Viscount Bubbles - 1

 After many hours of development I've arrived at something I'm happy with. The Starman is concentrating on the floating/ levitated object in front of him..it will be giving off a light which should illuminate his inner hands and face....I'll be using my reference photos taken earlier in the week to work from.

Below I've posted a photo showing a selection of the various sketches which lead to this final drawing...the final drawing can be seen buried somewhere in the middle of the photo. So there you have it...the start of what should be another interesting symbolism filled journey which will take me until the spring to complete.

Sketchbook .....

Spent all day agonising over the way i want to portray my Starman...having settled on the face, I have tried many different combinations of hands and arms...the one above is looking promising, the ones below give you an idea of how I like to produce my drawing combining separate factors together on tracing paper.

more Sketchbook .....

uh ho!...another miserable bitter looking old man...so I guess he probably will be The Star man. You can see by comparing him to the sketch yesterday that I've used the original idea and developed it...Tomorrow I hope to unite him with his body and transfer him to the page where I'll begin the dot work!

Sketchbook .....

Here's what I've been working with today...using my photos from yesterday,I built up a drawing which is the basis for whatever comes next...I know that sounds woolly, but I am split between depicting him with my face, of developing him as my Starman...( He's definitely not the Mad vicar!)...Behind him is what could also very easily be me as a child...the plants will most likely be Globe Thistles (Echinops)...

The plot thickens...!

Jobsworth.

We were musing this morning on Facebook about what might make up a job description for someone who is creative and seeking inspiration..as an artist I can spend time thinking, listening to music, reading, running..snoozing...cooking..watching movies/TV/ listening to the radio...libraries, galleries...you name it, if it serves the requirements of stimulation for creation, it's in the job description of the artist! What comes out of the end of my pen onto the paper is a direct result of whats going on in my thoughts, my feelings, my imagination and to neglect the proper and dedicated development of these ideas is to prepare to produce inferior work that is not making the absolute best of your talent.

sometimes, like this evening, it's about having fun..playing. I had need to find some resource images for a character I'm hoping to have in my new picture. I needed specific hands and posture so got set up with my camera and it's self timer , and positioned a lamp that I would light my hands and head...below is one of the images from the series I took this evening...you might see it's origin in the sketches in a previous post...remember where you saw it and if you keep coming back, you'll see what becomes of it!

As always, the period of gestation for my work is often frustrating, but it can be exciting...it can be a voyage of discoveries as sketches develop and take on a life of their own...that time is good..and that time is now!

Sunday running!

Work is coming along well on preparation for the new picture...I've nearly decided on the elements that will compose what I'm going to call 'Bubbles'. I'm looking forward to getting started on the drawing work which should begin tomorrow.
I wanted to also share with you that today I managed to run 10.06 miles! It was such a beautiful day with bright sunshine..my regular running routine has become a little stale of late using the same routes...I try to set goals to challenge myself and see how far I can push myself...the furthest I've run in one go so far had been 8.50 miles...so today I planned my route and resolved to run the 10 miles. The route took me out of the city into the countryside which lit up in the late afternoon sunshine was wonderful...on return home I was almost sad to have finished and luckily for me still felt I have a couple more miles of gas in the tank ...I think the next goal is to complete a half marathon course which I guess will be 13 miles!
Here's a map of my run which was created using the tools on walkjogrun.net which is a wonderful resource for planning and measuring a route just about anywhere in the world!...it also goes so far as to tell you how many calories you can expect to burn in your run...apparently I used 1448.5 calories today!

I love my running...when I think back to this time last year when I was over 3 stone heavier and had never run more than 2 miles in my entire life...I can only be thankful that I am able to enjoy an active and fit body...not bad for a 50 year old eh?

10 mile run

10 miles / 16.09344 km

Created 01.10.12 by niallyoung

Sketchbook gestations...

Regular readers here will know that the period between pieces is often a traumatic time for me....although I have countless sketchbooks full of ideas stretching back to the early 1980's...I find myself tormented over the what to apply my time to...knowing obviously that the next 2 - 6 months could be spent on the next drawing, I have to be sure that what I settle on is the right decision! so here are what you will be familiar with are some little sketches  of ideas that I don't mind you seeing....I've worked in greater detail on a couple of the ideas here and will make my decision soon...be sure you'll see me start at the very beginning as always!

