Wednesday, September 15, 2010

progress

so
 if you followed a link from my main blog there is nowt new on this post for you...
further updates will be added soon though

but
if you are new here....
hey there, welcome to my arts and crafts
section

my main blog can be found


and it covers


and pretty much anything else i can think of at the time
now on with the blog
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 decided i needed some practice at portraits....
(and boy do i)
didnt have a subject to sketch so thought sod it stephen fry (some one i admire) was all over twitter today in folks comments


so the poor sod was picked as my test subject

which (me being so rusty at portraits) meant that
i spent the next 3 or 4 hours swearing at the photo, sketch and life in general
now my throat is sore, my eyes are falling out their sockets and bloody sketch still no where near completion
infact im thinking bout saying bugger it and just using the sketch for dart practice instead of portrait practice
my latest victim ran away on pretext of grocery shopping and buying me a new eraser...
i think i scared him
so .. this is as far as i got... i may finish it as a sketch i may finish it as a painting, i might finish it as a dart board who the hell knows




sorry stephen


four fucking hours of hell
i remember why i hate portraits now...

any way
figured i might post a progression up
(if i decided finish it)
might be interesting to compare the different stages
(of either sanity or the sketch you choose)
some might find the process interesting, so ill try and stay honest

and yes i am aware that currently the sketch look as as though stephen is attempting a drag queen look but im hoping to fix that later, fer now im going to medicate

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so i meant to lay down for a bit but.... well hell what can i say
im legally insane

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about an hour or so later

i attacked stephen with the new eraser
(yep my latest victim dared to venture back to the house)
(and yes i know eraser is cheating, but guess what....)
(i dont fucking care...)
(well ok i do care and im silent beating myself up ok happy now),
any way then i did a bit more sketching and with a lot less swearing and this time hopefully less drag queen effect.


what do you mean you cant see any difference???
damn it i can see heaps of differences
that was an hours bloody work

still more to do though
eye is still funky for a start as is the hand

hmm to colour or not to colour? what do you reckon?
course i should done it in sepia if i was going to colour it but ohh well
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hmm other eye is off too, and shoulders set incorrectly, nose and right ear need work
(right ear a lot of work, looks like hes gone vincent on us huh)
i need sleep
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and for those of you wondering why im so critical of my stuff
 its because these following works make me look like a 3 year old that got into the crayon box

i look at my stuff and see how badly mine compares to a true artist


they inspire, haunt, and torment me.
(probably laugh at me too)
though that might be the bipolar talking


bet they didnt need an eraser fer a cruddy penny sketch

so other than being the proverbial dogshit on the shoe of true artist of such calibre...

i strive to do the best i can with my "crayon box"

well shit this blog might well be relevant to bipolar yet ;-)

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Oh I Should Mention Its Stephen Frys Birthday Today
so happy birthday wishes going out to him poor buggers stuck working on his special day :-( 
but doesnt seem to mind so ...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR STEPHEN FRY
(yea im doing the scary fan thing) 
heres to you on your day
id say bottoms up but there again it can be taken entirely the wrong way;-)


well hey they say its the thought that counts
(rest assured im doing more corrections on it)
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errr me finks i went to far and overworked it... said id be honest so bugger it heres how i messed up the sketch with a further half an hour of work
(which will probably take several hours to repair lol)
poor sods going to end up haveing a hole in the paper where eyes should be




ohhh.. actually seeing it along side others maybe didnt screw it up as much as i thought


thinking of taking up self flagellation figured its less tortuous than attempting art
pass the cilice



really really hoping that one of these interviews for my fella works out or ill have to turn to portraits again for income AAARRRrrrrrrggghhhh

