Nightwatch - stages 1 & 2

Stage 1

Following on from the last painting here is another in my series of smaller pictures of alien spaceships over Earth, "Nightwatch". I like the idea of these craft being rusty as though they have been in space for a long long time with this one quietly flying over a town at night. "Nightwatch" will be based around a blue/orange complementary with the brightest part of the picture being the lights below. I have very quickly painted in indications of lights and roads in stage 2 which I will use as a guide and won't be meticulously painting it all in as it appears here.
Stage 1 was "drawn" up with a small bristle brush in the morning session using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin.
Stage 2 was painted in the later afternoon session when the lines had pretty much dried in stage 1 and used the same paint mixture but applied first with a rag and then the landscape details picked out by erasing lines etc with a small bristle brush dipped in clean turpentine.

Stage 2

Long Way From Home

The next painting in my series of smaller paintings of alien spacecraft over Earth is "Long Way From Home". The idea of the rusting spaceship follows on from the last painting but I decided to get closer to the ship so that the rust is more apparent. I chose a red/orange - green/blue colour complementary for this one so that the rusty colours are emphasised.
I like the idea of the spacecraft has been in space and maybe other planets for so long that the surfaces are starting to rust in some way. Maybe all the occupants are long dead and is just flying on autopilot or maybe it's a kind of drone ship. In a way these paintings are not Science Fiction as I am painting them as if they are arriving here at this time for real, the spaceships hovering in the sky above us while we carry on with our little lives below.
Another painting that could possibly be heading for IX in October.
Oil on linen 16" x 12"
There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Long Way From Home - stage 4

Actually it's stage 5 really as I forgot to post the progress of yesterday's work...
So now I have pretty much got all the clouds painted although I want to take out a bit of the violet in the middle distance clouds tomorrow. I have also painted in the landscape at bottom left bar a slight addition of some haze which I will also do tomorrow and have also made a start on the rusting spaceship. Already planning the next one, a night scene...

Long Way From Home - stage 3

Painted in the first colour pass on the background sky using mixes of Phthalocyanine Blue, Winsor Green, Lemon Yellow, Permanent Orange and Zinc White. Theses are the green/blues that will complement the orange/reds of the rusting spaceship.

Twilight Visitors

Another in my series of alien spacecraft in our skies, the underlying theme being that sooner or later (or indeed has already happened) the Earth will be visited by beings from another planet whether in a spacecraft or by other means, well who knows...whatever they arrive in they may well decide to steer clear of a human race hell bent on it's own destruction and decide just to observe us maybe. 
Anyway I am painting this series as though these spacecraft are arriving on our beautiful Earth for real so in a way these aren't Science Fiction paintings! Below them is a landscape of cities, towns, farmed fields as we all go about our little lives unaware of what is arriving above us. This painting, "Twilight Visitors" has a spaceship floating in a twilight sky above a small coastline port, it's shape vaguely mimicking the shapes of the clouds so that they aren't immediately visible in a passing glance of the sky by an inhabitant below. 
As a subtext to this series I am not having any lights on in the spacecraft as a possible suggestion that there is no being alive on them after such a long voyage and the ship is just operating on some sort of autopilot. 
As I was painting the spaceship the warm underpainting was showing through and looked like rust which I have kept on this painting and has given me the idea for the next, "Long Way From Home".
This is a painting possibly heading for IX in October.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".
There is a step-by-step progress through this picture in previous posts on this blog.

Long Way From Home - stages 1 & 2

Stage 1

While "Twilight Visitors" is drying I have got on wth the next one, "Long Way From Home". The idea of the rusting spaceship came from the last picture and have decided to come nearer to the ship this time so that the rusting surfaces are clearer. The title refers to the spaceship having been in space for a very long time and bears the scars of space travel. Like all my spacecraft there are no lights inside as I like to think that they are possibly lifeless hulks, their crew having died a long time ago. 
I have chosen a red/orange - green/blue colour complementary as I want to emphasise the rust colours.
Stage 1 was "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin.
Stage 2 is the tonal underpainting in which I have used the same paint mix but applied with a rag.

