I am Jan....

Dublin 2012 and the Irish Times

2012-01-09T14:31:00.000Z

Well I returned to Dublin this Saturday and to my continuing sessions as a weekend sketch artist at the IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art).
Gone was the Hurley burly that was Christmas, the Ryanair plane was like an abandoned cathedral, I suppose all the Christmas shopping trips and family reunions were now over, time for folks to back to their daily grind.
During my last excursion to the IMMA, I had the pleasure of interviewing a Roisin Ingles, a reporter for the Irish Times (like the English Times but without the doom and gloom) describing her first love. On my arrival to Dublin airport on Saturday, I picked up a copy of the aforementioned newspaper and decided to read it on the bus journey from the airport to Heuston Station. The double decker bus is aptly numbered 747! The journey takes about 50 minutes, long enough for me to get intellectually keyed up into the heart of Irish life. I thought it best to go upstairs and sit at the front, behind the large panoramic top windows, which gives you a grand old view of the grand old city of Dublin, plus there is bags of rooms for my long wrinkly old long elephant legs (it’s the little things in life that really make a difference, isn’t it?).
As the bus/coach modified 747 left Dublin airport towards Heuston Station, I unfurled the main mizzen sail that was the Irish Times Newspaper and began to read through it (it is really nice to pick up a paper in another country and be able to read it effortlessly! – see it’s all about the small things again, isn’t it!).
Then the onward board intercom and TV screen came to life, advertising all that is good and must be seen visited during your stay in Dublin, this looked really impressive, OK, there were no stewardesses standing ten foot apart down the centre aisle showing me where the emergency exit were, but still, it was impressive, until that is until the audio commentary in each of buses speakers kicked in, was that Gaelic I was hearing, Ireland has two languages everywhere, Gaelic and English, even the road signs and street names have both versions shown. No, this definitely wasn’t Gaelic, a few seconds for my jet lagged synapses to kick, I realised what I was listening to, it wasn’t Irelands beautiful and native dialect, it was infact English, but was out of sync with the speakers of the TV so it was two or three echos of every spoken word, a few milliseconds behind the first! Most of the passengers on board giggled amongst themselves, you could tell the frequent flyers and regulars, they didn’t bat an eyelid. The funny novelty of it soon wore off and soon became irritating.
To try and take my mind of this infernal chatter, I continued reading the newspaper I purchased. Quickly skipping through the pages (looking at all the pictures really) I soon finished the large format wallpaper roll size of Ireland’s finest periodical and decided to look look at he pictures in the The Irish Times Magazine and upon opening up the first page, I was pleasently surprised (well more gob smacked, truth be told), the first story in the supplement magazine was written by no other than that same reporter I had interviewed on my last tour of Dublin, Roisin Ingle! And it was all bout her first love and our interview together, wicked! (I was famous again in Dublin!) and to top it off she gave a link to my book Pencil and Paint Oh, yes 2012 is looking to be sooo much better than the anis horriblis of 2011.

Lucy Remastered

2012-01-01T15:16:00.001Z

Medium: Acrylic
Paper: Art Gallery Stretched Canvas
Size: 15.7 x 19.6 inch (40 cm x 50 cm)
Duration: 8 hours

This is my second attempt at Lucy in acrylics, as my first attempt was rejected by the client. They felt that the background I painted distracted from the the main subject, and they now wanted a head pose, but on a black background.

Hopefully this one meets all the requirement criteria that the client wants. I started this on the last day of 2011 and finished it off on the first day of 2012(does this mean it has taken my two years to paint it LOL).

I've also been taking photos of my progress, so there will be yet another tutorial of sorts in the new year (just really for those interested in reading the about how I create my animal paintings).

Commission - Lucy

2011-12-21T14:03:00.000Z

Medium: Acrylic
Paper: Arista Stretched canvas
Size: 24″ × 18"
Duration: Approximately 10-12 hours over two days.

This is probably the last commission I have had to complete before the year ends, I started it yesterday morning and finished it this afternoon. I’m really quite happy with the finished piece, the dog, was being mainly white and creamy and I ended up playing with really subtle creams, blues and greys to even begin to show the white curly fur.

The background also kept busy for a while, but thank heavens for masking tape! Once I masked out portions of the seat sides, it was really fairly easy to fill in the block strips where they were needed.

Commission - Rebecca and the Boys

2011-12-15T18:42:00.000Z

Medium: Pencil
Paper: Goldline Bristol Board 220gsm
Size: A3 16.5 × 11.7 inches (420 mm x 297 mm)
Duration: 15 hours (over four days)

This is a commissions I’ve recently completed. It was of four children in pencil. This has taken me the better part of four days, but the end result was worth the slow journey. The thing I enjoyed most was the fact that in this single piece of pencil work, there were so many different texture in the composition from the outset, which included their faces, the different styles and tones of their hair styles, their slightly different skin tones and not to mention the subtle tones and texture of all of their clothing. It’s so good to get back into pencil again.

Teasel the Beardie

2011-11-28T16:20:00.000Z

Medium: Graphite pencil, leads, 2B, 7H, 6H, 5H and 2H

Paper: Goldline Bristol Board 220 gsm

Size: A2 (23.4″ × 16.5″ – 594 x 420mm)

Duration: 10 − 12 hours

This is a commission graphite sketch I've just completed (in time for someones Birthday in December 2011), of Teasel a beautiful and very energetic Beardie. The whole process has taken me between 10 − 12 hours or thereabouts over a few days. Completing this sketch was a real challenge and I think I was pushing the envelope out a bit, as there was a lot of white and grey fur in this dog, so I ended up using a lot of the higher hard pencils H4, H6 and H7 as well as the usual softer 2B.

I also used quite a load of embossing with the embossing tools I have and even found them useful for some tufts of hair in the dogs coat (especially on the thigh and chest areas). For the subtle grass background, I again used the embossing tools and filled in the spaces delicately with a 3mm 2B lead, that required the unadulterated use of lots of patience and and then even some patience! But I'm happy with the finished effect it gives the subject.

Hey Ho! Hey Ho! It's off to Dublin I go! - 1st Trip

2011-11-20T12:05:00.003Z

9.30am. Tuesday morning on the 15th November I arrived at Newcastle Airport to begin the first of eight trips to Dublin to work as a sketch artist at the "Irish Museum of Modern Art" "Rivane Neuenschwander’s exhibition"

As the Museum was paying for the flight and Hotel, all I had to do was check in on-line, sounds easy right? The courier were Ryanair, and as I had already been given my flight check in reference number via email, all I had to do was go onto Ryanair's site and complete my check-in on-line, this is when the first hiccup appeared, the check-in site didn't recognise my reference number! OH My God! panic stations! I was due to fly out the very next day! and the Ryanair site had no record of my booking, a quick phone call to Ryanair themselves, quickly rectified this, the reference was correct, but I had simply used my email address instead of the booking agent's own email address DOH! (this was to be one of the many occasions that the lack of the fantastic female ability to multi-tasking had let me down). Being a man, I had read the first line of the email containing my flight reference and if I had only continued reading that email, the sender stated quite clearly that I had to enter in the booking agents email along with the flight reference.

Once I checked in successfully, I was given the option of adding a Priority Booking option for only an additional £10, with the promise of speedy journey and most important the chance to board the plane BEFORE the general rabble of mere ordinary passengers. I hovered over the "Click to apply now" button, but common sense got the better of me, they were paying for the flight, so why should I pay extra? This wasn't supposed to cost me anything right?

Well after arriving at Newcastle Airport, I handed in my recently printed boarding pass to the young girl at the Ryanair check-in desk and placed the only bit of luggage I possessed on the scales, and waited with baited breathe as it was weighed. The limit for hand luggage was 10KG, she smiled and said, "That's OK!", and I inquired if she could tell how much did it actually weigh? "9.5KG, just under your permitted weight, you can now go through the gates and wait for the flight to be called". As I walked away from the check-in, I slowly and carefully emptied my jacket pockets of mobile phone, mobile phone adapter, Samsung Galaxy Tab (like an IPad - but half the size and quarter the price), the adapter for my Galaxy, my compact camera and leads and returned them back to their place, nice and safe in the hand luggage, I had just had weighed! It sure felt a lot heavier now.

Now my next hurdle was getting through security barrier where everyone gets scanned, I had planned ahead, and put all my metallic objects into my hand luggage, placed my hat, jacket on a tray next to my now practically bursting at the seams hand luggage, and then cautiously tip toed through the scanner and heard... nothing! Success! this was going well, until I realised I had left my shoes on the other side of the barrier! So sheepishly I got the security guard to stop the flow of passengers through the scanner so I could pick up my shoes and place the onto the conveyor belt to be scanned for perhaps hidden contraband or tightly packed explosives, but nobody said anything as I walked through the scanner for the second time to collect my freshly scanned shoes on the far side (funny how walking back through that scanner thingy draws everyones attention LOL!, pity the scanner doesn't knock out that man pong from well worn trainers!

Going through the gate to the duty free area of the airport, my senses were quickly attacked from all sides by fabulous wealth and opulence on display for the urban traveller to browse and buy before embarking onto their flight. As a non drinker and non smoker I quickly walked past all the pretty bottles of coloured water and vast quantities of packs of rolled up dried tobacco plants, and I quickly found myself in front of the one shop you always find in these airports, the one especially designed to catch most men of a certain age eyes, the electronics consumer store, full to the brim with all the latest must have gadgets, and even the option to buy cases for all these must be seen with gadgets! Not forgetting those ridiculously over-priced earphones, to use with all these gadgets. My eyes were practically starting to water at the sights of all this expensive plastic that would be worthless if dropped. My head happily intervened, I already had a bag, full suitable must haves, and really didn't require any more, for one thing, I'd have to pay extra to bring whatever I bought back, and I had just so many jacket pockets free!

I eventually found myself in the area of the airport everyone ends up in at least once during all their waiting around to board times, the food court! now all my visual senses were useless here!, except that is for my nose, my wife always said a way to my heart was through my nose and her cooking! I decided, as I hadn't had a breakfast at home, now was a good time to fill my belly before this epic journey begins in earnest. I decided on a Traditional English breakfast, egg, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, a fried tomato, baked beans and that ever so famous English side dish, hash browns? I followed this down with a nice small bottle of real orange juice, the one with the real bits of orange left inside to enhance the natural taste of the artificially created orange juice tasting liquid!

Feeling warm and with a full belly, I eventually found myself heading for the gate when my flight number came up. When I got there, I found loads of other passengers milling around waiting for news of the flight and the gate opening, I took a seat and waited. It was while waiting I saw that Ryanair had made two aisles from ropes leading up to the gate doors, one marked Priority booking passengers only, and the other (a much wider and larger aisle) labelled Other Passengers, why so large I wondered? Were Priority passenger thinner? yes that must be it, I thought.

