Jigsaw - End game part eleven.

I really wanted to get a Bumble Bee into the picture somewhere...so here he is!....now for the last piece in the puzzle!

Jigsaw - End game part ten.

Only two more cards to go!...at time of writing (15:00), I have to take a break to fetch Annie from school.

Jigsaw - End game part nine.

The next card shows a female Black widow spider...! Here I have yet to apply yellow ochre and light blue/green.

Jigsaw - End game part eight.

Shuttle with DNA double helix trail now nearing completion....

Jigsaw - End game part seven.

I've decided to use the Space Shuttle for the next suit...

Jigsaw - End game part six.

The near finished card has developed nicely...

Jigsaw - End game part five.

Next comes yellow ochre...

Jigsaw - End game part four.

Next I'm adding light blue.....

Jigsaw - End game part three.

Here I've added a base layer of red dots....Incidentally, if you are wondering what the time frame is in which these pictures are taken, it's all within the last hour or so.

Jigsaw - End game part two.

Having laid down the first dots of dark blue, I will build up in fairly muted tones, the colours of this Peacock butterfly.

Jigsaw - End game part one.

Here's the first in a short series of images today which track the final stages before Jigsaw is finished.I've chosen to draw on symbols used in previous works to depict the suits of the cards. I might explain them later, but for now, here's the basic pencil outlines.Check back through out the day to follow my progress!

Jigsaw - 91

Work today centered around deepening the colours on my face and getting rid of the white outline. I completed the other lens and then began working on sketches for the playing cards. I had originally meant to depict the familar Hearts,Clubs Spades and Diamond suits....but that would be too easy!..join me tomorrow to see what I've decided upon and to actually be amongst the first to see the finished picture !!

Here's a good close up of the eyes..I just love the texture the dots make when viewtd this close!
Try clicking on the picture to get an even closer look!

Jigsaw - 90 Equinox and a dead Wasp

I hope I'm not jumping the gun, but I think I've finished the sky at last. I used to oft quoted maxim "When you start looking for things to do, stop!"...so I've moved onto deepening some of the colours and shades on my face and blending the outline with the background. More work will have to wait until daylight .Which reminded me that today is the winter equinox...I must be stupid because it was only a year or so ago that I found out that the 'Equinox' means that the day and the night time are of equal length!

I also clicked this photo today...whatever the limitations of my Olympus MJU 5000 are, Super Macro is not one of them.Great close ups are one of the things it definitely can do! I thought this rather small Garden Spider(Probably a male due to it's smallness) looked good preparing it's supper of silk entwined Wasp.

Jigsaw - 90

It might not be obvious what I've achieved today...but in any case, I spent near six hours doing it!...I was involved mainly with the branches and yet more colouration of the nebula including adding yellow and red..not that this photo shows it very well! I have decided to continue darkening the upper reaches of the branches on the right tree to match the one on the left.

Jigsaw - 89

Not much more to do now..a good few full days work should wrap this up. I am now applying my thoughts to the next project...I think I mentioned doing some small pics...this may very well happen, but I still keep returning to the image of the cello girl in the last piece (Cello)...I think the cello is a wonderfully sensual instrument, I intend one day to learn how to play one.

I've recently been reading a book by Vikram Seth called 'An equal Music'..it's about a man who plays as part of a string quartet who by chance meets an old flame...they meet and begin a passionate affair....then begins the problems of their prospective partners, in the case of the woman, her husband and child. It's a very well written love story, but especially notable for the way it incorporates the joy of making music, playing as part of an internationally respected group. The feelings and images of the book have remained with me, and so I'm wondering about adding my own particular treatment to the string quartet. you might remember some time ago I wrote about a violinist I kept seeing in my home town...I used to imagine that he was a time traveller and arrived at opportune times to play music to perform a destined role to bring lovers together...I would like to explore that idea a little more fully........watch this space!

Jigsaw - 88

Today I spent time adding in more darker areas around the nebula...I've also paid some attention to the tree on the left which involved adding yellow ochre and red to the branches...lots more to do there.

Below I've put this close up in to give you an idea of the density of dots needed depict the nebula..I tried to alter the colour balance to give a more vibrant photo, but it's still too red, but you get the idea!

