A three pipe problem unsolved.

It seems that this art lark runs in cycles, that come along regularly as if they were on a bus timetable.  The norm is when everything is ticking over and you are reasonably satisfied with what you are doing...never completely satisfied, of course...things are 'not bad', 'nearly got it', 'quite pleased with it', or just plain OK.  The worst is when you aren't making any pictures at all.  The third cycle - the one I'm in now- is when you are producing but can't get anything right. I have two modes when working.  Doodling in my sketchbooks and making small drawings, and the second mode is trying to make a 'proper picture', where I expend a lot more effort.  That's the bit that's going wrong at the moment.  I haven't liked my last four attempts at all. The latest is a Sherlock Holmes drawing.  It's actually in a sketchbook, but I have a few sketchbooks that I reserve for fully-worked pictures.  The story is 'The Red Headed League' in which Sherlock encounters what he calls a 'three pipe problem'.  It deals with a troubled red-headed man who has had dealings with the mysterious 'League.'  It's one of 50 odd short stories Conan Doyle wrote for the Strand Magazine.  Doyle said it was his 2nd best favorite of these stories (the 1st being 'The Speckled Band' which I don't like so much.) The pic was to be in vague 'movie-poster' style showing Sherlock and pipe, and the befuzzled red-headed man in the background.  Here's the result, don't like it, might fiddle further when I have the will... It was going to be black mono with just red on the man's hair, I was always going to add the title in photoshop.  Don't like how Sherlock has turned out, don't like the red hair or the blue figure.  The original line drawing included a shelf behind Sherlock with strange oddments mentioned in the stories...a turkish dagger, skull etc etc.  This looked a bit cluttered so I rubbed it out.  A mistake.  On a whim I drew the redhead in blue instead of black.  (??)  Another mistake.  My line drawing of Sherlock looked OK until I finished him...I lost him on the way...it happens.  The title was going to be top left, it went bottom right because I omitted the shelf. So...not happy. I tried some quick fiddling in photoshop to see how I might improve it... Pic on left is the original.  The next is Black & white version (grayscale)...slightly better, but I wanted some red.  In the third I just sprayed some red across one figure (in photoshop)...very quickly done, just to get an idea...I liked it better than the other two. So...do some more fiddling.... Original on left.  Middle...black&white with more subdued red hair...third pic...more toned down red hair, and a smidgeon of flesh tone on Sherlock.  (All done quickly, I didn't want to spend hours in photoshop.)  I now prefer the third pic. Had another thought...go RED!! I put a red layer over the picture in photoshop and blended it, this has done odd things to the darker sections but I like it.  It's brash like some movie posters.  I was going to change the title to 'The Red Headed League' anyway, and it seems to fit better.  Wish I'd painted it all in red and black to start with. This was done with coloured pencils, soluble and non-soluble, if I tried putting a red wash over it most likely I'll end up with a mud colour.  I may try adding flesh tones to the lighter areas of Sherlock's face and hands, from these experiments I think I'll like that better than what I have now. I'll let you know what happens.  Might have to change the title to 'Mudlarks on the Thames.'

Marjorie and Ellen, we have to accept that this feeling is just part of the art game.  It's something that turns up, often for no good reason.  Still...wanting to do something better is no bad thing.

Yes Robert, the sensible thing to do when starting a picture like this is to produce a number of colour thumbnails to decide where you're going. My 'sensible' gene is wearing out like everything else.  I get your point about Photoshop and similar apps.  I was lucky, I bought an already out of date Photoshop Elements from Amazon, brand new, still unwrapped, for £25.  (It was version 5, when they were already on version 11.  This was many years ago.)  Even better was knowing somebody who knew how to use it.   How much easier it is to be shown how to do something rather than read how to.  Since most of the task are repetitions, I picked it up.  I doubt I understand more than a third of its functions, but that lets me do a lot. I recall at school being told to write a description of how to tie your shoelaces.  Some smarty-pants teacher's idea.  No pictures.  I knew how to tie my laces, if I hadn't, and had read my description (??? that couldn' t happen), the instructions would have been useless.   Think I've mentioned that before.  Sorry.

Not scared Linda, outraged and convinced something bad has happened.  He gets a job from the mysterious Red-Headed League, a pointless job, but one he needs because his business is in trouble.  He's instructed to sit alone in a room copying the Encyclopedia Brittanica, he's paid good money then suddenly it stops.  All attempts to trace the League fail, he's owed money and goes to Sherlock.  The great detective is amused by the problem and tells Watson it's a three-pipe problem and asks to be left undisturbed for 50 minutes.  To cut to the chase, it's all a ruse to get the red haired man out of his shop, while the crooks dig a tunnell from it to a Bank next door.  They wait for a bullion deposit to be made before robbing it.  Sherlock sorts it out, of course.  It was just a scam on the red-haired man.  It's a much better yarn than my half-baked summary, and was one of Conan Doyle's personal favourites.