Monday 31 March 2014

Table Top Etching Press For Sale

On a recent trip to Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand, what we kiwis call the Mainland, I took this table top etching press to Esther, pictured above, who was interested in buying one if it printed her beautiful lino cuts OK.
I was down there to give a mural painting tutorial to a few Nelson artists and share all my knowledge and tips and tricks of painting large scale on exterior walls and so for Esther there was no freight charge, the press went into the back of the wagon along with all the mural painting paraphenalia and she was able to spend a day with it at no obligation to buy and test its efficiency in printing.
I just knew she would love it and buy it and she did and I have a new friend.
Her prints are awesome and she told me the best thrill for her was the actual carving of the lino.
You can see her work at www.nesterprints.co.nz/    Enjoy...

Monday 10 March 2014

Anatomy; Drawing Feet


Drawing feet is not easy. There's the ankle and it's complicated bones and then the phalanges and then there's toes and toe nails. And there is usually two of them in all sorts of weird angles and situations.
Tricky stuff, drawing feet. Best, I reckon, to do thorough research so one is up to speed on what is what and how it all comes together.
And, you know, feet are not always a foot long. True. I put this to the test just recently and photographic proof was provided as seen above in a carefully prepared scientific analysis of foot sizes.
Luckily for me, I live in enlightened times, wonderful for an artist-= did you know when Michelangelo and Da Vinci did their foot size comparisons on corpses and that they risked their lives doing it?
True. Brave men, both of them, carving up stiffs and making drawings that advanced medical science flying in the face of the almighty Catholic Church and it's particular PC dogma of the time.
Medical science is sorted on the foot questions now and it's only my individual quest to be a better portrait artist that drives me to utilize the nearest handy grandson to help in my search for knowledge.
A word to the wise; if you are going to try this yourself be real careful not to tickle your volunteers.
The little buggers wriggle like wriggly things and squeak and squawk and can be an interruption to the required concentration on the task at hand.

Christ and the Child


That'll be Christ over there on the right. It's a rectory painting about 180 years old that was given to me by a
friend who lives in my small town. She had no room for it and I am like an artist with a studio and all so why shouldn't it live here? Yes, I said. why not?
That's me in the middle of the picture and on the left is this wonderful exercise weight my son Sam lent me on his last visit to me. It's called a grandson and it is not just any ordinary exercise weight, no, this little monkey has this built in wriggle and squeak which makes my time at the gym so much fun.
Happy days.