Jigsaw - 87

Work continues on the nebula and darkening the sky..then I will complete the branches and darken the trees. I shall move back to my face where I have to deepen some of the shades and pay attention to the white outline which makes me look like a cut out. I'm hoping to finish this next week!

Jigsaw - 86

OK..hands up time.I regret posting my moans yesterday...only because I damn well have no reason ...I switched on my TV for the news...I don't need to illustrate my point obviously, but doesn't it just bring everything back into proportion when you see what others are going through? I will say this however..I may filter some of the things I feel and think, but basically I want to depict a 'as near as possible' realistic view of the artist...I am actually I suppose, no more neurotic than any other bloke, the difference is,I think, I'm able to express it...sort of...

Spend over five hours dotting purple today....

Jigsaw - 85

There is absolutely no way that I'll ever get above myself ...it just won't happen. After any exhibition I feel the 'come down' that is me returning to real life.I enjoy exhibiting because it's possibly the only environment where I'm allowed to be me...I am the artist and I'm taken seriously. But I now begin seven weeks of school runs, pack up lunches and the whole gamut of domestic activity...Jan is as always very busy, she's off to Ireland acting this weekend, then more rehearsals for the next tour of 'More Story Please' which starts performances from 21st September. So I will do what I can to find time to work, I have some very definite ideas for my next big picture but think I might need to produce some small pieces in readiness for Christmas. Don't worry, you'll see everything here as it develops from pencil sketch to the finished picture.

Jigsaw - 84

What can say? Oskur, I am indebted to you ...your selfless devotion in my service should not go without commendation...not even Lord Greystoke himself could ever claim such as I. Thank you for taking care of business whilst I was having a day off.....by the way, the dress looked gorgeous, I never realised you were such a style icon!

Back to earth for me today...and back to work on Jigsaw.

Hellow..itz mee Oskur!

Hellow fanz..itz mee agen. I howp yu lyk mi neuoo dres..I lyk tu geyt ein tuch wiv mi femminyn syd evry nouw an agyn!

Enny wey, ey fort yu myt lyk tu noe dur mastur iz avin a dey ovf tu recuuperayt frum iz exybishon..ee iz lizening tu moozick aynd relaxyng. Wych givs mee tyme tu tel yu dat ee iz exsytedd abowt awl dur nyse fings peeple sed tu im att dur weeekhend...eee iz gowyng tu av lottz ov gud ideeyers becuz ov it!..ee wyll mayk sum gud pikchurs ..ey karnt weyt tu see wot ee cumz hup wiv neckst !

Eny wey, Iy av tu gow nouw bekuzz eyve goot a ladur iin mi tytes aynd mi lypstik az faydud...huh...dur fings wee gurls du tu luk pritty!

Bi bi fanz...seee yu agyen suun.

Oskur

xxx

Jigsaw - 83 Exhibition day Two.

I'm having problems up loading photos here for some reason...I wanted to share some views of my exhibition venue etc...I'll try tomorrow, but in the meantime, if you'd like to see then before then, go to my Facebook page and you'll see them there!

Anyway, here I am sitting at the end of what became a very successful and prosperous weekend.Again I had around 230 visitors during the day and I was told by many people that they thought my show was the best in the festival.I don't know how anyone can say this as there were artists exhibiting many varieties of medium and I don't think you can value a drawing more than a sculpture more than a piece of ceramics or jewelry.

It was even better however to catch up with a few friends and acquaintances I've made over my regular exhibitions at Wirksworth and Cromford ...a very big thank you to anyone who I met...it meant so much to me!

I did manage to join the edges at the top of Jigsaw..I reckon another good week or so and you'll see this finished!

Jigsaw - 82 Exhibition day one.

What can I say at the end of such an amazing day?..I am incredibly moved by the response of over 250 people who came along to visit me today, it might seem over dramatic and self indulgent for me to say that I found tears running down my cheeks during the 30 minute drive home. I know it sounds silly, but unlike other exhibitions I attend, wirksworth is special because the people who attend are genuine art lovers. certainly many of the people I spoke to today knew what they were talking about exhibiting a deep knowledge of art generally but also familiar with the Pointillist technique...then to be told so many complementary things about my work meant so much.

