Castle Dracul - stage 4

 Really hard to photograph this painting, not helped by my normal camera having problems so I'm using my iPhone camera. The painting in reality is softer and more mysterious than it appears here but this will have to do until I scan it. Quite difficult to get the values right on this one as I'm looking for a specific light which I am getting now but you can't really see it in the photo. Just occurred to me that this will be the last painting of 2022...

Castle Dracul - stage 3

 Changed the colour and tone of the sky a bit and painted the first colour pass on the castle which will disappear a bit in the frosty air when I finish it tomorrow. Tricky getting the tonal range right on this one, I want it mainly the dark end of the middle values and then the snow has to be a certain value too... will wing it as I go along. I also might put a single yellow/orange light in a window on the tower, we will see.

Colours used: Prussian Blue, Phtalocyanine Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Permanent Sap Green, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Zinc White and Warm White.

Castle Dracul - stages 1 & 2

First stage

 Continuing with my Winter theme for some reason this image came into my mind and thought hell, why not? Previous vampire paintings have sold well and this will hopefully look a bit different to the plethora of vampire paintings out there already... hopefully. I am setting it on a cold, dark, frosty, Winter's day in Transylvania, how dark I am yet to determine and will decide that over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee.

I am basing it on a desaturated blue/green - red/orange colour complementary.

First stage is the tonal  underpainting, the second stage is after washing some desaturated blue/green over it.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Second Stage

 

Refuge

 This is looking like the first in a series of Winter paintings as other ideas have come out of this one for some more. I like the basic simple theme of a place of warmth amidst a cold but beautiful landscape which I think I can develop in different ways. I wanted this one to look really cold, trying to get over the sound of your footsteps muffled in the snow and freezing air with in the distance a promise of warmth and homecoming. A bit sentimental for me? Dunno, I think it has elements of something universal, something that everybody has experienced in the cold Winter months...

Based around a desaturated blue/orange colour complementary, there were only five colours used in the whole picture. The location is somewhere near Pulborough in Sussex UK from a photo I took forty years ago in Autumn, for the painting I made it nighttime and added the snow.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

IX 2023

 Pleased to report that I have been accepted for next year's IX in Reading PA in October 2023. Looks like some people will be going who I haven't seen for a while.

Refuge - stage 2

 First colour pass on the background trying to keep it dark and soft... and looking very cold. This is of course the meaning of the title, the warm light in the window symbolising refuge from the cold dark night. It might be my Christmas card this year...

Colours used: Prussian Blue, Permanent Orange and Zinc White.

Refuge - stage 1

 

A painting to celebrate the end of a bloody freezing couple of weeks in the UK!... mind you it's now raining all day as the warm air meets the cold....

This will be a nighttime winter snow picture with just a single warm light on in the distant house based around a blue/orange colour complementary. I actually tried painting this before many moons ago but for some reason I can't remember I ended up putting my fist through the canvas in frustration of it not going where I wanted it to! I must try and find the photo....

This is the tonal underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and flat brushes.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Torii

 This one has a slightly chequered  history in that it was originally conceived with a Japanese Torii gate in the background which I then had second thoughts about. But after posting the first stage on Instagram I got some feedback from a couple of people that I should indeed put the Torii in and also to make it foggy which the first stage kind of suggested. I thought about this and decided to go along with these suggestions. I wanted to keep it pretty unsaturated in colour but still to base it on a blue/orange colour complementary. This will probably be my last tree paintiing for a while... but who knows I might change my mind.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Torii - stages 2 & 3

Stage 2

 I didn't get a chance to post yesterday's progress so here are both stages to date. In stage 2 I sketched in the silhouettes of the Japanese Torii gate and temple after some suggestions from people on Instagram to include a Torii gate and to make it foggy which I thought were decent suggestions. I then roughed in an early pass of a mix of Phthalocyanine Blue and Green and Permanent Orange on the tree and left it at that.

Today I painted a second pass of that mix on the tree and then painted in a desaturated mix of the same colours but mixed with Warm White and Lemon Yellow over the background together with a mix of Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow, Yellow Lake Deep and Warm White near the horizon. After that the light wasn't good enough to work any more in the studio so I have left it like this, besides which I would like to have a look at it over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee and see if I'm happy with where it's going - I might for instance decide to knock the tree back into the fog....

