I seem to have been slogging away at this forever..but now it's finished.I really enjoyed the figures in the right hand side of the picture..none of whom were there when I took the photo..when I was thinking of what figures to use..i found that quite coincidentaly, i'd featured the girl in the red top and white trousers...maybe she'll find her way inot other pictures?..see 'The Lady In Red' for her first appearance.
I worked for a while today on the bushes in the centre of the picture..to be honest I'm finding it a bit of a struggle to finish especially when I have so many exciting ideas taking shape. I went down into Derby today to take photographs of the Violinist. He's wasn't there..I believe he has gone to 17th Century Russia. I think also it is part of the lore that if you look for him, he will never be found but will only make himself known at the time of his own choosing.
I'm now on the lookout for someone to be my French Maid...any volunteers?
Right...it's time i finished this ...I've become a little uninterested and more concerned with my next project..but I'll stick with it and get it finished.
I always find it a sad occasion seeing an exhibition dismantled...for three days at the Old School Hall , the little group of artists I exhibited with was a like a friendly community of like minded individuals. We shared and exchanged ideas and advice and took encouragement from each sale. It was very busy for most of the day as it was a Bank Holiday, families were out to explore the Arts Trail. I was humbled by the amount of work I sold..surprised even!
Managed a couple of hours on this piece today..and also managed to sell another original and a few prints...Net and chatted with lots of interesting people throughout the day. to me , it makes it all the more worthwhile if I can talk about my work.
I don't know what the grey bands are that have appeared on my photo here...I'm not going to reshoot the pic. We're off in a short while to hang my pictures at the Willington Arts Festival. We have from 6pm till 10pm to do it....i've had some recent pictures framed and they're looking wonderful...especially 'PWM' and 'Ball Of Wool'...I'll of course publish photos here of them hanging and other stuff at the show. I've also got a big pile of prints to sign and wrap...which we'll do later tonight.
Here's the latest progress..It's just a matter of adding in buildings one at a time...I still don't know what I'm going to do with 'on the ground' but it still isn't something I need to decide just yet.
I think I sounded a little negative yesterday..that might be partially due to the cheeky little bottle of Merlot i had just imbibed!..I'm actually quite enjoying working on this now, i think it's because i can almost switch off..it's a technical exercise.
not done much work on this today..I've had to firstly take my application for the wirksworth Arts Festival to the festival office in Wirksworth..then buy watercolour paper to take to the printers for more copies of pictures which we then took to the framers..added to this the poor nights sleep i had and the upset stomach i seem to have acquired. despite my love of my home town ...my heart lies with my more fantastical and surreal pictures...so it's an effort to make myself work on this ....it pays the bills however!
Each building's facade is like a jigsaw piece...each one can be worked on individually. Each building is different to the next..unlike our modern cityscape's which often put glass covered box next to a ..erm... glass covered box.Each building here originally belonged to a small business jostling for individuality and prominence at the most public centre of town...Insurance..shoe makers..banks..a music shop...haberdashery...iron monger and public houses stand shoulder to shoulder.
This is the whole area of the composition. I have yet to decide upon the placing of figures, but at this stage it's unimportant. My main aim was to roughly put down the buildings...as i work on each one, I usually redraw with more accuracy .Good draughtsmanship is the key to understanding how to render an image, weather it is a figurative subject such as the one I'm working on here, or an abstract...it's the method of laying down a skeleton upon which to hang the ink/paint/collage etc...Take a look at the preparatory drawings of Julie's to see how a painter goes about starting a new piece.
Here's the first photograph as work begins on a new picture..My Derby pictures currently sell as prints via the Tourist Information Centre here in Derby. During my last meeting there a few weeks ago, it was suggested that a few images depicting the 'Cathedral Quarter' would be popular. Westfield opened a large brand new shopping mall in the city last October, and although being very popular, it has drawn trade away from the area I am basing this picture on. the Cathedral Quarter is the oldest area of the city with some very historic buildings. Irongate is the centre thoroughfare and has the Cathedral at the Northern end.
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