I usually have so many doubts and insecurities about my work, especially my darker surreal stuff..but it those very pictures which drew the most praise and admiration...I was totally gobsmacked to coin a phrase as I'd previously worried that i'd be ousted as a sexist pervert..but my genuine love and admiration of women was somehow detected...my love of mystical images, symbolic items, fetishes, religion , guilt and a willingness to honestly examine my own motives and follies and failings was acknowledged.

There were some genuinely warm hearted and lovely people there today..I'm sorry I don't have your names, but your encouragement is worth to me like gold!...

I sold a couple of prints during the day...drank three cups of tea, one coffee and ate a large piece of Walnut and Banana cake...I completed around 3 hours work on Jigsaw and felt happier and more loved than I have in ages...Thank you.

The night before.

Well, we're nearly ready. Tonight Jan and I drove up to Wirksworth to our venue. A beautiful Victorian house with a lovely lawn where tables and chairs are arranged in readiness for serving teas and cakes.I'm hopeful that I'll have lots of visitors to my exhibition as the venue is the first house (or the last house depending on how you look at it!) on the trail , and the weather forecast is favourable for the weekend too!

I've hung a selection of my more surreal black and white pictures together for the first time...I'm referring to them as 'The Dark Side', it will be interesting to hear what people think of them as they're my favourite ones to do! I will also be presenting a selection of my more landscape based works.I will also be working on 'Jigsaw' so people can see how I create my pictures.

It's late here, but we've still got around 40 mounted prints to wrap and label before I get off to sleep..coffee and toast are required I think! I'll try to post lots of photos throughout the weekend, and if I find something interesting to click as we wrap the prints, I'll add it here.

Jigsaw - 82

Working on the tree seen here today. I will be reducing the amount of stars also, but it's easier to work over them and almost impossible to add stars in.I'm just enjoying a fairly relaxed working day today, because tomorrow we shall be sorting out putting my exhibition up..then before bedtime, we have to wrap and label 40 mounted prints.

09 - 09 - 09 The Sorcerer.

Today was busy with non - Jigsaw work. the main task was to create the artwork for The Rosehill Musical society's production of The Sorcerer by Gilbert and Sullivan..The main character brews up a love potion which he serves from a teapot...so having originally provided a choice of three designs, Peter Featherstone who is responsible for Publicity and Marketing chose the above design. This is a version including the title...eventually all text concerning the show will be added. Below is a version with out text, and below that are the development sketches showing the work from pencil sketch to finished piece.

Here I've begun inking in the image..I will create texture and depth by adding dots later.

This is the penciled arrangement of the Sorcerer and his teapot..the steam from the teapot will swirl upwards to incorporate the title.

Here on the right is the original concept chosen to become the design for the publicity material. The face I've drawn on the left is to become the final artwork...but still needs some tweaking!

Jigsaw - 81

It's difficult to envisage what the finished article will look like as the nebula will be obvious but not too bright...I want to show it almost emerging from the top of my head! it's tendrils of star clouds curling like some astral octopus. This will mean darkening the sky considerably behind the trees....but it will be worth it in the end!

Jigsaw - 80

This week I begin to ready myself for my next exhibition which is on Saturday and Sunday this week.The Wirksworth Festival runs each year and is considered a prestigious and widely known arts festival. Over 100 artists take part over the weekend exhibiting in various venues across Wirksworth, a small town north of Derby in the Peak district.I'll tell you more about my role there and my place in the Arts Trail later in the week.

Today I've worked on the tree and sky seen here....two of my children have gone back to school and my day return to my regular routine.....so expect progress to gain some momentum from now on!

Jigsaw - 79

In response to Tysonice's request yesterday, here's a better photo by which to judge the size of 'Jigsaw' . It's drawn on A3 size watercolour paper . Today I passed the 300 hour mark which is by far the longest time I've worked on an individual piece. When I sit down to work, I make a note of the time and write it down.When I stop for any reason even it it be for 10, 20 minutes, I make a note of it...I then add it to a running total.This is how I arrive at my total...by this you can be assured that when I say I've done 300 hours...it is actually time spent dotting and nothing else.