Some people are shocked to find that my work is so exact and planned, that I work from these relatively small and simple sketches for my basic reference for composition...well, composition is easy...it's a matter of displacement and symmetry...of weights and perspective...these can be addressed in these simple sketches...the detail and final rendering happens at a later stage..and often during the actual dotting of the final piece!

Anyway....I'll shut up now and get on with the actual doing!...I hope you enjoy these crude scrawlings...if you follow me, you'll see what becomes of them! 

Spoonful - Finished.

Spoonful

(2012)

48x27 cm

133 hours and 45 minutes.

So here's the finished piece along with a selection of close ups. thank you for your support during the time this picture was in production, I've found it a challenge and an ultimately frustrating piece...perhaps I'll return to the composition again one day and incorporate the 'Mad Vicar' pinching the first cello girl's nose as I had originally intended. Perhaps next time I'll use full colour which is something I've neglected since my last self portrait 'Jigsaw'.

For now however, there is something forming in the sketchbook and in my minds eye which will hopefully find it's realisation as my next piece....

Spoonful - 33

Spent all day on the bubbles....bubbles are fanciful..they have no rationale apart from the fact that they are fun...oh, sometimes they are used to illustrate certain elemental truths regarding air pressure and the nature of surface tension and the way liguids behave...they are also very pretty with their swirling colours and distorted reflections...tomorrow I have to work on the label of the medicine bottle and the image in the picture frame...then I'll be pretty much done!

Spoonful - 32

I've started work on the bubbles today....it's an interesting process...the first one was slow and I was unsure about what effect I would get...(it was the one just in front of the bubble blowers hand)..I believe that's what is know as the paradigm...the one on which all the others are based!...as I've progressed, they've developed slightly..and I've had to go back and change the earlier ones to match the later ones...! there are plenty of bubbles to go which should keep me busy for quite a few hours yet!

Spoonful - 31

I've continued on the trees in the background today..interrupted only by the pressing need to go out and find a replacement for our destroyed car...I don't know about you or car dealers in your part of the world...but it's always a trying time of weighing up the need to be kind to the environment and work within a limited budget whilst also not wanting to drive a car that is indistinct and doesn't reflect the creative nature of those who'll be driving it....more news about that another time.

I've also begun work on sketches for the next picture...I'm always scribbling out new ideas, but I think I have the basis for something interesting!...again, more about that another time!

Spoonful - 30

I'm now quite tired of this piece...it's not achieved what I wanted it to...at least so far. It doesn't look like I wanted it to...but I'm going to finish it soon. I've worked hard on adding the trees in to the back ground...I've completed the Matron's belt buckle..I hope you can see what it depicts?..I only have the final trees to the far left to finish..then attend to the middle ground and add in a crow or two and I think I'll be finished.

Spoonful - 29

I've not been able to spend very long on my work here today. Last weekend we had snow here in my part of England...not much of it, but enough to knock out the day to day running of the transport network to some degree. To cut a long story short, someone drove their car into our car...we weren't in our car at the time.,, we'd parked it up on an adjacent road to enable us to drive it the next day after the snow ( we live on a narrow avenue on a hill which is difficult to drive up or down when snow is on the ground!) anyway, the result was our car was damaged beyond repair. So calls back and forth between insurance companies, police, hire car companies and garages has dominated the last few days. Today I had to be available to not only facilitate the collection of a courtesy car we'd been allocated whilst our car's damage was being assessed, but I had to go to a hire company in another part of the city to take delivery of a car which we'll use until the finance surrounding the insurance company is resolved. I also had to deal with Annie's school pick up...the her school Valentines disco, and eventually a visit to the supermarket.

Phew! I'm glad that's all over at the end of this day  as yet another fall of snow is forecast over night. I've made sure that the shiny new VW hire care car is not in a place where it can get run into.

Tomorrow I shall press on with my work here and move into the final stages...not long to go now!

