All Change

It's been a bit quiet on here of late.  I've been having a big think about all my blogs, and where I want them to go, and I have decided to make a few changes to this one. I don't have a lot of my own creative work on here at the moment - that's partly because I'm just not getting the time to do my own thing very much (though hopefully that might change when my youngest starts school in September) and partly because I'm so shy of showing it to people - this is something which I'm going to have to get over, but in the meantime I've decided that I'm going to make this blog a little less about me - I still want to use it to share my own work when it happens, but I want to share some of my creative finds on the web, and a few more things that inspire me.  Who knows I may even feel able to promote it then!

So, as you can see, the first step has been to rename it. I shall sort out the IP address at a later date when I get round to it.

Fairy Door

I loved fairies when I was a little girl, but as the mother of 2 boys I don't get to indulge those memories now. We've just come back from a few days away at Center Parcs (actually got to go without spending a fortune, since we went midweek and out of normal school holidays) and behind our villa there was of course lots of trees. One in particular caught my eye as I was sitting relaxing on the patio area - the base of the tree had a little arched hollow which looked just like a small doorway. On our last day, having some time to kill, and nothing better to do, I decided to turn it into a proper fairy doorway. If I'd had a little longer and the tools to do it, I might even have been tempted to make a more 'permanent' working door, but this gave the desired effect. I like to think that the next inhabitants of the villa might include a small girl to 'discover' it....

Reassurance for Artists Lacking in Confidence

I've always struggled with self-confidence when it comes to my artwork - as someone said on a TV programme I watched last night, showing it makes me feel a little as though I'm standing naked on a podium and inviting comment.

However I recently came across this hugely reassuring blog article during my browsing.  Entitled 'How to Steal Like an Artist (and 9 other things nobody told me)' I found it hugely reassuring.  I suppose it didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know or feel myself, but it feels so good to have those 'personal' feelings validated by someone else, even though I know that shouldn't be necessary!

The very first point he makes is that there is nothing new under the sun (I hadn't realised that this phrase, which I use quite a lot, is actually biblical - from Ecclesiastes apparently).  Even what appear to be the most original ideas are based (subconsiously or not) on someone else's work. You take what you want or need and assimilate and adapt, and make it your own. As he puts it 'the artist is a collector'.

I also appreciated his second point: 'Don't wait until you know who you are to make things' - his point is that the process of creation will help you to know who you are, and if you sit around waiting for it to happen, it won't happen.  This reminded me of another quote I came across recently (I think it was from Picasso) which said that inspiration will find you, but that it has to find you busy.

He also talks about something called 'imposter syndrome' - I hadn't come across this before, though apparently it's pretty common in educated people.  He describes it thus: 'It means you feel like a phony, like you're just winging it, that you really don't have any ideas what you're doing'.  His response to this is that none of us do - so you should just get on with it, do what you have to/want to, and 'fake it 'til you make it'.

There's lots more useful stuff in his article, but in the final point he states that 'you must embrace your limitations and keep moving' - and that 'devoting yourself to something means shutting out other things'.  I've always fought with this, so it's good to be reminded about it. Although that's not to say that single-minded devotion is required, as he also quick to point out.

As someone who has always struggled to see my personal work as worthwhile, or 'good enough', these are all things that I needed to read.  I thought I'd share them here in case someone else might find them useful, and also so I would have them here as a handy reminder to myself. Anyway, I can heartily reccommend the article if you want to check it out for yourself.

Spring Inspiration

The beautiful sunshine has inspired me to grab my camera and take a few shots - I knew what I wanted - a springtime shot by the river (I'm planning to do 4 at the same spot, representing the seasons, and already have a winter one) and another of a tree in blossom.  I'm fairly happy with these - I especially like the atmospheric mistiness of the first one, and I always love to see the light shining through trees and flowers.  I plan to use the images in some mixed media artwork, though at the moment I'm not sure when I'll find time to do it - too little time too much to do!

The Gallery: Icy Branches

I've always been inspired by trees - I think my favourites are beech, oak, silver birch and willow, but I'm really not fussy.  I live in an area of lots of tree-lined roads with large mature trees all around and I often rush out with my camera having spotted something on my way home (effects of light through the trees especially) that I want to capture.  I'm keen now to start developing something from some of these photographs, and have been experimenting so far with mixed media. I'm itching to do more...

