Whistle Stop Tour (Part 2)

Two rather long months since my last post!  No, I didn't forget to post, I just got busy.  Yes, I know I always say I'm busy, but apparently I didn't know what busy actually was before, because things got a lot busier.

But I'm here now, and not busy (partly due to being sick, and thus not at work; and partly due to my Son's friends being over, ruling out having some quiet recovery time on the couch).  Things do seem to have calmed down generally, but there are still some busy weekends ahead, and of course I usually post on weekends.

Anyway, on with this post, which is taking me all the way back to July and my trip to the UK.  I go on trips to the UK semi regularly of course, but this time I promised some friends I'd take pictures so they can see what my hometown looks like.

I didn't actually get to go into the city center (except once, when I was drunk), so there's a lot of 'suburban' stuff to follow.

Whistle Stop Tour (Part 1)

This will be a rather unusual post, in that there will be photographs, and no paintings.  It's possible there will eventually be paintings based on some of the photographs, but if that happens it will be unrelated to this post.
It's also a rather late post, because, as has been pretty standard this last year, I've been busy, or distracted, and sometimes both at once.
Finally, it's going to be a boring post, at least to the vast majority of you.  This is the blog equivalent of looking at Auntie Ethel's holiday snaps, except instead of photos of the Taj Mahal, she took pictures of a tree in the Mughal Garden.  I didn't go anywhere near India though, and the photos that follow are from Mexico.  If you're still daring enough to see what follows, read on.

A Musing 7: 10 Tips for Digital Beginners

I was asked yesterday if I had any tips for digital painting I could share.  The answer to that is "Yeah, I do, but it might not be much help to you." Which isn't terribly useful, but is potentially true.  My way of creating art isn't necessarily your way.  I can give helpful advice and tips, some of which may work for you, and others won't, depending on your style, chosen subject matter and so on.  Use what works for you, ditch the rest.

So the following are some tips for those just starting out at digital painting (as the person who asked my advice was). For more advanced things... well, see point 3 below.

There are no images in this post - I might rectify that at some point.

A Musing 6B: Trace Elements

You may recall, or more likely you may not, that in my last A Musing post I said I'd break down the various ways of transferring something from your mind onto a piece of paper (or screen, or piece of shale or whatever).  I said I would do it soon, and that was in April, which may cause you to wonder about my definition of "soon," but regardless, I'm doing it now, finally.

Assuming you didn't click on the link above and read the post (and you'll know if you did that I don't believe that you did for one second, so, sorry about that), you may need a refresher regarding what I think those methods were, so I'll list them below.  For now, all you really need to know is that we're covering the first one here.  It's tracing, just in case you skipped reading the post title as well as the linked post above.

A Musing 6: Another Mickey Mouse Job

Way back when, in the mists of blog history (well, this blog's history) there was a post in which I said something that seemed true at the time.  Time has passed, as has a great deal of water under the bridge (That's two metaphors in one paragraph, I'll try not to make a habit of it).

Since writing  that post I've been meaning to cover what I said in more detail, but as I've attempted to do so I've stalled at doing it.  Since I really do want to cover it though I've decided to break it down into a few smaller chunks, each one being a blog post.  This post is a prelude to those, and is relevant to them.  If you missed the link to the last relevant post up there and want to catch up click here.

A Musing 5b: It's Just an Illusion (Part 2)

Let's talk some more about optical illusions.  If you missed the first part of this series (and this may be the last part, unless I think of something else worth saying) you can catch up here.  That's not required reading to understand this part, but it may be of interest.  So, illusions! Fascinating things.  In the previous part I discussed how illusions help us understand art.  This time I'll be looking at how they can also make the artist's life hell by lying about what we're seeing when we are trying to reproduce it.  This issue doesn't effect all artists - some people just have the natural power to overcome at least some of these illusions, and for others you can either learn tricks to get past them, or use "mechanical" means to do the same.  That is not what this post is about though.  I'm not going to go into every optical illusion that causes problems, just a small number of prevalent ones or I'd be here all week.

Interlude: Thoughts on the Blog's Future

So I've been debating with myself for some time over certain aspects of the Blog (there's probably a dirty pun there if you look hard enough). Every post so far has some images, and those images are either exclusively by me, or reference for something done by me, and this was fully intentional.  This has its advantages; after all, this is an art blog, but also some disadvantages.  For one, it means that I can only post about subjects I have images for, rather than any old thing, and for another it means I can only post as often as I have work to show.  Sometimes though I want to talk about other things, sometimes art related, sometimes just random things that I want to vent about.  Sometimes I want to write something that may require images that I didn't take, or paint, or use as reference.

