Drawings 2010, 3.

continuing the year's earlier stuff, these three - more finished looking - drawings are from around the end of february, three variations on compositions i was playing around with, the first of which should look familiar. these three are among my favourite pieces of that period and were more focused breaks from all the loose drawings, and time-consuming paintings. . .

there are all A3 sized and thus, are represented by photographs rather than scans. #11 proved the hardest to photograph because of its very subtle shading here and there, so, bear that in mind. the other two are good representations of the actual pieces though. . .

it should also be noted that straying out of my trusty A4 scale was kind of a big deal for me. . .



11.























remember winter drawing #2? this is a progression ON from that, one of a series of variations and my favourite of the bunch, though there's another less stylised. this one has the subtitle 'freewheelin'', and if i have to explain that *shakes head* give yourself a slap.

this was another step into incorporating more of a background into the image i was producing. there was a lot of messing about drawing very loose building compositions with no figures in that led up to the likes of this, which i like. the other two drawings here are less busy, obviously . . .

there's a painting similar to this to come.


12.























this one, i love - it's kind of an 'iain image' if ever there was one. what i mean by that is that there are images emma says are instantly recognisable as my work by compostion and feeling as well as style, and i think this is one of those.

i like lots about this, i think it works and the likenesses are both really good, as i think is the division between dark and light areas of the image, and the poses. as someone who draws but is his own worst critic, this the kind of image you do five or six drawings for the 'that's okay, that's fine' pile to get to.

side-note: i can't take credit for the stray feathers falling from those great, dark oily wings - those were emma's idea. she does sometimes HAVE these little insights and ideas that i just wouldn't think of for one reason or another, so, credit where it's due. . .

and it's probably unsurprising for me to tell you that a painted version of this is currently 'work in progress'



13.























you can kind of tell this one was drawn around the same time because it shares a lot of linear and tonal qualities, though again it's quite different in feeling to #12 i think. . .

i like this one a lot too. side-note, remember what i was saying a couple of entries ago about emma's hair constantly changing length and that being a kind of artistic license? this is a good example - i deliberately made her hair shorter in this image so that the lovely area where her the back of her neck and shoulder meet and the dark hollow between her jaw and shoulder would be open to the eye. look at the drawing and try to imagine hair obscuring that area and you'll perhaps understand WHY i do these things. the drawing just wouldn't be the same without these little details. the same could be said of the neck on #12.

not that i have a thing about necks. . . . okay, i do, i admit it

*shrug*

i sometimes wonder in posting this stuff if it will be positively recieved, not because i don't think it's good, but because i'll be the first to admit my work has become utterly self-indulgent in the last year, moving away from very anonymous figure compositions and into, well, capturing the woman i love in one way or another and not really doing anything BUT that. i mean you kind of know when iain posts new work, it's not going to be anything other than another visual love letter to the little blonde spitfire, but. . .

i can live with that. i am happy with the stuff i produce, and i long since gave up being someone who paints FOR other people. art's not my career, it's something i do out of a compulsion to express feelings i have about the things around me with meaning, and those things within me that can't be expressed with clumsy words.

if nothing else, it's honest. . .

anyway - that's all for now. next - some more painting. . .

Drawings 2010, 2.

*sigh*

if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding. how can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat, people? hmm?

so. one year on and my supergirl, my little blonde firecracker continue our journey, and this year so far a few blank canvasses have gone the way of the other paintings thus far - long gestation times - but my propensity to churn out loose drawings or spend hours upon finnicky ones has remained pretty consistent. . .

what's new, or one of the things that IS new is the very process of working which has altered dramatically. the newfound habit of messy ink drawings hashed out to try and capture fleeting ideas and compositions has given me a kind of focus that's led to MORE paintings being STARTED on confident footing. . . even IF they're still taking forever because of one thing or another. . .

anyway. the following is a second portion of drawings, all favourites from around february.




6.






















similar to #4, though even more 'finished' in one way, and the one i prefer of the two (emma prefers #4), i think it's just more emma. like #3, again there were areas so heavily worked on that the paper was almost ready to tear, and like #1, this one's kind of all about defining shape, the shape of her nose and lips and eyes. again, it's a bit of a preparatory for a painting along with #1, which i'll be posting soon. . .



7.























this by comparison is more of a sketch. and stylised. if i'd gotten anything out of winter aside from those i've already listed, it was kind of a re-awoken desire for context in my pieces and i began - as you've seen in a couple of other drawings - to draw cafe scenes and to get back into looking at people like edward hopper again. plotting. so we get things like tables, cups and backgrounds and other figures starting to appear rather than flat space.

as a sidenote, emm finds my constant artistic license regarding the length of her hair hilarious. why do i sometimes draw it long and sometimes short? the simple answer is i don't really know. i kind of go with what feels right for a specific image, so sometimes it being short and layered looks better. it's a bit idiosyncratic, i know, but most things about me are. some days i take sugar in my coffee, sometimes sugar and milk, sometimes just black. . .

