Tuesday, March 29, 2011

stars and doors

I forgot to add something to my last artwork:
Stars!!

I like how the white ink splatters evenly. It's as if the stars and ocean spray are mixing together...

And speaking of white ink and stars, I also did more work on the altered book for the first time in a while.

I am going to re-learn painting with gouache; it used to be a favourite medium and I am determined to love it again.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Dancin'...

This was supposed to be a serious picture about either the joys of sensuality or the sadness of wanting something we can't have, but all I can think about when I see it now is:

It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight...

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Colombina Fuoco - Study

Messing around with a Mag-Lite and an oldish Sony Cybershot and some props…

Ok, there's a lot of photographers on my friends list and you all know this already, but I just want to make a note to myself: flash-off setting + strongish focused light source = better picture, especially with a sub-standard camera.



I also wanted to play around with retouching on Photoshop, and making some tiny changes with levels and so on seemed to work very well. Especially since I didn't have a black cloth to drape as a background.

Monday, March 21, 2011

the adventures of Curly-lock Sherlock

Lately I've been a bit obsessed with the TV series Sherlock, especially the actor who plays Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch. (yes, I know, and he is as funny and interesting as his name.)

Bic blue biro on Canson Sketch paper.


Color Eno blue mechanical pencil on Canson Sketch paper.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

bright minds, big city

From Wired Magazine:
Are People Nicer In Cities?

Geoffrey West, Luis Bettencourt, and their team of theoretical physicists may have found the root of the reason cities exist, uncovering the socioeconomic benefits that more than compensate for the high rents and vermin infestations.

“Because you can take the same person, and if you just move them from a city of
fifty thousand to a city of six million, then all of a sudden they’re going to
do three times more of everything we can measure. It doesn’t matter where the
city is or which cities you’re talking about.”

I'm not convinced that you can reasonably quantify the degree of intelligence people gain when living in a city. There will be people who shine in a population of a few hundred or thousand, and there are people who could live in the best city in the world and still be narrow-minded idiots.

But there's still something that opens up in your head when you see just how expansive and diverse the world can be, and one of the best places for that is a top-class hub city, preferably with as much cultural diversity as possible. It may not make you smarter, but it can blow your mind.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

because for that is what i am doing

Finally found lead of the proper blue; some things I did with it:


Friday, March 11, 2011

some things I have NOT been doing

Have been busy with.........other things *KOFF* so have not been working on the paintings over the past couple of weeks.

Here are my sample illustrations for application to the gossip column of a local magazine.


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Neil Gaiman Predicts Your Present



Today I was feeling annoyed and mildly upset, and I went and spoke with Neil Gaiman's Wonderful Oracular Journal, and it (he) said:




Arguments about aesthetics and art tend not to get into simple easy right and wrong places.






That wasn't at all what I was annoyed and mildly upset about, but I feel better anyway.