Various bits and pieces

 At least for the moment, I have decided to tone down all efforts at producing or selling marketable work. It's much more fun doing whatever I feel like, and so, I have been doing some of that, mostly in the form of pencil or ballpoint pen sketches of various things - whatever struck me as visually interesting. 

I have also rediscovered the joys of working from direct observation rather than reference photos. Not to mention, in the absence of any pressure to produce stuff I can sell, working with the cheapest of materials. These are all smallish sketches on common old printer paper.

Of South Africa's once impressive rail system, preciously little is left nowadays. Sad, perhaps, but it also resulted in lots of derelict buildings, a subject which I have always found very enticing for both photography and art. Someone posted a photo of one such slowly disintegrating station building on Twitter, and I made a sketch of it, in ballpoint pen:

In the west we have a strange love-hate relationship with technology. We want our laptops and microwaves and such, but we don't want to see any sign of the industries that produce or power them. And thus, we paint pretty pictures of flower gardens, but heaven forbid we use grimy industry as subject matter. 

Well, not so with me, particularly now that I no longer care whether my work sells or indeed whether anyone else likes it. Personally I find industry quite beautiful - it's the very engine of civilization. Hence, a sketch of electric pylons silhouetted against a sunset sky:

Vincent van Gogh painted this little Dutch Reformed Church in his home town early in his career. The building still exists, so I decided to emulate the great if crazy painter by making a version in pencil. Alas, my attempt cannot compete with his:

And some random stuff sketched from life:

I sketched these tomatoes in the garden, in a sketchbook. To prevent the graphite from smudging I sprayed it with a layer of fixative, but this had the effect of rendering the paper partially transparent, so a watercolor sketch on the other side shows through. So we learn: from now on, I'll use only one side if I'm going to spray fixative!

For this wooden toy truck, I experimented with combining ballpoint pen and graphite pencil. I rather like the result:

I still get up to no good all over the web...

Weaver bird

 Female weaver bird sitting in a chain link fence. As city dweller, this is how I often observe my wildlife!

HB pencil on 20 x 15 cm paper:

Other stuff I get up to...

Happy Halloween

I have been experimenting with coloring images digitally. There's a bit of a learning curve involved...

Pencil drawing; color added with Gimp.

Random bits and pieces

I can't always just work for the market; I'd go crazy that way. I'm an artist, not a money making machine. And thus, in between, I make time for all manner of random things. Like a fun hobgoblin:

It's the evil hobgoblin from Hans Andersen's story The Snow Queen, with his magic mirror. I may just get it into my head to do a whole set of illustrations for the story, which is on eof my favorite Andersen tales.

A portrait sketch:

And some quick studies after Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, and artist whose work I have long admired:

More sketches and illustrations

A few more sketches for the Instagram "100 heads" challenge thing:

And some more illustrations for my latest children's book. Lots more still need to be done:

New experiments

I have been rather wildly experimenting with all manner of things. I am developing ideas for an illustrated children's story:

The first of the above is in acrylics on cardboard; the second in watercolor. I am more inclined toward watercolor. Other attempts with acrylics did not work out quite satisfactorily. Illustration is really a new thing for me, and it's a quite different skill set from "fine art" (i.e. stuff intended to be hung on a wall). Thus a little journey that is both fun and frustrating at the same time.

Two more in the #100heads Instagram challenge. Due to lack of time, these heads are going to have to be pretty sketchy:

Studies of cattle, as preparatory work for the illustrations - the story will feature a cow:

And in between the cattle, some studies after Hergé's Tintin books. No time studying Hergé's work is ever wasted!

My latest sideline, Chinese brush painting:

I can't get hold of real Chinese brushes around here, so I just used a pointy western one. But this is yet another steep learning curve. The style is not nearly as easy as it may look!

Some random sketches

Taking a bit of a break from all the oil painting, and focusing on another project, which may or may not come to fruition. In between, some quick sketches exploring a mostly linear approach:

That is what comes of growing up with Hergé's Tintin comics - it is an approach that has long appealed to me, and I keep on returning to it.