In the meantime I thought I'd include one of those photographs I dashed out to take a month or two ago in the snow. I think I should have tweaked the depth of field because the focus is a bit dodgy, but I'm ashamed to say that I tend to be lazy and hardly ever switch the camera to manual. 

Those cold sparkly days which make the branches of the trees look like lace are just so beautiful.

(This post was prompted by The Gallery: Trees over at Sticky Fingers)

Progress Report

It's been rather quiet on here lately - I've not forgotten about this blog, rather I've not had a great deal of time for personal creative projects.  Everything I've been doing has been business related.  I've got 6 new products in the pipeline, I'm trying to re-do my website myself to enable it for e-commerce, and also set up on a new selling site, not to mention maintain the existing outlets. There's also been a sudden flurry of orders to fulfil.  And because I rather let things slide in the house (too busy doing artwork) over the winter, and we want to get it back on the market soon, there's a lot of spring cleaning to do.  The knitting is progressing (slowly) and I'm enjoying that - I always found knitting relaxing - and I've also discovered a new addiction - Pinterest.

It's strange, when it comes to social networking, I find that I love blogging, but have no real interest in Facebook and Twitter - my presence on them both is largely for business reasons. I wish I could get into them a bit more, but they don't really interest me.  But Pinterest is an entirely different story.  I found it when I was deliberately searching for a virtual pinboard facility which I thought would be useful to save images I came across and wanted to use as reference material etc. I found Pinterest mentioned on someone's blog, and requested an invitation, since it's still in Beta.  I'm so glad I did, because although still a little flaky at times (I don't think they're quite able to cope with the demand yet) I love it.  The site is a very creative one.  I love the fact that it's not all about shopping and fashion (there is some of that on there, but not too much) there are lots of creative people pinning fantastic projects, artwork, quirky items, sayings, views, ideas... the list goes on. I suppose it appeals to me because I'm largely visually orientated, but you can click through to the source of the image and I've discovered some fantastic inspirational sites that way. If you're not already on there take a look.

As part of getting the house ready for viewings, and spring cleaning, I've also been trying to improve our storage - a trip to Ikea was in order, and I came back with lots of underbed storage, shelves, etc. which I've had to put together myself (sigh). But while there I also invested in a small A2 size plan chest (with any luck if these sell well for Ikea they'll introduce a larger version - plan chests are so expensive, yet essential in any art studio - my portfolios are bulging, and everything gets creased and dog eared.)  And a small desk for just £10 to use in the kitchen so that I can do some art projects in there - I have found that taking 20 or 30 minutes while I'm in the kitchen cooking or whatever, means that I can actually make some progress, and life is a little less frustrating, than always waiting for a couple of free hours which never seem to arrive. It also means that I don't have to clutter up kitchen work surfaces all the time.  Who knows I might even share it with the kids! The picture below shows the new set up including a new art storage system, also from Ikea - the lower drawers have the kids art materials in there, the top ones my own - just a few from my collection that I'm using on current projects.  I'm very pleased with it all so far. I'm tempted to add an inspirational notice-board above the desk, but that might be taking over the kitchen too much!

My next project is to tackle the studio/office/gym.  My husband is keen to have a rowing machine, but what with my printer and all the office furniture and the existing cross-trainer I can't see how it would work.  Another trip to Ikea and a major make-over is needed, but is probably not worth it if we hope to sell.

Inspired to Knit Again

I always enjoyed knitting - it's therapeutic, creative, and can be fairly mindless, allowing you to listen, chat, or watch something at the same time. I was first taught to knit by my mum when I was 4 or 5 years old, so that by the time I was 12, I was knitting my own fair isle and aran jumpers. At the age of 14, I learned hand-spinning, and at 16 got my own spinning wheel and started creating  my own yarns to hand-dye and then knit. I carried on knitting and spinning regularly until I was about 30, and then for some reason stopped.  Wool shops were closing, and getting hold of beatiful wools and knitting patterns had got harder (with the notable exception of Rowan).  I finally sold my spinning wheel about 10 years ago and it's a long time since I did any knitting.  But knitting has become fashionable again, wool shops are opening everywhere and there are now gorgeous wools and patterns being created.  So I have been tempted to dust off my knitting needles once more.

