Continued Forest Pond

This is what Robert Boster calls step two in his "Advanced Technique"

So the first thing I did was made up a very runny glaze mixed with Indian Yellow and then in only one stroke reestablished the trees.

Then using this same mix I went over the top between each tree just in different places to add a glaze as well as under the water line using the same mix again added in reflections.

I then made up a very thin runny glaze using Alizarin Crimson. I made sure to use a very little bit as its so powerful. With this mix again I went between the trees and added reflections.

I then made up another watery mix using Ultramarine blue and again applied it between the trees and the reflection.

Then I made up a very fine glaze using Ultramarine Blue and with the pallet knife did a technique he calls creative knife where you run the knife very quickly over the waters edge a few times.

Finally I then did what Robert calls a scumble mix. So On my pallet I put out Titanium white, Indian yellow and Ultramarine Blue. This paint needs to be applied rather thick as its the texture your after. So without mixing the colours you pick up a little of each and then applied three strokes in a Cris cross approach. This was added between the trees just a little here and there and then I used the scumble mix to add in some reflections once more at the bottom. Only this time toward the bottom of the canvas I added in some horizontal reflections also.

This step took me all of about ten minute to complete. I now need to wait once more for the painting to completely dry so I can move on to step three.

Comic Monochrome

Just a quick Monochrome study for an exercise I was doing with a friend at the time. This one is painted in Acrylic paints on 30 x 40cm using only Vandyke Brown.

Forest Pond Advanced Technique

This is a new technique I a working on which I discovered last night on YouTube. It's known as the Advanced Technique. This is only stage one at this point and has four other stages for me to work through.

With my left over paint I decided to practice the technique as to not waist paint and to practice building the skills required for this painting.

Flowers revised

I had it pointed out to me by a fellow artist that there was a lot of movement in this piece but the steam looked still. So I have re visited this one also today and tried hard to add a little movement to the steam. I'm not sure if I got there will wait to see what others think and will take it from there.

Blue Sea Revised

Today I revised the Blue Sea and straightened up the horizon line and then added in some of the sky colours to the sea as well as some whites for the waves. I'm not sure if I'd call this complete or not yet as something is still nagging me so will look at it and think a few days first. I am much happier with the changers though.

Blue Sea Revised

So Today I revised a resent study I had been working on. I had the horizon line Crockett before so decided to straighten the horizon line and add in some of the sky colours to the sea and then the whites of the waves. Although I am happier with the outcome I still feel it needs a little more work as something is missing just not sure what as yet. Time will tell as they say as I will look at it for a few days before I decided weather to leave it or work some more.

Still Life Negative Space Graphite A3 Sketchpad

Tonight while watching TV I decided to do a little study on negative space. This meant having a good look at the composition and the light situation and going from there. I think looking at the photo I probably should have soften some of the lines although I was intending this kind of look. But in reflection feel a softer line may have been more appropriate.

Hockey Player - Pointillism

Today determined to get the hang of pointillism I decided to start another one this time using a different mediums. I got out my Staedtler Triplus Finliners and got to work. This piece is 9.5 x 11cm in size is sketched on sketch pad. To get this one accurate I first sketched the girl in very lightly and then draw in lines both horizontal and vertical to keep me going straight. I then started dotting away until I come to what I have now. What I leaned was that it's important to keep the dots very close together and in straight rows if possible. I was very happy with the outcome with this one.

Failed Pointillism

Last night in my attempt to learn pointillism fallowing a fun art study with a friends, I began this piece. I learned a lot from this one. First of all watercolour pencil don't seem to be a great medium to try this one in. The other thing is when you start to see nothing more than thousands of dots stop or you end up with the problem I come across. You start to go out of whack. Which is displayed in the top of this piece. It was done on A3 sketch pad and took me about three hours to complete it. All though I call it a failed attempt it was a brilliant lesson to learn from.

Flowers in a pot

Today I set out to do a piece of work using pointillism after having failed at it yesterday. Today though I decided to use a different medium. Instead of oil paints I decided to experiment with my Artline Drawing system. So using a variety of sizes 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.8 I began a new piece. This time I didn't sketch it out first. I just simply started to place dots on a piece of A3 sketch pad. Roughly two hours later I had finished. With a very sore hand to show for it. I think this is a very rewarding technique but one that requires much practice.

Flowers

This one was painted yesterday and come about in an interesting manner. I started out attempting to paint a dancer using the technique known as pointillism. However in my disappointment I smeared the dots over the canvas blending all the colours together and started to dab paint here and there until the painting took on its own form. These flowers is what later appeared on the canvas. It's painted in Oil Paint and is 20 x 25cm in size painted on Medium Cotton Duck Canvas. I was quiet happy with the outcome in the end.

