A.I. and Other Paintings

Well the most basic underpainting to my picture on A.I. is now complete after an arduous five days, one of which was wasted on an ugly sky that proved that studies to things like that really must be performed. I tried a few watercolours today in Art Support thanks to Cathy and also heard of a few more exhibition opportunities that I'll probably not have time to paint anything for. The rest of today was taken up with sound effects, and with Wednesday and Thursday being technically my weekend I'll be just ready to relax when my new week starts on Friday. That will entail the first glazing of a surreal portrait of Kate Bush, with the next two days taken up with a second layer to the A.I. picture. Next Tuesday I'm off to drop of my pictures to the Royal Academy and perhaps see the surrealist exhibition at the V&A. After that I and we will hopefully have some new Ernie awards for Bytten, and for that week I should be free enough to either start a new underpainting of one of the huge pile of prepared pictures, or perhaps overpaint my picture of poor old Sisyphus being laughed at by the Dragon's Den millionaires (well, sort of).

General Update

The underpainting to my picture depicting Sysiphus is now done. This picture is unusual for me in that it's mostly fantastical and many of the elements are just made up or shaded instead of the usual careful planning and assimilation of models and source material that I normally do. Many of the elements too will be drawn wet in wet on upper layers because many of the tiny figures and objects do no suit being outlined and filled. The overpainting will take a long time for this one. On Thursday and Friday I started on another picture, a surreal portrait of Kate Bush as a tree in the mist. This unusual one is very light grey and delicate. The lighter tones are more difficult to make smooth than darker ones in oil paint because there is a big difference in the way the picture looks in strong light and dim light. Another thing done this week is the design of a new carrying rack/case/frame so that I can carry pictures around the streets comfortably. This is made of square aluminium tubes, a round tubes for the handle, a threaded rod (sawn and glued into bolts because bolts of the required length are not manufactured), and some wing nuts.

Painting Updates

Painting again this week, working on a picture of Sisyphus which in this case is an allegory for working on an artwork, which is what I was doing over the weekend. I hope to enter an art competition with a theme of A.I. and the complex picture I have brainstormed will need to be complete in 6 weeks, not long. The main sketch for that is mostly complete, I'll have to prepare a panel this weekend, complete and transfer the sketch next Wednesday and start the underpainting on the 26th.

From Painting to Sound Effects

A painting week is over and a sound effect week (or possibly two) is about to start. This week I have managed one underpainting and two glazings. The first picture was a bit of a failure though and the version drying now will serve as a guide for a newer better version. I'm also full of picture ideas, but am short of them too. It's illogical how sometimes I fear that I've lost the gift of imagination, but I can't think of any artist who ever did. The worst moments are when I have a beautiful half of an idea, from a great start to a song to a wonderful looking part of a picture. Getting stuck with the other half can be painful, each attempt is like running up the same dead end in a maze and smacking into the same old wall. Sometimes the only solution is to ditch the idea no matter how nice, and be sure to do it quickly to avoid mental damage. Another option is to file it and revisit it later. One of my latest melodies, Summersong, had been in that state for over two years before I finally came up with the ending.