Stage 2

Twilight Visitors - stage 4

Have got most of it painted now, all I have to do is finish off and knock back the spaceship a bit and it should be finished. Halfway through painting the spaceship it was looking quite rusty which I really like and has given me the idea for the next painting....

Twilight Visitors - stages 2 & 3

Stage 2

I used the same paint mix from stage 1 to put in the tonal underpainting using mostly a rag for stage 2.
Stage 3 is the first colour pass on the sky. I chose a red/orange - blue/green complementary and used mixes of Phthalocyanine Blue, Permanent Orange, Zinc White and Lemon Yellow. I am going to let some of the warm underpainting show through the sky near the horizon and am vaguely considering making the foreground scrub land not sea...and I might need to change the title as it is really dusk not twilight.

Stage 2

Obscured By Cloud

This is the first in a series of smaller paintings that will be themed around spaceships and clouds. I haven't done any S/F pictures for years, in fact right back to when I illustrated book jackets up to 2005, yet I seem to be on a roll of them at the moment. I like the idea of all of us living our little lives while above us spacecraft from other worlds are visiting us (and maybe have been doing so for some time). Whether they are hiding from us as they don't want to scare such primitive civilisations as ourselves or are there to be seen by those that look up to the sky...who knows. All of this series will show normal human activity carrying on while in the sky spacecraft float above us, watching us slowly self destruct as our environment falls apart. The idea that we are the only intelligent life in the Universe is clearly preposterous and it is inevitable that beings from other planets will come into contact with us. Science is forever changing and developing and the distances between us and their homes may be vast but who is to say that in twenty years from now a viable way of space travel will be discovered even by us. A civilisation maybe only a thousand years ahead of us which is nothing in terms of the age of planets would easily be way way ahead of us in terms of technology. They may want to leave us alone though as we are crazy, primitive and on the road to self destruction!
I will be bringing a number of these smaller paintings to IX in October.
The picture is basically composed using The Rule Of Thirds and is based around a Red/Orange - Green/Blue complementary axis using mixes of  Phthalocyanine Blue, Permanent Orange, Zinc White, Warm White, Lemon Yellow and Permanent Sap Green - all Michael Harding paints.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Twilight Visitors - stage 1

While I am waiting for "Obscured By Cloud" to dry so that I can scan it and post I have got on with the next one in this series of small paintings of spaceships and clouds. The underlying theme of these is sooner or later (or already happened!) the Earth will be visited by beings from another planet because it is inconceivable that we are the only planet in the entire Universe that has Life, intelligent or otherwise...not sure how much intelligent life there is here but that's another story. They might not arrive in a spacecraft but that is one possibility. I am painting them as though real spacecraft are arriving on Earth as we know it today with cities, farmed landscape etc and we the inhabitants are getting on with our little lives as incredible things are arriving in the sky.
This one is called "Twilight Visitors" and shows a coastline with a small port town, all the lights on and everybody living their little lives. Up in the sky if someone cares to look up a strange spacecraft hangs in the twilit sky it's shape and position echoing the clouds, some might see it most won't.
This first stage was "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet mixed with Liquin. This will dry overnight so that I can do the tonal underpainting tomorrow morning.

Obscured By Cloud - stage 4

Painted in the rest of the clouds and the landscape below ready for tomorrow when I will finish off the clouds, paint a blue haze over the landscape and make a start on the spaceship. Still using the same colour mixes apart from introducing Permanent Sap Green into the landscape below.

Obscured By Cloud - stage 3

After a couple of days away from the studio I painted this in of the sky this morning using mixes of Phthalocyanine Blue, Permanent Orange, Zinc White, Warm White and Lemon Yellow - all Michael Harding paints. I will adjust all the clouds when I have painted the rest in and can do them altogether.

Obscured By Cloud - stages 1 & 2

Stage 1

In line with my plan to take some smaller pieces to IX this year, this is the first of them. I like the idea of continuing this theme of clouds and spaceships so this carries on from "Visitors"with the idea of aliens visiting Earth (which they may well have been doing for many years already!). At the moment the spaceship looks like a flying SLR camera but I'll fix that later! This one is going to be in a limited palette of subdued blues hence the warm underpainting. I will be away for a few days from tomorrow so there won't be much progress on this for a little while...
Stage 1 was "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin.
Stage 2 was put in with a rag using the same paint mix but with more Liquin.

