01
Jan

2000-2008

So we’re into a new decade, and a lot has happened in that time: broadband, social networking, the blogosphere, digital tv, and all manner of techie stuff.  Me personally? At the start of the decade I was still at university; I left in 2001 and then moved into the car industry, where I worked until 2007.  I then moved into the oil industry working in a new role in Health & Safety and that is where I’d still be if I hadn’t fallen ill in 2008.  That is also when I found art.  Well, I found Photoshop, but it was the start of a new journey for me.

I guess you could say that the last decade has mostly been a waste in terms of doing stuff I hated, but it has all been an experience, and what that experience has taught me is that I know exactly what I don’t want to do.  It took a long time to discover that, but I believe I am on the right path now.

2008-2009

The last year has been an amazing one for me.  I started drawing; painting; enrolled in an evening painting class; signed up to study art full-time; started my blog; and finally, receiving an achievement award from the college for doing what I love to do.  I’ve met great new friends through college; I’ve started going out again, although I am still limited to what I can do;  I’ve found many friends through this site who continually inspire me to try new things and educate me daily.

2010

2010: The future.  We should be living on other planets or exploring space.  We should be flying in spaceships, have hoverboards, or flying cars – at least that’s what we were told in the movies of the ’70s and ’80s.  The future was all bubbles and plastic.  Sadly, none of that has come to pass, and it seems a long way off, but what will happen for me?  I don’t expect it to be as eventful as last year, but I hope to continue making progress. I hope to continue blogging and make more connections as I go along. It is possible that I will be applying to university this year, but I am being ultra cautious about it. I also expect to be as skint as I am now…unfortunately. Other than that I can’t say what the future holds but I hope it’s as exciting as the last year has been.

For now, here’s an update on the painting I’m working on. It’s not turning out as I expected, and I gave up today as I was becoming frustrated with it, and I’m not sure where to go with it.  Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Abstract Cubist painting

Abstract cubist painting continued

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31
Dec

I did more work on my Cubist style painting last night.  The first image I showed yesterday looked more than a little disjointed and had no real focus. Yes, they were cubist in form, if you take the word cube literally.

Monochromatic Cubist Painting Part II

Beginning to look a little less disjointed

Cubism Explained

However, that is not what Cubism is about.  Cubism is the art of observing an object from all sides, breaking the shapes down into their simplest forms, and portraying them on the same surface of the canvas/page: like taking photographs from many different angles and placing them down onto the page, overlapping other photographs as you go.

Think of when you draw an object for the first time: you draw large shapes first rather than jumping straight into the detail.  For example, when you draw a face, you start with an oval shape.  You may mark the nose as a triangle or a prism-like shape, just to get a sense of where the nose will sit.  When you draw an arm, you initially mark in a cylindrical shape, the same as when you draw a cup.  Once all the basic shapes are done, you then start to make those shapes a bit more like an arm or a face, filling in the details as you go.  In Cubism, you retain all of those basic shapes and structure, disregarding beauty and aesthetics. It is the seeing of objects as they really are, at their most fundamental level.

Analytical Cubism

Once you have broken down the basic structure of an item and portrayed the view that you are looking at on paper.  You would block in your basic colour tones, which by the way, are generally monochromatic in the earlier stages of Cubism: called Analytical Cubism (which is what I’m creating here).  You then move the object or move around the object to see it from another viewpoint, drawing over the top of what you already have on the canvas then block in with paint again.  This is the overlapping of the object and is what gives Cubism its jumbled and chaotic look. You do this repeatedly until you are satisfied that you have observed the object from its many viewpoints.

Monochromatic Cubist Painting Part III

Starting to look more Cubist - I have started to overlap the objects. You can still discern the objects but they are starting to meld

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  It does, but it’s not so easy to paint.  You have to really observe the object, see all the planes, changes in direction, and shapes.  It is very subtle. I believe it is only when Synthetic Cubism came along that it became simpler.  It became more about line than tone.  It also became very flat, whereas Analytical Cubism was much more 3 dimensional.  If you want an education on Analytical Cubism, I would suggest that you look at the art videos I have on the site, called Abstractus by Paul Cosquieri – a fantastic artist from Gibraltar.  There are 3 videos, and he demonstrates how a Cubist piece is painted, and explains what it is all about, and who the main exponents were: Picasso and Braque .  It’s a fantastic introduction for those who are scared by Cubism i.e. me!  Thanks go to Peggy for inspiring me to give this a try.