The reason behind it all - I came across a pattern for a gorgeous cardigan on ravelry.com, via another site, so I found a suitable yarn (a gorgeous pure wool/lambswool mix - the photograph doesn't do it justice), and I'm now ready to get going again.  The last piece of knitting which I started (a shawl for my expected baby) was never finished, and still sits reproachfully in my knitting bag, stuffed in a cupboard - maybe I'll use the wool for something else now.  The cardigan I'm about to knit is a large snuggly one, so there's a huge pile of wool, and goodness knows how long it'll take me to knit, so lets hope the enthusiasm lasts!

Eureka!

For some time now I've been trying to find a way of successfully transferring digital ink-jet images for mixed-media artwork.  There's lots of information out there on how to do it, and I'd been diligently experimenting with every different method and medium I came across, with at best patchy results. I suspect you need to get the combination of the printing paper, printing ink, receiving paper and medium, right in order to get success.

I read one source which recommended alcohol sanitising gel, which if nothing else has the advantage of being cheap.  So I duly went and bought some.  Used with Epson matt photo paper, and ordinary cartridge paper, the result was reliable and pretty good, with a contrasty, grainy image that I quite liked.  I also tried it with Inkjet OHP film, and that was in some ways even better, giving a softer, almost pastel like image.  These are good enough for me, and while I won't stop experimenting, it at least allows me to achieve some of the ideas I had.

The images below show you the results - they don't really do them justice - a lot of the subtleties are lost, but  I think you can still just about see the difference.

Original Photograph

Inkjet transfer from photograph, using alcohol sanitising gel and Epson matt photo paper. A grainy, contrasty effect is achieved.

Inkjet transfer using OHP inkjet transparency film with alcohol sanitising gel. A softer, more romantic feel is achieved here.

Learning to Sketch Again

My 6 year old's first drawing on the iPad.  My drawings on there aren't a great deal better at the moment!

One of the reasons I was keen to get an iPad was to use it for drawing and sketching. I've read that quite a few artists are using them to create artwork on, perhaps most famously David Hockney, and the idea of using it to create artwork on the go was something I wanted to be able to do.  I thought it would be great to be able to paint and draw without having to cart about large quantities of art materials when you travel.

So, having downloaded a free drawing and painting app, I have been experimenting with what I can do.  However I've found that using my finger to draw with is actually quite restrictive.  While in theory I know that you can select any brush size you want, and scale up or down so that you can get more control, I find that I really want a tool with a point on it, so that I can see what I'm doing, without having to constantly scale up and down.  It seems that I am not alone in this, as I discovered when I went looking for what was available in terms of a stylus.  Apparently the way that the capacitive screen of the iPad is constructed, means that it is designed to react to something fairly broad, like a finger, so all the stylus' that are available have a fairly broad tip.  So far so bad, the technology needs to improve on that score, but I did find a Styluswith good reviews that has a broad, see-through nib with a dot on it to show you where you are drawing, and this seemed to offer a way round the problem, at least in the short term. Once it arrived it seemed to do the job reasonably well, but I didn't find it that easy to use - you had to keep it at a certain angle which was a little restrictive, so at the moment I've gone back to using my finger.

Drawing and sketching on the iPad, is a very different experience even to using a drawing tablet with a computer.  I like the fact it is so direct (and so do my kids). I find it difficult to create drawings which are at all precise on there, though in some ways this might actually be a good thing, encouraging me to sketch with more spontaneity and giving my drawing more life.

Aside from drawing, I love the way web browsing is so much easier on the iPad, but though I like to take it to bed with me, I'm going to have to stop doing so, as browsing through creative blogs and inspirational sites, I have found is a sure route to insomnia - it just stimulates the creative part of my brain which is really the last thing you need when you want to get to sleep, so I'm going to have to stop doing it!

Creative Resolutions

I don't normally make new Year resolutions, but this year I have decided to make some creative ones. Over the past year or so, I have increasingly been trying to find my creative roots again, but although I have I think made some progress, I've been quite frustrated at the lack of time to really get stuck in - it just feels like I'm dabbling the whole time. With this in mind I recently bought myself a new book: Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art

Again, I don't usually buy art books of this kind - you could spend your whole life thinking about art without actually producing anything.  There's a lot of navel gazing going on amongst artists, and although I'm probably guilty of it too, I try not to over-indulge. Sometimes I think a lot of creative people are just in love with the idea of being creative, and think about 'being creative' a lot more than actually being creative, so I try to avoid that.  Anyway, the title seemed to hit the nail on the head for me, and although having read it, it's not rocket science, and is mainly common sense, it has at least spurred me on to try and make a few changes this year.