Spoonful - 28

I'm probably going quite mad...I seem to be having a flurry of ideas for new pieces..one in particular I've already mentioned this week (or was it last week?) regarding the bubble blowing Cello Girl...I also have ideas revolving around another self portrait...and in response to having watched so much ballet in the last couple of months, I'd like to try at some point to try my hand at depicting a scene from one of my favourite ballets 'the Firebird' by Igor Stravinsky...don't get your hopes up..but it's a wonderful piece which suggests some dramatic and fantastic images.... I'll probably end up sticking with my own Corps De Ballet for now.

Spoonful - 27

Spoonful - 26

I opted to have my last girl with her eyes open...I don't know about  you, but I like to be drawn into a scene...of course the viewer as 'voyuer' is an acceptable method, but i want you see that the 'artist' or rather the 'creative' that is the last girl has a degree of self realisation as she wonders why she's in the line..as she ponders her fate, do you the viewer call her to step out of line..do you alert the otherwise oblivious girls to wake to their fate?...is it right to tell an artist when you feel they are conforming?...that they are being suckered into a falseness...a world where money and fame outweigh artistic integrity?

An insight.......

whilst working on the final Cello girl for my current picture, I tried various poses for her to adopt. I'd worked on the idea that she would be slightly bending forward...but due to the limited space . I opted for her to stand erect. However..I've continued developing the previous sketch for her bending forward. Above is a photo showing very rough ideas on tracing paper....I like to work on tracing paper so that I can rework ideas selecting the good points..then trace onto a new piece for further development....I really like the pose and would consider incorporating it into another composition...but please note...as with all my sketched ideas...they tend to languish in the 'vaults' until needed...this might be next week, or it might be next decade! but either way...they  'live'......and are in gestation...

Spoonful - 26

I'm really pleased with my work today..I spent a good amount of time working on drawing for the final Cello girl..I found a photo of a woman blowing bubbles which gave me the refference for the possition of the hands..but as for the face, I used my imagination which worked up to a point...I'm not inking it yet because I might like her to have her eyes open and turned towards the viewer...this might work as I usually like to draw you into the picture to be involved at some level...I'll see what it looks like tomorrow after a night's sleep.

It's always wonderful to hear what you think of my work..I have a small but very valuable regular readership, a couple of whom comment on a regular basis..I'm not being melodramatic when I say that I am fuelled and invigorated by such comments. From my exhibitions I know that this type of work divides opinion..basically into two categories...those who love it, which is the majority, and those who don't which thankfully is a very small minority. Since I have now stopped exhibiting, I get very little feedback on what I'm doing, so your comments are ever more valuable. Thank you to those who have and continue to comment and consequently affect the work that I do.!...

Spoonful - 25

My parade of oddness is almost at an end...one more Cello girl to go...bubbles and background stuff to complete...then all the little details that have yet to be addressed like the picture in Cell girl 4 's hand...Matron's belt buckle...the spoon...the cello edging etc etc.....

Spoonful - 24

Progress today has centred around the planets and the fourth Cello girl's glove...just under five hours work...

Spoonful - 23

Had a couple of difficult days which amongst other annoying stuff  included a poorly lap top...thankfully the cure for the lap top was no more serious than a new power supply lead. Could have been so much more expensive!  I've worked on the sky mainly today which has included work on the planets...the first one I worked on was directly above the medicine Cello Girl's head...the current one undergoing work is to the right of the ,matron's face.

An exhibition - By Tim Young

 I thought you might like to see a couple of photographs of my Brother Tim's first ever exhibition of art which ran this weekend. Tim likes to produce varied subjects, but majors on wildlife, birds especially...so it was particularly fitting that his first exhibition should be at the Attenbourgh Nature Reserve near Nottingham..

Tim works predominantly in pencils, but also uses watercolours and ink...and is seen here with his wife Wendy demonstrating his work to my wife Jan!

 The exhibition attracted a lot of interest over the weekend with over 100 people calling to see the works. Below you can see an examples of his work...the Kingfisher in the foreground is particularly striking!

