The Kiss

This is my favourite piece. it is by Gustav Klimt and is called "The Kiss".

First of all I should point out, this isn't the type of painting I would usually admire - though it is my all time favourite.

It is Art Nouveau and whilst I find this style of art very attractive and pretty, it isn't the realist kind that I would normally be in awe of. Art Nouveau works are generally flat lines and colours, which is not something I would aspire to recreate.

However this painting does something that I do admire and that is to make you go "WOW!" It has that special something that leaves you completely in awe, something that all artists should work towards producing.

When I first saw this I was in school looking through a book of Klimt's work and it was one of those rare moments when you look upon something and see beauty. It is a very gentle piece I think, the way the man in the picture is holding the woman is very tender and it is conveyed wonderfully by Klimt.

To produce something like this is what all creatives want to do, to provide their viewer, reader, watcher or listener with something that has the wow factor.

How do you do something like that?

Absorbing the Stress

This one has exhausted me. It was done in a day and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

It is a graphite on A3 paper.

I just hope the couple like it when they recieve it on their first anniversary! When me pieces are being given as these types of gifts it really puts the pressure on, as they have to be top quality and of you let it, it can drain the fun out of doing it if you let it.

I often avoid this by giving myself plenty of time to complete the work, so I can then take my time and really let myself become absorbed.

Two New Pics

Just a quick post today. I am working away trying to get some more pieces done for Sunday's art fair this week. It seems to have come around so fast. This is all a part of my new plan (as mentioned in my last post) and the plan for this week is to basically prepare for the big day on Sunday.

Subsequently here are two freshly created pics!

Time to Plan!

At the moment I am finding work is wearing thin and I have the combined problem of a lack of self-motivation. These two problems can cause great issues, when trying to make a success of yourself within any line of work. In a tough market you have to break free of these opressive moods.

So what's the plan? How do I fix this problem?

Well as my English teacher was constantly preaching to the uninterested teenagers surrounding her, 'if you fail to plan, you plant to fail.' So quite simply, my plan is to actually make a plan!

My week is quite unstructured, with my general ethos being to work on whatever appeals to me most, whether that means painting or general business orientated work. I need to assign a certain amount of time a week to painting and the rest to promoting my work. Weekly work rate targets also need to be a part of this all important plan and also a to-do-list needs to be formed for me to be able to visualise where I need to go next.

How else can I self-motivate? I really need the enthusiasm back that came when I first had my vision of building on my talent and trying to live from it. Luckily I have great people with great ideas around me. Advice from others is always welcome and always helpfull. Opinions also help me re-evaluate, so I would really like to hear your views and advice readers.

A Moment In Time

The picture my latest piece was drawn from was a very old photo (actually taken in the thirties). The photo obviously holds great memories of the subjects fourteen year old self. Now in his early eighties, my client asked me to draw from his photo of the days when he was a young lad playing for the 'England School Boys'.

I am pleased with the picture and am yet to present it to the commissioner, though I hope this stirs some great memories for him.

Art encaptures a place in time through its style, subject, movement etc. The monochrome finish (graphite pencil on white paper) echos the era that the original photo was taken in, but most importantly the image itself captures the youthfull memory filled days of the now much older and wiser man.

In my opinion the images success will depend on how well he thinks I have illustrated his memory. When he looks back does this come close to what he remembers?

Animals

Over the past couple of days I decided I would try my hand at animal portraiture. First of all to see if I could do them and second of all to hopefully give me another type of portrait to display and hopefully gain commissions from.

I chose to start by trying to draw Man's Best Friend, a dog. So to the left you can see my pencil drawing of Oscar, the oldest of my three pets.

As I was in the mood for trying out new things, I chose to experiment with my materials as well. Choosing black, white, brick red and coffee coloured pencils on grey paper, recreating Oscar in a sepia affect.

I drew him first then shaded using just the black, adding in the white brought the contrast out more in the picture. I then added in the coffee and brick red colours.

I am pleased with the end result, though I feel that the pencil I used gave the image a sheen, so maybe I would use a softer pencil instead of graphite next time. I really felt the sepia affect worked though, especially on Oscar, as Yorkshire Terriers naturally have those coffee and 'reddy' colours in their coat. I also felt I captured his likeness pretty well too.

All in all I think for a first attempt it worked pretty well. I have found parts of the picture I would change and effects I want to play around with more. I think the next step for me is to draw a human portrait in sepia and see how that works out, so watch this space...

My Painting Process: Stage Five The Finish

Reviewing the work after blanking it for a couple of days worked and I can now show you the final piece. I am pleased with the final result and think that this picture certainly doesn't do the piece justice.

The parts that I found needed amending had simpler solutions than I originally thought when last gazing at it. Also, as I predicted in my last post; after coming back to the painting with a clear mind I found that it wasn't as flawed as I thought initially. Looking at something so intensely for so long does that to you I guess and a break from this monotony brings a sharper eye to study the problems.

So what did I change? Well I changed two parts of the subject to the right: One: I noticed that the top of her head was too flat, so I rounded this off adding the needed height and shape. Two: the definition around the cheeks was too severe, especially for a child's face which would normally have less definition. I solved this by washing over the defining points with a skin oil colour I mixed and this looked to be the finishing touch.

Overall this has been a satisfying project. The experience was capped of brilliantly when the client gushingly expressed his gratitude and how pleased he was. Which in the end is the best thing about the job and the reason for going through the process I have taken you through. It is a truly rewarding journey that I would recommend to anyone!

My Painting Process: Stage Four

To complete stage four I followed my rules detailed in stages one to four to finish my piece and to the right is the resultant oil painting.

At the end of the stage (as often happens when an artist attempts to pull a picture together) I felt it was not finished, I can see clear faults with the painting, but at I decide to lay down my brushes. I have been working for a number of hours now and need a break in order to be able to visualise where I go from here with the piece.

I know that I am happy with the figure to the left in the painting, however the child on the right just isn't up to a suitable standard in my eyes.

When this happens my method is to clear away, take the painting down and lean it against the wall; so that I don't have to look at it and be constantly trying to find where I have gone wrong.

After a couple of nights sleep, having not looked upon the painting for a period, you gain a fresh perspective when coming back to your painting and the solution becomes clear almost every time. Indeed you often come back and realise the problem wasn't as bad as you initially thought.

The final stage will feature in my next post and I will take you through what I realised and how I brought the painting to a conclusion.