All Change

Hi all, you may have noticed that I haven't been keeping up with my artistic challenge. Well to be honest, I've been doing some drawing and painting but have lacked the time to do any blog posts about it.

My problem is that I have too many blogs. Besides this one, I have two others and they are consuming to much of my precious time. However, the solution is simple I'm going to knock this one on the head and move it to my author's blog at www.georgefmason.blogspot.com 

I'm not doing much writing at the moment so I can talk about painting in stead. So if you want to keep up with my artistic challenge please click on the link.

By the way, you may recall that I entered a one of my painting into a competition just for a bit of fun. It was called Damsels and to my amazement it won a prize.

In fact, the prize consisted of a choice of videos about painting. I picked one by a nice artist, Siriol Sherlock called "Botanical Illustration". I have no intention of going down the botanical painting route, but I though it would be a good step to learn how to paint flowers properly before trying to paint them loosely if that make sense.

I have also sent off for some Arches paper, which is supposed to be very good, I will let you know how I get on soon.

Hope to see you soon at the new address.

Painting Number 9

Hi all,
I managed to finish another painting, this time the subject was a daffodil. I think it turned out okay but it wasn't very exciting either in the execution or the finished image.

Perhaps I'm being a bit hard myself because it isn't that bad. In fact, I'm having a job to find something bad to say about it.
Score 15 out of 100
My review
Bad bits
The flower head looks slightly out of focus.
The composition of the leaves is wrong, the bent one on the left should be in the middle so that the bent shape could be fully seen.
Good Bits
It is a pleasant enough image and would probable make a good book marker. However, seeing as I use a kindle to read my books it will have to go in the folder with the rest of the unframables.

The one thing that I did learn from the exercise was how valuable it is to do a drawing of the subject first. I used to think that doing a drawing first was a waste of time but it really isn't. Not only does it give me a chance to work out the tones, it also gives me the opportunity to familiarize myself with the subject.

The other thing I realised was that I like drawing with water soluble pencils. In fact, I liked it so much I sent off for some Derwent Inktense Pencils to see if they worked the same, but would provide me with a bit of colour. I know that you can get water soluble watercolour pencils but they look a bit washed out to me. I don't want my paintings to look like a kids colouring book.

Anyway, I'm going to do a daffodil with my new pencils and I'll show you it in my next post

Painting Number 8

Hi all,
I can't believe it is 8 weeks already since I started this challenge. I was hoping that by this time I would be seeing a real improvement in my efforts, but I'm afraid a breakthrough hasn't happened yet.

Here is painting number 8

The only thing good I can say about this painting is that it sort of shows you what I'm aiming for even though the execution is weak.
Score 14 out of 100

Bad bits
Some of the branches are non convincing.
The ferns at the front are way to small.
There aren't enough berries.
It lacks a focal point.

Good bits
The darker leaves in the background are quite convincing and the berries pop out nicely.

I think the time has come now to step it up a gear and try do do something decent. To that end I have chosen a decent subject that we can all relate to and I've even done a preliminary sketch to help me with the shading.

Here is the drawing.

I really enjoyed doing this drawing not least because of the medium I chose. I did it with water soluble pencils, which are a joy to use. If you haven't tried them, please have a go and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. You do the shading as you would with a normal pencil, then wet it with a damp brush and you can see the magic happen before your very eyes.

Now all I've got to do is paint one like it and I will show you the results in my next post.

Painting Number 7

Hi all,
I will have to admit that the challenge this week has been, well, a bit of a challenge. I have not had a good week time wise. The problem is that when we moved to our current house about 18 months ago, we found that it had a cold water supply and tap in the garage/workshop. That's great you might think, but the trouble is the tap is just on a wall, there is no sink and no drain. If anybody uses the tap and doesn't turn it off properly the garage floods. Who thought this was a good idea I don't know, but they obviously didn't have all their chairs in the same room.

Anyway, I booked a plumber to come next week and move the tap to an outside wall so that my wife can use it to water her-always thirsty-plants. To cut a long story short, I have had to paint the walls in the workshop in preparation for the plumber. The walls want painting anyway and I want to do it before he redirects the pipework across them.

On the art front, I thought I'd have a go at some wet on wet pansies. Pansies are easy to draw so I did a few.

Then I copied and pasted them in photoshop and rearranged them into the design above. So far so good. I then transferred the image onto watercolour paper and set about painting them with the wet on wet technique mentioned earlier.

All I can say is that it was a absolute disaster. You've most likely seen my last 6 paintings, so you will know that I'm not shy about showing you my failures, but even I couldn't pluck up the courage to post my pansies on here. Take it from me they were crap.

So, like a naughty rose, I reverted to type and had a go at some more undergrowth. I want to get the hang of painting backgrounds with realistic leaves in the foreground. Once I've mastered that I want to add wildlife like butterflies and dragonflies, I guess I've always been a dreamer.

Painting Number 7

My Review score 15/100
Bad bits
1   The white blobs in the top right hand quarter spoil a reasonable image. They were caused by me dropping granulation medium onto the wet painting. It seemed like a good idea at the time but it turned out to be stupid. I won't do that again. Here are few other things I won't do again.

2   I don't like the background colour, it looks like an explosion in a marmalade factory.

3   The composition is wrong, especially the top right hand corner which is as empty as a gambler's wallet.

Good bits
1   Some of the background stems and leaves work quite nicely.
2   The hips and leaves in the foreground have a nice bright look to them. This was achieved by glazing them with several thin layers of paint, rather than applying one thick coat.

It has taken a while for the penny to drop but applying watercolour in layers is the best way to give an image a bit of a glow. I have also discovered that not all watercolour paint is transparent. This came as a bit of a shock to me and I will discuss it more in my next post.