In the meantime I let some talk me into joining a thing on Instagram, known as 100 heads, in which you draw or paint, you guessed it, a hundred heads. I'll have to see whether I do even close to a hundred, but what the heck, here's the first one:

Time for more than such quick sketches I won't have. Who knows, maybe the project will be of some value...

Cherry tomatoes

HB mechanical pencil:

Juicy Delights

HB mechanical pencil:

And another pencil drawing. Still busy with the draft of my new children's book, and thus I convince myself that I don't have enough energy left for painting. It's probably just an excuse. Anyway, the book's first draft is almost done. Watch this space for details...

Sundae

Pencil on cartridge paper, about 25 x 20 cm:

I should do one of these in color some time. Not immediately though - I am still working on my latest children's book; I hope to have a draft ready by the end of the month...

And another wrapped candy

Similar to the previous one. I suppose I should stop now, lest I add to the world's obesity problem:

Wrapped candy

HB mechanical pencil on A4 paper. The drawing is rather smaller than the paper. I can't be bothered to go measure its exact dimensions now...

Cupcake

HB mechanical pencil on cartridge paper, about 15 x 16 cm:

Peppers

I managed to complete the drawing I mentioned in the previous post. HB mechanical pencil on cartridge paper, 14 x 15 cm; here are WIP stages and the final drawing:

With HB pencil one can never get really deep darks, at least not over extended areas, so there is always a bit of an issue with lack of tonal contrast. But I have come to like the soft effect it gives. I am revisiting a theme to which I have long been attracted, namely quite humble subject matter seen fairly close up, giving rise to semi-abstract patterns. Next up: perhaps a cupcake. I haven't drawn or painted one in ages.

In the meantime my NaNoWriMo project is still on track. I have no the vaguest clue how the story is going to end, but I know enough to keep me writing for a few more days, and hopefully by then I'll know enough to take me some days further, and so on and so forth, until I have a complete draft to work with by the end of the month.

If all goes well, the book will be available by the end of the year, or early next year. Not sure yet - I think this one is going to need a lot of rewriting. But watch this space for updates!

Celtic Knots

I have been suffering through a monstrous bout of flu that left me unable (or at least rather unwilling) to do any "real" work. So instead I played around with Celtic knot design.

These decorations were often used in Medieval illuminated manuscripts (particularly in Ireland). They look very complex but can be constructed via a rather simple set of rules. Medieval Irish monks could routinely do ones vastly more intricate than this.

Recent sketches

A bunch of random sketches of various things, partly as studies, partly just for fun.

I just love drawing camels, which strike me as somehow simultaneously graceful and goofy:

A ceramic jug in charcoal:

And using a still from a film as reference:

For copyright reasons, one cannot really use stills from films directly as references, but such studies can help one get a better understanding of such things as old style clothing, weapons and buildings. 

Quick sketches

Some quick sketches. I got hold of one of those cheap children's watercolor pan sets, and wanted to take it for a test drive, so I put an egg and two cherry tomatoes on the table, sketched them in ballpoint and splashed some cheap watercolour over them. I think even the cheap colours may come in handy for sketching.

And then a portrait sketch of Ryan, the son of friends of mine. Seven is not the best age at which to try sitting still for more than ten minutes at a time, so I had to work at breakneck speed, and there was no question of making corrections! 

Pencil on paper, 20 x 15 cm:

Kullervo's Curse

A quick sketch after the original painting by the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865 - 1931). Of course, I couldn't possibly do it justice. Pencil on cartridge paper, 297 x 210 mm:

Two drawings

Two somewhat random studies, both 18 x 24 cm on A4 paper.

Praying girl:

Somewhat loosely based on a still from the film The Witch, a wonderfully creepy evocation of 17th century New England.Mostly HB pencil; I used a 2B here and there. For this leopard, I did the whole thing in HB:

Not using darker grade pencils is of course a somewhat questionable decision, but on the cheapish paper I use, I can't get much darker values anyway, and I have come to like the soft, almost silverpoint-like effect of HB.

Leonard Cohen

The late, great Leonard Cohen:

Pencil, 24 x 18 cm on A4 paper.