Ship Wrecked

Ship Wrecked was painted with left over paint as a follow up of Sale the Feisty Sea. It’s painted on A3 canvas pad.

Sale The Fiesty Sea

I woke up feeling confident about painting an abstract. I wanted to paint an abstract using anything bar a paintbrush. The under painting was done with a ragging technique and then the rest was painted using a thin piece of plastic and a toothbrush. When I started out I didn’t have a clue what I was painting and the ship just come to life as I painted. It’s painted on A3 canvas pad.

Lovers

A painting I come across of a pair of lovers in the Blackshere Fine Art Gallery 217 Swan St Richmond Victoria 3121, during the Touch of Red 11 2007 competition inspired lovers. I then went home and with only a pallet knife and a very limited pallet created "Lovers" which is painted on canvas 40cm x 50cm. It was the very first time I had ever tried to work with a pallet knife and I felt very happy with the results.

Strange Art

Strange art started out a doodle whilst sitting with family chatting. The more we chatted the more strange ideas come to my head. It brought about a lot of laughter on the night. The next day I felt I should attempt to paint it but keeping with the strange concept of the nature of the sketch I felt it only right to paint it with as much confusions. It's a mixed medium painted with acrylic and oil and is painted on 10” x 12” canvas panel. I started out with acrylic just painting different shapes on the board. I then experimented with a a very thin wash of acrylic to do the white web. Once dried I then painted the subjects over the top in oil. It was so much fun and brings back some great memories for me in regards to spending time with family.

Flowers

These were painted in 2007 on canvas 50cm x 70cm. It was inspired from a walk down the street after looking at all the pretty flowers that were about at the time. I set up and begin to doodle until I come up with what we have in front of us. I used the colours from the flowers to pull out and blend into the background, which I felt created a nice soft look.

Skyscape

Sky scape was a piece of work I did whilst sitting in my car filling in time while waiting to pick my son up from his volunteers job at the RSPCA. It comes straight out of my head as I played around with different colours. It’s done on A3 sketchpad and is up for sale. It comes unframed. I had not used oil pastel very much at this stage and found it a very interesting medium to work with at the time as blending it was hard work. But I did love the way the pastels worked into one another.

Goth Girl and Her Mysterious Brother

Goth Girl and Her Mysterious Brother joined a small group of paintings I did as a serious on Goth Girl. The painting once again comes from serious of photo I took of both my children, after I had dressed them up to look Gothic. Once more I used candles and desk lamp to create the lighting and with my Kodak EasyShare CX6230 2.0 M E G A PIXELS Camera took the shoot. It’s painted on a 30cm x 40cm canvas using a range of brushes and pallet knifes. It is also for sale. The painting is unframed but added a frame to the photo digitally to see what it would look like framed.

I learned much about the brush strokes working on this one as I wanted to create a nice smooth blending of the faces so that they blended out with the background.

Goth Girl 3

Goth Girl 3 was painted on 30cm x 40cm canvas using a range of brushes and forms part of the Goth Girl Serious. It is painted from one of the many photos I took of both my children, after I had dressed them up to look Gothic. I used candles and desk lamp to create the lighting and with my Kodak EasyShare CX6230 2.0 M E G A PIXELS Camera took the shoot and then painted. The painting is unframed but added a frame to the photo digitally to see what it would look like framed.

At the time of painting this painting although I am not Gothic myself I was very interested in the look of the art and really wanted to try my hand at it. The piece is for sale.

Goth Girl

Finalist in the “Touch of Red II” 2007 Competition to help raise money for the Bone Marrow Foundation
Medium Oil
Size 12 x 16cm
Stretched Canvas
Comes framed in a hand crafted frame as shown in Photo
$350.00

Brief description of the concept and vision behind my work

My vision behind Goth Girl was to learn to paint in the Gothic Style, but also to display a touch of my own individual style, whilst capturing some of the concepts behind the Gothic Culture. A large part of the Gothic Culture is the Gothic Fashion. Gothic fashion is often seen as morbid, dark and eroticised. The basic concepts that make Gothic fashion are displayed by their choice to have black dyed hair, dark eyeliner, dark fingernails and black cloths. The Gothic Culture often displays its people as very sad wishing to be alone. In my painting of Goth Girl I have tried to reflect these qualities through my own vision of what I see Gothic Culture to be. I have tried to make Goth Girl display a deep sadness and despair in her eyes and show the finer qualities of the Gothic Fashion.