Corfe Castle

My family often visit Corfe Castle and visit the ruins, climbing over the fallen stones, viewing the scenes and reading the literature about the history of the place. There are some lovely walks to be found around Corfe and the local pubs serve some smooth real ales.

First version of pen and ink of Corfe Castle.

I am not very happy drawing on location, I get put off by people looking over my shoulders and making comments or not. I generally have problems getting the scale right, usually something ends up looking odd and out of place. I sketched this in pencil first and then went over it with pen and ink when I got home.

My day Job.

 

Still Life Paintings in Soft Pastel – Simple Gravy Jug

A simple gravy jug picture.

http://still-life-paintings.blogspot.com/

 

Still Life pictures of items In The kitchen.

Take one item from the kitchen and sketch it, draw for two hours on coloured paper, then view the result.

 

 

 

pre raphaelite. Picking wild flowers

pre raphaelite paintings.

I have been inspired to interpret some of the pre raphaelite paintings to try and learn some of their techniques.

Taking an existing painting and reproducing it in your own way is a great way of learning technique.

I did not know what to do with this one when I finished it so I gave it to my sister. It probably ended up in the loft.

The size of the picture was 20″ x 30″. Acrylics on canvas.

To be continued.

 

Iford Bridge

A soft pastel picture of Iford Bridge. The bridge is located on the borders between the town of Bournemouth and Christchurch.

As I have very little free time to draw and as my abilities are fairly limited when it comes to art I tend to find that if I wish to make a drawing i do tend to take a lot of short cuts where ever possible. I get a kick out of the process of colouring a picture and i really don’t find the time to draw the composition over time on site, that and I hate being in a location trying to draw a picture and then find people coming up to have a look at what I am up to.

So, first I take a photo of the location, a number of photos which i then decide which one might work best. I than print the image enlarged to the size that I want to reproduce, printed in a light greyscale, the paper is then taped together to produce the picture I wish to reproduce. Next I trace the image outline onto the coloured paper that I wish to use and then I start to colour in the picture with soft pastels.

When colouring in with soft pastels I try and use a limited range of colours and then blend them in together to make the colours that I am looking for. To help with the colouring in process I usually keep a coloured image close by using a digital photo frame with the image showing on it.

As I build up the colour I tend to find that the paper tends to get warn flat with rubbing, so I put a large sheet of sandpaper underneath the paper to help with texture generation, the rougher the sandpaper under the paper the grainier the picture will be. I also put a thin sheet of fabric under the sandpaper which also aids in the production of the picture.

To get a defined and clean edge to the picture I often stick masking take near the edge of the picture to frame the picture, the tape is taken off at the end and this gives a clean edge to the picture.

I have been inspired by Claude Monet and his pictures of landscapes in France using oil paints, his feel for painting lends itself to making pictures in pastels using a fairly loose technique, not trying to get detail but getting the sense of the place that is being drawn.

Claude Monet visited the same scenes on a number of occasions under different lighting conditions and I think I may do the same and revisit the site again on another day.

It is funny how a picture can look different once it is photographed on a digital camera, certain errors in a picture come out to view once they are reproduced, I think I might rework the picture a little, the trees don’t look right, especially the one on the right hand side.

29th December. Revised the image as the trees did not look right and the bridge arch was not correct. This one might be a bit better.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=iford+bridge&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=iford+bridge&cid=0,0,4920505904783614897&ll=50.740873,-1.808192&spn=0.006295,0.006295&t=m&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.740774,-1.806466&panoid=BQunA-nuZhojNxLBbs5Yrg&cbp=12,6.13,,0,2.35&source=embed&output=svembed
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Thoughts of the Day

I just can’t seem to get back into doing any art at the moment. Spend all my time working, when I’m not working I spend my time with the family and in the end there is no time left for art. Maybe some time in the future I will be able to do it.

A bit of time management is needed here. I have to do it at work and it is time I started doing it at home more.

I might put some more photographs on the blog for future reference instead.

 

Art Clubs

I have decided to join an art group or club to try and get me into the habit again of drawing and making time for it. I spend so much time working and spending time with the family there is little time left for drawing and painting.

First I need to find an art group that will fit into my life. http://www.bournemouthartsclub.co.uk/ and they exhibit at http://peacockgallery.org.uk/

Searching on the internet for groups inChristchurch, Dorset, where I live.

http://www.cadarts.com/

 

 

Pink Rose

Pink Rose picture. An old rose-bush in our garden produces a beautiful show of colour for most of the summer. I intend producing a couple of drawings and sketches.

I usually do a bit of art on a Friday night and maybe a bit over the weekends, don’t have the time during the week as I am usually working most evenings and most day times.

When I took this digital picture image the light was fading fast, the sun had set and I was having a nice cup of coffee in the kitchen, looking out of the back door I noticed that the rose was beginning to open up and decided it was a opertunity to capture it before it fully opened.

December 2011. Finally got around to doing some pictures.

 

The Horse and The Lion

The Horse and The Lion Picture.

I did the picture in acrylic paint onto canvas, the size of the picture is about 600mm x 800mm. I did the picture about 15 years ago and I have not touched acrylic paint for about 10 years. It is about time I had another go at it. I really enjoyed working with this medium. The subject of the Lion and the Horse came from an art magazine that I purchased from a news agents. It is taken from a classical subject set in North Africa. I do not know who the original artist was but I shall have to look it up and type it down on the blog.

If my memory serves me well, I made the picture by drawing the picture about 1/4 scale in pencil. I then did a small painting on rigid board. I then did the picture again in full size but with pencil and paper. Then I traced the paper drawing and transfered the image onto the canvas.

I started painting the picture by goingover the whole surfacw with thin washes of colour, building up the depth over time. Working from the mid colours, slowly geting darker and adding the highlights last and the detail such as the eyes and hair. I did not spend much attention to the backround as I do not think the original did either.

The final picture I was pleased with at the time and I ended up putting it on the wall in the living room. I generally don’t like my own work when I try in vain to produce my own original compositions, so I usually help myself to other people’s. People who have a better eye for a good composition and subject matter and a better imagination.

I have found that blogging about some of my pictures is helping me get back into the habit of making pictures. I would love to sell paintings but as my imagination and confidence is lacking I might try and sell something on ebay for a while to see if anyone is interested in buying any of my pictures. It would help pay for the materials. Art can be quite a cost when you have to apy for the bills first.

 

Notes about Hubpages

I have been trying to build a post at hubpages but due to the poor quality of my writing skills it was deleted. I was rather annoyed to say the least as i had spent hours trying to make it good enough for them.   I might get some luck with another attempt. the hubpage was  http://hubpages.com/hub/softpastels. The hub has now been excepted 13th sep 2010.

http://hubpages.com/profile/carlarmes no hubs at time of adding this link, try it again soon to find if I have done anything worth reading.

The subject that I was typing about was a project I did about the process of making a picture I called ‘the three apples’. I saved the text and the images and put it on www.blogspot.com instead or as well.  http://www.the-three-apples.blogspot.com/ has the information on the project. I enjoyed doing the project and I also got some fun out of blogging about it.