Work, not art

Tomorrow is International Diversity Day, and where I work people are selling cakes to raise money for one of the charities we support; ParalympicsGB.
So I've spent an hour making iddy-biddy flags to stick in the all the internationally diverse cakes.

Destroy that precious thing

I took a small hog brush and some black thinned with turps, and made these corrections. I'm ready for a cup of coffee now. I think I've nailed him. The trick now is not to loose him again in the re-painting.

An hour of frustration, then I squinted and obliterated all detail with blocks of tone. I'm finding that using a brush for each shade keeps me making decisions. I need to stop 'drawing' and keep on 'painting' if that makes sense?

My son

It's not finished yet but it's on the right track. I'm vary happy with the placement of the head on the canvas, I think it's much more powerful than the earlier central position.

A weekend of art

Hubby is taking the kids to see their grandparents this weekend, so I have a couple of days to indulge in mark making and mess making. Watch this space, as they say.

...and more funny faces

Funny faces

My face muscles ached after drawing these.

Hot Car

I was early for the afternoon school run, then ended up being late.

Making a start

Here's the under drawing for a painting of my son, TJ. I'm happy with the proportions, but I want to re-position him much lower on the canvas so there's more space into which he's looking.

Trees and music

Yesterday was a great day. The kids climbed trees in Roker Park while I drew. It was cold in the shade, but warmer in the sun. Then we headed down to The Smugglers Pub where they have an all day/all night music fest every Bank Holiday Monday. I discovered Tony Bengtsson, a raw, powerful vocalist and a thrasher of guitars, so I bought his CD and asked him to start blogging as, from his lyrics, he's a man with a lot to say. Then, I heard Harriott Danby-Platt, a 17 year old with the voice of a traumatised angel. She was just amazing.
Then hubby cooked a curry with leftover beef, and we watched Red Dwarf. What a perfect day.

Tony

Before moving onto the next portrait exercise described in June's Artists & Illustrators, I decided to have another go at the tonal painting in step 1. There's a couple of reasons - I want to cement what it's teaching me, and secondly I'm scared of the second step. Simple.