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30
Dec

I’m not quite sure where I’m going with this image.  I wanted to try my hand at taking a Cubist approach to painting, but I’m a bit undecided about how best to go about it.  What makes it difficult is that I must draw the 3 objects I have.  I’d rather just draw one and tackle it from many different sides then lay them all down on the surface.  The problem is that the shapes in each object are different from the others.  I think it would be much simpler if I used my rectangular shaped object, as I think it lends itself more to Cubism.  The planes in the other objects are far more difficult to depict.  I will keep working on it and just see where it takes me.  I may destroy it completely but that’s part of the process.

Abstract objects painted in a Cubist style

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29
Dec

I received my Student Achievement Awards photos in the post today. I was quite excited about opening them. I was looking forward to framing them and putting them on my wall, and also giving one to my mum and dad. So, I opened the envelope, and inside were two photographs, a CD and a letter:

Opening text of award letter

“Great!”, I thought, and then I read on.

Further text of award letter

Aw poop! So I checked the photographs and found that I was only sent two group photographs.

Group photograph of Student Award Ceremony

The ones with me being presented my award were completely screwed up. Still they sent me a CD which included all the photographs including the screwed up ones as you can see below:

Me being presented with Student Award: Flash failed to fire

I put it through Photoshop and managed to lighten up the image considerably, but the quality was completely destroyed.

Me being present with Student Achievement Award

So, now I have to go back to college and get the photos taken again. Typical that it has never happened before, and now I have to go back and get them re-done. Oh, well I guess I’ll have to postpone the framing ceremony!

I promised yesterday that I would do some painting today, and I did. However, I was out for most of the day, and so I only managed to make a start on my Analytical Drawing piece – the one that needs to be highly finished. I worked on it for a few hours, but I ended up getting really frustrated and decided to stop there for the day. Bear in mind that we are given a week to do each painting and 4 hours is normally spent on that image in class, so I’m not going to beat myself up because I haven’t finished it in one sitting. It is coming along quite nicely, now that I’ve stood away from it. At least I have the bones of it down. Really, it’s now about refining the painting which I’d imagine will take me a further few hours. So this is where I’m up to now, and perhaps I’ll work on it tomorrow, but I may work on another piece. I haven’t decided yet.

Painting of abstract objects

One last thing. Today is a day of sadness in our household, particularly for my daughter. We woke up to hear the news that Jimmy Sullivan, aka The Rev – the drummer for Avenged Sevenfold – died yesterday at the age of 28.

The Rev (Avenged Sevenfold drummer who died yesterday)

This is my daughter’s favourite band, and she idolised The Rev. She was lucky enough to see him play twice, and I saw them support Iron Maiden at Twickenham earlier this year. The Rev was a phenomenal drummer, and it is so shocking to hear that someone so young and so immensely talented has been taken from us. What is also shocking is that he apparently died of natural causes. How can someone that young die of natural causes? As you can imagine, my daughter is devastated. It is a sad day indeed.  RIP Jimmy.

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28
Dec

It’s getting closer to that time where I’ll be going back to college – 5th January – and I haven’t really done much in the way of creating art.  I’ve been looking at lots of art blogs, getting heaps of inspiration, but not actually created any of my own, except for one piece.  So I will be getting my finger out tomorrow!  Basically, I’ve been working on HTML/XHTML and CSS – all in the name of improving my blog.  I’ve learnt a lot but you can get carried away with it all.  I’ve bought books on the subject because I want to know how it all works.

My tutors told me to have a break and not do any work over the holidays, but I like to keep myself ahead of the game, and I still have time to get all the work done that I want to.  However, I’m not the sort of person who can sit and actually do nothing or just relax.   It’s a physical impossibility for me.  So, my idea of relaxing and taking a break from college is to work on the website.  Well, my eyes are starting to go a bit crazy looking at the computer screen for endless hours, so I know it’s time to get back to proper work.

I will try to aim to finish a couple of pieces tomorrow, but I will play it by ear.  I have 2 highly finished pieces that I need to complete and it would be good to get at least one done tomorrow, and perhaps work on some of my Contextual Studies pieces (the ones where I’m melding together the artwork of Picasso and Dali).  For now though, it’s time for bed.

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