So my creative resolutions for 2011 are:

• To sort out a more effective 'studio' space.  For the last 2 months, our office/studio/gym has looked like a bomb has hit it. You can barely enter the room let alone do any work in there, as it has become a dumping ground for the rest of the house. My aim is to sort this out as soon as possible. Get some hard flooring put down (I've already trashed the carpet, so hard flooring where I can easily clean up is a necessity). Get rid of all unneccessary junk, put up lots of shelving, paint the walls white, and see if I can get hold of a plan chest.
• To organise my creative time a little more effectively.
• To go on the occasional course - for example I've recently discovered that there is a print workshop locally that runs short courses, and where you can use their facilities really cheaply if you are a member.  I've always loved prints, and would like to explore that a little more, so a short course might spur me on.
• To look at actually producing some personal work for sale again, rather than just playing and experimenting.
• To approach some galleries.
• I got an iPad as my Christmas present this year and I'm really keen to learn to use this to produce artwork 'on the go'.
• To get back into the discipline of sketching and drawing more.

Not quite sure how much of this I'll achieve, but my younger son starts school in the autumn, so hopefully I should have a little more time by then at least.

After the Feast comes the Famine

Following on from my recent fever of creativity, everything has come to a grinding halt as family life, Christmas and business gets in the way. It's all deeply frustrating, there's so many things I want to get on with, to try out, experiment with, and I've got lots of half finished projects around that I'm longing to finish. Maybe I'll get some more time after Christmas, but in the meantime I thought I'd post a few of the journal pages I created just to remind myself that I have achieved something, and as an inspiration to do more....

 

You may notice that they all have the common theme of 'trees'.  This wasn't planned at first, but my first pages all happened to feature trees in some way, so it has now become the theme of my first journal.  Only a few pages left now.  I quite like the idea of each one having a theme, so I might give the next one a theme too...

Is Meaning Important?

I've been thinking about this question a lot recently.  I've come across a couple of instances where an artist has said that the meaning of their artwork is not important - they have chosen to eschew any artist's statement, because they feel their artwork should stand on it's own two feet, that it's visual appearance is what it is all about, and that it has no intellectual meaning.  Any meaning ascribed to it by themselves as the artist they argue, will inevitably be personal and is therefore irrelevant to it's consumption. 

Something else that I read in a forum recently, speculated on why it was that the artist's statement which often accompanies an artwork, is frequently poorly written,  using the most obscure and language possible, so that it is difficult to extract meaning from it  - turning off all but the most committed art lover, and certainly making it inaccessible to anyone without a good education.  Some of the reasons suggested for why this is were:

• Artists are not writers - they do not deal with the written word, their language is visual, and there is no real reason why they should be expected to be skilful with the written word as well, though some will be. It is also particularly challenging to communicate complex and often abstract concepts.
• Other artists are doing it, so most artists feel that they should too.
• Art departments in colleges and universities feel somewhat insecure about the academic rigour of their subject, and feel the need to compensate by making sure that their artwork deals with complex concepts, making it as difficult to understand as possible.  I know from my own experience that there may be a certain amount of truth in this, certainly Fine Art was never taken that seriously as an academic subject by my fellow students who were studying the sciences.
• Arguably, meaning is what distinguishes Fine Art from the 'merely' decorative. However it is a distinction which I think is often somewhat elitist.  The boundaries between the Applied, Decorative and Fine Arts are often blurred, and I hate the whole idea that one form of art is somehow less 'worthy' than another.

From my own point of view, overt 'meaning', has never seemed that important for my own artwork - what inspires me are the visual qualities along perhaps with some intangible ones such as atmosphere, and while some conceptual art does appeal to me, it's normally the kind which has a strong visual element as well. Does that make my art superficial? Or is that apparent superficiality actually superficial?  Does it really matter? 

Having said all this, it is perhaps impossible to create a piece of artwork without any meaning, though the meaning it has for an observer may be very different to that of the artist who produces it.  Even if the artist does not consciously intend their artwork to have meaning, it's production will be the result of unconscious thoughts, experiences and influences. 