Stage 3

 

The Gate of Bab Al Shams

 

Just taken a short break from the tree paintings to return to an Orientalist picture for my upcoming slot on Every Day Original on the 28th of December. This is an imaginary gate in an imaginary city maybe somewhere in North Africa with my hopefully correct (but with my apologies if it isn't) Arabic translation for gate of the sun which is of course the whole point of this painting. I wanted it looking hot and dusty and went for an analogous colour combination based around yellow/orange although at one point I did dither about introducing a tiny area of it's complementary opposite, blue/green... but decided against it. I enjoy painting old and weathered masonry and buildings particularly if they are Orientalist and is in fact just about the only time I use relatively thicker paint, something I would like to do more of but doesn't seem to suit my style apart from buildings...

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

There is a (very) short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

New Tree Painting - stage 1

 

While "The Gate of Bab Al Shams" is drying before I can scan and post it I thought I would get on with another painting particularly as I am stuck indoors with a cold at the moment. This was (and still might be) going to have a Japanese Torii gate in the background but I wasn't sure if it worked compositionally so I have left it to tomorrow when I will decide over my breakfast coffee.

This is the underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and flat brush.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Gate of Bab Al Shams - stage 2

 I think I got the spelling wrong originally, this should be right. First colour pass on the foreground and a thin yellow on the sky. I want this in warm dusty colours but debating whether to vary them slightly with a few bits of green/blue Islamic tiles on the walls... will decide over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee.

Colours used so far: Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Genuine Chinese Vermilion, Permanent Orange, Yellow Lake Deep, Naples Yellow, Lemon Yellow and Zinc White.

The Castle of Eternal Tears sold

 The day after I had finished painting it "The Castle of Eternal Tears" was sold via social media....

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Gate of Bab Alshams - stage 1

 Time to get on with a possible painting for my upcoming slot on Every Day Original later this month so I have gone over to some Orientalism for a bit. This is an imaginary gateway to an imaginary city somewhere in North Africa. The title contains the Arabic words for sun and gateway which is precisely what this painting will be about. This is just the tonal underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and flat brush.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Castle of Eternal Tears

 This will be the last tree painting for a while as I get on with a painting for my upcoming slot on Every Day Original. As with most of the others this painting has it's roots in a Midjourney piece (shown at the bottom of this post) although in this case I only used the tree as once I looked at it for a while it triggered the idea of a castle in the background which in turn suggested a very wintry scene and then the title just came to me straight away. Once I had the title I felt that the painting should reflect it so I decided to make it quite a bleak scene with the castle only suggested through a haze of frosty air. I kept the colours desaturated based on an orange/blue colour complementary. I had finished the tonal underpainting and was just packing up my paints when I had the inspiration to rub out to the canvas white a wan sun (although I guess it could be the moon) with a rag. I think this now makes the painting although maybe it would have been bleaker without it - I just can't resist the temptation to add beautiful lighting to a painting... I kept the shape of the castle quite squat and wanted to avoid it looking like a fairy tale castle.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Midjourney

The Castle of Eternal Tears - stage 4

 Roughed in the tree, tweaked the background and then started to work into the tree some more before I had to stop at lunchtime and meet some friends on Brighton seafront for an afternoon of boules. What a hard life. Hoping to get it nearly finished tomorrow...

The Castle of Eternal Tears - stage 3

 Worked on the background which is now relatively finished apart from something I am planning to do to the castle tomorrow. After this I actually roughly painted in the foreground tree but was unable to get a decent photograph of it in the failing light so will post tomorrow.

The Gathering

 This was finished a few days ago but has taken a while to dry before I was able to scan it. Another tree painting with it's roots in Midjourney (shown at end of post) I changed the main tree entirely but otherwise kept to the spirit of the original Midjourney piece... looks a bit Disney?....

So what's going on in the forest?... aliens? fairy's? fireflies?... I like the little light at the bottom left corner that was in the Midjourney piece too; brings to mind (if it's fairy's for instance) of a more chaotic fairy that's always late for everything and is hurrying to meet up with the rest...

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Regret I never posted much of a progress on this one!

The Castle of Eternal Tears - stage 2

 I have decided to paint it quite gloomy (to reflect the title),  desaturated and cold so basing it around blue/greys. I also made a decision to have a wan sun near the horizon to relieve all the dark and middle tones.

Colours used: Ultramarine Blue, Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow and Zinc White.

Below is the original Midjourney piece...

Midjourney

 

The Castle of Eternal Tears - stage 1

 While "The Gathering" dries before I scan and post it I thought that I would start another tree painting, this one set in Winter and quite cold and desaturated. Again it has it's roots in a Midjourney piece that somehow triggered the idea of a dour castle in the background with the title arriving out of the ether the moment I thought of a castle going in there. I have a few directions I can go with the lighting of this one and will make the final decision over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee.

This is the tonal underpainting stage using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and a flat brush.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".