*shrug*



8.























and THIS one's even sketchier, but is a very good example of what i was just saying about context. background. details. a year ago i'd just neve rhave drawn something like this - but i love this, regardless of its sketchiness and the fact you'd never say 'that's really great', it is what it is and it captures some fragment of my life, complete with desk, cabinets, computer, bookcase, framed comic books on the wall, action figures, headphones. . . and emma. what she's pointing at and saying is entirely open for interpretation, though. you can use your imagination there. . .



9.
























and this one. . . is another of those fantastically enjoyable sharpie drawings that on its own is - to me at least - brilliant enough in what it captures and says in the simplest of ways, but. . . i liked it so much i went on to do THIS:



10.
























which i don't think needs any commentary. i. . . love this one with a passion, for obvious reasons, but beyond that it just captures so much in such an honest way. i'm very proud of this one. . .

and that's your lot for now

-iain

Winter, 3.

so,

just enough time before scooting for easter to make another post here, the third batch of winter drawings. bored of these yet? thought so. anyway- again, selected from a big old pile, this time by both me AND emma. some favourites, some more representational. directional. again, some sketchier than others, some more finished.

but enough of my pointless talk.





20.

more dying sharpie, used deliberately for effect rather than a fresh pen. this was another image i'd been carrying around in my head and for once managed to execute it almost exactly as i saw it. i like this one a lot. . .



















21.

. . . this meanwhile is one of emma's picks. there's nothing to it and i never really reflected on it as anything other than a slightly goofy doodle. . .



















22-25.

various pencil drawings. 22 & 23 are emm's picks, the other two are mine. 22 was a deliberate attempt to draw emma in something OTHER than that damn cardigan that although synonymous with her (to me at least) i'd gotten into the habit of just automatically drawing, in spite of the fact she scarcely wears the thing anymore. 23 leans towards being more stylised. 24 & 25 meanwhile are favourites of mine, and depictions of emma in 2002, and 2009 respectively. 24 i'm especially fond of.




















































26.

this one's very sketchy but i love it probably more than anything more 'finished' here. it was sketched during a reflective period shortly before christmas, thinking about the couple of months that had led to that point, and this was what came out. the title, 'hymn' just seemed fitting somehow. . .



















27.

this by contrast is probably the most intricate, finnicky, finished drawing of all of these 'winter' drawings, done around the same time as 26 (and also, 19) and featuring a partick glasgow skyline, and one of the best drawings of emma i've ever done, as well as certainly the most realistic looking wings i've ever drawn - as opposed to very stylised flat shapes. detail. lots of detail. i love this. we both love this.



















28.

by contrast, this is that more stylised execution again. albeit in differing amounts, lending the possibility the figure is standing in front of a drawing of a building rather than a building itself. the bird on his shoulder is halfway there, but wouldn't look nearly as good done realistically. she's a small quirk, but my favourite part of this image.



















29.

'?'
















. . . emma picked this one- you can tell. make of it what you will. . .

and that's all for now.

next time, something completely different. . .

Winter, 2.

Alrighty then,

Much delayed follow up to that last post, mostly procrastination on my part and the usual headaches, literal and otherwise.

Again, these are a mixed bunch. Selections from the big pile - Some sketches, some little more than doodles and others more refined than a lot of the preceding stuff I'd been churning out. Variations on repeated themes and images, further attempts to incorporate more of a background as well as full figures into images. Again, some of these images show up in later drawings and at least one painting, more refined. Those you'll see, in time. . .

You can view these as a continuation of a period where I was back enjoying the simple process of sitting and drawing without ever getting critical about what I was doing. Just taking my time, trying things, seeing what I could come up with. . .



9-11.

Like #5 & #6, these are a rough ink drawing that serves as kind of a try-out or rough for - i this case - two pencil drawings, variations of the same poses and composition, though both feel very different, emotionally speaking. These are two of four or five, incidentally. This was an image that I was a little obsessed with capturing in JUST the right way, and these two drawings are essentially my favourites of the bunch.







































12 & 13.

Again, same concept - Pen drawing and then a more refined second drawing, in this case done in a mix of pen and pencil. While still fairly rough, as with #10 & #11, I love the resulting image, the composition, the feel of it. It says what I want it to say which no amount of finnickiness ever could.




























14.

There's almost nothing to this sketch, but I love it. Real indie comic book splash-page composition.


















15.

Again, there's pretty much nothing to this small doodle. And it is little more than a doodle. But again, I love it. A more polished, finished painted version of this composition I'll post at a later date.
















16.

