Portrait workshop with PJ Lynch..

Yesterday I was lucky enought to attend a portrait workshop at the Kennedy Art shop in Dublin. It was given by artist / illustrator PJ Lynch who has been illustraing children's books since 1984. He is an excellent tutor also as I discovered on the day. PJ helped simplify many of the problems I was encountering with my approach giving me tips on color and form where I had erred. Often he would step in front of my easel and while explaining, politely make the correct adjustments with his own brush. Avery expedient method of correction I must say. 

To get to the workshop I took the early train from Cork with my friend Eva Widermann another illustrator with phenomenon talent, both of us carrying easels, paints and scribble books in hand. Traveling with my art gear is one of my favorite things. The ability to set up fast and carry wet canvas back to the studio for later work is always a great advantage. One of the things I like so much on train journeys is of course scribbling and yesterday was no different. Either out of the imagination or from the landscape going by, it's always fun to get ideas down in this way, the vibrations of the train adding significantly to the fast scribbles. When drawing the landscape from the train, what you see is only visible for a moment so you have to stay focused and scribble as fast as possible. It's an activity that eats up the time of any rail trip.

Of course you can just draw out of the imagination also. Sometimes I get lucky and pull a usefull design out of all these extra fast drawings that even ends up as a landscape painting. Anyway the day went quite well, as well as being an excellent tutor PJ is a complete gentleman and it was easy to be comfortable and learn in his presence. Here's the work I brought away on the day.

 oil on canvas board 30 x 25

 I will leave it for the moment until it tacks up a bit, in a while I will follow PJ's advice and run a glaze over the shadow areas of the work. I would highly recommend this demo if any of you reading this get the opportunity it is well worth the effort.

Thanks for looking :)

Sketching with the Cork sketch group..

disposable pen on recycled paper 30 x 20 cm

A quick sketch I did from the Cork sketch group event "Drink & Draw 

last thursday 24th of April. Once again I have used the incredible records of

Edward S Curtis as an inspiration.

Thanks for looking :)

Portrait under strong light,

Charcoal and colored chalk 30 x 24 cm

The other evening while the web cam was on I leaned in toward the computer screen.

At the same time I had the fluorescent light I use at the desk for sketching switched on. 

The lamps I use are old salvaged medical spotlights similar to the lights you would find in a dental surgery. Very bright.The dark light contrast I saw in the cam display was far too tempting not to draw so I completed this little work with dry pastels based on it. While I'm not too sure about the likeness as a self portrait, not being quite as lean faced as the work appears, I still felt happy enough to post it.

Thanks for looking :)

Trees in Spring

Oil on canvas 40 x 30cm

A quick oil painting of trees in the spring light.

Thanks for looking :)

Quick Figure Study

Graphite on Cartridge 42 x 30 cm

A quick excercise to draw the figure study using mostly line.

I have to admit, I find this a much more difficult excercise than 

just drawing using light and shade as the areas. Here I just wanted 

the line alone to describe the volumes and masses. 

Thanks for looking :)

Two trees Gougane Barra

oil on canvas  36 x 26 cm

I wanted to do a painting of Gougane Barra that might describe 

the wildness of the place so I followed the stream that eventually

becomes the Lee river up in to the wooded hills until I found an 

area which I felt had just the right look to it.

Thanks for looking :)

Sea cliffs on the south coast

oil on foamx 27 x 20 cm

 A quick study of some sea cliffs on the coast of Cork.

Thanks for looking :)

Colors of Winter

Oil on foamx 24 x 24 cm

Another heavily laden oil work I have just finished.

Once again I have used foamx as a base. The painted

image is one from the Gearagh in Cork. It's an area of 

such scenic quality that I think it would be easy to find

 a thousand paintings in just one visit.

Thanks for looking :)

Study of the head of a crow

Ballpoint pen on cartridge 30 x 20cm

I have to admit I have a weakness for drawing crows, they are such a resilient and

intelligent bird. I have ample opportunity to study them also, living near a large 

roosting colony.