When the tannoy announced that the gate was now open, could all the Priority passengers please make their way to the gate for boarding now, three people got up together with their large amounts of drinks and ciggy's and went to to meet the girl at the gate who checked their passports, lucky blighters! I thought, getting onto the transit coach first. After these three were safely on board out of harms way of the rest of us, the tannoy announced that the "Other" passengers could now make their way to the gate, which they all did, as I was listening to some Adele on my own must have MP3 player, I soon realised that I was the only one left in the lobby as I saw the last few walking through the gate! I quickly gathered my meagre belongings and found myself the last one to go through the gate and onto the transit bus to take us to our plane, it was funny seeing those three priority booking passengers with their faces pressed up against the bus windows near the front, as I stepped into the rear door of the bus. The journey to the plane was quick and when we pulled up next to the plane, the driver opened the front doors first to allow only the Priority passengers off first, followed in hot pursuit by the hordes of Other passengers, it was crazy watching them all funnelled into the flight of stairs at the front of the plane, it was during this stampeded, I noticed a second and as yet, empty flight of stairs leading up to a doorway at the rear of the plane, it seemed silly to ignore it, so I waddled over and started up the stairs, feeling a bit like some celebrity or famous diplomat of sorts, all by myself on this empty flight of stairs, then others in the horde saw what I had done and a few at first broke away from the main herd, then more and more, but I managed to reach the top of the stairs and calmly walked into the empty rear section of the plane before this horde reached my flight of stairs. Welcome aboard said the pretty flight attended and ushered me in, I could pick any of the empty seat, that stretched what seemed forever in front of me. In the distance near the front I saw the reason for the stagnant march up the first flight of stairs, the priority passengers were busy standing in the middle of the aisle trying to get their hand luggage and large amounts of coloured water and packets of dried tobacco into the tiny overhead compartments. I happily strolled along one half of the plane past all the empty seats and eventually took one next to a window. So much for Priority booking I thought! Trying to fasten that ridiculously small belt around me made me wish, I'd never had that breakfast in the airport lounge earlier!

The flight, if you could call it that, was over before it began, it seemed, Newcastle to Dublin consists of basically two stages, take off to gain height, then descending to land, there was not much flying time to speak of. I do love looking at the fluffy clouds whilst the attendants art practising their semaphore signals to one another down the aisles, wish I could hear what she was saying, but my seat was directly above the two large stewardesses hair dryers, well they sounded like hair dryers.

and soon after a bump or two and a even louder screeching of brakes, we had finally landed in the land of the Leprauchauns, Dublin!

I got a taxi from the airport to my Hotel, but before reaching it, the Museum phoned and asked if I could come over earlier than planned as the Irish Press and TV crew wanted to film me sketching! So straight to the museum I went, where I met the lady who had organised my trip here, Maeve Butler, who signed me into the gallery and took me up a several flight of stairs into the main gallery, puffing, panting and red faced and out of breathe I stumbled into the main gallery to be met by 20 or so people who were waiting to meet me, Maeve introduced me as the sketch artist, and to my horror asked the waiting audience if they had any questions for me! Talk about a fish out of water, but eventually I get my breathe back and was able to answer all their questions with a few returned smiles and applause.

Maeve then showed me to the desk where I would be sitting and introduced the first person to describe to me their First Love, a member of staff called Stephen Taylor.

The film crew and director appeared out of the crowd and starting directing me on what he wanted for the TV footage, I hadn't even had time to take my hat off! If this was only the first few hours of the first day of my first trip, how on earth was I ever going to survive this ordeal!

Especially with seven more trips planned into my schedule over the next several weeks. The twenty or so years working as a Police artist took over, and soon I was back into my stride, asking Stephen about what he could recall and me sketching it all down just like I had done thousands of times before, this time in front of Irish RTE News cameras.

Stephen Taylor's "First Love"

After the film crew left, I stayed on a sketched a couple of more "First Loves" with some pre-selected guests chosen for this opening evening.

Thirty or so minutes later, I found myself in one of the great halls were we were giving wine and sparkling water to drink and were I met Rivane Neuenschwander, the Brazilian artist I was here to help in her latest exhibition, she is one of the most interesting people I had met so far, and thanked her for inviting me over to Dublin. When the glasses were empty, we were ushered into another beautiful hall, this time with perfectly laid out dinner settings, and personalised name cards for each guest, I have finally made the big time, I thought, as I searched around the tables looking for my name card, I soon started thinking, as I couldn't see my name anywhere, then perhaps I shouldn't actually be here (wouldn't of been the first time I've put my foot in it!) but someone directed me to a table where my name was indeed beautifully hand written on a mustard coloured card, next to a Poet and one of the Museums residential spatial artists, Victorrio (sorry,didn't get his last name) and opposite was Janice, one of the gallery staff and next to her the Brazilian Deputy Counsellor from the Brazilian Embassy in Dublin! The meal was delicious, sorry I can't tell you what it was, but I had what looked to be the smallest chicken in the world in a very delightful sauce. I never thought I'd go the distance, as I definitely do not mix in these kind of circles, but mix I did, and eventually, tired, fed, and a little worse for wear (that was definitely sparkling water I drink wasn't it?) I found my way to Kelly's Hotel in the centre of Dublin, fell onto the bed and finding a remote switched on the wall mounted TV to see MY UGLY face staring back at me, it was the RTE News with the article all about my day at the Museum! They must be starved for decent news I thought as I drifted off into a deep sleep, dreaming of Priority Passengers and faces of First Loves.....

Well, I seem to have been making news headlines in Dublin! Here is the news report of my first working visit to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. You'll have to scroll for about 20 min into the video.

On the night of the opening, Irelands National Broadcaster included a short piece on First Love. You can watch the piece that appeared on the RTE Television News on 15 November at six and nine o'clock here..

You can also listen to the review of the show by Declan Long on the arts programme Arena, RTE Radio One, at

here.

Aidan Dunne, a critic here in Ireland has also written a piece which can be found here..

The Cottage

2011-11-13T19:08:00.000Z

Medium: Acrylic
Paper: Arturo Stretched canvas
Size: 24″ × 15.5
Duration: Approximately 8-10 hours over two to three days.

This is a painting I’ve been itching to undertake for absolutely donkeys (well at least since I started painting in ernest), the source reference which I discovered inside a movie, called Ironclad, about a Templar Knight in England who rallies a few supporters to protect a maiden in her keep, a bit on the lines of the Magnificent 7 (but without the mexican villagers). About a third of the way into the movie, the knight and some of his followers seek the aid of a blacksmith, the scene just before they arrive, is of a beautiful white stone thatched blacksmiths cottage nestled amongst a tree line at the edge of a wood, fading off into a dusky misty morning. When I saw this scene, I knew I had to have a go at painting it, I could see the image in my head of this scene, but as a painting, all shades of green with the cow in a rustic red, oh yes, I just had to paint it, didn’t I?

The Stream

2011-10-29T12:41:00.005+01:00

Medium: Acrylic
Paper: Stretched Canvas
Size: 510mm x 700mm (20″ × 27.5″)
Duration: 12 hours (over three days)

I’ve just finished this painting of The Stream, that I’ve been working on and off for the past week or so. For the reference, I used a photo I found on the internet (I think it is a local scene near me, (maybe Rothbury, Ingram Valley, Cheviots, or somewhere I know I’ve seen) this image, to me, just seemed to be crying out to be painted (haven’t you ever done this?) and as I was looking at the reference photo, I could see the painting in my head, really clearly (probably due to my years as a Police artist) , I could even see the colours I’d need and and thought this wee project was doable.

My Last Love

2011-10-29T12:26:00.000+01:00

Medium: Pencil (leads F H 3H 4H 5H 6H 7H & 2B)
Paper: White acid free cartridge 140gsm
Size: A4 size - 297mm x 210mm (11.7" x 8.3")
Duration: 2-3 hours approximately

This is what I set my students in my drawing class this week, they despaired at the brickwork, so as their teacher I had to show them how I would tackle this subject, and this is the result.

My first love (after the wife and family of course!) is, without question my art and in the ranking of things I love, gardening definitely comes last, hence the title.

The reference, is a photo I took of my garage/stables which I'm currently converting into my new art studio which you can read about here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/szymczuk/journal/7713676-converting-my-garage-stables-into-an-art-studio-part-1/ I decided that the evening light was casting some magnificent contrasting shadows onto the old brick wall and I just had to capture it (mainly before the walls get insulated).

Here are a few close ups of this finished piece:

Soon appearing in the Irish Museum of Modern Art

2011-10-29T11:56:00.002+01:00

Now I know with some certainty, that I'm definitely the last person on the face of the planet to ever think I'd make it as any kind of modern artist, especially in any National Museum of Art....

...but, I've just finished brokering an astonishing deal with the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, who want my services as an sketch artist, two days a week over the next few months beginning the middle of November, flights and hotel accomodation included with a very generous flat fee!

I'll be taking part in Rivane’s Neuenschwander’s exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, where they want a retired police artist (me) to interview sketch members of the public's first love, live on stage. The finished sketches will be included in her exhibition. Rivane has been exhibiting all around the globe and will next appear in Dublin starting November after finishing in the States.

I've never ever been to Dublin, so I'm looking forward to going on several trips every weekend and into the New Year, I think maybe my wife and kids will be looking forward to some piece and quiet, but I'm sure they'll miss me (maybe a wee bit?)

So if you you are in Dublin, and want to get out of the rain (apparently it does this quite a lot - so will feel like home I suppose) during any of these dates, why not pop in, especially, if you want to see an old fish out of water floundering on stage! I just may need some support LOL.

Dates:

Tues 15th Nov 2pm - 5pm (Opening Day)

Wed 16th Nov 12 noon - 5pm

Then every weekend from:

Sat 26th Nov 2 pm - 5pm

Sun 27th Nov 12 noon - 5pm

Sat 03rd Dec 2 pm - 5pm

Sun 04th Dec 12 noon - 5pm

Sat 10th Dec 2 pm - 5pm

Sun 11th Dec 12 noon - 5pm

Sat 17th Dec 2 pm - 5pm

Sun 18th Dec 12 noon - 5pm

Sat 07th Jan 2 pm - 5pm

Sun 08th Jan 12 noon - 5pm

Sat 14th Jan 2 pm - 5pm

Sun 15th Jan 12 noon - 5pm

Sat 21st Jan 2 pm - 5pm

Sun 22nd Jan 12 noon - 5pm

Sat 28th Jan 2 pm - 5pm

Sun 29th Jan 12 noon - 5pm

Jed

2011-06-18T14:32:00.003+01:00

Medium: Pencil – Pentel Mechanical Pencils (P203, P205, P207 and P209 – Leads (2B, 3H and F)
Paper: Goldline Bristol Board 220 gsm
Size: A3 420mm x 297mm (16.5 inch x 11.7 inch)
Duration: 7 hours

This is my drawing for the International Drawing Day 2011. I started this morning and have just finished it.

I’m really getting into using these embossing tools now, they are absolutely mint for creating fine medium and coarse fur, which this chap had in abundance.

THE SLIP AND SLIDE METHOD – with an introduction on Embossing techniques

2011-06-18T14:30:00.001+01:00

THE SLIP AND SLIDE METHOD – with an introduction on Embossing techniques

Reference:
The source reference is from a photo I took of a dog called “Jed”, who I was commissioned to sketch and decided to create the artwork on June 4th, International Drawing Day.

Weapons of choice:
Pentel Mechanical Pencils (P203, P205, P207 and P209 – Leads (2B, 3H and F)
Pair of scissors (borrowed from our sewing box)
Electric eraser
Kneadable eraser
Derwent Essential Embossing tool set

Copious amounts of tea (Earl Grey?)
Digestive biscuits or Jacobs Cream Crackers (optional)

Paper:
Paper: Goldline Bristol Board 220 gsm
Size: A3 420mm x 297mm (16.5 inch x 11.7 inch)

Introduction:
This “The Slip and Slide Method* as I like to call it, is something I created for some of my drawing classes I used to teach locally, some of my students were always having problems trying to get the basic outline of whatever they wanted to sketch down on paper, invariably they were out of proportion, ran off the paper (we’ve all done that at least once right!) or the images were so small as to make working on them nigh impossible. So out of necessity I came up with this The Slip and Slide Method(it probably exists in some other form with some really classy name, but I don’t honestly know of it – that’s for the copyright lawyer folks out there!) probably started in my days as a Police Artist at New Scotland yard, back in the day (before computers and tinternet) when we used to use Photo-Fits to create faces, these were basically pieces of facial features in strip format, an police artist/operator would put together to compile a face of a wanted felon.