Jigsaw - 78

Slow going...slow going...I've been on this since May and my life seems to revolve around it...I'm not complaining, it's just a convenient way of avoiding all the other stuff.

Jigsaw - 77

Jigsaw - 76

This is probably the best representation of the colours of this picture I've show you so far..Sometimes I think (and I'm not a technical photographer) the camera picks up the large areas of white, and this affects the way the other colours are detected. Well, as you can see, the amount of white is decreasing quite rapidly now, so that's perhaps why.

I decided to proceed up the left hand side of the picture after some indecision as to how big I'd make the nebula...I think it will all fall into place when I get to it!

Jigsaw - 75

Jigsaw - 74

It's been an odd week for me.Jan and the kids have been away camping.I hate camping as you know and I know some of you find this hard to believe, but here in the UK, camping is a bit of a gamble, well a s far as I'm concerned, it's a dead cert that it will rain and it will be cold. And I'm happy to confirm that reports from the camp back up my theory, and so much so that the tail end of Hurricane 'Bill' wondered across the Atlantic to dump it's rain and blow it's storm onto our tent rendering it damaged beyond repair. Jan rang me to say they were not going to pack the tent , but they were just going to put it in the rubbish skip on the way out!They're due back soon (I'm writing this at around 9:50 pm) They are due home around 11pm. their descriptions of the location are achingly wonderful and I'm so so frustrated that I couldn't be there...as being by the sea is one of the only sounds that masks my tinnitus...aarrgh!

My photo presented here is a little better than yesterdays offering.It was still taken with the flash because it's dark here.you'll just have to imagine that the lighter blue is actually much darker and blends in better.Meanwhile I continue to darken the sky and reduce the size of the stars...I'm much happier with it now.

Jigsaw - 73

I really thought that this would be a fairly quick procedure, but I've been slowly been refining the stars and making many of them smaller and covering many of them up....the colour representation here is not good, as in other light the differentiation between the various shades of blue and purple crates a rather more misty effect.I'll try again tomorrow to get a better photo.

Jigsaw - 72

Had a bit of a slower day today. But the stars are continuing to grow...I enjoy seeing how it's going to develop because I have no hard and fast plans...I'll just let nature take it's course.

Jigsaw - 71

Here you can see the formation of a new area in the sky...something I envisaged long before I began this picture. I sat having lunch with Jan in a nice pub out in the countryside...the conversation drifted to how long we had been married. (It was just before our 25th Anniversary) and I had mused on the fact that it would be nice to go back to when we first met. The memory of those days is still clear and I'd observed that it was a little like looking at the light from distant stars. We can see how things were so long ago, but because the light from some distant objects has taken millions of years to reach us, so things would now be very different. Do you get what I mean?

So the Nebula in this context is like a beautiful memory which dominates the sky, but is a representation of things that once were. I think it fits in nicely with the symbols in the rest of the composition....

Jigsaw - 70

Here you can clearly see the red I've started to introduce into the uppermost branches...I'm really just feeling my way with this one, i know I've seen trees that have caught the setting sun on their top branches before. I still intend to darken the reds more and deepen the shade of the trunk.In fact there's still quite a lot to cover on my actual head...currently there's a white outline

which would be appropriate if the moon were behind me....but it's not..so at some point I'm going to have to soften that effect and probably add more colour.

You might also notice I decided to lose a few stars...I might lose a few more before long!

Jigsaw - 69

This week I am having to cope with my annual 'Home alone' session as Jan and the children have gone off to camp with friends in Wales. As you probably know by now, I hate camping and so do not go with them . Instead , I remain home and usually this means lots of time to spend on my work with a little Bourbon abuse and megathermo curry consumption included.

Sunday 23d August...The greatest day in English cricket .

Ok...so no 'Jigsaw' today...I spent the day ( as did most England Cricket fans) listening to the Fifth and final Test Match between England and Australia...whilst I cannot publish yet any video of the the match, here is a promotional video which should give you an idea of the importance of this event.

in the end, England won! and 'The Ashes' are regained!...and all England celebrates tonight!

Jigsaw - 68

Here's a wonky view of the whole picture giving you an idea of the amount of work four days impacts on the amount of sky completed.At this rate it could be another three weeks or so before I reach the finishing stages!