Bumbling along.

My family asked me for a 'Christmas list' of goodies, not wanting much I opted for art materials and arty stuff.  Having almost filled my existing sketchbooks, the list was heavy with a variety of sketchbooks.  I'd not bought replacements because of this.  I ended up with four very good books.  (I hadn't expected to get that many). Events have left me despondent lately and art wasn't having its usual soothing effect, so I decided to opt out of art for a few days.  No drawing, no reading art books, no watching art programs, no POL.  Usually it does the trick. My plunge back into art hasn't gone well.  I like odd, quirky, idiosyncratic art best and thought I'd have a stab at that.  My brand new Gecko A3 300 gsm smooth sketchbook was beckoning.  I haven't used this brand before, but it had good write-ups.  I've seen some art, by a few artists, where they paint a realistic subject and then liberally slop paint over it...it seemed a fun thing to do, so I thought I'd give it a go.  My idea was to paint three various 'odd' small pics on one page...the 'sloppy' painting was the first. So I painted a girl looking over her shoulder.  Then taped paper around the edges of this part of the painting, then tore up a fragment of paper and laid it on the girl's face...all this to stop the 'slopped' paint going everywhere.  The slopping began.  Red paint everywhere.  It was fun.  The result was horrible. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of this stage.  Not wanting to start my brand new sketchbook by tearing a page out, I thought I'd fiddle with it.  'Let's make the red splashes look more globular' I thought...as thoughts go, not my best, tearing out the first page was a much better idea. I've cropped this part of the picture...here it is... Ghastly...if you can believe it, this looked better before I 'made the splashes look globular.'  It definitely looked better when the page was completely blank. So, on to the next style in this pic.  I often come across art where the artist has left parts just 'drawn' and painted in full colour elsewhere in the picture.  I thought it looked interesting.  I don't copy others work...I'm doing my own thing but use the basic concept. So here's the middle part of this experimental picture... The face is just drawn with pencil.  The rest is gouache and watercolour in bright gaudy colour. The face isn't so blue as this, the photo was taken in artificial light.  This idea might be worth exploring more. I like Art Deco art, some artists make their figures look unreal and stylish, almost as if they are made of plastic.  The nude is a feeble attempt at this...the less said about that the better.   Here's the whole picture.... There was a gap in the middle bottom, so I added the fishes (like you do). I won't be posting this in the gallery.   I'm thinking it's so bad it might grow on me later. I've decided to keep this sketchbook for 'different' things.  Although I don't like the finished pic, I had to admit it was fun playing around. By the way, I like  the sketchbook, it'll take all I care to throw at it.  Proper watercolourists might prefer a little more tooth. On to the next one...

Yes Tessa, catching the news these days isn't a good idea, hopefully things might improve.  Trying something different usually works for me Marjorie, even when what I try doesn't actually work.  It has this time, because I want to have another go.  It's not just general news, like many people on POL with problems (I guess), I worry about my wife who is very poorly.  No good news there either.  This leaves me with stacks of time, but often not the right mindset.  Loads of other people in the same boat.  Thanks for your generous comment Tony.  I shamelessly post most things, but there are limits.

Thanks to all for your kind words.  Much appreciated.  I only mentioned the fact that I had a touch of the blues to explain why I hadn't been commenting of POL.  This was primarily intended to be about the picture.  We have to be critical of our own stuff or nothing gets better...it may not anyway, but trying is the joy of it.  Got to draw something now.

I wrapped up another pic today, and got an idea for the next.  When this happens I like to make a start however little I get done.  This one begins with a line drawing by dip-pen.  This is how far I've got.... You'll see I've pencilled in a rough layout for the figure, I don't always do this...on this pic I wanted to be sure I'd get all the lady in the frame.  The pencil is not adhered to, it just gives me an idea of how much space I've got.   This is my new Artway sketchbook, multi-media, 250gsm, A3.  I've done a couple of colour pics in it and it's just fine for the way I work.  A year or so ago I'd have used A4 for this, but with my wobbly hands I find it easier to work larger.   Having got this far with it I know I'll be keen to get back to it. Got to go and peel some spuds, and find my chef's hat.