Must Watch! Artists' Advice - From Stephen Silver

Are you a creative who earns money from your work or, perhaps more relevantly, a young artist just starting out in the commercial world? Then check out the above vid (some mild language - but nothing that'll make your ears burn off).
Stephen Silver tells you why he thinks you shouldn't waste your hard-learned skills with free hand-outs for an empty promise. I think he's nailed it - do you agree? Let me know in a comment...

Death Makes You Live (Wilko Johnson)

 Wilko

I try and keep this blog art-related but in this post I wanted to highlight a recent BBC story about the musician Wilko Johnson who, at the time of writing, has very recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Sadly, too many people get diagnosed with this but it was Wilko's reaction to the news which caught my interest: his was extremely interesting, profound and refreshingly untypical compared to some people's ruminations on the condition - especially in regard to how diagnosis actually lifted his life-long depression. Check this link here for the BBC's report.

Jack

Here's a fairly quick re-working of an old pencil sketch of Hollywood fav' Mr Jack Lemmon. I wanted to do a b&w painting just to concentrate on form and shade. There wasn't a lot of detail in the reference photo so I had to fill in the blanks. It's very rare I do a side-on portrait and, like anything, it's tricky if you're not used to it - you have to go about things in a slightly different way... good fun.

Brand new colour study of a silver screen actor coming soon...ish.

You Drive Me Ape!

It's a right old chimps' republican tea-party. Here's American right-winger, Paul Broun, who's currently entertaining the thinking world with his views on the source of his policies - and suggesting where his diabolical opponents derive theirs...

Tony Blackburn

Tonytastic.

Oh yeah...

...just noticed; I just managed to post more uploads last year in 2012 than I did in 2011. By two. Which is pretty poor, I have to admit, so I'm going to try and post in excess of that this year. By more than two. That's the plan, wish me luck.

Mario Monti

...and we're off. It's Mario, mopping up in the wake of all that Bunga.

2013 - here we go!

Happy new year, everyone! Hope the hangover's worn off and those new pencils that Santa brought are now being put to good use. My new year's resolution is the same as ever - and that's to keep busting through the ceiling; raising the floor; taking the window of opportunity; as well as applying a whole bunch of other building-related clichés to cement success. Posts coming soon...

Good Christmas for Ducks

That's me done for 2012. Many thanks to anyone who has checked in throughout the year to see the latest posts and especially to those who've taken the time to drop in a comment - always welcome. Stay hip and see you in 2013.

Pat.

No Moore.
OK, bad joke, but every line of the above scribble was delivered with a fondness associated with those whose memory make up the fibre of one's past. Can't imagine someone of his English eccentricities being allowed a break in front of the BBC's cameras today. Heard a magnificent poem on the radio this evening  by the great Murray Lachlan Young, eulogising Patrick Moore. Very funny. If I discover a link to it then I'll post it here...

Kenneth Kendall

Gone today. Remember him well for his news-reading back in my youth.

Triple Cowpoke

Strange folk abroad in the misty swamps...
Patterns in photoshop are great to add time saving details and effects. I pulled this old drawing from the virtual sketchpad to try some pattern making in the shirt, face, hat and neckerchief. Also added a bit of shadow to help create some volume...good fun.

Gareth Southgate

Gaz. Is he still advertising Pizza?

Joey Barton

'Allo, 'Allo, it's Monsieur Barton. Très funny.

Roberto Di Matteo

Bobby D.

Gruesome Non-toothsome

Coloured up and finished from previous line work...trying out various ideas and techniques. Based on a landlord I once had.

I See You! x2

A sneek peek of a couple o' new monsterously ghastly pics I've been making on and off over the last few weeks. Pretty hard to work on when Photoshop won't let you make more than half a dozen actions before crashing each time. When are those new Mac's gonna hit the high street? 'Dear Santa, I have been good all year...tho' I have sworn a lot'. I wanted to get one image done for Hallowe'en - fat chance! Maybe H2013?

Keep smilin'.

Process of Jordan

Jordan

(Acrylic on canvas board)

Am doing a bit of old school painting...yeah, with real paints! - remember those? Two reasons: one; because real paints rock, and two; I'm only just coming out of a serious slump of technical issues with hardware and software. Aaaaaargh!
However, the above process of paintings is not recent, but was completed a while ago for my sister-in-law, as a memento of a departed pet. Painting pet pooches or pussy-cats is always to stray into a dangerous arena. I'm thinking of those kitsch pet portraits you can see propped up in a garage sale which only serves to remind you how a rash idea can turn into an offense against humanity... and somehow one that is more easily made than when painting human portraits or landscapes. I hope I've managed to avoid that crime here, but maybe it can't ever be totally avoided. Perhaps the transgression's already made with the choice of the subject matter, before one's painted the initial stroke...ach, move on!

Scrappin' it - Mean & Fear

Just some scraps for this post, faithful visitor. I'm having computer meltdowns at the moment and new gear is in order. Transitions are always painful and time consuming, so having nothing better to show, I've gone back through the virtual sketchpad and sifted through the many doodles, trials and experiments I'm always scratching away at. Most of them don't see the daylight as they're usually unfinished, lame or dead in the water, etc. But sometimes a judicial crop here and a bit of text there can inject a bit of life. So in the absence of anything more note-worthy here are some perennial fan-art faves from the greatest comic in the universe: Judge Fear and Mean Machine Angel (again).

Autumnal Joe

Time for another Dredd. Another experimental piece - though not immediately obvious - so not imperative to have everything absolutely cock-on, finish-wise. Just running some tests on certain techniques and time needed to execute them; all to see whether the whole process is worthwhile. I love this kind of finish but the process can be a drag. Which is a real pain if you're doing a lot of stuff with it.
 Anyways - when it comes to the uniform, I've always preferred the big flared lid. Don't know where I saw it first but that's how I prefer to draw it...

Tweetin' ma lines...Rusty Cooker style

After holding off for a dang long while I've re-activated my twitter account as I found it was the only way I could communicate with certain people who weren't active elsewhere. So if you're not a regular blog-checker yourself but are just plain silly about twitter and you want to be informed if a new morsel of art has been loosed upon the virtual world then sign up here - you'll now be welcomed with open wings. I hereby promise no meditations on what I've had for breakfast...

Artists & Illustrators: create your profile...

Just a quick heads-up for all you who are looking for further online sites to promote yourselves and your artwork. The online magazine site called 'Artists & Illustrators' is offering free profiles, albeit with the limitation of only three pieces of work and no opportunity to sell originals. You can improve your lot with them by paying a smallish sum where you can have unlimited uploads, sell your originals and write your own blog, all for the sum of £2.49 per month or £24.99 per annum. To find out more, click this link which'll take you to the relevant page. Your first thought is probably 'why pay for a premium profile  when I can get those services for free elsewhere?' and it's a fair question. A&I obviously feel they have a greater reach than your average free site so I can only suggest creating a free, limited profile with them to start with and then try the paid version for a few months for the purposes of selling your originals. If after that it doesn't pay then quit it. See ya there and good luck!

Ya Missed The Hutch!

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Charles Bronson

Here's a sketch of Chuck I drew a few weeks ago now, with the intention of colouring it up at some point. Ha! I'm full of good intentions...

Haruman: Tank commander

Makin' tracks...more digital sketchpad silliness