I was especially proud to see his work since my Father who died in 2000 was a very keen breeder and watcher of birds...he used to tell Tim and I all about  birds when we were young..and it would have made him incredibly proud to see that the wonder and delight with which he taught us to appreciate wildlife had continued long after he had passed away.

Spoonful - 22

Cello girl number four is a miserable so and so...I think I can honestly say that my art...my creativity and all that it concerns has seen me experience the happiest and the saddest of emotions..the absolute joy of imagining something, then creating it and having another person or persons relate to it and gain meaning and pleasure from it is fantastic. The absolute frustration of encountering the limitations of one's ability and the inability to make my 'business' a 'success' is heart rending.

Spoonful - 21

Here's a close up of my Cello girls..I never seem to get the knickers right...for the purposes of these recent woks, I'm not aiming (mainly due to my lack of ability )  to achieve the lightness and delicacy I'd idealy want. As an important symbolic and fetishistic part of my visual referencing, it's important to me that i get things right...so far I haven't...but i'm having fun trying!...

Spoonful - 20

Well...what can I say...I'm still working and as you see, here is the start of the penultimate Cello girl..here she's representing visual art...that's why she's carrying a picture frame...I'm toying with the idea that it will be one of my pictures...which one ?..there are also more bubbles around her head as the final Cello girl will be the one blowing the bubbles...!

Spoonful - 19

Spoonful - 18

Not a great deal of progress today..but did manage a good run this morning and met a good friend for coffee and a walk in the gorgeous sunshine this afternoon..rather chilly though!..

Spoonful - 17

It's a funny time of year for me...kids are back to school/ college..and Jan has gone to India for a while to work..she's a guest of the Cochin university in  Kerala...all very exciting..the visit is to plan a series of training sessions for Doctors in medical schools across India..potentially a big contract and a gateway to many more visits to India.
So I'm going to hopefully take advantage  of the 'quiet' by doing lots more running and lots more work on this piece. My work ethic has decreased considerably in recent months...if I'd been working on this picture a year or two ago, this amount of work would represent two weeks progress...instead it's taken me two months.

Spoonful - 16

The first Cello girl represents music...the second is faith..the third is literature...the fourth will be art...the fifth will be....

Spoonful - 15

girl mnumber three has emerged from the mist...more to do on number two though.....where are the bubbles coming from?

Spoonful - 14

 OK...don't faint..it's me again! third day in a row...i know! but like i said..once I get back into a routine, i find it much easier to work. Inspiration wise I had  hit a bit of a dry patch..my original concept for this piece was about the artist being convince/coerced into conforming to set patterns of  expression and presentation as prescribed by the 'world' to an extent that even though the artist might want to forge a path of discovery, a certain inbred and actually false notion of what the 'art world' expects prevails thus rendering the artist ineffectual.
I needed to find again my sense of wonder and love of symbolism..and a disregard for what other people think. This of course is difficult since I have removed myself from the world of exhibiting my work...I no longer have the public feedback regarding what I'm trying to do. I have only the memory that my Cello girls, Mad vicars...Cancan dancers and trains are what the public said they loved about my work...and thankfully, they are what I love about it too.! So if you don't like what I do..you don't have to look at it, you know where the door is! If you do like what I do....then hold on...there's lots more to come!

Spoonful - 13

It's good to be able to get back to some sort of routine after the School holidays...I like my work day routine. I work best when I can spend lengthy amounts of time working without interruption. Despite the many years now working virtually every day with this technique, it still takes a while to settle into it each day. This has to do not only with getting my equipment and my desk organised, but requires my breathing and heart rate to calm. Since I've been running, my heart rate and breathing have reduced in frequency... in fact my resting pulse is around 63 beats per minute! But a few minutes sitting quietly and thinking about what I want to achieve during the day will see me ready....usually!

Spoonful - 12

The girls will have black gloves since I made a mess of Cello girl number 2's hands...!Some of the best ideas come from mistakes!

Spoonful - 11

Not much to show ....but I have at least returned to this piece. Girl number 2 is taking shape ( only three more to go!) I also taking this opportunity to wish you all a very happy new year...my how the time flies!