Wild

 

 

Holly came from Miami, Florida
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says, "Hey, babe
Take a walk on the wild side"
She said, "Hey, honey
Take a walk on the wild side"

Walk On The Wild Side

Lou Reed, 1972

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember those "halcyon" days of our youth?

 

No, me neither.

 

 

 

 

 

The first time I heard the word 'Halcyon", was the same day that I heard the word "Luddite".

They came from the mouth of the same man, a friend of a friend.

  

I was a naive 29 year old. He was a worldly man with too much money and a world weariness that hung around him like the smell of a freshly boiled onion. We were on our friend's boat out on the harbour, drinking almost French Champagne and watching  the world go by.

 

Our mutual friend was newly very rich and enjoying his wealth by acquiring paintings, toys - (Sports Cars, Ocean Cruisers etc)  - and houses over looking the water. Even with all that, he was a "good bloke" - and very generous. We met when we were studying English Lit together.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course I had to ask what both words meant - and I've never forgotten what a Luddite was - because as I grow older, I feel like I am becoming one.

 

But Halcyon? I never quite grasped the meaning. 

 

So let me google it.

 

 

Ah, here it is. Halcyon:

 

A fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it nested on the sea during the winter solstice.
 

Well I never knew that.

 

So the Halcyon days of our youth translates as: "those particular days of our youth that we used a fabled bird to calm the waves so we could nest on the sea."

 



And by some dogmatic coincidence, that is exactly what my illustration is about......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Verdaccio
 

Do you know the word Verdaccio?

 

Well, it's something the old master's used to use occasionally (not the word but the technique). It's where you paint a green monotone under painting - a dead painting) then glaze over it with translucent colours. The idea is that the green under painting glows through the warmer layers and gives that nice harmonious glow that suggests depth in human flesh.

 

I've been invited to a show with "Nightmares" as the theme - so I've been working up this painting.
for a few weeks. It's 90 by 120 cms on linen.

And in  that time I've spent a lot of time looking at anatomy drawings as well as Greek statues. It's all very interesting what they were doing a few thousand years ago. I've also been looking at Da Vinci's working methods and his sketches. How smart was he, eh? What a mind....

In verdaccio  you are supposed to paint two tones lighter than the finished painting is meant to be.
So I still have a lot of work :)

The big advantage is that, in taking out the colour parameters, you just need to be making tonal decisions for the underpainting stage. It's a learning curve -  but not very steep. I'm also changing the characters as I go, slimming them down, changing hand positions etc.
 

Above and below are pics of  it as a work in progress in situ in the studio. If you look very closely you may recognise some of the characters.... :)

PS: Whoever invented the saxophone obviously thought no one in their right mind would ever try to paint one.

 

 

 

 

And finally, below, a self portrait (the big guy, not the rat).

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking. Hope you are well!

 

 



The Second Scary

 

Hello thank  you to everyone who commented on my last post. Your comments made me keen to work with the scarecrow a little more. Thank you to those who suggested that as well. You know who you are :)

The Scarecrow is a bit weird really. He keeps telling me his name is 'Ralph' - and that he is not really a scare crow, just a poor chap from Tasmania who cannot afford the right brand of conditioner.

Ralph? 

I ask you.... what were his parents thinking?

Mesmerised

This is a character from the first illustrated novel I did. And never sent away. That's alright. It was all practice. 

So I resurrected him for this one and placed him near this river. He is mesmerised by his own reflection..... like The Dog and its Shadow - one of Aesop's Fables. Except this boy has no bone in his mouth - luckily. Boy, that was a hard pose to do. He had to hold it for about three hours.....;)

PS one of the scenes from the book - sort of fits in with the Mesmerised theme. Please click the images for big :D

Illustration Friday: Linked

Linked? Pirates?

Well, I have these pirate characters in the back of my head, just waiting to get out into the 'real' world.
"Aharrgh Finnie! Pick us for 'linked'!" they yell at the tops of their scurvy pirate voices.

So.... how can I work them into 'linked'?

Hmm.... What do pirates do? Well bad pirates (ones who aren't good at their job) get captured and tied up by 'good' pirates. Bad pirates shuffle the plank; they take the dive, splash in the water a bit with their hook hands and wooden legs. And then of course they sink with one final "Arghagghhhhh" and 'faire glou-glou'.

And ...... a little while later their dissasociated body parts make an organic link with the rest of the world - via shark teeth.

So after all, I can manage to work in the idea 'linked' in there if I try. Good pirates, bad pirates, shark teeth. Simple.

But what's this got to do with the above illustration....?

Nothing....

The pirates are still in the back of my head, screaming and yelling and yahooing. Even as I type they are having a wild party, possibly a wake. (Yes, I know, they must be 'awake' otherwise they wouldn't be making so much noise) Hopefully they'll run out of gutrot rum soon. I know I have.

So the genesis for this illustration comes from "Genesis". Well I think it does. Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Adam and God. A little retrospective stealing from the wiki tells me:

The Creation of Adam is a section of Michelangelo's fresco Sistine Chapel ceiling painted circa 1511. It illustrates the Biblical story from the Book of Genesis in which God the Father breathes life into Adam, the first man. Chronologically the fourth in the series of panels depicting episodes from Genesis on the Sistine ceiling, it was among the last to be completed.

And so in this illustration there is that idea of the linkage of man to the spiritual, the idea of human hands reaching out to Heaven, to the 'known' unknown.

But if you accept Heaven, then you must accept Hell - and so, if you look hard enough, you'll see just a little bit of Hell in the second illustration (below). Courtesy of  Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel and  our very own Joe Beale (who brought Brugel to my mind). (Have you seen Joe's work? Do yourself a favour, take a look, stretch your legs out, there's a lot going on in Joe's work.)

And of course there's Kali, Vishnu, Shiva and Ganesh.... and Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

I made a lot of different versions of this. Here's just a couple...... Feel free to click on them if your mouse finger is feeling itchy.

And lastly, there is the idea of Menage a Trois. The sci-fi look is something not to my taste. It so.... so 70's! (insert wink here) The eyes on the figure in the middle? I see they are blank, he is emasculated, he is not seeing. Well at least I hope he is not.....

Thankyou for looking at my work.