I guess I wanted something that any student could get an outline off their reference and onto paper, quickly and with the least bit of hassle involved. Something that would keep their work fairly tidy and comprehensible. Both left handed and right handed folks be able to use (yup, I’ve seen a left hander use this to their satisfaction).

If you know anything about me and my art (sketching and painting) I live by a simple law, “I draw (or paint) what I see”. So I decided that if I wanted to sketch an A3 sketch (20mm x 297mm or 16.5 inch x 11.7 inch) then I’d use a an A3 size reference (straightforward yes?), OK I realise that this is a big size and I’m lucky enough to have an A3 scanner printer at home, but if you are not as lucky to have one yourself, don’t panic, get to your your local photo-copy (xerox?) store to blow up your reference photo to the same size you are comfortable with sketching and in black and white. If we are going to sketch in black and white we really need to see the reference photo also in black and white (OK painters, you can use a colour reference, but may I just ask, why are you in my class? This is for pencil pushers only!)

We could go straight into Step 1 below, but I like to put my reference through the computer first and play around with filters and such in Adobe Photoshop (if your not into computers or Adobe, don’t worry, this bit is only for the computer nerdy artists out there… I scan in the original photo and after cropping it to a suitable size and proportion, I mask out the background clutter and erase it with only the dog itself on a white background (this helps you concentrate on your reference only – I suppose you could cut out the subject in your reference photo and get it photocopied on a white back drop).

I decided I wanted to give the bottom of the sketch something snazzy and cool looking, so I made a mask of zig zags that dwindles down to the bottom right hand side of the picture. I would love to be able to get quality source of beautiful zebras, cheetahs, leopards and tigers, but as they are few and far away from here in the UK, I thought I might use some kind of stripey effect to try and give my sketch something to make it stand out in the jungle of all those other beautifully sketched and painted dogs online. I’ve used this zig zag effect before and it seems to work Ok, especially with a dark dog.

After I’ve got the effect I want, I play around with the on board filters, high structure values, brightness and contrast values until I’m happy that the reference looks exactly how I want it to look like for my sketch, I print out an A3 size copy on photo paper (this or inkjet give you the best contrast in the printout).

Step 1

Here I have the reference printout I’m going to use for this sketch. It is the same size as the paper I’m sketching on. Which is going to make comparison whilst sketching easy to see.

Step 2

The first thing I do is to use the scissors (please little ones, have a grown up present or ask them to do this bit for you), and cut the reference printout into five fairly even strips or slips, vertically. See this is why I called the first part of my method slip, (and you folks in the back of the class, can stop giggling now!)

Step 3

I then position the strips onto the paper, roughly where I want the sketch to be placed, this makes sure your sketch is atheistically placed, where I think it looks best.

Step 4

Being right handed, I’m using the first strip on the left side (all you left handers can use the the last strip on the right hand side) I then keep this strip in place with one hand and use a pencil to mark the top width on the paper, just wee little marks only please, but enough so you can find them easily.

Step 5

I then mark the bottom width of the strip on the paper, again with two wee pencil marks, similar to what I did in the step above.

Step 6

Now the slip sliding part comes into action here, I’ll go slowly so those at the back can understand (George! please pay attention! and Barbara! take that chewing gum out of you mouth now girl!). I’m using my left hand to hold the first strip in place (checking that it is within my four marks on the sketch paper (left handed folks just do the reverse of what I’m showing you). Holding my pencil in my right hand leaning on the sketch paper and not on the reference strip just a few millimetres above the point of the ear I air draw the top peak of the ear, air drawing is like air guitar – not on the reference strip or on the sketch paper but just above where it is shown on the reference strip.

Step 7

I know it sounds stupid, but bear with me OK? When you are confident you know where the tip of the ear is going to be, keep your pencil hand steady on the sketch paper and with your left hand slip the reference away only enough to show the sketch paper underneath and now with your pencil hand (still steady on the sketch paper and the pencil hovering a few millimetres above the paper) pencil in lightly an ear tip on the sketch paper. Imagine the strip of paper is like a playing card, well just like a playing card, you can move it to an fro back onto the sketch paper (between the marks you pencilled in, remember those?) with a bit of practice, it is just like moving playing cards on a poker table (OK Marlene, Tarots cards are fine too!). Thus was born the name of my Slip and Slide method! So until I hear of a better title, this will have to do.

Step 8

With your reference strip back in place (between the pencil marks on the top and bottom) if you look at the right edge of the reference strip, you can see divisions on the reference where light begins and dark area end and so forth, well now we can mark some wee lines onto the sketch paper where these light and dark areas begin and stop, try and make the marks go in the same direction the divisions are going in (i.e. see those bits of white fur in the ears, and how they are kind of diagonally on the reference strip? well follow through on the sketch paper with your marks.

Step 9

Now using this remarkable low carbon footprint method of Slip and Sliding, use it to begin marking a few marks of the outline of the ear, it’s a bit like joining the dots, if you have enough of them, you can very quickly join them up to one another and the edge marks you’ve already placed down.

Step 10

Continue using the slip and slide method to track the outline of reference onto the sketch paper, when you get a bit faster (as all my students did) you can readily check some marks you’ve already placed down if it gets a bits wonky here or there.

Step 11

We now should have enough marks on the sketch paper for a fairly accurate outline the ear.

Step 12

I carry on down the reference strip to begin marking out the shoulders of the dog and the edges of this zig zag finish I want to sketch. You can see how I only marked the corners of each zig zag and then I simply sketched in between my marks in a zig zag fashion. My students found this is a real quick and dirty way to get the reference outline onto the paper, accurately and fairly quickly. Catherine! stop looking out of the window, and please try and pay attention!

Step 13

Going back to the ear, I sketch in freehand the structure of some of the inner fur and lighter sections, as it is only a small section of the whole sketch, you may find this easy to do as well, if not, then use the slide and slip method to help you get the structure lines you need.

INTRODUCING EMBOSSING TOOLS

Step 14
Okay now for the fun part you’ve all been waiting for, using your embossing tools (Barry!, please be careful! they are not swords!) in this part of the sketch, I’ve marked a few light hairlines and whiskers, that I want to make stand out, in the days of old, we pencil pushers had to either sketch around each whisker and hairline we wanted to stand out, making sure we didn’t sketch over it or perhaps we sketched in the fur and used a very thin edge rubber or electric eraser to make those whiskers right? Well, I’ve since found that these embossing tools are the bees knees for getting fine lines, whiskers and hairlines onto your sketch. The Derwent set comes with two embossers with a ball point tip on each end, one with a tiny and small tips and the other with a medium and larger tip (I’ll call them 1, 2, 3 and 4 – 1 and 2 being the tiny and small embosser and 3 and 4 the other medium and large).

Using the No.1 embosser, I press into the sketch paper (over the outline I’ve marked and joined up) I’m using the embosser like I would use a pencil (so you pencil pushers should be OK here), if I was using a pencil, I would press harder for a thicker line and lighter for a thin line, well I’m using the embosser the same way, for a thick whisker, I press hard going lighter for the thinner tip of the whisker.

Step 15

I use No’s 1, 2 and three for various thicknesses I want to achieve. On the heavy paper I’m using (220 gsm) it allows you to carve in beautiful grooves. I also use the tips of the embossers to place small hole indentations here and there, and those few odd speckles of white and light tone you find on your reference, (this, I find, is what makes my sketches seem photo-realistic) but please be careful not to puncture the sketch paper, which is why I like to sketch on a hard cutting mat or board.

Tip:
For a white whisker on your sketch, use the embosser on the sketch paper, for a shaded toned whisker, use the embosser on the pencilled line so that the pencil is inside the embossed groove.

Step 16

Once I have carved in enough whiskers and hairs I want standing out, I begin to hatch over the embossed area with a 2B pencil, keeping the pencil strokes fairly tight and always going over the grooves and not into them. You will notice as you hatch over in pencil the lines you embossed earlier, magically start appearing.

Step 17

The more you begin shading, you soon realise that you can easily carry on shading as normal, because every time you go over you embossed grooves, they stand out more and more, in the old days, you had to take great care to define the edges of whiskers as they sometimes collected more pencil along their edges when you try to keep them tidy, embossing (I find) lets you get on with getting your tonal shading spot on without worry about having to negotiate around those pesky whiskers all over a dogs face! You can easily pencil and hatch light or dark between whiskers you predefined with ease.

Step 18

Here you can see how I’ve feathered the dark fur into the white fur and begun to show a few hi-lights here and there.

Step 19

I’ve moved up to the base of the ear, and used Embossers No. 2 and 3 to cut in a few curved hi-lights and then gone over in a 2B pencil to blend those hi-lights into the darker fur.

Oh there goes the bell! well that’s all for now boys and girls, thank you for your time and please remember, to bring your work books into class tomorrow, and we will continue sketching Jed the dog.

Thank you for your time and especially your patience in reading this tutorial, I do hope you now have some kind of insight into my slip and slide method and introducing the Embossing tool. I will carry on with the full sketch later on.

Jan (happy sketching).

Tutorial - Painting the sailing ship Traveller

2011-04-17T16:35:00.001+01:00

Painting the Traveller

Reference:
The source is from a 3D Bryce stock model by the artist Andy Simmons who has kindly given me permission to use his rendered model of the Traveller as my reference for this painting in acrylics (thank you kindly Andy).

Tools:
Acrylic colours:
Winsor and Newton & Basic Acrylic paint:
Phthalocyanine Blue
Primary Blue
Dioxazine Purple
Cobalt Blue Hue
Ultramarine
Light Green Permanent
Hooker’s Green
Raw Umber
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Red Medium
Titanium White

Brushes:
Round No.4
Rigger No.1
Point No.6
Filbert No.8
Flat No.4
Hog Hair No’s 2, 6 and 10

Water de-mister spray bottle
An old wet rag

Canvas:
16” x 20” stretched canvas, on a standard wooden easel. I have found that my easel is slightly too small at about 5 foot 6 inches against my height of 6 foot. So my unique solution I’ve found that works for me, is simply to remove the extendable leg sections and then sit the easel onto my drawing table, now it is the right height. I also found that two of the legs come in very handy indeed to wedge the canvas between the two with the top leg section acting as a kind of arm to clip my reference printout to. The reason I clamp my canvas between the two leg sections is also to stop those two horrible white marks you find you get when you finally remove the canvas and have to match the spaces up with the surrounding colours.

Palette:
A (very quintessential) Chocolate American tin with a pre cut canvas sheet on top of a thin wet sponge. The wet sponge keeps the acrylic paint from drying out too quickly and together with the de-mister spray bottle of water it lasts well into the second day.

So now that I’m all prepped up, here is the step by step process of how I painted the beautiful nautical scene the Traveller in just over 10 hours over two days.

DAY ONE

Step 1
I previous prepared my canvas using white Gesso (giving it two or three coats) and once dried, I traced the rough outline of the ship roughly in the middle of the canvas. I wasn’t too particular about details like rigging lines etc., all I wanted were where the main sails a hull were going to be placed. Anyway, I realised that too much detail in the tracing simply gets obliterated as you begin blocking in.

