Right. Two finished pieces now to show and write about.
It has been very interesting getting back into a creative groove and attempting to be a proper 'artist' again. Although these pieces were gifts for people I know and love, the process (and the fact I had a deadline) helped get me into the right creative headspace, which led me to take a more professional approach to their creation. Well, more professional than I have been for last 3 years.
Both pieces I am reasonably happy with, one more than the other. However both proved the perfect place to apply the defibrillator to the then cold corpse of my talent, and luckily it managed to choke and splutter its way back to the land of the living. My intention was to talk about the pieces whilst showing stage by stage photos of the pieces coming together. But fuck that. It'll take too long and while I like these pieces a lot, they are not necessarily what I would choose to represent myself as an artist. It was good to step outside my comfort zone for a while, I liken it to going to a kind of Illustration and Painting Gym, but I'm longing to get started on something that I can truly get the yellowed, rotting teeth of my DIrty Mouth into. So I'll discuss the 2 pieces briefly here, show some pics, and be out of here for presumably another few weeks.
Piece 1- Wine Lady
This was really fun to do, and came together with more ease than it should have done. I got some reference for the hand and the wine glass, and for the grapes, but the rest I kind of just made up. Creating anything with pretty girls in it is always fun and relaxing, and theres a simplicity to the piece that I really like. As this was the first major piece I had attempted for a while, I kept the composition, drawing and painting techniques down to the bare essentials, which has definitely worked in its favour. In my opinion.
I also think I've got better at knowing when to leave things alone. The face came together really quickly, and I avoided the (very strong) temptation to over work it. The piece has a few mistakes, some quite noticeable to a discerning eye, but overall I think the piece just 'works', and thats all you can really ask for. I would have perhaps add some texture or something to background as it is a bit flat, but hey! it's not for me! I won't have to look at it much ever again!
Ahem.
Piece 2- Wild West Landscape Thing
Conversely, This was an absolute nightmare to finish. However I learned some important lessons about ambition, working with subject matter you don't know very well and attempted to ape other artists' styles without really thinking things through. Glenn Fabry is one of my favourite artists, particularly his covers for the comic
Preacher (more on which when I get round to discussing inspirations and influences). With this piece I intended to capture the kind of mood and atmosphere of those
Preacher covers, but I encountered I numerous problems. The main one being I have never painted a landscape in my life. I did use a couple of reference images as usual, but even drawing out the composition onto the canvas was a struggle. The more I worked on it the more I realised I had over reached. It wasn't until the end, when I desperately applied detail with colouring pencil in an effort to get the image to a place where I would be happy to give it as a gift, rather than bury it in an undisclosed location never to burden anyone with having to look at it, that it started coming together. The overall result has a very comic book look, but not the kind I had originally intended.
However, I like colour scheme and certain bits of the detail, and the figure on the horse could have come alot worse. My Dad seemed pretty chuffed with it and I suppose thats all that matters.
Right thats them out the way. Although these pieces don't necessarily represent 'Me' as an artist, they were a great, low-risk way of seeing if I still had what it takes, and I definitely think I may still do. probably.
Hopefully next time I'll have some proper ideas and pictures to show you, not just some presents I made.
Don't forget to check my Dirty Mouth regularly. It'll only get worse if you don't.
