Category: Uncategorized

Sod Bob Ross and his happy accidents.

I was following one of my painting books using it as a basis to the extended landscape I had planned for this week. It started with detailing in all the mountains, which I did and took me like an hour or so to get the top mountains beautifully detailed with accurate reflections. Thebook then said “Now mix up a light violet/blue wash and wash it all over the painting, darker in the sky, working down lighter too thewater”.

And I thought “But that will make my details all run?” So like a fool I trusted the experienced artist and washed all over the painting and guess what – a whole bloody hour wasted and the mountians details lost for all time. You can’t remove paint once it’s on, so all I coulddo was paint overwith rough details instead. Sooooo annoyed.

Anyhow this weeks painting is an extended landscape – Lake Side. Oh and some of the reflections don’t fully match, the paper is curled in the corner when I took the picture!

Bob Ross says there are no mistakes in a painting, only happy accidents. This week was an experiment into a technique for mushing washes together. It’s kind of worked but not exactly what I was hoping for. It therefore looks more like a sketch then a complete painting but time marches on for no man.

This is why week thirty six was delayed and it fills in week thirty two which is missing. Three new painting for this week…Mow-wow-wow…

Here is a copy of the unframed images that you can click on to get super big versions.

And because they are in frames you can have fun arranging them to look at each other, away from each other, on other walls, in other rooms… the combination is almost endless! Like this 😀

Well with my general lack of enthusiasm for finishing Week Thirty Two and feeling rather let down by myself for not completing it yet, I"ve decided to paint three pictures over the last/next two weeks. The three pictures where all supposed to be for week thirty six but I struggled to finished them in five lunchtimes.

This will bring me back on track of (on average) one picture a week.

Also these three pictures are part of a set. You"ll understand what I mean.

So a metaller by heart, long hair, goatee beard and a Chris de Burgh fan. Huh, guess you just can’t judge a book by its cover.

This week painting comes as a triple whammy of almost there.

First I’m short on time. This painting took one and a half hours from drawing to signature.

Second the free flow style was inspired by another artist, however it turned out I wasn’t brave enough to experiment that far with this painting… but I will by the end of this year.

Thirdly and mainly, it’s based on “The Tower” by Chris de Burgh, which is a fantasy based tale, where a great lord captures and locks up a beautiful woman. Unable to change his selfish and greedy ways she never loves him, and eventually escapes his grasp (your left with the impression that a bird the Lord shot near the start of the song is the women, who eventually flies away). Only when he’s old and dying does he truly realise how much he loved her and how much she meant to him, but by then, it’s too late. The title comes from the lyrics.

I actually like quite a few CdB songs. In fact I like a lot of songs that tell tales, so I guess that’s why a lot of early Rush made an impression on me. Rush. Hmmm, I need to do a painting….

So I have decided that this is the most motorbikes I am going to paint this year. The problem I have is five lunchhours is just not enough. Everytime I look at the picture, another part of the engine/framework/body could do with a little extra shading/adjustment/darkening. It takes me ages.

This one is for Anna, who has been super patient in waiting for this.

Sometime in 1944 this little girl was taken from her home and forcibly placed on a train. That train took her to a place that she did not return from. I know this, as the photograph this is painted from belonged to a german officer, and the place she is standing is the path through to one of the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Berkenau. I don’t know her name, I don’t think anyone who did know her name survived. I do know she came from Carpatho-Ruthenia and probably came from or came through the Berehovo Ghetto and that the photograph was taken in May 1944.

I sometimes wonder what was in the pale. I also wonder if, like so many children was just so ‘trusting’ of the adults around her.

Trusting, trust: reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing.

“I’ve done nothing wrong under the rules”.
“I’ve followed the law.”
“You need to Register here.”
“Government Censorship is for you own good.”
“You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide.”

Sound familiar. Read it lately in the newspapers or heard them on the TV? It should scare the pants off you as these are the same words that Nazi Germany pushed around all through World War II. The best part, what the Nazi Party did (extermination, holding and executing prisoners without sentence, secret police, stamping out terrorism, killing the opposition party members) was actually all within the “law”. When they gained power in Germany they rewrote the laws to suite them, then told everyone they were acting within the ‘law’. Funny old world, not much has changed.

I like to think she has a pretty name like Ilona, Eva or Katalin. Did I cry when I painted her? Often.

Well I was away on holiday and the picture I started to paint on holiday is taking me a little longer than expected because a) when you on holidayz you don’t tend to have any regular time slots to paint and b) it’s bigger than I was expecting and c) I want it to be good.

I’m currently working on it at home as it’s not realy safe for work (nuddy pictures!) and I’ll replace this blurb with the real blurb when it’s finished.

So I asked someone very special in my life what would they like painting to hang on their wall. It was a bit of a loaded question as at the time she was playing Moshi Monsters. So this week I am pleased to present to you Zommer from Moshi Monsters. Yes he is some sort of zombie mash up.

Ahh the hours and days spent on the LAN with Warcraft 2. Well this has nothing to do with that. One of my friends (hi Gary) asked if I could paint him a picture of an Orc with a broken tooth. Yup, that’s the brief; one Orc,one broken tooth.

Good job I’m a Roleplayer, Gamer and general geek. I present to you this week, “Lok’tar” which is Orcish for “Smash your face” (actually it does have a real meaning – Victory!).