Step 2
I add a peanut size of Hookers Green, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White and mix the ochre with the white and start getting some paint onto my Hog Hair No.10 brush, the brush, the brush, I first wipe with my wet rag to get get it a little bit more pliable.

I OK, now with my heart in my mouth I approach my canvas like pressed ganged sailor with a little bit of fear and in trepidation, but mustering up a bit of dutch courage, I start randomly to begin dry brushing the paint into the top left hand corner of my canvas, I am not on making it a beautiful coat or a wash, this is going on quick and dirty.

Step 3
Now with a bit of wind in my hair, my confidence rises with each dry brush stroke (I seem to be getting a feeling of being an old sea dog or maybe a pirate even!). I Dry brush my yellow ochre and white mix into the lower right side leaving a good chunk of canvas untouched (this is for the clouds to come in later). I even add a wee dab of my mix into the rigging where I think the sky is showing through.

Step 4
Back to my palette, I add a peanut size of Cobalt Blue and take a little Hookers green and a touch of Ultramarine a pinch of White and mix up a dull greener blue mix I then blend a little of this new mix with the cobalt blue and the white with my smallest hog hair brush and somehow arrive at (more luck than purpose I suspect, but isn’t is the magic of learning how to paint right?) a blue sky for that top right corner.

Step 5
Now using the largest hog hair brush recently wiped clean with my wet rag, I return to my palette and start a new mix between the Hookers Green and the Ultramarine and find I have to add a peanut flavour of the Dioxazine Purple (this really sounds almost hallucinogenic doesn’t it?) I’m looking for that really dark foreboding storm colour (do people still say foreboding? maybe it’s because I’m about to introduce a storm cloud).

Step 6
Using the large No.10 Hog Hair brush, I begin introducing this ghastly green mix into the canvas from the top left corner, working downwards.

Step 7
I quite vigorously continue to apply this really green mix, down from the top left hand corner of the canvas, applying a dry brushing technique by turning the brush left and right, I am slowly but surely adding this darker tone colour into the canvas while at the same time leaving some yellow ochre mix showing through. This darkness continues to the top of the ship but fades out halfway across. I continue up to the hull stopping at the horizon.

Step 8
I’m now really getting into this painting scene and now I need to start blocking in the rough sea. The colour I’m looking for starts with mixing the cobalt with white then pushing through into the storm cloud colour I mixed up earlier. I keep fishing around on the palette till I get a darker sea colour I’m looking for.

When I have the colour I want, I start dry brushing it into the canvas starting from the bottom left corner, stopping about halfway.

Step 9
I’ve decided to try and balance all this darkness and despair I’ve been painting by moving over to the right hand side and into the top right hand corner, mixing a pale blue for the body of the clouds and dry brushing this blue into the clouds leaving a yellow ochre mix showing at the edges. I’m trying to get that white blue cloud which still has some body of substance to it, not as deep as the storm clouds on the other side of the ship, these are happier fluffier clouds. I can see that the ship is going to anchor itself between these two states of dark and light (I’m so sorry, but I just can’t seem to stop these nautical puns!).

Step 10
Using the rigger brush (no pun intended here, it actually is called a rigger brush LOL), I apply a thin lining arc to the top most edges of the main cloud.

I want to strengthen the edges of the clouds on this side, with some light fighting back.

Step 11
I return to my palette and start mixing a bit of the Titanium White into the Hookers Green, I’m now looking for that rich underwater green surge that I want in the centre of the main wave, you know the colour you dream of seeing whilst surfing on a beautiful Hawaiian or Australian beach.

I quickly add this green into the centre area of the sea and at the same time grab some darker blue from within my now fluid palette and blend in some water on each side of the green surge. I also try adding a few darker blue strokes at the base of the ships hull and to the edges of the sea on either side of the canvas (I can almost hear Enya singing Orinoco Flow in the background, listen, LOL). I also start adding a light Titanium Yellow Ochre mix to the two sails on the far right of the ship

Step 12
Being a bit adventurous now I add a peanut size quantity of Cadmium Red Medium and using the small round No.4 brush mix a pinkish colour betwix (a great word that, we need to use it more, all who agree say Aye, Aye Captain!) the Titanium White, Yellow Ochre and this shiny new Red, till I get that wonderful pink sunset colour.

Step 13
I start picking out a couple of sails I started earlier with this pink, brushing with down strokes and adding a slightly darker red pink at the base of the sails, using white, whilst still wet I blend in some hi-light into the tops of these sails. A also start blocking in these three striking forward sails in a darker blue but still very rough, nothing definite.

Step 14
Back on my palette I start a new mix betwix (see I just had to use it again!) the Ochre, White and the Red with a splash of green till I gel a wonderful canvas hue (see below) and with this colour I start painting the main sails adding darker green sections where the shadows are going of those three main blur forward sails.

Going back to the canvas colour I’ve just mixed I add more of the red to give it an earthier tone and start working on the sails on the dark side of the painting. Again adding more red to darken the bottoms of these sails. I’m not really taking to much care blocking in these sails in the first stages. I am also seriously beginning to lose my pencil marks (see, I told you!). I also add a hew dabs of lighter canvas tones onto a few protruding pieces of hull.

I paint in the top sails a very light pink tone and notice now that the whole ship is tarting to look like a bright pinkish lantern at sea, this is great as I want to show that the sails are reflecting the pink sunset which is behind and to the right of the viewer.

Step 15
I am now introducing two more colours to my palette, these are Raw Umber and Mars Black. Now taking a smidgen of the Dioxazine Purple I start by mixing a darker purple-ish blue

With this new purple/blue mix, using my filbert brush, I now start painting a few dabs or puddles of colour sweeping up from the left side into the dark side of the surging wave, I try to make the dabs go smaller at the top nearer the hull of the ship (to give distance). I also lighten the mix with some green and white and try a few greener dabs near the bottom of the canvas and at the apex of the wave as well as a couple of darker shadows underneath two of the turning wavelets (have I just invented yet another word?). I added darker navy blue strokes using the large hog hair onto the waves on the dark side of the sea up to the horizon.

I also begin to paint the hull with an initial dry brushing initially with the Raw Umber for the front and back of the ship (the bow and stern? – I don’t know which is which, sorry!) and then using a mix of the raw umber with both the red and purples on my palette I paint in the main body of the hull. I use the Raw Umber for the pointy bit at the front of the ship (apologies to all you sailing folk, this is so so embarrassing when you don’t know what these “bits” are called).

Step 16
I’m concentrating on the darker colours in the bottom right hand corner of my palette, mixing betwix the black brown and purple, this gives me a wonderfully deep blue.

I now pick up my flat No.4 and with this dark blue mix, start painting in some deeper shadows in the foreground of the waves to the right hand side of the sea, taking care not to to paint too much, this side has to still be blue in colour but not as dark os the other side. I also try the filbert brush for the smaller darker waves near the horizon

Step 17
Now is the time were only the real intrepid sailors dare voyage, yes, you’ve guessed it, into the dark side, that dark and foreboding (there’s that word again!) storm clouds. I use the same dark blue mix that I was using in the bottom right hand corner of the canvas, but now in the top left hand corner of the sky (like am I doing a diagonally opposed painting). I paint in a stronger area in the top left corner and dry brush downwards towards the horizon, but at the same time still try to leave something of the original ochre layers coming through, just enough as to give a hint. I diagonally oppose that patch of sky with a warmer greener grey (almost battleship grey) on the right hand side of the canvas near the horizon (this gives a wonderful soup green colour against the blue waves divided only by the white of the waves on the horizon. I carry on painting with this warmer grey using a smaller round brush) up to a straight painted line of the lower right hand sail just below the pointy bit at the front of the ship (what is that called?)

Above the top most sails where the light and dark meet, I paint in some different degrees of blues and paler blues even going into a light turquoise blue, which I continue into the clouds on the right of the ship. I pinch a bit of that warmer grey from the right hand side horizon and paint it on the right of the top most sail.

Step 18
Using my large hog hair, I start blending in some more blue into the dark side of the sky. I also begin in earnest to define the foreground waves on the left side, using my rigger brush with darker blues hi-lighted with lighter green blue around a few of the puddles that that rising wave forms, as well as picking out some hi-lights to foreground waves. I play around with the white spray at the front of the ship (making it come more onto the sea and higher up on the left).

Step 19
Now I’m giving all my attention to the waves, their patterns in the green surge and the shadows in the foreground, I am trying to make these waves flow, which is harder than it looks, you have to paint in the direction of the waves, as to go against them you will surely perish in the attempt! (so sorry about that one, it has been a long day).

I bring in hi-lights on both sides of the mighty wave and then push some of it back by going over with blues and green. This bit, I’m finding really intense, as whatever I paint impacts upon it’s neighbor, in fact it is a race to keep in front of this fast crashing wave (I suppose this is how a dolphin must feel running in front of a fast moving boat – hmmm painting nautical scenes really gets your imaginarium of juices flowing (now how on earth did the film Dr. Pharnassus come into all this? I must be getting tired). I also add a couple strands of rigging under the front section.

Step 20

Okay the light is starting to go, and I must be near to bringing todays painting to a close, but not before I do, I must just paint one sail, yes only one, otherwise I’ll never get to sleep, will I? I start on that bottom right sail and paint in some yellow ochre with a few lighter brushed high-lights. I finish off the sail with a few touches of red-ish brown on the bottoms of the sail. Me thinks it needs a bit more pink in these sails (me thinks! – I had better stop here before the transformation into Captain Jack Sparrow is unreversible).

Step 21
I keep giving extra attention to the great wave, I keep redefining the honeycombed patterns around the green swells.

Step 22
I just can’t seem to leave this painting alone, as I add a bit more rigging under the front pointy bit. I also start to define what looks like a canon or prominent deck section at the front of the ship. Okay, i’m going to have to call it a daw for the time being, I’ve been painting for just over five hours now. Time for a break.

Thank you for your time, hopefully, I’ll see you all tomorrow.

DAY TWO

Next morning I rush into my studio, happy to see that my hearty wee ship, still crashing through the waves and I eagerly open my palette tin, yuk! it has all started to settle into some kind of psychotic artistic nightmare (maybe I should enter this palette for the prestigious Turner prize instead, what do you think?). Not to worry, today is the day of the little brushes, I decide that bigger brushes will only be used if I really need them. Anywhoo, the palette is beautifully set up now for me to simply dip my smaller brushes into it, picking any of the myriad of colours flowing in the rainbow currents before my eyes (hmmm this nautical infection is starting early, best press on).

Step 23
I see a wonderful pink flow in palette betwix the white and red, and eagerly dip my pointed No.6 brush into this rainbow palette and start painting in the top sails, starting from the right. I then carry on painting the pink into the second tier of sails.

Step 24
I’ve decided that the reference photo I have clipped to the spare extension leg on the left of my canvas is too far away, as I’m going to be working on the detail of the ship, I need something closer easier at hand. So, I cut up an A3 printout ( 16.5” x 11.7”) of the reference image, into three vertical strips and tape the first two (butting up against each other) on the left of the canvas to the extension leg on the top and the third, I again tape to the top of the extension leg, but on the right side of the canvas. The idea (it does work, honest!) is to be able to swing down any strip so I can compare what I’m working on easily, and when I need to see the whole canvas, I can swing them over the extension leg and behind the canvas. Weird I know, but similar to my drawings, I like working in strips.