Painting Number 6

Hi all,
Sorry I'm a bit late with this post, time seems to be flying at the moment. Tomorrow is the longest day and that means the night are about to start drawing in again.

Anyway, regarding my next watercolour painting, last week I showed you the snow drop that I did for the competition I was entering. Well it wasn't good enough, so I did another on the theme of damselflies taken from a pyrography design I once did on top of a box.
Here is my first attempt at the subject.

Yes, I know its a right dog's dinner. Last week I said that hoping for happy accidents wasn't the way to go, yet my next painting was just the same, in fact, it was worse. I won't even give it a review because it doesn't deserve one.

The only thing to do was try again, but in a more controlled manner. I know that loose water colours that look  like they've been produced by a blind artist who did the job with the brush shoved up his nose are the in thing, but I want better.

Here's painting 2 of the same subject.

Okay, it might not be everybody's cup of tea, but  in my world it is grand improvement on the first effort. If you disagree I'd love to hear your views; please share them with us.

Review bad bits
It isn't terribly interesting.

Good bits
It is tidy and a step in the right direction.

Score 14/100

I'm not sure what I am going to paint next, but I'm going to increase the size. Everything I've done so far is about as big as a post card so I'm going large, well at least twice as big. I'm also thinking of doing a bit more drawing to try and hone those skills a bit

Painting number 5

Hi
A few posts ago I was moaning about the cost of paint, especially artists' quality paint. Well, I have come up with a cost saving plan that should keep my wallet happy. I have joined the SAA to take advantage of their great prices and every thing else they have to offer. Here is an example of what I mean.

A 5 ml tube of watercolour paint in my local art store cost me £5.60.
A 14ml tube of SAA watercolour paint costs £4.70

I'm sure you can do the sums yourself and this isn't just a offer price, it is on the full range and all the other artists materials in their catalogue are excellent value as well. More good news, postage is free no matter how many times or what you order. My experience is that delivery is also very quick.

The only catch with being a member is that you have to pay an upfront fee of £29, but when you see the prices of their stuff the membership fee will soon be recuperated and you will forget the pain. Being a member also has lots of other advantages, a gallery to display your paintings, a forum and every two months you get a free magazine etc. I'll put a link at the end of this post if you are interested in taking a look at their website.

Anyway, when I joined the SAA, they sent me a free book and some watercolour post cards. The purpose of the post cards are to allow new members to enter the new member competition. You don't win a big prize but if it is selected it is printed in the free magazine that members get every two months. I nice boost to the ego I thought, so I decided to have a go at a postcard painting to see how I got on.

Here is my first attempt, which was inspired by a painting by Jane Betteridge who is the author of Watercolours Unleashed.

I masked off the snowdrop flowers stalks and some parts of the leaves. When that was dry, I wet the paper and brushed paint across the paper in a vertical strokes try and give the painting a bit of movement. When the paper was almost dry, I brushed in some of the leave and then sprinkled salt over it to give it a bit of an interesting texture.

When the whole painting was dry, I brushed off the salt and removed the masking fluid. Then I painted the stalks and put some more definition into the leaves.

I would say that it is my best effort so far and a step in the right direction, so I'm giving it a score of 12 out of 100

My review of the bad bits
The salt didn't work. In fact, I'm not sure at all about always being on the look out for happy accidents because my accidents always look like total carnage. I don't want to be a botanical artist using a brush as big as a butterfly's todger, but I think a bit more control wouldn't go amiss.
 The ink splatter at the bottom right was a big mistake.
Good bits
If you take away the scabby salt marks and silly ink splatter it isn't too bad.

I don't think it is good enough to enter the post card competition so I will have another go this week.

Here is the  Link to the SAA and here is a link to Jane Betteridge  website. She is a fine painter and she also uses SAA paints in her work. So if they are good enough for her they will do for me.

Painting number 4

Hi all,
I can't believe another week's gone since I began this challenge. I had a day trip to Barmouth on Wednesday and, because it was a three hour drive around twisty roads in each direction,  it took me another day to get over it. In fact, my wife got me a bottle of Sanatogen tonic wine to see if it will bring some life back to my poor old soul. I have had on glass full and the taste is great, but regarding its pick-me-up qualities I'm not quite sure. If I start dancing about like a new born lamb I'll let you know.

Anyway back to the painting, this week I thought I'd have a go at something different and chose a red admiral butterfly. It was done as usual with watercolour paints on 140lb cold pressed paper. I won't beat about the bush any longer, here it is in all its glory.

Again I am disappointed with the way it turned out.
My view of whats wrong with it.
1 The butterfly is smack bang in the middle of the painting, so that was my first mistake.
2 The butterfly doesn't look very dainty, in fact it has all the fragility of a pair of welders mitts.
3 The background is an horrible colour. I come from a large family and it reminds me of the over diluted orange cordial I had when I was a youngster.
4 The blackberries are purple when they should be black.
5 The leaves look like they've got some disease that all the people on Gardener's World couldn't cure.

Good points
1 I think the stems have a pleasing curl about them.
2 The painting is small, so not much time or paint was wasted.

Now there may be some people who think I'm being a bit harsh on myself, well perhaps I am. I guess it is all about meeting ones own expectation. At my age, how good can I expect to get and what sort of paintings do I want to do?

Well, photo realistic and even realistic are probably objectives that are beyond me. I've never been a fan of abstract painting or impressionism so what am I left with. The answer is that I want to paint images that are pleasing to the eye and look as if at least a thimble full of skill was used in their creation.

To me art is all about making pleasing images. I am sick of hearing expressions like, "good art should say something" or "great art should be though provoking." Bullshit, great art just needs to be a pleasing image however it is produced.

If you have any views on my painting or on what constitutes a great picture, please let me know. By the way if you want to check out my website and see what free books are on offer this week please click here.