I think this post is only the third time I've written written a post with no image content, although this one at least has an icon, the others didn't.  Interested in what I have to say rather than show?  Carry on then dedicated follower (you mad crazy fool).

A Musing 5: It's just an Illusion (Part 1)

Let's talk about optical illusions.

Usually when you think of optical illusions you're thinking of something that's messing with your brain; "Look all the dots are wobbling!" "Look, that staircase is impossible!" "Look, the candlestick is two faces!" and so on.  But really we rely on optical illusions all day, every day.  Without them could we look at a photograph and make sense of it? Understand a representational illustration? See a movie, without the illusion of motion?  I'm going to say that no, we probably couldn't, and that such art forms are as reliant on illusions that can fool our brains into seeing something that isn't there as novelty videos of dragons who's heads follow you around the room.  Illusions are central to our understanding of art - they make art possible, and yet at the same time they make art very difficult.  We'll get to the why of that in a later post, but first let's look at some common illusions and why I believe they make a case for art, in general, being dependent on them.

Before we continue I should point out that this essay is going to be a bit of a ramble, and will be split into two parts (the next coming soon).  I have a copy of Sketch Book Pro open in one window, and I'm writing this in the other. I am hoping it will all tie up neatly with a nice bow, but I'm not writing it for my English lecturer so I'm just going  to go with the flow and hope for the best (If you're lucky I'll proof read it before publishing).  As usual in these posts there's the caveat that I'm not an expert in this stuff, and I'm definitely not qualified in these areas, so you probably don't want to quote me in case I'm an idiot :)

A Musing 4: Stress and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I've been away for a while. Had you noticed? Poor May, no love for May. Poor blog, missed it's first birthday. Why? Well, therein lies a tale, and I'm limited in how much I can tell you. But it does lead to this current blog entry, and I'll post some speed paints and such in with it as examples, but, as the title may lead you to believe, it's all due to stress. Nothing to do with Motorcycles though - but a more meaningful title would get me in trouble at work...

Why so Blue?

I've been meaning to paint a picture of my son for quite some time, and I'm really not sure why it took me so long to get around to it. I have lots of photos of him, some of them adorable, and I've done some sketches of him (of dubious quality) that you can see throughout the sketch posts of the blog. So why now? I really don't know, but I took a photo of him while we were out sledding that I just needed to paint. Terrible Father that I am; he was sad because the snow sprayed all over him when we came to a stop, and I snapped a picture; I did give him a big hug afterward though.

So I had my picture, but now how to do it. I could do a pencil illustration, or charcoal (because that worked so well last time right?), or pen and ink, but this one needed to be painted as it was partly the colour that drew me to it. Not a speed paint either (though still in ArtRage), something a little more challenging. You can see the results, and my challenges, after you click more (assuming you're not already reading the expanded post).

A Musing 3: Can uTell What it is Yet?

My blog post titles should be reason enough to visit this fine establishment.  Look at it, it's genius!  Okay, maybe not, but you know we're talking about uDraw again from reading it right? Right?  Job done then.

When last we met I was showing off my uDraw pieces for worldofudraw.com (more to come BTW, just not for the same reason), and saying I'd reveal my favourite feature of the software while giving a more in depth look at the creation of the portrait.  Well, I'm not - at least not the way I intended because it was booooring.  No, I came to a realisation while capturing images for this post, so it's going to be cut down, but hopefully more interesting.

A Musing 2: A Right Mickey Mouse Job

Yes, I'm still here. Things have been a little crazy lately, and what with one thing or another I've A) not been drawing much and B) been posting even less. Things are on the way though, you'll get to see them soon. For now it's time for me to gibber on about things I don't really understand in an effort to understand them better. You, if you're brave enough, can come along for the ride.

A Musing

A couple of posts ago I pondered why the small thumbnail I had at the top of the post looked human at all, given that it was just a series of sketched lines (I've included it again for good measure).  I stated that it was now possible to tell that the figure was in her birthday suit, and that this might offend people. So the question remains, why does it look human at all?  How can a series of black lines with minimal light and shade represent so definitively a female form?