Step 25
I clean my pointed No.6 with a freshly dampened wet rag, and start mixing a canvas colour I can see in the palette, the more I mix it up, the more I can make a little puddle of the colour I’ll need.

Armed with this new canvas colour, I start painting onto the sails adjacent to the dark side of the sky.

I return to the palette and make a new puddle of colour and sweep in some blue and make a tonal difference to the canvas colour and use this also on the same sails. Working between these two newly created puddles I blend in the left side sails with the darker tones near the bottom of the sails.

Step 26
Using the darker of the two new puddles, I start working on the shadows of the sails, these shadows. as best as I can make it are from the three dark blue sails at the front of the ship. After I have painted them in, I use the smaller hog hair (slight dampened) to brush away some excess paint to reveal i subtle hi-light, which makes the sail look kind of semi transparent (this is exactly the effect I want.

Step 27
With the first vertical strip swung down, I can easily compare the sails I’m working on. This really does help me achieve the effect I want on the sails. I start on the middle sail on the left side, paint it n with a purple/grey mix and using slightly darker paint, I start putting in a few vertical lines on the sail itself, I’m trying to replicate the stitching sections of the sails.

Step 28
I continue painting the bottom sail on the left hand side of the ship, keeping it similar in tone to the middle one above. I also start working on the back end of the ship (apologies again to all you sea folk, I promise I’ll look up the right term, honest!) and start defining the edge of the ship and some shadowy objects/people? I also try a bit of hi-light on that stick thingy (I’d never make it in the navy would I?) protruding from the side of the ship on the left hand side. I’ve decided to do a colour change on the left hand side of the top sail, I notice that there is a play of light and dark there I want to replicate.

Step 29
Now I begin moving forwards and start to paint the lower middle mast sail and also and a greener square of sail below it, almost touching the ship hull, but not completely. I use a bit of the colour I used to paint the two shadows I earlier. I add a few darker greener tinges to the base of the big sail and a few green strands hanging down onto the lowest sail. I also take time to paint in one of the light reflections onto the lowest rear sail, it looks a bit like a fat arrow, I think this is a bit of light coming through the sails from the front. It looks a bit odd, but I’ll come back to it later, this is just the bast colour of it.

Step 30
I repeat the process I did in the previous step and add some more light marks to the second rear sail, these shapes are more square-ish I swing down the reference photo to help me get the exact location of these light marks (my earlier pencil lines have long since deserted me!). I paint the slightest of hi-lights to the end of the horizontal beam at the top of the bottom rear sail. I also give a little attention to the left side of the top sail.

Step 31
My palette is starting to become as rough as the sea I’m painting! (very inspirational methinks).

Okay, back to this painting (I seem to digress an awful lot! – sorry) I now start adding some shadows of rigging shapes onto the big middle sail, and I’ve introduced some blue up on the edge of the top rear sail to match in with the two lower sails. I try painting a practice thin line on the sail I first painted using my rigger brush (the sail on the right hand side behind the sticky out bit at the front, see?)

Step 32
Now I’m sailing! I start painting in a slightly darker green on the main lower sail and define a lighter canvas green colour triangular shape inside this. I also use my rigger brush to draw a few lines across the lighter triangle of sail as well as a few lines of rigging on the sail behind this one (near the top of it). I’ve also decided that the shadow on the sails above need darkening a bit (just a tad mind you).

Step 33
I begin defining those three long blue triangular sails with some more blue, the smaller one first, getting a slightly bit darker. I also start working on the top of the ships decking, painting in the basic forms trying to define a main square bit of decking where most probably the ships wheel is situated.

Step 34
I carry on defining those three front sails with a darker tone and then when semi dry, blend in some lighter blue tones to show some flowing body to them. I also decide to start painting in some of the darker mast shapes in between the two main sails and add a few thicker darker rigging lines where needed. I repaint the sticky out pole (is it a mast?) at the front of the ship and paint a few more rigging lines coming from it. I also begin to try and pick out some structure to the main decking and side hull with some subtle lighter lines with my rigger brush. I add the faintest lines of rigging underneath the top rear sail in that lighter section.

Step 35
Now I divert all my attention to the rest of the top sail, painting in an matching it up with the surrounding sails, I give it a slight light green shadow and start painting the next central platform below it as well as the beginnings of a top mast and cross bars on each of the sails. I also use the rigger to start joining the three front triangular sails onto the main masts with a couple of bauble type shapes on the main lines supporting them.

Step 36
I bring the lower main sail down lower with painting and paint in some subtle shadows behind them at the base. I add a secondary bauble shape to the tallest rigging line of the three triangular sails and draw some fine rigging lines from it to the top platform. I’m getting quite confident with painting lines and with my pointed No.6 brush, I am able to paint the thinest of rigging lines drooping diagonally from behind the three front blue sails, and carry on up across the main lower sails. I decide that I need some seagulls on the right hand side, and using the smallest brush, paint in a few birds, smaller ones further back.

Step 37
The seagulls look great, but I need some more on the left hand side, I start with that large one in the top quarter of the dark sky, then follow on with a few smaller ones below it and even smaller one around the cross bar protruding out.

I then step back and look for a few touches here and there I think needs doing, a few lines of rigging to add over here and maybe over there? I work on the sprays of water on the shadow side of the hull, add a few whiter drops of water to the tops of the crashing waves. I even paint in a very, very subtle net on the front below the main front mast. You know something? I think I’m done. Five hours later, looking somewhat pleased and very proud of my efforts, I realise I have finally finished painting my first ever sailing ship in acrylic.

Finished
Here at long last is the finished piece

Thank you for your time and especially your patience in reading this tutorial, I do hope you now have some kind of insight into painting this beautiful sailing ship, and hopefully won’t be so afraid in the future to attempt this kind of painting.

Jan (Happy Painting)

Traveller

2011-04-14T12:05:00.002+01:00

Medium: Acrylic

Paper: Stretched canvas

Size: 16 in x 20 in

Duration: 10 hours

This is something I have just completed, an old sailing ship in rough seas.

The source is from a 3D Bryce model by the artist Andy Simmons who has kindly given me permission to use his stock model of the Traveller as my reference in acrylics.

I am trying something new every other painting I undertake, since being a small child I was fascinated by pirates and sailing ships and always wanted to be able to paint one, well today I realised this silly dream of a child so long ago with this my first painting of a sailing ship. I'm also working on a tutorial on the process from start to finish.

Flash

2011-04-04T21:29:00.001+01:00

Medium: Acrylic
Paper: Stretched canvas
Size: 16 inch x 20 inch
Duration: 9 -10 hours

This is an acrylic painting of a liver chestnut welsh cob stallion, Bookra the Coalman aka Flash, from a reference stock photo supplied by Chroa2427851 (thanks Chroma)

This is my third ever painting of a horse in acrylics. The painting took about 10 hours in all over a couple of days. To be honest, this time I really did try and take more breaks over this painting to try and slow down a bit (several cups of coffee, a whole packet of cream crackers, a three quarter full box of Cadbury’s chocolate Roses – borrowed from my wife’s spare Mother’s Day prezzies, shhh don’t tell her!) but I still managed to complete this artwork within 10 hours. I cannot for the life of me make my art go slowly. I seem to go straight into another intense zone when I’m painting, I’m sure we as artist all go there sometime or other when painting (please tell me I’m not the only one!).

I have really enjoyed painting this beautiful welsh cob stallion (see I’m starting to use proper horsey words too!) particularly trying to emulate the beautiful shiny sheen on the deep liver chestnut coat. I really enjoyed painting in the shiny creases on his strong neck, I chose this side view pose of this horse as it seems easier to paint than of one galloping off into the sunset, maybe my next painting, who knows?

Blossom

2011-03-29T13:44:00.002+01:00

Medium: Acrylic

Paper: Stretched Canvas

Size: 40 × 50cm (20in x 16in)
Duration: 10 hours

Heres is my second horse in acrylic, I started this yesterday morning and finished it this afternoon. For the reference I used one of the many photos I was lucky to take last Saturday when I visited the Marshall Meadows Farm just past Berwick-upon-Tweed. John and Christine Fairburn, breed shires and have several on their land and show them off pulling a wagon at various agricultural shows and fairs around the North-East.

I spent a wonderful afternoon getting up close to these magnificent beasts, they didn’t take too well to me clicking my camera, but within 15-20 minutes their curiosity got the better of them, and the all wanted their pictures, taken, pushing and nudging each other to get in closer. I couldn’t believe how many shots I too (over 600) I reckon I’ve got enough to keep me painting shires for quite a wee while LOL.

I spent the first day painting just the background, I painted the entire canvas and wasn’t happy till I achieved some kind of depth of field, with the fields fading away (it was that kind of day). When my daughter Jasmine (8yrs) asked why I painted an empty field, I just told her the horse ran off.

I found the second day’s painting was really intense, you forget where time goes, and when your done you can’t quite realise you’ve just spent about 8 hours solid painting!

This Shire horse is one of four similar coloured and still had it’s winter coat, which I think looks great and natural, but I’ll be back when they are all groomed for showing in the summer.

Anywhoo hope you like my second attempt at equestrian art (see even a heathen like me can learn the right words!)

White Horse - Ziggy

2011-03-16T00:24:00.001Z

Medium: Acrylic
Paper: Stretched canvas board
Size: 30” x 40”
Duration: 12 hours

This is a painting I’ve just recently completed of a beautiful white horse (pretty obvious I know) in acrylic, the painting took me 12 hours over three days. As the reference source for my painting, I was lucky enough to get the kind permission of a local photographer, David Parkin to use some of his great photos of horses he had taken (Thanks David).

I really love this painting and keep returning to look at it, not only because it is a truly magnificent animal, but I also loved the challenged of painting this scene for two reasons. The first it was the biggest painting I’ve ever done, and if that wasn’t challenging enough I loved the POV (point of view) of the person looking up from the ground at the horse just over the brow of a hill.

Vermeer Study - Girl with a pearl earring (finished)

2011-02-09T17:10:00.013Z

My finished pencil study

Medium: Pencil (7H pencul and Pentel P205 0.5mm 2B lead
Paper: Goldline Bristol board
Size: A3 size 420mm x 297mm (16.5”x11.7”)
Duration: 12 hours

Finally finished this epic study today after approximately working over five days. I have covered every square centimetre of this beautiful painting in sketching this study. I think I finally understand something of the process Vermeer used to get this painting looking the way he did.

Hopefully this practice on this study will stand me in good stead when I begin to repaint this subject again in oils. I have learned how he has structured his shadows, his tones and can fully appreciate the lighting he uses to make this portrait stand out as it does. So I’ll have to start getting my oils ready for stage two of this journey I’ve decided to undertake.

I have never enjoyed myself so much with a sketch as I have with this pencil study. Vermeer was, Ihinks, a class of artist, that stands head and shoulders above his fellow contemparies, simply for the dedication and patience he used in his paintings

Me nearly famous now...

2011-02-08T14:21:00.000Z

Well I finally made it into the newstands! and for the right reasons too. Some magazine has just gone and written an article on me and my scribblings.

I’m in the February issue of The Nothumbrian magazine and not only mentioned (which, OK, I already knew in advance) but I’m the very first story in a three and a half page spread, three and a half pages!!!

I cannot believe anyone could find more than one or two sentences to write about me, never mind a whole three and a half pages! that is sooo amazing, it’s the best publicity any artist could ask for! So go out and buy this fantasic magazine, while it's on the stalls!

