More Pressure

'More Pressure'

graphite on Bristol Board

200 x 150 mm

I started on this as my back pain was to bad for painting. This drawing has taken me almost three weeks to finish. I use this technique as I love the tonal values that develop giving a very fae atmosphere. I have been watching the training at the Eynsham Fire Station. The standing fireman (aka Carl?) is signaling for more water pressure .

The Queens Head, Eynsham

'The Queens Head', Eynsham

'The Queens Head', Eynsham

ink, watercolour, watercolour pencils on paper

150 x 200 mm

£135.00  mounted & framed plus p&p

£100.00 mounted only plus p&p

A4 prints on demand £20.00 plus p&p

This pub is called by my grand-daughter "Grand-ma's pub". Yes ... I do drink there!

Eynsham Morris 2014 dyptch

Eynsham Morris 2014 dyptch

Eynsham Morris 2014 dyptch

ink, watercolour, watercolour pencil, graphite on bristol board

300 x 200 mm

£230.00 individually or £400.00 the pair

A4 prints on demand £20.00 plus p&p

Commissioned portrait of the beloved Maisie.

Maiisie

‘Maisie’,

colour pencil and pastel on paper

Commissioned portrait

Maisie passed on earlier this year and despite her imperious hauteur she was the most softest and friendly of cats. When I visit her house I still look for her flirtations through the window while I wait for the door to be opened to me.

I used coloured pencils for her form and a touch of the softest white pastel for her immaculate bib.

May Day Morris-2

May Day Morris-2

This is the right hand side of my diptych of Eynsham Morris Line up. The next step is to shape welding with watercolour and then drawing with ink. 

I am now a fan of Koh-I-Noor 1900 Toson D'Or graphite pencils. I had no problems with leads broken in the pencils and it erased with minimum smudging.

May Day Morris

May Day Morris 1

This is four days work and the mapping of the image is just about in place. It is amazingly difficult to draw this many people and keep their proportions and their relative sizes more or less right. The mark making is horrid but I hope my next pass will improve my lines. I will leave it for a while as I have just accepted a watercolour commission which needs a fast turn around.

Eynsham Morris; May 2014

Intial Drawing

It's been about 9 years since I drew a full line up of Eynsham Morris. Last time I drew them on a very large sheet of paper and paid for it to be mounted and framed. Lessons have been learned over the years ... do not paint large pictures unless commissioned!  I was lucky and it was purchased. So I planned this time to work to a standard pre-cut mounts and frame with ones from Amazon.

Drawing to size proved to be very difficult. It got easier as the drawing developed but the finished result is not nice. I am not the fastest worker but I decided to take the lessons learnt and start again. Sigh!

Morris Dancer

Eynsham Morris Dancer

‘Morris Dancer’

graphite and coffee on paper

300 x 200 mm

Matted in a duck egg blue frame

£160.00

This drawing has taken three and a half weeks to complete. It was started for the #LiveFriday folk night at the Ashmolean Museum. Morris dancers come in many forms but here I was looking for the spiritual  side.

Sheldonian Theatre Gates, Oxford

Sheldonian Theatre Gates, Oxford

Sheldonian Gates, Oxford

ink and watercolour on paper

200 x 150 mm

Lorna Marrison

£75.00 (unframed)

Our local Bread Ship

Eynsham Bread Shop

I have spent the week drawing this view of our local bread shop whilst waiting for the oil paint to dry on my other paintings. Eynsham is a large commuter village that manages to keep it's sense of comunity.

Choose a pose?

The boys with their Mother.

The Trio

Secrets

I have met the boys for my new portrait commission and they were a delight. I now offer three poses for their parents to make a choice. I emphasis that these are not good liknesses but ideas for how the painting is going to look. Two are small sketches and one is a tracing of  two combined photos. When a choice has been made I will do a more detailed drawing.

Poses for the next commission.

Poses

I have finished my last commission and I have started the prep for my next one. It's a triple portrait of three boys. I work from thumbnails (small sketches) and photos. The boys and I have not met each other yet so these sketches will be usefull for comunicating the poses I would like to see.

Study of Geoff Hogan for 'Stomp'

Study of Geoff Hogan

Drawing a value study allows me  to simlify my tones and stops me from cluttering the final painting with detail.

Paul

Paul

Drawing allows me to move away from the photo and gain personal perspective on the subject. Here I was not only looking for likeness but exploring values (light or dark) as Paul's colouring is very pale. My hope is this will allow me to 'design' my use of colour and not just reproduce his chroma.

Trish - the chatelaine

Trish

Drawing was done in the attempt to simplify the controled chaos in the DIY. The next step is to add the colour.

Cat in the DIY

Cat in the DIY

I struggled to draw a black cat ... the fur absorbs the light ... how should I show form? Eventually I realise that the black cat shaped space in the controled chaos of the shop said it all. I have allowed my use of colour to become more expressive rather then descriptive.

Scythe

Scythe

I was excited to see a scythe in the DIY as it was the first one I had seen that was modern.  I grew up with our eldery gardener scything areas where it was difficult to mow. He retired and modern mowers took on cutting these areas. We then discovered that it took practiced technique to use.

Digging for Srews

Digging for Screws

I am playing with the idea of screws being like fossel Turritella shells as Wytham Hill on the other side of the Thames is the remains of a Jurassic reef.

A collection of Screws

A collection of screws

 So come with me now on a journey through time and space to the world of the hardware shop. I am exhibiting in the Evenlode DIY in Eynsham in 2013.

The screws are reministance of Turritella Shells which have exisited from the Cretaceous to recent times.

Jim in colour

Jim in colour

I do not think I can go any further using ProCreate and it's time to crack out the paint in the New Year.

Best wished for the New Year everyone!