Stage 2

Visitors

Hot on the heels of "Hub Prime" comes another S/F painting, "Visitors". It's actually an adaption of one of my early ideas for the IX Commission which I didn't use, originally it was a figure high up on a tree on a mountainside looking towards the rising sun with this big sky seen between two layers of cloud. I still fancied painting the skyscape and realised that I could have an alien spacecraft bursting out of a cloud, I painted it looking quite menacing so we're not sure if they mean good or ill!
I wanted to get across the idea of a beautiful unsuspecting earth suddenly being visited by an alien race and decided to put a coastline town below with the unsuspecting inhabitants about to get a shock, nasty or otherwise. I wanted the juxtaposition of a beautiful Earth as we see it every day suddenly having to confront the reality of dealing with an alien race which surely one day we will have to as it is crazy to believe that we are the only sentient beings in the Universe.
I based the picture on a yellow/violet complementary axis introducing the nearby colours of violet/blue and a subdued green to give more of a variety of colour. I used mixes of Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Kings Blue Light, Pale Violet, Winsor Violet, Permanent Orange, Burnt Sienna, Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Permanent Sap Green, Zinc White and Warm White - mostly Michael Harding paints.
Oil on linen 30" x 20".
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Visitors - stage 6

Finished off the clouds and sea and then painted in the nearest clouds at bottom right, all recent stages including this one still using the same colours I started with based on a yellow/violet complementary axis. Just the spaceship bursting through the cloud to do now, I want it to look quite menacing...

Visitors - stage 5

Painted in the sea and coastline today after a day off in London yesterday. Hopefully I will be able to finish off these areas tomorrow morning just leaving the foreground cloud at right and the spaceship bursting out of the cloud to finish in the next few days. Trying to maintain a sense of space and distance ...

Artists & Illustrators Magazine

The editor at A & I magazine commissioned me to write three articles for the magazine this year, the first one "Imagined Landscapes" has just been published in the May 2019 issue - out in the shops now, folks!
It's basically a step-by-step progress though "Low Tide", painted originally to be shown at IX but was sold before and was not exhibited in the show. As mentioned in the article I have incorporated a reference/homage to Arnold Böcklin's "Isle Of The Dead" series of paintings (Ferdinand Keller did some great ones too). The second article should be coming out in a couple of months.

Visitors - stage 4

Painted in the distant clouds at the horizon and the nearer storm cloud, the rain under the cloud won't be as delineated as this when I come to paint the sea on Sunday (off to London tomorrow to deliver three paintings to the Mall Galleries for the New English Art Club show pre-selection). I need to keep the right sense of distance and scale when I return to painting on Sunday...

Visitors - stage 3

Fine tuned parts of the sky I had painted in yesterday and put in the group of darker clouds at the right that the spaceship is bursting through. Same colours as yesterday. Tomorrow's painting session is when I hope to get as much sense of distance as I can when I paint in the central layer of cloud over the sea.

Visitors - stage 2

Made a start on the sky today, I would normally try and get the whole sky done in one day but with this picture, the sky occupies three quarters of the whole painting so I will have to do it in stages. I chose a yellow/violet complementary colour axis for "Visitors", the colours used (all Michael Harding) are as follows:
Ultramarine Violet, Ultramarine Blue, Kings Blue Light, Pale Violet, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Naples Yellow, and Zinc White.

Visitors - stage 1

Hot on the heels of "Hub Prime" comes another S/F painting, "Visitors". It's actually an adaption of one of my early ideas for the IX Commission which I didn't use, originally it was a figure high up a tree on a mountainside looking towards the rising sun with this big sky seen between two layers of cloud. I still fancied painting the skyscape and suddenly realised I could put an alien spaceship crashing out of a cloud above Earth within these layers of cloud, whether they mean ill or well is up to debate!
For this stage I very roughly sketched in the coastline and spaceship with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then everything else was put in with a rag using the same paint mix wiping highlights out with another clean rag and a bit of turpentine.
Oil on linen 30" x 20".