Gotta go now, the phone is ringing, might even be David Letterman or Jonathan Ross wanting to invite me on the telly

WIP - Vermeer Study

2011-02-08T13:36:00.010Z

I have decided that I’m about ready to dive into painting with oils, this will be one of my final barriers that I have yet to broach.

So I thought if I’m going to attempt an oil painting, then why not start with the person who I’ve long admired for his accuracy, his colours and soft tones and who shares the same christian name as myself Jan Vermeer.

Before I attempt this mammoth undertaking, I’ve decided to approach this scientifically as well as artistically and set myself a baseline. The baseline being this pencil study I have decided to sketch to give me a feel of how Vermeer might of approached it and also to help me get a general feel about this beautiful portrait.

I’m sketching this study on A3 size Goldline bristol board (16.5” x 11.7”)

So far, I’ve only been using only two pencils, a 7H and a 2B (Pentel P205 with a 0.5mm 2B lead). This really makes you work on trying to achieve a really delicate touch on the shades, and you have to build up all the shades ftom the hard 7H then try an go over this with the 2B, in effect in this study, I’m trying to paint with nothing but pencils.

Okay, this is simply to show you how far I’ve got on my current project, a study of Vermeer’s The girl with the pearl earring in pencil.

I am finding the tones and shades in this beautiful Vermeer, are some of the toughest I’ve ever attempted. Unlike a sketch of an animal or a person where I normally only ever use a photo reference and the only precedence is my take on the reference source. Here I am trying to sketch trying to match one of the great masters where the precendence has already been set. I’m so pleased I have decided to do this pencil study before I attempt to paint this in oils.

I am finding so much detail in every piece of flesh and garments, I can honestly say that I am really beginning to appreciate the work (and committment) Vermeer had put into this portrait. The folds in the shoulder (I’m finding) are as delicate as the reflections in the simple earring. This earring itself is only a suggestion, there are no definite edges to it. The whole earring is only really visible by it’s reflections.

Without doubt this is fast becoming one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve ever attempted in a long time, the worry I normally have over whether or not the client will like the finished piece has been replaced by the my own standards of how accurate I can make trhis study. I keep constrantly checking how close I can get to Vermeer, how subtle his shadows are how delicate the skin is. If you’ve never done this, I would highly recommend it as one of the few preocesses left where you can almost communicate with one of the great master.

This is really starting to get tougher, I thought that the skin tones on the girls face were pushing me to my limits, but the clothing that she is wearing, I’m finding, is sooo fine and to get pencil to look like textured paint is really pushing the envelope. But taking my time, and examining every square centimeter, and trying to replicate it in pencil, is the only way forward. I really do feel that I am finally getting into the soul of Vermeer the only way I know, through my pencils.

Still on only two leads, 2B and a 7H

But l’m beginning to see this portrait in a completely new light, it’s almost as if I can see the texture of the paint strokes, see where he placed his light and darks and where his tonal boundaries were placed to give just the right amount of feeling into this beautiful portrait.

This girl in the portrait is starting to tell me things about her artist, slowly at first but the more time I spend on this study the more she reveals about this portrait of her. I can almost feel the fabric of her head scarf, the tightness of the knot at the top to tie it all together. The addiction doesn’t stop there, I find as I progress more and more with this study, I’m constantly updated minute areas that I have already sketched and thought I had finished, this Vermeer study is slowly turning me into some kind of obsessive with the amount of detail I keep finding and trying to replicate.

Almost there….

...and I'm still enjoying every agonishing minute of the process!

2011-02-01T14:34:00.000Z

Medium: Graphite pencil, leads, 2B, 7H, 6H, 5H and 2H
Paper: Goldline Bristol Board 220 gsm
Size: A3 (16.5” x 11.7” – 420×297mm)
Duration: 6 hours

This is a sketch of a wee Jack Russell, I have been sribbling for the past two days. Sketching a white dog really stretches my skills with a pencil, some of my students often ask me “How on earth do you sketch white fur with a dark pencil?” well truth be told, slowly, carefully and use very hard pencils.

The cushion the little fellow is sitting on took about as long as the dog itself. I kept scanning this sketch from start to finish and have a nice collection of images I was thinking of putting into a tutorial

My Dad

2011-01-18T09:22:00.004Z

Edward Szymczuk (22.03.1919 – 12.01.2011)

My dad was not famous.

My dad was no-one special.

My dad had not lived as a movie or rock star.

My dad was not even academic or well read.

My dad was was so much more than any of these, he was after all MY DAD.

My dad as a boy grew up in a Poland, who then became a teacher.

My dad was captured by the Russians in his homeland and carried off into a cold and bitter Siberian camp for no apparent reason other than being a Polish soldier at the outbreak of war.

My dad was released by these very same captors when Russia joined the allies, and then along with hundreds of fellow countrymen, walked that epic journey from Siberia to Palestine, mile after thousand mile, all on foot.

My dad made it to Palestine and fought with a some of his countrymen in an army in exile for the liberation of his beloved home from the Nazi occupation.

My dad trained to became a Paratrooper, fighting for the British and learned the way of war.

My dad swam the cold deadly Rhine at night when asked to do so, to deliver radio communication to his allied brothers in arms.

My dad crawled on his belly up the steep sheer slopes of Monte Casino while all around him were dying, crying and lying, many who had tried and so many who had died, but he was one of the lucky ones to reach the top where he cried.

My dad was given a choice after this war of wars, to return home to await possible death in a country no longer his, or perhaps America to start afresh, but instead chose England who, when all others ignored his country’s plight gave no thought but to come to his country’s aid and go to war against this injustice of Hitler.

My dad met and married his polish wife, in a German town, who herself was just a girl taken from her beloved mother and her Polish roots and had spent her youth and adult years on foreign German soil.

My dad rejoiced when his first son and daughter were born, in a German land now quiet and defeated.

My dad brought his new wife and my elder brother and my elder sister into this new land, this England, this foreign land, for the chance to start afresh.

My dad lived with his wife and children, in a temporary wooden house amongst fellow countryman who had also chosen to stay in this new and free land.

My dad one night cycled to his makeshift home to find it on fire, everything they owned except the ones he loved, perished that night in that fire, a fire I think, scared him more than he would show in the years that followed.

My dad took up work as a coal miner where a house and a wage was assured to feed his young family and coal was given freely to warm their souls.

My dad applied and was given British citizenship, and was proud to hold his head up high in a land he had adopted and loved as his own, though he never forgot his roots.

My dad learned to speak English word by word with a purity and clarity beyond his own expectations, and excelled in this new tongue enough to make him confident enough to write a book (sadly never published) on mathematics and the use of a slide rule in his new learned tongue.

My dad was joyous when I was eventually born, the first in his new homeland, followed a few years later by my younger sister.

My dad cried when his first daughter, my sister was accidentally knocked to the ground by a truck and nearly lost her leg in the local town, who instead spent a lifetime on medication which effected her abilities to lead a normal life like other teenagers in her class.

My dad watched and cried with his wife as they buried his first daughter, my sister, in a ground cold and hard, who had her life taken short by a madman’s blade in an crazy act of murder.

My dad watched and cried as several years later, he buried his wife in that same cemetery next to his daughter in a land he now called his home.

My dad was a proud man and lived alone for many years, getting older and developed a stoop, but said little more than I cannot grumble, when asked if he would like to live his remaining days with one of his sons, politely declined for his wish, you see, was to see his final days in his house he called home.

My dad fell down one day in the kitchen and couldn’t get up, old as he was, he lay until a kind neighbour who always called discovered his plight.

My dad was taken to hospital to try and get him better and possibly return home to his house and friends.

My dad caught pneumonia, becoming frail, so ever frail and lost so much weight he could ill afford to do so.

My dad, it was agreed by consultants and carers that his future should be spent in a nursing home where he could be properly cared for by nurses and staff, in hopes that he would enjoy his limelight years and maybe have a quality of life so justly deserved.

My dad was due to move into his new home, which was ready and waiting with a shiny new TV and a comfortable bed and nurses, were provided for his every need, when in the early hours of the 12th of January 2011 he had a relapse and was rushed into the MAU (Medical Admissions Unit) at the local hospital.

My dad was rushed into a room awaiting my presence as I drove like a madman to the hospital where he lay through the early hours of a winters morning with only the stare of bewildered rabbits along the edge of the road to watch me on my journey.

My dad was waiting, when the doctor attended took me aside and informed me that my dad had only hours left, they could do nothing more but make him comfortable, until his time came.

My dad lay on his bed with eyes half open and unable to speak, I called his name, again and again, and held his thin small hand as his breathing become shallower and shallower. I watched as the seconds and minutes crawled in slow motion, I saw my father stop breathing, once then twice but after the third time he breathed no more.

My dad lay still, never moving, his hand in my hand getting colder and his eyes closed.

My dad was finally at peace I thought and hopefully was looking for the wife and daughter, my sister, he missed, to catch up on tales to be told and life renewed.

My dad died that morning on the 12th of January at 5.16am on a quiet winter’s morning in a small hospital room with only me his son by his side.

My dad will be missed, will be remembered and will never be forgotten, all I hope for, is that I too am lucky enough to have a son or daughter to hold my hand on a cold and quiet morning when all is still and my heart beats no more.

Goodbye Dad

Lloyds in Portugal

2010-09-20T00:16:00.002+01:00

Medium: Graphite (leads 2B, B, F, 3H, 6H 7H)
Size: A2 (594mm x 420mm)
Paper: Goldline Bristol board pad 220gsm
Duration: 16 hrs

This is the third and final of three commission sketches in graphite, this one, the main one is of the entire family, and probably one of the most enjoyable sketches I’ve rendered for a long time.

The original reference photo, wasn’t the best to work with, and the composition between the family members needed some tweaking (one child was alone on the right hand side and the other child was next to his dad with the mother alone in the middle of the photo), so I loaded the original photo I was given into Photoshop and moved the boy on the left closer to his mum and also brought the other sibling and his dad closer to make an athestically more pleasing composition.

Now that I had the composition I wanted, I soon realised that I would be sketching quite a lot of flesh and skin tones (boy do I like a challenge or what?) I also tried to linked the hi-lights in all of their eyes and sunglasses and make them similar, so I took as a basis, the reflection in the mother’s glasses (as “Brian” a dear old artist friend commented – reflections are a great aid to the artist) and tried to replicated this reflection in all the other’s eyes. I think it worked as you don’t notice it at first, but the link is there. The skin wasn’t as too bad as I had imagined and went onto the paper fairly quickly with careful cross hatching, now some folks would scream at the thought of cross hatching visibly on skin, but I wanted these figures to seen as being sketched and not mistaken as photos and cross hatching (I think) tells the viewer it’s not a photo but a sketch – see?).

The toughest time I had was in all four hairstyles which ranged in shade, texture and wetness, the first boy (on the left) had to have just wet damp hair, the mum posed a seperate challenge with her hair more loose and blowing in the wind, the other sibling had that kind of hair which is just starting to dry with a few dry strands blowing out in the breeze, but the daddy of all the hairstyles was with the dad himself, I think this is a first for me, short blonde straight and slightly ruffled hair (his hair took me over 2 hours alone!). The thing I like the most from this whole final sketch (apart from the hair, skin tones and teeth!) is how I used the towel as an anchor, it kind of pulls the figures closer together, sort of.

