Real Painting

I hadn't picked up a brush to paint for about twenty years and during my recent break from work, decided it was time. The kids were now of an age where things would mostly stay where they were put.

I'd got a few canvases (20" x 15.5"), brushes and acrylic paint from the 99p shop and after setting up a still life, started. The paints were total rubbish, so I nipped out to WHSmith to spend a bit more. I used to paint in oils and haven't used acrylics for over thirty years. From what I remember of those days was that I didn't like them that much. Started with the hogs hair brushes, but soon found that the synthetic ones suited me better.

The light was partially sunlight from the left, an standard lamp on the right and the candle, which I did light all the way through - I went through four candles. The sunlight created the strong shadows, but was only around for a few hours each day and I restricted myself to those.

One thing I had the most problems with was the cast shadow that the mirror made on the wall. Even though I tried to keep the lighting the same, it would still fluctuate between very dark to almost nothing.

I also did some reading on acrylic techniques and hadn't realised that working light to dark was preferable. Also if I wanted to blend I should use some medium. I 'nipped' down to my 'local' art shop, which is an hour away, only to find that they didn't have any in stock. This meant I was restricted to just using water.

Getting food poisoning wasn't on my list of preferred illnesses and only left me yesterday to complete before the fruit was too far gone.

Overall, I'm relatively pleased with the outcome. The mirror horizontal could have been straighter and some of my ovals a bit better, but not to bad for my first attempt after so long.

Some more backgrounds. I'm trying to make them a more of a human size or my characters will only be seen in the distance, which is not what I want at all. All references are from Google street view as previously. It's amazing what you can see looking down the odd alley. They are also on difference layers so people can jump out if required. I might try to do a couple of whole streets, one upmarket and one down at heel.

Backgrounds

I've returned to drawing for my animation and here are a few of the backgrounds I've done recently. Again they're all drawn using vectors by Serif's DrawPlus X2. Using Google street view, these are from a place called Kidbrooke in Greenwich. Most of it is boarded up ready for demolition, but there are still people living here and there.