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so whilst studiously avoiding doing more on the portrait i did manage to start turning some of those design sketches into paintings, going for my usual heavy texture, so they are not going to photograph well but ohh well, early days so far but got them this far





the initialization of the woods, slowly getting there


might be getting to the phase where i cant see the woods for the trees


finally got around to starting this one near a year after it was designed
ok this was a painting but i wanted a higher texture version. so this is how far i brought this during avoidance



might be called ethereal myst but she will always be my
funky fairy


computerized design, slowly becoming a high textured variation

















did do a painted study of this one before but damned if i can find it for now
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so another half an hours half assed sketching
and surprisingly little screaming and i get from
here




to here



and if you say you dont see a difference i might possibly burn it

and another few minutes work for the beginning of colour



flash to a cut scene and some speeded up special effects
(all of which are way to expensive for me)
and surprise surprise im back to swearing and thinking of darts
though granted that may just be down to getting tired








so my latest victim is screaming at me
"BACK AWAY FROM THE PICTURE"
and other polite phrases such as
"PUT THE FUCKING PASTEL DOWN"
as of yet though he hasnt rugby tackled me to the floor so i figure im still good to go





still see a lot of faults so i think i can take this further





i seriously can see steam erupting from my latest victims ears
hmm
i might well wake up in the morning to find the pastels hidden or padlocked
guess we shall see





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so things were getting to the point that the paper was getting over worked, and seeing as i am primarily a painter i decided to risk a varnish spray, both to protect the paper and so that i might add addition detail with out turning into a complete basket case of nerves ;-)
note how the spray exaggerates any paper damage (nose and hand)

not to worry though because (now its sprayed) we can "fix" that with a little wet and dry and some over painting



or we can just leave it and let every one think that stephen has the worlds biggest pimple half way up his nose.
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migraine stops play fer couple days sorry

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ok so finally migraines subsided enough to paint,



sorry stephen but i took some time off you and decided to do more on the others



(the clue to the necessity of this came when i found myself doodling with a paint shop program instead of actually painting)



(no offense stephen it was more a comment on my work not you personally, im not throwing lightning bolts at ya honest, just at the painting and areas im least happy with )

Any Way

finding myself screaming "why the hell arnt you finished yet" at them...  i decided to paint along to the following tune











It seemed to fit my current mood quite nicely


this is as far as iv gotten on this concept so far.......hope i caught the texture good enough to give you an idea... (on the final five minuets of work on her i was referring to her as that fucking fairy rather than the friendlier funky fairy so i figured it was time to move on to the next)


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and this far on this one

im begining to wish id used the textured woven canvas fer this one
"The Woods" isnt irritating me as much as the others

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from computer generated concept to canvas interpretation (yes im changing some aspects of it)

still a fair amount to go on this one but the light is at the end of the tunnel as they say..

(bloody dumb @$$ saying that that doesnt actually help me feel closer to finishing it)
finding myself toying with the idea of doing a glow in the dark version just to creep folk the fuck out when it gets dark

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and finally portrait of pain
or as she is currently called portrait pain in the arse, the high textured back ground really did seem a good idea at the time
now...
err not so good
sure as hell makes it damned difficult to add detail
got to say though i still kinda like the way shes progressing

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so finaly reaching the correct mind frame of

that brings us to right here and now
and the problem of the huge assed zit/scab forming on poor stephens nose..
(not on stephens actual nose i hasten to add, just the paper damage)
time for me to stop procrastinating and fix the damage on the paper around the nose, neck, lips and hand huh

doesnt look too bad huh, barely discernible i hear you cry, err yea sure thing... that is right up until you look closer and put the lights on...at which point you see this.............

OMG Stephen did you start shaving with a rotary lawn mower? or did a vampire attack you?

now whilst we cant resolve this issue with some clearasil and a tube of chap stick.....
we do get to have some fun attacking poor stephen with some wet and dry
 (hmm when mentioned in the same breath as stephen fry wet and dry suddenly sounds so insidiously perverted hmm )

once the errant areas are reduced a little i can then over glaze with a translucent white
.........................
FINGERS CROSSED THIS WORKS

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poor stephen and his scabby nose,

i fear i lack the skill.



or is it just this apathy that keeps the paint brush still....


Look Ma Nae Pimple

also started turning from a sketch to a painting

hmmm wonder how far ill take this