Well tommorrow is going to be the big day when I meet up with the client and find out whether or not he is satisfied with my art on these three pieces (which is going to a present for his wife in a few days). Hope she likes my efforts, otherwise the school runs I see her every day are going to be kind of akward

Beautiful Boys

2010-09-20T00:11:00.002+01:00

Medium: Graphite (leads 2B, B, F, 3H, 6H 7H)
Size: A2 (594mm x 420mm)
Paper: Goldline Bristol board pad 220gsm
Duration: 14 hrs

This is the second of three commission sketches in graphite of two brothers.

I’v enjoyed this dual portrait sketch, as there was great contrast in tones between the two brothers, again it was a challenge from the start as I had to work from a very low quality photo and I decided to leave the background out as it was a very monotone black sofa. I thought that these two boys could stand alone without the unnescessary distraction, of that kind of background. The third, in the series, is going to be tougher as I not only have to sketch these two boys again, but add their parents into the final composition as well. And the sources are all seperate photos. Well it wouldn’t be fun, if it was too easy now would it?

Afternoon Snooze

2010-09-04T17:46:00.002+01:00

Medium: Graphite (leads 2B, B, F, 3H, 6H 7H)
Size: A2 (594mm x 420mm)
Paper: Goldline Bristol board pad 220gsm
Duration: 10 hrs

This is the first of three commission sketches in graphite of two brothers.

This one was really challenging, firstly, as I had to work from a very low quality photo and secondly the light of the subject was in shadow under a canopy with a light cast shadow. Patience has purserved as I found tones I never thought a hard pencil could go to. The detail in this particular sketch, especially on the different coloured bands of the blanket kept me real busy!

Liyanah

2010-09-04T17:43:00.001+01:00

Graphite on 80gsm acid free paper size A3.

Time taken: 3 hours

I began sketching this at my local art club in Killingworth, and finished it a few days later.

This is a sketch I created as a present for a dear friend who turned 50 today (Happy Birthday Cathy!) of her grand daughter Liyanah.

Collie

2010-09-04T17:23:00.007+01:00

Well I’ve finally finished the Collie sketch, and it has taken me a total of 7 hours and 10 minutes (I think my fastest yet for this size of paper).

This was sketched on thick 180gsm lightly textured artist paper, size A2 (420×594). I used four Pentel mechanical pencils (sizes 9mm -2B, 7mm-2B, 5mm-4H and 3mm-2H leads).

Moss and Max

2010-09-04T17:07:00.004+01:00

Commissioned sketch on A3 140gsm acid free cartridge paper using Hi-Polymer 2B, 5B, 4H and F graphite leads in Pentel mechanical pencils. This was a sketch of two hunting dogs (themn puppies). This took me over 8 days to complete.

Prints available
http://www.redbubble.com/products/configure/14278343

Art Commission - Couple

2008-12-09T14:45:00.001Z

This is a commission I did for someone I bumped into on the A19 outside Morpeth, and I do mean literally bumped into, (I kind of bumped my car into the back of his and after exchange details etc), he rang me up out of the blue and asked for this commission as he recalled I was an artist of sorts from my card. Doesn't life meander in weird ways!

Still using the reference photo he provided me with, I sketched his parents (he wanted a Christmas prezzie) on A3 cartridge paper , and had to use my vast collection of Derwent graphic pencils (well 4H, 2H, H, HB, B 2B and 4B to be precise). The hardest areas of this sketch was the man's silver hair and the woman's floral patterned top, the latter, which I feel compliments her sketch.

Art Commission 4 of 4 - Skip the Dog

2008-12-09T14:28:00.000Z

At last, the final piece of my commissioned dog quartet, this is Skip, sadly no longer with us, his owner and my mate marmite (almost rhythms).

This one was somewhat difficult in that I wasn't able to take reference photos like I normally do, and was limited to only one photo. Still I feel I have captured his likeness and this I achieved by using only about four pencils (4H, 2H, HB and 4B - which gives me a great range of tones and shades) on A4 cartridge paper.

I then use this image together with the preceeding three others to compile a "quartet" of the four dogs, and had them printed all together on a white boxed canvas (26" x26") which now hangs proudly in marmite's tea rooms in Stannington (Stannington Nurseries, Station road, Stannington - there you are Marmite a free plug).

Shoot The Cat

2008-11-15T01:30:00.000Z

Art Commission 3 of 4 - Old Belle

2008-11-13T09:36:00.000Z

OK, here is third sketch of a series of four, a commission I received from my mate Marmite. This sketch is of the oldest of his three dogs, she's called Belle. Her face around her eyes is very speckled and took hours of shading before I was happy that I had captured her unique demeanour, she looks to be the old mother figure for the other two I sketched before her.

The sketch was done on A4 cartridge paper and again I ended up using my favourite few pencils (4H, HB, 2B and 4B) these four pencils, especially on this sketch, I find give me a great range of contrast between the light and dark areas. I enjoyed shading in the detail in the eyes reflections and on the original sketch, I got so immersed in the reflection detail, I sketched the silhouette of myself taking the photo of Belle with my camera!

Once finished, I scanned the sketch into Photoshop, played around with the tones, before printing to A4 canvas cloth.

Art Commission 2 of 4 - Charlie the Jack Russell

2008-11-13T08:37:00.000Z

Here is the second commission I've just completed of a Jack Russell (called Charlie). Which I have been commissioned to do for my mate Marmite. I think that the photo I decided to use as a reference, definitely show's his inquisitive nature, and has that cheeky look in his eyes.

The finished sketch was done on A4 cartridge paper. For this sketch, I ended up using only about four pencils (H4, HB, 2B and 4B). I then scanned the finished sketch into Photoshop and played around with the tone levels before I printed the final image onto A4 size 300 gsm cotton canvas, to enhance the pencil work I put into a sketch.

Art Commission 1 of 4 - Mac the Dog

2008-11-05T17:26:00.001Z

Here is a pencil sketch I've just completed of a dog (called Mac). This is one of four I've been commissioned to do for my mate Marmite (you either love him or hate him).

I used a Canon EO5 Digital SLR to take the initial shots I'd need for the sketch. The finished sketch was done on A4 cartridge paper.

I used a Derwent Graphic Designer pencil set which has a good pencil range. This time This sketch, I used mainly pencils 4H, HB and 2B. I then scanned the finished sketch into Photoshop and played around with the tone levels before I printed the final image onto A4 size 300 gsm cotton canvas, to enhance the pencil work I put into a sketch.

Art Commission - Foal Sketch (Roxy)

2008-10-29T16:48:00.000Z

Here is a pencil sketch I've just completed of a foal (called Roxy) When I was out in the field with her owner to take my initial shots, she just kept running away to her mum, but my patience paid off, after kneeling down with my camera, she felt relaxed enough to be curious and came up closer and I was able to get the shots I wanted. I decided on her right side as the coat pattern on this side looked best. I am using a Canon EO5 Digital SLR.

The finished sketch was done on A4 cartridge paper. I used a Derwent Graphic Designer pencil set which has the pencil range I needed (4H - 3H -2H - H - F - 2B to 6B) This time I found that for this sketch, I used mainly pencils 4H, 2H, HB and 2B. I then scanned the finished sketch into Photoshop. As it was an overcast (and very windy) day I had to tweak the brightness and contrast of the chosen photo in Photoshop to bring out the facial muscles and tones in the dark section of the coat.and played around with the tone levels before I printed the final image on A4 size 300 gsm cotton canvas. This really enhances the pencil work I put into a sketch, in fact I believe this final result looks better than the original A4 sketch.

Art Commission - Albert and Babs

2008-10-23T06:07:00.000+01:00

Here is a pencil sketch I've just completed of a couple (Albert and Babs). The sketch was done on A4 cartridge paper. I used a Derwent Graphic Designer pencil set (from WH Smith - currently my favourite pencils) which had the pencil range I needed (4H - 3H -2H - H - F - 2B to 6B) I found that for this sketch I used mainly 4H, 2H, F, HB, 2B and 4B. I then scanned the finished sketch into Photoshop and played around with the tone levels and printed the final image on A4 size 300 gsm cotton canvas. I feel thaafter scanning the original sketch and printing it out onto A4 canvas really enhances the pencil work, in fact it looks better than the original sketch. Completion time was about six hours.

Art Commission - Girl and her Dog

2008-10-15T23:44:00.000+01:00

This is a sketch of May and her pet dog "Ralph" sketched from a photograph onto canvas and then scanned into Photoshop and printed on A4 Cotton Canvas (I just love the finished effect you get printing on canvas). I also have to add that this shaggy dog was probably one of the hardest pets I've ever drawn, but my patience paid off.

I used the Derwent Graphic Designer pencil set that I used for the Horse sketch (April - see previous post) this time I tried sketching straight onto canvas instead of onto cartridge paper (my favourite medium) this, I feel gave me a fantastic texture to work with for this particular subject (soft focus photo and shaggy dog).

Art Commission - Horse Sketch (April)

2008-10-15T21:27:00.000+01:00

Here is a pencil sketch I've just completed of a horse (called April). The sketch was done on A3 cartridge paper (A3 spiral bound sketch pad available WH Smith). I used a Derwent Graphic Designer pencil set (also from WH Smith) which had the pencil range I needed (4H - 3H -2H - H - F - 2B to 6B) I found that for this sketch I used mainly 4H, 2H, F, HB, 2B and 4B. I then scanned the finished sketch into Photoshop and played around with the tone levels and printed the final image on A4 size 300 gsm cotton canvas. I've found out that scanning the original sketch and printing it out onto A4 canvas really enhances the pencil work, in fact it looks better than the original A3 sketch.

Art Commission Caricature - Maria Sullivan

2008-06-04T11:06:00.000+01:00

This is a caricature of a dear friend Maria Sullivan (and one time neighbour when I lived in North Harrow) This was to be a 50th birthday surprise for Maria (though how it was a surprise, is beyond me as I had drawn both her sons, her daughter and grandad in the past!) as their hallway currently houses a collection of most of my early black and white cartoons. Probably the first gallery of my artwork, ever.

I received the initial request as a very rough PDF draft sketched by Maria's husband, Mark, although no great artist, it did show me all the main components he wanted in the finished artwork.

It was now my job to take this rough and draft out something I would be happy with in a final composition. So after a few attempts, I final settled on this draft, which seems to incorporate all the components John wanted.

Once I have finished the rough sketch, I then have to scan it into Adobe Photoshop, as the rough was A3 size and my Epson DX 4050 scanner is slighter more than A4 (I really need to get a bigger scanner) I have to scan two seperate sections (top and bottom) and knit the two halves together (fiddly, but do-able in Photoshop).

Once inside Photoshop and I placed this as the underlying background image with the opacity set to about 50%, I then created a new layer for each component in the caricature - the background, the main figure, skin, clothing, juggled objects and clothing (this makes it easier to concentrate on different areas of the artwork).

I manage to create the thick outline (well it is a caricature and I think that thick black outlines make it jump of the page) by using the drop shadow blendind properties in Photoshop and slightly off-setting it, and repeating the effect for the figure and juggled objects. I also copied the drop shadow effect for the main text title.

I was extremely happy with the overall finish and most important, the Sullivans loved it and it now hangs pride in place in my personal gallery in their hallway!

