Stomp in Colour

Stomp

Stomp

15. x 20. cm.

Lorna Marrison

£30.00
I am still thinking of doing a larger oil painting of the Morris men. This study shows me that I am still getting bogged down in the local colour of things and not 'designing' the look.

Trish - the chatelaine - in Colour

Trish

Sigh! The back ground needs to be simplified even more.

Oxford Road Sketch

Oxford Road in Eynsham at Night

Wow! I have found designing a painting of sodium light difficult. This will be part of a series of paintings of Eynsham on canvases sized 17.7 x 12.7 cm. Painting to this size means that details need to be limited but  kept tonally accurate. The points that the client was most interested in were the pools of light on the sinuously  curved road.  The night sky above the trees on site was still blue in colour  but the road which was most strongly lit by the street lighting seemed to be in variations of oranges to brown. So the plan now is to start painting this after Christmas. I am finishing of the last few small canvases for Osney before Christmas.  I use my one downstairs living room as a combination sitting room and studio so I need the clean up so there is room for the Christmas tree and visiting guests. :0)

A New Commission

Oxford Road, Eynsham at night

One of my collectors has commissioned a night time view of the Oxford Road in my village of Eynsham. This is my first attempt of capturing a night time view complete with orange sodium street lighting. It needs some more thinking about. Tomorrow I shall have a hard look at some of John Atkinson Grimshaw's  night time paintings. http://www.johnatkinsongrimshaw.org/

Christmas Eve 2011

Eynsham Morris are, once again, playing a starring role in my Christmas cards. The first man on the left is Mark but I am unsure of the names of the other two ... answers in the comments please. The cards will be on sale during the Eynsham Art's Group 'Winter Exhibition', November 26 to December 4. Email me for larger orders.

Sloth

Sloth

This one started in my drawing book but I moved it into Photoshop when I was overwhelmed with detail. When I am not sure putting in detail is my first recourse but after many re drawings the expression was right but the tatters coat was a distraction. Looking at the background now I think I may remove it in the painting. Click too enlarge and see his face ...

Envy

Envy

Interesting that envy is the resentment that the 'other' has something that they lack as here the same man plays both parts by dancing for both sides.

Flood gate updated

Flood Gate

Well ... having slept on it I have decided to go with my older sketch. I have coloured it using Photoshop trying to keep the bleached colours of early spring.

'Dancer playing the accordion'

Dancer playing the accordion 

A pencil drawing developed further in Photoshop. When the Morris dancers are in action it is all about look at "us". This dancer when he plays is concentrating so hard that he is so oblivious, for a few minutes, to the world around him that he becomes out of this world.

Dawn over the Newlands

Dawn over the Newlands

A pencil drawing of a view that few in my village will have seen.  I lived as a child in a large house with good views over the Cherwell valley. I miss this high view here in Eynsham so I have married my past with the present by looking out at a real view through a fictional window. 

Burn's Night Colour Study

Burn's Night

I scanned in the pencil drawing and coloured it with in Photoshop. I really seem to have this thing about using both hot and cool colours in one picture. It is very difficult to resolve. Looking at the study I will keep the violet for outside the window but mix it into the colours within resulting in more browns.

Leaving on a Witney Bus

Leaving on a Witney Bus
Pencil, coloured in Photoshop. 
Lorna Marrison

I have to confess that I was hearing John Denver singing "I'm leaving on a jet plane" in my head whilst drawing this picture.  If "Eynsham is the centre of the world" then leaving on the bus will be out. It will be one of my 'OUT" paintings.

Morris man 'OUT' of context in the Co-op.

Morris man in Co-op
Pencil, coloured in Photoshop
Lorna Marrison

The 'OUT' here is that he is not dancing on the streets with the team but lined up on his own at the tills in the Co-op. Do I hear a collective groan out there? If this was a larger painting I would have put the other people in the queue with him but I wanted to get more of the store in the picture. I have developed the pencil sketch in Photoshop using colour selectively too emphasize his isolation. Next step is to paint it on the canvas.

Fragile ii

A unfinished drawing of my grand-daughter still looking at the way she looks when tired. This time concentrating on pose as well as the difficulty of showing her nearly six face that looks like an eight year old to the world. 

Yes, I am, also, having trouble drawing the cast iron work of the bench. When happy with it I will go on to develop the drawing further. Showed it to her this week and her comment was;
"When are you going to colour it in?"

The Colour of Music

Working in Photoshop here trying out some more expressive colours and shapes with a plan to turn it into a painting eventually.

"There be gods ..."

Visited the Ashmolean Museum again; feeling like I have my hand in the sweetie jar. The more I sketched this statue the greater my respect was for the skill of the original artist. I continued my unfinished sketch here using Photoshop working from my photo. I need to go back and draw it again from life. I am sadden by the number of photos that were taken of this god whilst there but no attempt by the visitors to 'see it' personally.

 Yes ...  he is sexy from the rear!

'The Lost Door'- finished

I think this picture owes much to the levels and hue/saturation sliders in Photoshop. I have, yet again, made the error of not allowing for the yellow of our cotswold stone when painting shadows.

'Rainbow Strike'; process-2

Graham has commented upon my use of layout paper to refine my drawings. He ruefully confesses to ruining his watercolour paper with a drawing that fails to work. I discovered the joys of layout paper in my design days in the pre-computer era. Productivity required starting with thumbnail sketches to work the basis of the idea out and then moving to drawing on layout paper. It is semi-see through especially on a light box but opaque enough to draw on. The finished drawing in those days was ether a marker drawing on paper similar to layout (no bleed through) or tracing the drawing out on quality paper.

So now a days, when the drawing is to my satisfaction, I scan it to the computer and print it out using DuraBrite ink in my printer onto watercolour paper. This ink is both water and light proof and allows me to cut out the laborious re-drawing when the painting fails. I am using this technique today as I am unsure of how I am proceeding on the imaginative part of this painting. It is liberating experimenting without having to go back to the absolute beginning each time.

I define the media in the finished painting as 'watercolour' when I have only used the computer for scanning my drawing.

Season's greetings

The Eynsham Morris sets out once more on the shortest day ... but wait who is that running to catch up? Armaleggan Morris have sent 'Old Harry' to harass and make mischief!

Do I cheat?

Spent an interesting few hours with the camera and photoshop. I like this result the best but no way can I paint this from life. So do I cheat?