Maybe my feelings about this will change - I was reading about another artist recently for whom meaning is much more important in his artwork now than it originally was, even though for me as an observer, the meaning that he ascribes to it doesn't add anything.  There are other cases I can think of though, when understanding the background to a piece of artwork has made my experience of it much richer, giving it additional 'depth'.

I suppose what I object to is the idea that to be taken seriously, a piece of art has to have a deep intellectual basis.  No-one should feel obliged or pressured to force meaning on something that perhaps isn't really there, just as an artist should have equal freedom to impart personal meaning to their work if they wish to.  After all,  artists work in very different ways, for some the practice of art is almost a kind of therapy, or form of meditation, a way of working through issues in their life. Others use art to express their opinions or feelings about something happening in the world, bringing attention to an issue, or creating a fresh perspective and different way of seeing.  Art is also very personal - and that's the beauty and attraction of it both for practitioners and users. At the end of the day though, for me, the best artwork is able to stand on it's own merits without needing any 'translation' or 'interpretation' by the artist in order for it to be appreciated.

Abstract Sparklers

I took this photo on Bonfire Night using a tripod and the 'Firework' setting on my camera.  It's the first time I've attempted anything like it, and I love the result, so I thought I'd share it here.  I also couldn't resist messing about with the colour in photoshop!

Getting it Right

I'm currently going through a 'driven' phase with my artwork.   It's rare that I get so badly addicted. It's rather like when I'm reading a good book that I can't put down, so that every spare moment I get is devoted to reading, only on this occasion its artwork.  Our kitchen has now been taken over by painting paraphernalia so that I can paint for 10 minutes in the middle of preparing a meal, or whenever, it's got that bad.

It all started when I decided to just mess about and have a go at producing some decorative papers.  It helps that I have a really inspirational book devoted to the subject, which gave a starting point, but it was an excuse really to play with paint and different media, purely for the love of it.  From there I moved on to decorating or painting an old book I had.  I've long been a fan of artists books or journals, and of altered art in general, but have never really successfully got to grips with them myself.  But this book has now become my 'trying out new ideas for the fun of it' book, sort of like a sketchbook, but also something of a sampler, for different techniques as well as ideas.  Because it is just somewhere to try out ideas and have fun, I'm not getting too hung up about it, and am letting myself go a bit more.  It doesn't matter if it's not very good, because it's the learning that counts.  This is something of a release for me, in spite of the fact that I have always instinctively believed that there is no right or wrong in art, and that it is mine so I can do what I like with it (somewhat self indulgent, but then I think a lot of art is fundamentally self-indulgent by its nature).

However, doing what you want can require strength of character, particularly if you have the kind of personality that seeks approval all the time, and especially if what you want to do is not especially 'fashionable' or is different to what others are doing.  Again, personally I think that different is good, in fact I often feel that if what I produce isn't different, then it's not good enough because it should be, but it wasn't something that my formal art training really encouraged, where instead we were under some pressure to work in whatever style of art was in vogue at the time.  I also suffer from feelings of guilt when I am doing something that is purely (from my own point of view) for enjoyment - where does that come from?

All this is I find very inhibiting - that internal dialogue about what I should be doing -  so anything which allows me to put that to one side feels like a huge release.  Maybe I'll develop some of the ideas a little further at some stage, maybe I won't - it doesn't really matter, but at the moment I'm very happy to be experimenting, learning and having fun.  Hopefully, I'll be able to share some of it in due course - if I can prise myself away from creating long enough to take photos.

Just experimenting...

I've not been here for a while - life's just been getting in the way unfortunately.  Compared to the time I had when I was young, free and single (and more to the point without kids) I have so little time to be creative now, and quite often even when I manage to make the time, I end up feeling a little guilty, because there's always something else that I feel I should be doing instead (usually housework or other chores).

Still, over the last couple of weeks, I've managed to exhibit my landscape drawing at the local arts festival, dropped off my miniature building for the Crafty City project, and sold a couple more paintings online.  I also found the time to experiment a little more with some cyanotypes.

Those of you who also read Artful Adventures may start to notice a pattern forming here - I will do an activity with the kids (usually one that especially appeals to me) and as I'm working with them I begin to see all the potential and possibilities that the activity offers, with further inspiration being provided by what the kids themselves are doing with it.  I am then fired with enthusiasm to further experiment with the activity by myself, and see where it leads me as soon as I have the opportunity. So I originally tried this activity with my boys (you can read about it here).  They really enjoyed it, but I suspect I enjoyed it even more.