Husky art (sketched whilst travelling on a train)

2008-04-09T18:57:00.000+01:00

I sketched two of my Siberian Huskies whilst travelling on a National Express train between London and Newcastle (which I do twice every week), not both on the same trip mind you, each sketch was begun and finished on two seperate journeys. I hope to add a third on my next train journey tommorrow (London to Newcastle) For the first (Szary) I used a set of Faber Castell Shades of grey felt pens I bought from WH Smith. These pens have nice pointed ends and come in 6 shades of grey to black (hence the name), plus I love the wet paintbrush touch they have on the cartridge paper.

For the second sketch (Kira) I used a combination of the felt pens together with a few pencils, 2B, 4B, HB and 4H. I just felt that I could achieve a better contrast for this sketch using a combination of both and and I believe I did (always one for experimentation!) These are basically preliminary sketches/tryouts that I'm hoping to paint in Acrylics later on.

The third and final sketch in this series of train art, is of Tazz, again I stuck to using pencils only (2B, 4B, 4H etc) I wanted to show Tazz's eyes as they used to be when he was younger, now he has changed from a striking light blue to dark brown (this sometimes happens to Huskies as they get older).

Of the three sketches, I think I prefer the strong contrast of the light and dark on the sketch of Kira, maybe I'll try this in colour next time (although they all are basically coloured black, grey, tan/brown and white).

My Siberian Huskies...

2007-08-10T17:25:00.000+01:00

Siberian Huskies
size 2496 x 1664 (A4 size)

Date taken: 23/07/2007
Location: Duridge Bay, North-East Coast, Northumberland

These are all original prints of of my three Siberian Huskies (Kira, Szary and Tazz), which I took whilst out for a walk on the Northumberian coast (Duridge Bay near Cresswell) in July 2007. I used a Canon EO5 digital SLR camer with a Tamrom Tele-Photo 70-300mm, conditions, as perfect as could be expected for the North East! Photo size 2496 x 1664 pixels. Print size 21cm x 29.8 (A4)

Boris

Building a timber framed swing and save money...!

2007-07-29T13:54:00.000+01:00

My daughter, Princess Jasmine wanted a swing for her birthday and her old King daddy decided it was cheaper to try and build one than buy one (the cheapest timber one I could find, being £169.00). So on Friday morning, with nothing but the look of expectation in my little princesses eyes, I set off and scoured the local area. I bought the wood, bolts, seats and rope locally and saved a bundle by making it myself, the time it took to complete - a few hours, years of happiness in a little girls eyes that'll always remember the swing her daddy made for her, priceless.

5 x 10ft round logs - £42
10 x bolts - £16
Rope - £25
2 x seats - £ 9

Total £92

Not bad eh?

A colour sketch of the Jasmine, again using Corel Painter X...

2007-07-12T11:35:00.000+01:00

This is a colour artwork of my daughter Jasmine, again using a photo as reference. I am slowly finding my way around the Painter software, and love the way it emulates real brush strokes when using a Wacom stylus. Not sure if it is finished, may have to work a bit more on the face. I'm sure my little princess Bessie will appreciate it!

Boris

Latest artwork using Corel Painter X in acrylics....

2007-07-11T14:32:00.000+01:00

OK. here is my latest piece of artwork using Corel Painter X with Acrylic brushes, blenders and chalk pens. The subject reference is from a photo of my niece, Megan. It's still a bit rough around the edges, but I liked the final outcome, especially the textures and brush strokes but it really makes me want to try my hand at the real McCoy using real paints! Corel is OK, as it is really great, clean and fast (plus you don't have to clean up your dirty brushes afterwards).

Boris

Work in progress... now finished!

2007-01-25T00:03:00.000Z

Well, here it is, finally finished, except for, well her left hand could do with some more work (as I've already been told) so that's a job for a rainy day (no, no I will finish it, promise).

Alien Doodle...

2007-01-24T23:59:00.000Z

My mates Steve (the Stig) and Murfee are into monsters, so I dug out an old doodle I did many many moons ago, I don't think it catergorises as a monster, more an Alien...

Siberian Husky Hotel

2007-01-13T01:36:00.000Z

As I had a couple of weeks off over Christmas and the New Year, I thought it about a little job that was long overdue, I decided that my three Siberian Huskies need a more permanent kennel compound than the poor security fence state of affairs they enjoyed here (photo on left). These security fences were always temporary (I kept telling myself) and when I had a bit of spare time on my hands, I'd build them something a bit more substantial. Poor buggers have only been waiting six years! So this was it, nothing to do (apart from waiting to devour Christmas dinner and get sloshed on Auld Years night. So together with my tiny band of helpers (and I really mean tiny) my kids, Jasmine, Kallum, Scott and Adam, we embarked upon the building of something better akin to the scale of a small pyramid project (well not that big, but it sure felt like it at times). So with kind donations of timber, advice and valuable experience from my some of my mates, Lenny Welch (Landscape Supplies, Stannington Station) and our local Furniture/Carpenter Steve Taite, Kevin and Peter (JT Pine, Stannington Station) Only 10 days later, a few pounds lighter (talking about the cost of timber, nails and bribes used!). We finished this huge undertaking.

Click on the photo below to see more photos.

As you can see, we eventually came up with the Siberian Husky Hotel (built circa 2007). I'm sure you'll agree with me that this finished project is streets ahead of anything they had, for one thing it has a roof on it! The dogs seem to like it when they eventually took up residence. It seems I just finished it a few days before these hurricane winds came, and I must of built it good as it is still standing (testament to a good simple design and a bit of pot luck thrown in too!).

Work in progress...

2007-01-11T00:29:00.000Z

OK, this is for anyone who may have the slightest interest in what art pieces I'm currently working on. At the moment, I'm busy sketching a sexy lingerie pin-up in pencil, I saw the photo on the internet and decided it would make a great sketch. I started it this evening round about 8pm, as it's now getting a bit late 12.30am, and the light is starting to fade (note to self: get longer candles!) I thought I'd call it a night and continue another day. The sketch is on A3 cartridge, using only a few pencils (H, HB, 2B, 4B and a 6B - had a great H10 pencil but can't find the bloody thing!). I'm not too happy with the left hand (her left hand) and may change it, possible holding a sheet/coat? We'll see how it goes.

Boris

Da Boys

2007-01-08T23:38:00.000Z

This is me drawing some of my kids and their mates and called collectively as "Da Boys". They are in clockwise rotation, Bradley, Scott, Jonathan, Jordan, Scott again and Kallum. The idea was to get them iron transferred onto T-Shirts for them to show off to their mates, just never got round to it (saving it for a rainy day).

Mermaids

2007-01-08T23:31:00.000Z

This is my growing collection of mermaids, me mate, Stig keeps nagging me to sketch him mermaids (I know, it sounds really pervy, but then you don't know Stig - ah bless him).

They are only doodles, as I'm still trying to scribble my definitive mermaid in rough first.

Art Commission - Littlejohn

2007-01-08T23:04:00.000Z

This was a last minute commission just afore Christmas 2006, again from one of the girls in the office, Hazel, she wanted me to sketch a portrait of her husband for his Christmas present. The only problem she had was that the hubby is always the one who took the photos, she she had to dig deep and eventuallty found a selection of photos to show me, I chose the one below as it was the only one where I could clearly define the features on the face.

Tip: it really helps when the photo provided for a commission is big enough to see the features clearly, too small and i'd be left guessing and ultimately the face might not look right.

This sketch was created using a variety of pencils (10H, 4H, HB 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B) on A3 cartridge paper.

The total time spent sketching was 5-6 hours over a few days, and finally completed on the 7th December 2006.

The result is that hubby now wants a sketch of Hazel to hang alongside his.

Art Commission - Virtue Ryan

2007-01-08T22:02:00.000Z

This is a commission I was given by one of the girls in the office where I work, Virtue Ryan, she desperately wanted me to sketch her from an old photo she had of herself,when

was younger, so how could I not oblige her?

It's a pencil sketch on A3 cartridge, and took my a couple of days to complete.

The commission was finally completed on the 2nd November 2006.

I used this colour photo she provided me with as my reference for the sketch.

Virtue seems to like the finished result, I was pretty pleased with the end result too.

Me and my art....

2007-01-08T20:50:00.000Z

If you read my profile (don't worry if you haven't, I'm not that literate), you'll know that my first love is art, I'm extremely lucky enough to be able to be doing it in some form at my place of work, which I enjoy immensely. Whenever I have free time, I like nothing better than to create fantasy/sci-fi sketches, comic heroes, and the like.When I really get into my art, my imaingation keeps running constantly, it's a great buzz, I have sketched hundreds of ideas in rough, hopefully when I've more time, than I can develop them better.

When I'm not creating art at work, I like creating art for myself, mainly Sci-Fi/Fantasy with the odd caricature and portrait thrown in.

I love working in pencil initially, then inking, and recently digital art (using Adiobe Photoshop). I really want to get into Oil Painting, before I retire, so hopefully, I'll have another string to my bow in my art portfolio. When I retire (in a couple of years) it's been one of dreams for as long as can remember, to freelance and become a full time artist/illustrator working from home (in Northumberland). I'm in the midst of converting my on old garage/stables into my work studio, well it'll be an easier task when I can clear out all the rubbish, boxes not opened since we moved in a year ago, a fleet of bicycles (various sizes) boxes of

assorted junk we never got to sell at a car boot sale last summer oh yes and my son's (which cost too much money for the actual use it gets) multi-gym that is slowing oxidizing in the cold northern air. Once all these are removed, then perhaps I can realise my dream....

The plan is simple, I retire (in a couple of years, if they let me!), spend a couple of years locked away in my studio (being inspired by my good wife Brenda, and my six kids, three Siberian Huskies, two Persian kittens, building enough of a portfolio of art that when I'm ready, I might have something to show the world other than these simple doodles and sketches.

I really love sketching, and try to keep a small sketchbook of ideas and scribbles going on a daily basis (thanks to my mate Stig for giving me that idea).

I'm also into photography, (currently own a nice Canon 350D digital SLR) and when out yomping over the great Northern countryside and wastelands with my three wolvine like pooches, just love taking arty (well arty to me) photos of anything that takes my fancy (tree's, fields, brooks, tree, fields, sky, sunsets tree's, fields etc.)

I still feel that I'm not really that good an artist/illustrator and only consider myself to be an adequate at the moment (a bit of a jack of all trades but master of none, if you get my drift), but I know that given time I can probably evolve and hopefully master at least one of my personal art ambitions (oil painting). Just watch this space, OK?

I am Boris.... the beginning

2007-01-08T20:24:00.000Z

OK, here goes out for nowt (old saying up North), now you are probably guessing why the odd title "I am Boris" when clearly my name is NOT Boris but Jan Szymczuk (pronounced Shim-shook - quick tip whenever you see a z in an Eastern European surname and have trouble pronouncing the word, just mentally change the "z" to an "h" so szym becomes shim and czuk becomes chuk - got that?, ) well back in the real early days of my employment, my fellowcolleagues (following on with their daft traditions) wanted to give me a suitable nickname (I know, I tried explaining to them how my name was pronounced, but being guys with less brain cells than an single cell amoeba (myself included) they could quite grasp my Geordie accent as I pronounced my Polish surname. I went through an exciting few weeks of so called creative nicknames (Ching-a-Chook, Shell-Shock, Chimney Sweep, Shimmy and a myriad of others) none of them really seemed to work for me, so in desperation (and by that time, I was getting desperate) I had an inspiration (pretty rare for me) and I turned round and said to them, look, just call me Boris (at that time, I was quite a fan of the fantasy Artist Boris Vallego) and the name kind of stuck, and ever since mostly workmates, neighbours etc, called me Boris. So the legend in his own lunchtime was born.