Done around the same time as #15, again there's very little to this one. It was just an idea, an image I had in my head I wanted to get down on paper. I like this. It's not great, but it looks unlike anything else I've drawn and has a certain dynamism to it that I find appealing.
















17.

Again - imperfect, but I love this image, and it's one I'd had in my head for a long, long time but never put down on paper before this, but which I went on to do more versions of. Yes it's a little goofy, and the birds are stylised rather than realistic, but. . . *shrug*
















18.

Another Sharpie begins its slow death with this one, which I utilised by using the smudgey inklessness to express texture, using a new pen on parts like the coat to make them stand out. This, again, is an image that spawned variation after variation but again, was me pushing myself to include architecture, perspective and whole figures. well, at least ONE. I'm extremely fond of this one, particularly the depiction of Emm which I think is one of the best I've done of her.
















19.

And #18 could be said to have spawned this drawing, another favourite of mine. I love this. Again, it's not perfect but I care very little about perfection anymore.

Emm, Edinburgh, Forbidden Planet - a very full drawing with a background, foreground and even stuff in the middle. Architecture, at least one full figure - shadowy or not - This was sort of a breakthrough. The beginnings of one, at least. Through which much of my long lost confidence started to slowly rebuild itself.

None of which would have happened without all that had happened in the weeks before, I think. I don't know. . .















. . . More next time.

Leftovers.

. . . . right.

so where to begin. the start, i guess. dozens upon dozens of pieces to upload and post that tell some kind of a story of going through a dark period last october into november, drawings for the most part but which - i think - don't necessarily make for easy viewing.

someone you love deeply almost dying kind of has. . . an adverse reaction on your work. and work into that other things going on at the same time - they were some pretty dark times. 'pretty' pictures' are not made on darker days. . .

thus, we'll begin with some leftovers - some rescans, some unposted stuff, some from as early as last spring, a couple of others from early october. before, you could say. . . and again, some i like, some i'm posting because emma - the subject, as ever - likes them, and some are better than others. . .

a note - i work from my imagination. i don't use photographs, i don't draw from life. i used to do both, but, especially working from photographs for a few years led me to a place where i became VERY dependant upon reference material and when it came to drawing from the top of my head, once my favourite way to work, i became overly critical of everything i produced, and that. . . bled into my other work. the decision to NOT work from source material has pros and cons - sometimes for example, the likeness of a person is lost a little in favour of capturing more some essence of them. i couldn't say whether that's a pro or a con, it's just something that is. some of what i do comes off very stylised, some doesn't. my brain decides. it's. . . i think, as honest a way to draw, or paint as there is.

so. some of it is better than others. but even the weaker stuff has elements i like. as you'll see when everything 'kicks off' in the next entry, the aesthetic goal of everything looking 'right' sort of goes out of the window in favour of expressive, visceral purging. and it does very much become about imagination, and abandoning old, finnicky, realist habits. . .

these, meanwhile, mostly speak for themselves, though some liner notes might be helpful. i'll post those at the end.






































































































































































































'liner notes':

1- the 'very short-haired emma' drawing is an oldie. about a year ago she had her hair cut almost - but not quite - that short, something she immediately regretted and fortunately her hair grows almost freakishly fast, the progression of which can be seen over the course of the other drawings, although it's often hard to put older stuff in chronological order because i - to appease her unease over how short her hair was - more often than not drew her with LONGER hair. . .

2- the dark, inky 'sleeping emma' piece that follows is one of my favourite pieces from last year. acrylic/ink on board, this kind of thing i feel i'm 'in my element', it's messy and loose in places (okay, most of it) and then finnicky in others like the hair. i also really liked that wing / shadow because it could be either, but wouldn't have worked with the usual, standard owl's wing. and more on owls, later. . .

3- the single, colour piece is me messing around with watercolours, not especially liking it and then inking lines over the whole thing. and yes, i know her head is disproportionately large. her head isn't that big in real life, i promise. i should also point out that she doesn't wear that cardigan ALL the time. i'm just especially fond of it. . .

4- the three panel piece. this is from the 'book of emma' and dates back to about the same time as a similar, almost comic book page. i like this a lot, even though as emma pointed out before i was even finished drawing the thing, the third panel looks more like sarah from 'chuck', which we'd not long watched. that's the subconscious for you. some you win, some you lose. . .

5- ears. some of those are emma's, some of them are mine. and some of them are composites. i was clearly a bit OCD that particular day.

. . . and the last two were the last two done BEFORE everything went. . . dark. the humour and prettiness of these is all but missing from what follows.

so these were as good a place as any to begin all this again . . .

random.

saturday is the day for random drawings from what amounts to a sizeable backlog pile. all pencil, different dates, different levels of completion and quality and some i'm happier with than others, but. . .