Thanks for looking :)

Study of a Velazquez self portrait in ballpoint pen, sandpaper & Bleach

Ballpoint pen, sandpaper & bleach on recycled card  30 x 20cm

Here is a study from a self portrait by Velazquez. For this piece I first scribbled

out the main portrait with my ink pen, I then sanded the whole piece with a medium grade

emery cloth and used a hard eraser to knock back the lighter tones. After some adjustments

with the pen I then proceded to brush with household bleach the areas where I wanted to get 

the highlights. It's a messy approach but I thought it would be worth a try and for the materials

I used it seemed to come out ok. The whole work is done on a piece of recycled white card used
for packaging which I found much easier to sand than the normal A4 cartridge sheets I use from
time to time. Of course this is not the first piece of artwork I have created from mediums which
are all  destined to become rubbish :)

Thanks for looking :)

Quick scribble of a woodland scene

ballpoint pen on cartridge  30 x 20cm

 Here's another quick sketch done with ballpoint pen at the cork sketch group

Drink & Draw event. I heard someone say recently that the ballpoint pen is the 

pencil of the 21st century.. I guess that could be true really as even the cheapest

mass produced pen can still offer up a satisfactory drawing result. I find for speed

and tone and a fine line, a ball point pen can be second to none when you are in a

hurry. I also like to use sandpaper with these scribbles, drawing the ink across the 

page in a semblance of a wash, making for a nice finish. Of course with the pen, 

there's no turning back, once you put down that line it's there to stay, but I like to 

think that's an advantage to as it forces you to make better decisions knowing in 

advance that you will not be able to undo any strokes. I have been using ballpoint

pens now for many years and I find that each time I return to graphite or oil pitt I

 do less corrections as a result of using this medium.

Thanks for looking :)

Quick oilsketch of a cow

 oil on canvas 30 x 20cm

As the title suggests, a quick oilsketch of a cow done in a limited palette

of naples yellow, burnt sienna burnt umber cadmium green 

and a lick of aliziron crimzon.

Thanks for looking :)

Dreamscape

 oilwash on canvas 30 x 20cm

I thought I might try something different for a change so I put this reduced color palette

together just for fun, it's mostly a heavy oil wash with just a few strokes of color laid over it.

Thanks for looking :)

Two Little Pigs

oil on canvas 30 x 20

A quick oil sketch of two little pigs from the heritage farm at Killarney Co.Kerry.

Thanks for looking :)

Painting and drawing from life

Graphite on paper 20 x 30 cm

oil on oilboard 20 x 30 cm

oil on oilboard 20 x 30 cm

 Yesterday I got the opportunity to study some models from life with both pencil and oil. 

These are from the longer poses which varied from twenty minutes to forty minutes.

It's quite a rush to get a piece some way completed in the time available so they are 

quite minimalist in their appearance. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks for looking :)

Re-entry

oil on masonite 20 x 15cm

A quick oil sketch of an astronaut on re-entry just for fun

Thanks for looking :)

Study of a Rembrandt self portrait in oils

oil on canvas 46 x 36 cm

Almost at the end of the art challenge now with the art group "The Galway Pub Scrawl"

Todays theme was "master copy" and so I had the audacity to try my hand at a facisimile

of a Rembrandt self portrait...

Thanks for looking :)

Abandoned

Disposable pen on recycled paper 30 x 20

My entry for day six of the July drawing challenge.

Thanks for looking :)

Invisible to her prey.

Disposable ink pen on recycled paper 30 x 20cm

Here is the day five drawing from the drawing challenge, the subject was, "invisible"

I attached a digital border to this piece to contain the text as I thought the drawing

itself needed a bit of an explanation in order to satisfy the theme

Thanks for looking :)

Old Crow

Disposable ink pen on recycled paper 30 x 20 cm

For the month of July I have joined a drawing challenge started by the Galway Pub Scrawl. 

A drawing group based in Galway. The challenge is to draw something each day for the

month, based on a list. One drawing per day each day. All the drawings done by those in 

the event can be seen here. The above is my entry for day three " your spirit animal "

Thanks for looking :)

Study of Caravaggio's "Doubting Thomas" with disposable pen

  Ball point pen on recycled paper 12 x 8

I started this the other night while with the Cork sketch group at their drink and draw event

 and finished it on returning to the studio. I felt attempting a Caravaggio study would have

 been a bit of a challenge with the,"ten for a penny" ink pens I am using at the moment but 

they seem to be more than able. Any reluctance on my part to do this was based on the fact 

that there is no adjustment allowed so I would have to look at my own mistakes when finished. 

