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Andrews Sketchpad (2 Viewers)

Thanks both, if I can get another few done this weekend, Ill consider somthing bigger and with a little colour thrown in.....
 
Very nice Andrew - this is a srtong drawing and a good range of marks as Nick says. Good piece - I'd be tempted to work on this approach for a wee while.
 
OK, this ones done...Ive extended the bottom to add to his lofty appearance, and added the top to define the edge of the hole.......Will try and start another this week and see where that goes.

artwork sketches 001.jpg
 
here we go again....

Another attempt at 'Proper' Acylics.......maybe I shouldnt post WIP's incase the do go wrong, then I can deny ever doing anything in the first instance..
new painting 001.jpg
 
Being surrounded by failures, Im never going to post any more 'WIP'S untill I have somthing completed....!!!! I could be some time. :gn:
 
Being surrounded by failures, Im never going to post any more 'WIP'S untill I have somthing completed....!!!! I could be some time. :gn:

My own experience is that I have many, many failures. But I often decide to keep working on them anyway. Often they turn out to be OK if not great successes. I don't know if this will apply to you but I think it might be worthwhile continuing to work on them just to see what happens.

I'm sure that there are some artists who plan out a work and have it go just the way they planned from start to finish. But for many I think there's a good deal of turning failures into successes by just finding a way to workaround the problem. That's my method anyway. Not that it always works.....................
 
Being surrounded by failures, Im never going to post any more 'WIP'S untill I have somthing completed....!!!! I could be some time. :gn:

None of my paintings are ever really finished. I just decide to stop. They get put away worked over or thrown out after being stored a while
I'm no good at judging them just after being done. I'm trying to get a body of acceptable work done which means if I want ten good works ill need to do around 30 or more. Sometimes my skills are not up to my vision and I have to wait up to a year before I can say oh yeah I can do it now. A work in progress lets it all hang out an makes one accountable in a way a just present the final work does not. Don't think. Just go onto the next one:cat:
 
Note to self........
'next time you visit berkshire, take the good camera with the LONG lens, and not the silly little one'.....Red Kites cruising all over the place within Spitting Distance........I swear they were all laughing at me.....:-C

Roys 80th Birthday 017.jpg
 
As to failed paintings, or successful paintings, here is a story from a workshop I took last year. The workshop instructor is internationally known (and an excellent instructor, and great person). The topics of 'when is something done' and 'do you have failed paintings, and how often' came up. He answered the second question by telling a story about one of HIS heroes, another internationally known painter and author of several books with many awards to his credit. Our instructor was at his mentor's house and wound up opening the door (by mistake) that went to his mentor's basement. On the floor of the basement, a foot deep in places, were paintings that his mentor had become frustrated with and heaved down the steps into the basement, where they remained, apparently for posterity. There ensued a discussion about how frequently the older painter had 'bad' paintings, something which my instructor thought almost never happened to his idol. It happened often.

The interesting other point, however, is that the 'failures' lining the basement would be masterpieces to lesser painters and no doubt many clients of the famous painter as well. I've played music for decades now, and it's a similar phenomenon with music and painting I think. The scale of skill in both pursuits is pretty much open-ended. No matter how good you get, there's always someone out there much better, and some that you swear are in a different part of the universe that you'll ever be able to even visit, let alone inhabit. Yet people at that level aren't happy with many of their results either...! So no matter how good you get, your standards rise and there will always be 'failed' paintings. Just this year I pulled out all the paintings I did in the first two years I started painting (in 2008) and threw the vast majority of them in the garbage (kept a few particularly bad ones as well as the 'good' ones for encouragement when comparing them to where I am now). When I first did them, I was pretty proud of a couple of them, never having expected I would be painting and drawing at all. Now, I wouldn't want anyone else to see them.

There is another well-known watercolorist in our area who has been published internationally and has excellent sales of her work. I watched a demo she did and someone asked what percentage of her paintings came out 'good' in her view. She said her ratio is 1:20 - 1 she judges good enough to frame and sell versus 19 that don't cut it. Again, her 'failures' would be prized creations by most of the watercolorists I know.

Interesting commentary on perception and artistic psychology I guess.
 
New Year, New Horizons

So, 2013.......A new year, and so a new chapter in the sketchbook.
Looking back over the pages, Ive covered some good distance along the path of discovery. Ive learnt that there are many twists and turns, and plenty of pitfalls in producing works of Art. Ive followed the signs and listened to the Muses & Sages along the way, and understood the pain that they have also endured along their chosen path.
I compare my first scribble to what I have infront of me now, And yes, Im a happy person. ! I have finally beaten the demons and kept my promise of producing art with a title of 'Fishing Landscapes'. I have a few minor tweeks to perform, but having stepped back and looked at the near final item, Yes Im happy once more.
Ill post it (with kind permission of the moderators) and move on to more that I already have roughly sketched. Im ever hopefull that I can transfer the style into Avian art and still hold a place here amongst my peers....

If all proceeds as planned, I may close this sketchbook and open another, but lets wait and see what the path looks like further down valley.......

B :)
 
Ill look forward to seeing the fishing landscapes. Are we talking fishing vessels or a Chap stood on the rocks whiling the time away like I enjoy.
 
Mainly people working in the fishing industry, but will include boats, reflections on water and maybe a few abstract patterns made by the boats and their reflections....Id like to add some coastal scenes, (Rocks waves etc). All my material is based around the Harbour of Newlyn and the fish market, with over 19 years of photography on this one subject alone.....
 
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