new book

This week I've been working on my new portfolio book. Actually it's a photo book, I thought it would be a good format to keep all of my work in but without having to carry a huge portfolio around with me. It's my second book, the first I did a soft cover which sold well to those who know me. This I thought I would keep for my self as a complete work/portfolio. It's not really the done thing when presenting Art but times are changing so why not. It would normally only contain my best work, but as there are no words and no statement in it, I thought it would show some kind of progression. And perhaps a glimmer of things I'm capable of. It did highlight, how far I'd come with my skill range and where I want to be in the future.

As I finished putting the book together I felt I should now start writing some e-books on the subjects of basics and development of skills. So with that I also need to create some DVDs while I'm working on paintings.

I'm going to research the Internet for all those holes that haven't been filled properly in the art section, my students tell me that I have a far simpler way of explaining things that they can understand and use. they also suggested writing books on the subjects of the human head and figures. So this may well be my next step on getting my work out there.

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The fairies above are some of a series I've been working on for a client that lives in Dubai, They are to be reprinted to make decoupage images, so keep your eye out for these. I might use some of them to create a diary/calendar. These started as drawings which were then washed with very pale colour to allow me to control the overall design at leisure. Then I was able to play around with some of the details which I hadn't spent time developing until i needed to. for skin tones I use my favoured permanent rose and green gold, with the odd touch of opera rose and burnt sienna, any dark areas are tackled with dioxazine purple.

The start of another portrait - who says you need to use skin tones. I used mixes of turquoise and and permanent rose  to start the base coats with the edition of some green, I can limit the palette and experiment more. The original paper is bamboo, which lends itself quite well to a semi wet technique, where by I can splash the paper first with random colour patches, then move them if necessary. When dry I can then draw over the splashes and place the features where i want them. I'm happy with the 1st layer, as now I have something to work with, build on and corrections can be made easily. 

thanks for reading!!