The lack of sunny days meant that my opportunity to experiment with it further was somewhat limited.  But I still had quite a stack of paper left and lots of ideas, so as soon as the weather allowed I dug it out and had a go by myself.  I now want to get hold of some of the specially treated larger sheets of watercolour style paper you can get so that I can create some larger images - I quite fancy having a try doing some mixed media compositions with these.  I have no absolutely no ambitions to work with negatives  - what appeals to me about this technique is directly taking an object, such as some lace or plant material, creating an image from it, and then adding to the print in some way to create something unique.  However unless we have a particularly sunny winter I suspect it may be next year before I get round to that.  In the meantime I can perhaps make use of some of the experimental prints....

Little House, Big City

A few weeks ago, I heard about a project which Manchester Craft Mafia were organising, to create a miniature city, with lots of little buildings contributed by members of the public.  This captured my imagination, as I have always had a thing for little houses.  It's also being created in my home city, so I thought I'd join in and add my own contribution. The project was described as follows:

The 'Crafty City' is a project that is very close to the heart of the Manchester Craft Mafia. We wanted to do something big that would grab people’s attention and get them involved. Taking inspiration from Anthony Gormley’s ‘Field for the British Isles’ and as our mission is to promote craft and creativity throughout Manchester and beyond, we came up with the idea of making a Crafty City, a Mini Manchester, a Not So Big Up North.

The ‘Crafty City’ is a project for everyone. For crafters and non-crafters, for people living in Manchester or further afield in the UK and if possible people from overseas. Creativity is everywhere and in everyone, and we would like to encourage it out by providing the chance to contribute, share and make.

Manchester Craft Mafia are inviting as many people to create a little building using any art material or method. The only restriction being the size and we hope the ‘Crafty City’ will grow and develop. Our city started on Thursday 19th August 2010 during MCM's re-launch night with about thirty seven mini buildings and MCM hope it will grow from a village, into a town and then into a large ‘Crafty City’. We hope this will reflect the history of how Manchester grew from a little camp to what it is today, a large and very busy city. It will pop-up at both of our Summer and Christmas Fairs and we aim to ‘show and tell’ about each and every building on our website. Our final goal is to exhibit the ‘Crafty City’ throughout 2011.

After some thought, I made the decision to tackle my building with papier mache pulp, since this is generally quite light and robust.  It's not something I've used before, though I've always admired projects made with it, and because I thought I might like to make a few projects of my own with it in future, I bought a large bag.  The base of the model was formed by half of a large juice carton, which dictated the gable on the roof.  But I didn't really plan the style of the building at all, it just 'appeared' all by itself it seemed, as a traditional 19th century house.  It's been another labour of love for me, which I now have to get to the organisers of the exhibition, along with another 2 buildings created by my boys.

Apparently submissions can be made up until about Christmas I think.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the exhibition next year, and seeing if I can spot my little house in the big city.

Bikes and Boats

I said I'd share the result of any tweaking I did to the photo I posted a couple of weeks ago for the Gallery.  As I said at the time, I felt that this photograph, which I took very quickly while on our recent holiday in Cornwall, had some potential, so I've spent a bit of time experimenting with it in Photoshop.  It's been somewhat frustrating really, because I have a strong image in my mind of what I'm trying to achieve, but my Photoshop skills are still fairly rudimentary, which means I haven't always been able to achieve completely what I wanted.  Still, I've learned a bit more from it, and I produced 2 alternatives, both of which I like, but in different ways.  The first photo is the original photograph before I did anything with it.

For the following photo, I turned it into a black and white image.  I also removed the yellow lines from the road which I thought were a little obtrusive, and applied a lighting effect to focus on the bikes a little more.

For the final image, I performed the same operations as I did for the black and white version, only this time I just faded the colour a little, while increasing the saturation on part of the bikes to draw more attention to them.

I think my favourite is the black and white image - I might even print and frame that one.

