Winter Paintings, 3.

right,

summer has arrived - well, in theory - and we're still posting work from winter and spring (which if you live in scotland pretty much amount to the same season) and so, let's get down to some serious posting again.

first up, a composition that will look familiar to anyone who remembers these and their progression from the chaos of dark old october, to earlier this year:





















































































. . . yes?

three drawings of essentially one composition that was sticking, but not. . . quite working out. i added the single 'emma in profile' image there because it was key in getting me from A to B, and to this *deep breath* here:











































. . . granted, not in one GO. again, as with the other paintings i've posted recently, the figures here are lifesized. which is hard worker for starters.

this is one of those pieces that was started, abandoned, started again, reworked. . . emma's hair went from full length and curling around her shoulders to the short - barely a - bob in the final image in about three stages, and my clothing was changed at least that many times. from plaid shirt and t-shirt, to coat and superman t-shirt, to closed coat and red t-shirt.

this was clearly an image that wasn't simply fulfilling an old compositional idea and i lost. . . SO much sleep over getting it as far as it got. the faces were repainted, and repainted, the hands - sweet JESUS, don't get me started on those! is emma's right hand tucking itself under my coat because that was my original intention for it? let's just say 'yes' shall we . . . ?

the background too went from plain, to a detailed backdrop which didn't really work, another backdrop, and back to plain again - which was fine except that i then obsessed about getting the colour and tone JUST right. . .

this painting DIDN'T paint itself, then, no, it's not my 'moby dick' - that painting i've YET to try and tackle, but let's just say i HAVE a composition for a painting in my head that will never leave me alone until i paint it - no, but it was harder work than anything i'd painted in a long time. and i will. . AM hard pressed not to go and rework it STILL. i only refrain from doing so because i've been threatened with a kick in the testicles from emma if i DO. . .

. . . i love this, though. i'm proud of it. again, as with the otehr pieces i've done recently, the likenesses are really strong. practise, i guess. i think i did things with colour through trial and error that ended up taking me somewhere new, and somewhere i liked. and there are little details here that i'm incredibly fond of, such as that lovely butterscotch coloured freckle on emma's ear, the ear itself (remember that whole page of ear drawings? came in handy, huh?) the slightly more subtle freckle on her cheekbone, the colouring around her eye, her hair. . . and just the feeling OF the painting.

detailed areas. flat, undetailed areas. emma's hair shorter than it's been since she was about one year old, but it WORKS in the image more than painting her hair longer would have. and i know that because i bloody DID :P

emma pointed out to me early on that we're not quite touching in this. like the drawings i posted where the figures are in that moment before a kiss, this is similar, but it's an embrace ABOUT to happen. she's ABOUT to turn. . . if you see what i mean.

emma also provided a tile, 'shelter' to an otherwise umpteenth untitled piece. anyone who can tell me WHERE she got the title from gets a gold star. . .

anyway. details:






























































and that, for now, is your lot :)

-iain

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 Paintings, 2.

. . . and let's have another one.

this one's 'gestation' - thanks, emma - wasn't quite AS long as that of the last painting, but was another of those pieces that was semi-abandoned for weeks and months at a time, called 'finished' around september but then heavily worked on in december to a point it changed completely - note the length of emma's hair. slight artistic license, but as of right now, not by much - and again, it benefited from being left alone, worked on and left alone again.

i'm really fond of this one, again. i think the colours came out great, especially. . .

Big, 1.

So.

We're onto November into December now in this 'Catch Up' summary drawn over however many entries, and I'll do the same again rather than bombarding you eyes with a gajillion images at once.

But before I get too submerged in another x-number of entries of drawings, I thought I'd post something painted to break things up a little. There's quite a bit of painting to post, but I think thi, an soe of the others I'll slot in between the remaining work from 2009 I have to post, fit a little better than any of the more 'realised' full colour stuff.

This one is. . . Kind of an anomally. And huge, those figures are life-sized. On paper. I had started it months before, abandoned it, worked over it, disiked it, repainted parts, abandoned it some more. It was always a BIT sketchy and while a lot of it remains pretty sketchy, the figures became more fully realised, and thus the focus, and that was what I went back to and worked on until I declared 'done'

The backdrop again is sort of vaguely Dundee. It should really be Edinburgh, but I guess the architecture of Dundee is more ingrained into my sychological source material when it comes to drawin buildings. Especially Perth Road, a long road I must have walked thousands of times my four years at art school. . .

I liked to think of this as not two people standing in front of some distant buildings as two people standing in front of a painting of some distant buildings. And again, bear that in mind, it's an element in some of what I go on to paint next. . .

I like it. The depiction of Emm is far more 2002 than 2009 - rounder face and so on - but i chose not to get finnicky and correct that. Actually, I kind of like that about it. . .

Emma That Was.

Righto,

This one's a bit different and is one of the oil pieces I've been working on. It depicts - as the title suggests - Emma, circa 2002 when I first met her - long, thick hair, nose stud, eyeliner and a little rounder in the face.

I've given her the same blue cardigan and turquoise shirt because I think they look great with the slightly stylised fleshtones i tend to use, and the brushwork in this is a bit more my usual fare rather than very smooth like in 'Emma #3'

Is it finished? Probably not. Am I done with it for now? Yes. I really liek it in this state, to be honest. Sometimes I have this awful habit of overworking things - I get to a point where a painting looks great, and I keep on going with it and absolutely ruin it and there is definitely a point where you should say 'this looks good' and put your brushes down. . .

This looks good.

*puts brushes down*

Black and White, #3 & #4

. . . two further black and white pieces, one - the second here - more stylised, while one is a bit more realistic than the other three have been and maybe isn't technically black and white because i used some buff titanium acrylic which is just an essentially colour for anyone who paints people.

buff titanium. the absolute best base for fleshtones there is.

admittedly here it's used to make things a bit more subtle, and thus i'm maybe going to rework the 'ode' paintings i've done thus far including #3 to incorporate it - i like the way it works with the black and white, it adds. . . . SOMETHING.

anyway, i think this much more realistic little painting - again, about A4-ish and done on a scrap of cardboard and left rough in areas while worked tightly in others - is one of the best things i've done recently, it has some lovely quality. it's simple and uncomplicated. simple and uncomplicated is good. . .

emma, #3

oil on canvas, framed

. . . and i never frame anything. this was the third large-ish painting - basically life-sized, the first close-up below is the EXACT size - i did of the lovely emma after two colour pieces specifically FOR her to choose from, before giving her both.

this one i did for myself, and though the three are very similar i like this one best partly because there's a little more feeling in it somehow and i think i'd fnally gotten a grasp of the pale fleshtones and blonde hair which i'd initially found slightly awkward after years of painting the reliable contrast of dark hair and light skin.

granted a little artyistic license means both are a little darker in the painting than the subjects own hair and skin, but. . .

i love this piece, i'm proud of it and happy with it enough that i put it in a frame. granted it's a bastard to photograph and the close-ups are a better representation of the colours than the first image, however. . .

it paved the way for everything that's been coming lately. the drawings, the 'ode' series and other stuff in the works that you'll see. soon enough. . .