's better left to the imagination!

Today is another wasted art day. I haven't even lifted a pencil. There were any number of distractions over the course of the last few days but my intentions were firm. At some point I would pick one of the sketches around and start into a proper work.'

Procrastination is such an easy opt! First you focus on exactly what you need to do .. then you widen the field until it becomes almost unrecognizable .. then you go do something else! What a twat I am!

Generally the weather today has been an encouragement to draw. It's so bad most of the morning that any thoughts of going out are quickly drowned! 

Maybe tomorrow will be better. 

But it wasn't .. nor was the next day .. nor the next. 

A spell of really good weather did eventually arrive so .. as you'd guess, the drawing and painting went onto the back-burner (or other expressions which mean it wasn't even considered) until now (July 14.)

A fair bit has happened though - in fairness to the absence of the occasional art. Some interesting injuries and a trip, a lot of work and that rare spell of sunshine. I think I miss drawing now more than before. It's a therapy of sorts, but exactly what for .. still eludes me. 

Above was, as many inspirations are, from a picture I saw and liked. Below, the model who had made the original pose,  was just standing and looked relaxed. Recreating the poses is always fun, and sometimes a challenge. I liked this as a cartoon/ comic strip character. I guess they all start out with that intention .. and sometimes it works out better than other times.  

The model for this pose wasn't as largely proportioned, but increasing volume in the right areas plays well into the depth and feel of what I was wanting to portray. 

The search for believable villains goes on. I liked this guy in sketch, and although completely from freehand of my own photos, I couldn't resist changing it enough that he had the hint of an endogenous expression over a villainous smile. I bet, at some later point, I could re-genderise him.  

Below was a trial at catching an expression in order to make the face familiar to me. The rest of the drawing was actual just dressing for the 'known' face. Literal doodles but .. great fun. 

This experiment worked quite well. it has, and will further spawn, other thematic variations for several purposes. I can already see where I could use it in comic/ storlyline - but the actual intention was an evaluation for further 'stand-alone' artwork. Maybe for the wall in my bedroom. 

The experiment continues. I like this one and I'll pursue this theme.