Picture a Week

Hmm. What can I say. Didn’t fancy thinking this week so I decided to follow one of the painting guides from one of my many books. Of course it was only once I started the painting I realised I was following one of the authors who jumps from “placea flat wash on the forground” to “and add some detail” with no inbetween. So like I’ve placed a flat wash and now your saying “finish the painting”.

So I spent more time thinking and interpreating the advice then I do when I paint from scratch. Ahh well. Up until about half an hour to finish it looked rather pants. Then, like most times, it fell into place.

So I’ve been playing a lot of Batman Arkham City. This week I was going to go back to old school, that is my old school. As a youngester I used to paint in arcylics inked in drawings. It was quick, fun and looked cool, kind of like a comic book cell shaded effect. Anyhow while looking for cool Batman poses to colour in, I came across another character – Harley Quinn. I like the updated look of Harley in Arkham city (and I can’t stand the old checkerboard outfit).

So I though hey – lets give Harley six inches. Six inches of canvas that is, she’s painted on an almost miniture scale of 6 inch by 4 inch.

So watch ya waiting for, you wanna Rev up ya Harley dontcha ?

I was watching one of his programs the other day (Derren Brown) when I suddenly though – Hey! Let’s paint him! I do like his trickery, subtlety and deviousness and his general openness about tricking you. There are several times you think, is this a trick, or is he tricking the watcher with well-placed camera work. In either case, the idea of his program is to ultimately entertain and ‘trick’ the watcher. How he does it is part of the magic.

Anyhow it’s not as good as his own painting, but a fair watercolour for 4 lunch times work.

“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise…and the earth shall cast out the dead.”

It’s about time, with my morbid fear of zombies, that I painted a zombie picture. Slightly tame in terms of blood and guts “horror”, but I can guarantee this will not be my only zombie adventure.

For those who aren’t as fascinated with the walking dead as much as I, this picture is taken from the signature shot for George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead.

Monochrome painting this time, all painted with Winsor & Newton Artist Level Prussian Blue, darkened at times with some Lamp Black (well technically it’s two colours used 😀 )

As to the title, you’ll want to google Isaiah 26:19-21.

I started this one late in the week and didn’t have much enjoyment with it throughout that week. In fact at one point I did consider if I should paint a different picture compleatly. Neither the water was coming together, nor the spatter effect on the tree lines. Then on Friday when I was about to pack it all in and removed the masking tape, it looked kind of ok. So rather than rush it, I left it over the weekend and finished the final details. It’s not too bad.

Thanks Sue for the suggestion of Something Warm for this weeks painting.

Where on a road to somewhere come on inside – or something like that :P. Another one from the excellent weather book, but not quite what I originally planned. This picture in the book had this dark and moody storm cloud formation rolling in. When I started painting the sky though, I was half way through layering these storm clouds when bam, I had a superb part clear, part storm effect which I kind of liked. So I stuck with it.

Hope you enjoy,

As promised a landscape. I bought a corker of a book called “Weather World”, from the Works, for a grand total of £1.99. This is based on one of the lightning strike photographs over Budapest in Hungary. And yes, the sky was that brilliant purple colour.

The books a definate inspiration, so expect a few more landscapes based from here over the year.

A little late with this one, but it was finished last week, so just lazyness on my behalf for not posting it up. This ones a little different in the fact that I was asked to paint a picture from an old and damagedphotograph. The problem is no one has a clue what colour hair she has nor her eye colour! So I made them up. You’ll find the original picture below.

Hope you like and enjoy. Landscape next me thinks.

The above image innot availableunder the creative commons license and is reproduced here with kind permission from the owner. Please do not reuse this image without seekingpermission.

Isn’t it strange that week thirteen of my collection happened to also match up with that other magic number April the first.

I’ve always been deeply moved by the underlying expression and emotion in abstract art. It’s visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which exists with a degree of independence from visual references in the real world combined with the ability for the artist to express such deep feeling within the described forms, realy does touch some primal aspect.

This weeks painting is a protection of my inner turmoil. On the canvas you can see and feel my inner vexation, unfulfillment and yearning yet it still manages to keep the energy, avant-garde and passion I was aiming for.