Finished Drawing

Well this is it - the first full-scale drawing I've finished in a long, long time.  It's difficult to get a sense of what it looks like here - as the original size is 91x61cms, but I will be producing prints from it of about half that size, partly because I feel it benefits from being a little 'tighter' and partly for purely commercial reasons, in that smaller prints tend to sell better.  Once the original was framed it would be very large, and it's more difficult for most people to find space in their home for something that size. You can see the original view which I produced the first sketches from here.  I have to say that this photograph is not entirely accurate, especially as it seems to have lost a little of its colour, but even so you can see that my version is much darker and more moody, bearing little resemblance to the original really. There's artistic licence for you - I always seem to produce drawings that way. Strangely it reminds me of something else in terms of it's 'feel' - possibly early 19th century german romantic art, maybe Samuel Palmer, or even an early Renaissance landscape. I'm not sure which.  However not of that was intentional - though I did specialise in studying landscape art of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, so maybe there's some subconscious influence there.

I worked the drawing up in charcoal, pastel, conte and wax crayons first, before photographing, uploading and digitally colouring it (not that you can really see the colour in these images).  I love the flexibility that this gives me to experiment to my heart's content, without fear of destroying what I've done so far. You could say it's my digital 'safety net', but in fact it's more than just that, and I'm keen to explore the interaction between digital and traditional art forms further, rather than simply using it as a tool to produce the 'perfect' image.

I needed to get this one finished, because I'm supposed to be taking part in an exhibition for our local Arts Festival at the end of September, and time is running out. I will be producing it as a limited edition print, so now I've got to try and make sure I print it out accurately.  Sometimes I find  this is the hardest part of the whole process!

My Latest Creative 'Kit'

Well it's arrived - I promised myself I'd buy a proper easel so I could work on my large drawings more easily.  I've never had one before, and it was an extravagance, but I raided my piggy bank to order it.  After all, if I want to seriously get back into my artwork, then I need the tools to do it, and my previous working practices just ended in disaster.  In order to avoid future damage to the carpet, it's currently based in the kitchen, where charcoal and pastel dust can be easily swept away.  I won't be leaving it there permanently, but because it's on castors to push it out of the way, and can also be folded for storage, I can remove it fairly easily when I'm not using it.  Just as well really, as the kids are already trying to use it as a climbing frame! The one I chose in the end was a Winsor and Newton Welland Studio Easel - a large and sturdy affair which I thought would suit my needs well.  It came ready assembled so it was easy to set up.  I'm very pleased with it so far, and have already used it to finish off my latest drawing, which I'll reveal in my next post!

The Gallery: A Photo I hope to be Proud of

As the Gallery is quite a creative thing to take part in, I thought that I'd take part in it this time via my new blog, especially since part of the reason I set it up was to be able to indulge myself by doing more of this sort of thing.  When I saw the prompt for this week's Gallery, I thought that it would be quite easy, but actually I've found it wasn't.  I'm not a prolific photographer these days.  I used to be quite keen, to the extent that in pre-digital days I had my own darkroom, but that was a long time ago.  However with all the inspiring photographs I see on other people's blogs, I'd love to have a go again.  I also recently picked up a bargain book called 99 Digital PhotoART Ideas: Create Your Own Art for Your Walls by Annabel Williams, which really inspired me - lots of ideas for taking photographs as artwork, and encouraging you to take more control of your camera - something I've not done with my digital SLR - partly because I've been too lazy, and partly because I've not read the manual properly!  I quite fancy getting one or two more lenses, but having seen the price of the ones I want, I think they'll have to go on the wish list for a while.

Anyway, I took a look at what I'd got, and most of the photos which I'm proud of, I felt I could take no credit for.  The scene itself was beautiful, the effect I'd achieved was entirely accidental, or my kids looked particularly cute in that shot, but it was nothing to do with me.  Now I don't suppose that really matters, you can be proud of a photo for any reason you like, but I wanted something I felt I could take some credit for.  In the end, I chose this one which I took on our recent holiday to Cornwall (our first proper holiday for 7 years).  I've not done anything with it yet, but I feel it has great potential, and that I can take some credit for the composition, if nothing else!  One of the first priorities will  be to get rid of the yellow lines, which I feel are far too intrusive.  I'd also like to see what it looks like in black and white.  Although the purist in me feels that digitally editing photos is in some way 'cheating' I know that these days, it's a rare photo that hasn't been edited, and lets face it, plenty of image manipulation used to go on in the darkroom anyway!  Perehaps when I get round to doing something with it, I'll post the finished result so you can see the difference.