But that's all part of the process and I think I got away with it, for the most part. I do like the 

results though, because the finished scribble gives me a good understanding of where I
might have made better decisions with my pen strokes and it also teaches me to accept the
limits of my ability with the media.

Thanks for looking :)

Sailboats sheltering in the early morning in Drake's pool

Oil on masonite 31 x 27 cm

For this piece I tried to concentrate only on the color shapes in the scene.
Rather than attempt to paint boats in the water I placed on the  masonite
as accurately as possible, a description of the shapes I could see and the
colors they assumed without regarding them as components of the real
world but instead just considering them as a collection of abstract
color shapes.

Thanks for looking :)

Leo

 Ballpoint pen on cartridge  20 x 14 cm

Leo is a dog of no particular pedigree

Small and muscular and tough

His growl so deep it makes you shudder

and he pants like laughter

then walks toward you rolling his big head

which he lands in your lap

and closes his eyes and snorts and sighs

"I am your dog

Where are the dog treats?"

Thanks for looking :)

Empty glass bottle

Disposable pen on recycled paper 30 x 20 cm

It seems lately that I am unable to let go of these cheap pens, I am

finding them so versatile. I just buy them in bunches and draw with 

reckless abandon.. 

Thanks for looking :)

View across the bay

Oil on oilboard 40 x 30 cm

This is a view of the bay below the bridge at Glenavaud. 

The tide is out and the sky

 is full of that soft damp greyness

we are so used to here.

Thanks for looking :)

Very quick tree study

Disposabel ink pen on cartridge paper 20 x 30cm

As the title suggests, here's a very quick tree study.

When I am little caught up for time I like to resort back

to my well used disposabel pen and some cartridge paper.

Thanks for looking :)

The Crow

Disposable ink pen on cartridge paper 30 x 20cm

Heres a quick sketch I did at the Cork Sketch Groups, "Drink and Draw" meet up.

I really like working with cheap disposable pens and recycled paper. When I'm 

using more expensive media I am always worried that the outcome might not

 justify their cost, however with just the basic tools I dont have these concerns

so I tend to be a little less cautous in my approach... something that seems at times 

to prove usefull.

Thanks for looking :)

Exhibition News

This week starting on Friday the 8th I am fortunate to have some of my work on show at "Art in the Park" in a group exhibition at the Lord Mayors Pavillion in Fitzgeralds Park. If you are around there any time please feel free to drop in and have a look.

 The exhibition will run to the 31st of March and I will be there in person on 

the 9th, 10th and 17th painting outside... hopefully, if the weather permits :)

Thanks for looking :)

The Gearagh in the rain

oil on oil board 40 x 30 cm

Another oil of the Gearagh, this time I am trying to capture the amazing winter 

colors of this area, which even on an overcast rainy winters day are still present.

Thanks for looking :)

Early morning January

Oil on canvas 35 x 25

A quick oil sketch from the imagination.

Thanks for looking :)

Wind blowing through the reeds in the Gearagh

Oil on oilboard  36 x 25 cm

Another painting from the Gearagh series I am working on.

The view facing south this time from the edge of the reeds 

on the walkway through the sancturary

facing the main lake.

Thanks for looking :)

Sunset in the Gearagh as the water begins to freeze

oil on canvas 46 x 36 cm

This is a painting of an area called the Gearagh in Co.Cork

 a flooded plain on the road to Inchigeelagh. When I was there
I could see the water beginning to freeze as the last light played across
the lake. Great inspiration for a painting but so very cold.

Thanks for looking :)

Exhibiting at the Lewis Glucksman

I recently entered an art competition with Voluntary Arts Ireland called put your best pencil forward and was lucky enough to have two of my drawings selected for exhibition at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery. The exhibition opened yesterday and will run for a week until the 18th of December after which  it moves on to Derry. Here's a picture of me with my daughter Rachel standing with Fiona Kearny, Director of the Glucksman and Robin Simpson, CEO of Voluntary Arts.. and yes that's me in the hat. Long time readers of the blog will already have seen the drawings entered, both were done at meetings of the Cork sketch Group at the Franciscan well.

