A new year

Man, I really suck at blogging.

Anyway welcome to 2010, and all the opportunities it brings!

I’ve been working on some new stuff over christmas, for an upcoming project. I wanted to adapt my style to produce some pieces that were kind of self contained – less reliant on backgrounds. I needed to get them so work more as cut out shapes, after a lot of /facepalm moments, I got a few done that I think work really well. Focussing on the faces and hands rather than a full figure really helped.

Also working on a new website, due to go live next month, with good friend and awesome designer Si Dunn, who i suspect is right now regretting ever getting involved!

Cheers bud, i’ll buy you a beer and noodles!

26.11.09

Couple of new pieces, prints available at my shop

Ascend:

Rain:

Also, the paining i did a couple fo weeks back, got revisited, the birds were bugging the hell out of me. Let’s hear it for Alizarin Crimson.

Unfortunately, a crappy digital shot as usual, but you get the idea.

New painting

Been working on some new stuff. I started this one over the weekend, was really happy with how it was going. Then on Monday I realised I’d been laying the paint on so heavily It has stuck to the board. And it wouldn’t come off. At all.

So I had to start all over again. I made a few tweaks anyway, and all in all, think it worked out better. Was a painful process though.

76cm x 56cm Acrylic on Rives BFK

stuff happening

I thought rather than post the same stuff I put on my website, I’d share some development work.

I have a couple of really exciting projects going on. One based around my digital work, and the other is more focussed on the originals I’ve been painting. They both need some new stuff doing so it’s been  really good for focusing my mind on new ideas. (OK, more of the same ideas…)

So yeah, been sketching away and these are where I’m at right now. Ascend, and Recline kinda go with Strings, which I painted a while back, but is getting a digital reworking to complement the others and work as a trio.

Ascend

Recline

Minerva is going to get painted

Minerva

and these are some other doodles

Anyhoo, I’ve taken a few days off work to get to grips with them, and so far, all I’ve done is wade through a years worth of paperwork which all needed filing. Excitement. I better get cracking.

Paintings

So again, an age since I last updated.

I’ve been working on some paintings of the non digital variety. Feel quite happy with how they are progressing. Still got a long way to go, but finally feel I’m getting a handle on a technique that works for me.

Until recently, i’ve been painting acrylics on canvas, but I got hold of some really nice paper from a supplier in london town, and I’m really liking the effect I get from building up washes of colour. With more confidence, i think they would benefit from me being a bit more messy. It’s those random “accidents” that make painting with “real” paint so interesting.

I think maybe I need to attack stuff more, but this’ll do for now.

Pimping myself

It’s summer, albeit a lousy crappy one, and all I seem to be doing is sitting at my mac. With occasional forays out on the trails for a spot of mountain biking.

If i’m not sat at a mac at work, I’m sat at a mac at home, painting, or playing. And then, when I’m actually out, i’ve got my trusty iPhone. So yeah, busy, busy.

I’ve got a couple of projects on the go, both for album artwork. Pretty pleased with how they are shaping up but too early to be posting stuff. Actually, no ones seen anything as yet, so there’s a chance they could both be rejected! Hopefully not, but if they are I’ll still have a couple of kick ass paintings to add to the collection.

Right now, I really need to focus on getting my stuff “out there”. My website needs an update, and I’m working on getting a shop together. Currently I’m selling some prints through etsy, which has gone pretty well (by my standards!) but it’s not ideal.

I had some work featured on a really cool site I regularly check – OMGposters – a week or so ago, which helped some, plus I had a couple of pages in WUW too. I got labelled a Fine Artist, which made me laugh, I’m not big on labels, it is what it is, and I don’t even know the difference between illustration and art (is there one?) but it sounded cool!

Fun times. But yeah, I’m working on pimping my stuff some more. More soon, I hope.

Buy prints here

I’ve put some work up on Etsy. Some very nice Giclee art prints, approx A3 size, signed, on 300gsm Hahnemule art paper – go here

I tried etsy a while back, but got nowhere with it. Had much better luck with redbubble, although that was with selling Tee’s, not prints – www.redbubble.com/people/craww

Should be adding this to the prints for sale section too, (excuse the crappy lo rez image)

Back in the saddle

Just got back from a week in Cornwall.

Checked out a load of art while I was down there. Most of which was really cliche tourist seascape crap, but there was work from this one guy who I really liked. Abstract paintings, lots of layered/textures and colours, really nice, but like a fool I’ve forgotten his name!

Anyhoo, it was enough to inspire me to try my hand at a canvas again. So canvasses bought, fingers crossed. Hopefully I can get something out of it! Still not sure if I like acrylics. They seem to start to look really plasticy when the paint gets thick. Maybe I should try oils.

Also have a few ideas that I’ll be working on in my usual digital style. And there’s a chance I may get another commission for some CD artwork/packaging. Hope it works out…

Glutton

There’s not enough time! It sucks.

I get an idea or 2 kicking around my head, then spend weeks trying to actually get something down. It’s so easy to get distracted by other (easier to do) things. But this Sunday I made myself sit down and work up a sketch that’s been around for a few weeks.

It kind of turned out a bit creepier than I intended. Well, tbh, I didnt intend anything, but that’s the way it turned out. And I’ve been in something of a pissy mood for a while now, which i think has come through in the drawing. Hey ho.

So now, having made myself spend a day on painting, I’m feeling guilty that I didn’t go out in the sun for a ride. Lose/lose eh?

Turbulence

Back on the Wacom. Started out doodling this in the sketchbook over the weekend, came to life today.

A few days of sun and a couple of rides on the mountain bike, and I feel all inspired again!

I think maybe there’s a couple of tweaks still needed, her face maybe just needs a bit more shape and the ribbon maybe more highlights, but I dunno, maybe I’ll leave it as it is.