If you are in the vicinity of the gallery do feel free to drop in and have a look at the amazing entries of all works displayed by all the artists at this exhibition.

Thanks for looking :)

Crocodile..

disposable pen on recycled paper 30 x 20 cm

This is a very quick sketch of a hatching crocodile done with a disposable writing pen.

I have been doing a lot of drawing with these pens lately, sometimes it's just fun to use

everyday material to turn out a finished drawing.

Thanks for looking :)

Mid Winter Fires

Oil pastel on tinted canson 20 x 15 cm

This was done using  Sennelier oil pastels. 

They are a real treat to work with, being the softest

oil pastel I have ever come across.

Thanks for looking :)

A painting from Donegal

Oil on canvas board 30cm x 20cm

An oil painting of marble hill beach 

county Donegal, as the light fades into the west.

This one is a bit fanciful I know but sometimes it's good

just to have some fun.

Thanks for looking :)

Pencil study of a Rembrandt portrait..

22cm x 30cm on 150g/m cartridge

This is a pencil study of Rembrandt's "Self portrait with a walking stick", 

for this I used Derwent pencils, minen leads and an oil pitt pencil.

I find doing pencil studies of the old masters is really usefull. Its always 

great to see masterworks but often it may be only for minutes, very 

rarely does anyone get the chance to stare for hours at the one work.

To do a pencil study its necessary to spend hours looking 

at the one painting in order to interpret it to the best of our

ability... a good way to learn.

Thanks for Looking :) 

Small cliff on the west coast

Oil pitt and gouache on dyed Fabrianno 30 x 26cm

 A small beachside cliff on the west coast of Ireland.

Thanks for looking :)

Oil painting of a coastal view

oil on masonite 24cm x 27cm.

This is a view of Fennell's bay from the beach at Myrtleville. This

is my second time working with masonite, this time after prepping it 

I used the smooth side. To prepare the masonite I first coated it with two generous coats of 

gesso, when they were dry I gave it an acrylic undercoat and when that dried I coated it with a 

cold pressed linseed oil. The smooth surface was really nice to work with, but if you are trying 

this, personally, I would recommend soft brushes as the pig bristles leave too many scratch 

marks for comfort.

Icarus ...... drawing at Dr.Sketchy's ..

Last Saturday I visited Dr Sketchy's in Dublin with the Cork Sketchgroup

where life drawing models pose in a cabaret setting. Its a fun show and a great 

opportunity to draw from life. This is the last twenty minute sketch given by 

one of the models. Derwent pencils and an oil Pitt on cartridge pad.

Thanks for looking :)

Pencil drawing of, "The Hunter of the Steppe"

Derwent pencils 6H and 9H, minen leads 2H and 6B and an Oil Pitt.

Thanks for looking :)

Drawing of a Pig..

Derwent pencils and a medium oil Pitt on Fabriano

Anyone reading this blog must surely think I'm running short of headings lately
with introductions such as chicken, cat and pig but it's really just an exercise in
generating inspiration. I draw every day, sometimes all day, if I'm not going to be
busy with a paintbrush, but often beginning work seems to be the hardest thing. Once the
engine is turning of course, theres no stopping it... it's just to get that beginning....
The previous three sketches and one, yet undone, are based on the chinese
characters for prosperity, good luck, joy and peace which is yet to come.
I decided to give each one an animal interpretation and then draw the result.
So the symbol for prosperity was assigned to a chicken, good luck to a
cat and joy to a newly born pig... Not profound I know, but a nice simple trick all
the same to keep yourself working while the muse is busy painting her nails...

Thanks for looking :)

Drawing a Chicken..

Minen leads 2h and 6b only, with oil pitt for tone.

Thanks for looking :)

A pastel painting... "Sky"

Pastel on tinted canson..

Thanks for looking :)

Plein air painting of the tide out at Youghal...

oil on canvas 30 x 20

I had the opportunity to meet up with the South West Plein Air painters on Sunday11th

in the seaside town of Youghal and despite the odd rain shower and strong wind it was a 

fun day out.I managed to get in this one of a small little harbor in the town and a few 

sketches also.

Thanks for looking :)