Busy Week

 Well, it’s been a bit of a busy week. The story so far. I’m a full time English teacher – which I’m not apologising for, it’s not a crime. (yet) Now, we’ve been teaching from home since the middle of December. There are occasions when I’ve taught in school, which is still open for the children of essential workers and particularly vulnerable children, but for the most part I’ve been at home. This does not mean that my time has been my own during school hours, though. Making a meaningful remote learning lesson can involve lots of things – making a ten minute video, and editing it, for instance, can take over an hour. Then there’s sitting at the computer, answering questions, giving advice, marking work during school hours.I’m not asking for sympathy, but I’m using it as an explanation of why I was so eager to paint in this last week. This has been half term week. Normally, during this half term I go sketching aboard somewhere. This time last year was my very last trip, when I went to Reykjavik. A year before that it was Stockholm. Well, there was no trip this year, obviously, so I was glad to use the free time to produce three acrylic canvases – the 3 wild west pictures from my last post.

Prior to that, though, I’d been painting this series of vehicles in ink and watercolour, and more recently making timelapse videos and tutorials of the process for my Youtube Channel. I can easily make one of these in an evening after working hours, you see. But last week, I was spending easily 6 or 7 hours a day on the canvases, so I didn’t make any more.

Yesterday, though, I made another video, or in fact a pair of them – a short timelapse and a tutorial of this VW Karmann Ghia. The painting stage of this one was not without its traumas – if you go to my Youtube Channel you can watch it if you like.

Karmann Ghia Tutorial Youtube

Karmann Ghia Timelapse

Selling my work is not my primary motivation, but I won’t deny that it is nice when it happens. Within about half an hour of posting my first wild west picture I had sold it, and then later in the week I sold two of the earlier vehicle pictures. That means that I’ve sold almost all of those earlier ones.

I’ve also had a commission to paint a horse racing scene in acrylics. This will have to wait until next weekend for me to make a start with it – I have just about all the materials I need except time. I’ve also started my next pair of videos – an E type jaguar – but I haven’t filmed the painting stage yet.

Oxfam Project

My daughter runs our local Oxfam shop. Oxfam, short for the Oxford Committee on Famine Relief, is a British based charity that works worldwide. People donate various items to be sold in the shops, and every penny of profit goes to fighting famine and poverty worldwide. A couple of weeks ago Phillippa, my daughter, was given a framed pen and ink sketch for the shop, and she was surprised how quickly and how much it sold for.
"Dad," she remarked on her return home, "yours are no worse than that was. How about doing some sketches of buildings in Port Talbot for us? We can frame them up and see if they sell."
Well, with that kind of flattery, how could I refuse.
The initial idea was to produce six different sketches of past and present iconic Port Talbot Buildings. Well, I'd completed the first two and started working on the next, when we sold the first before it even went in the shop.

This was before I'd even scanned it, and so all I have is a hastily taken photograph of it within its frame. This is the art deco Plaza Cinema in Port Talbot. Sadly it has been derelict for a long time now, and despite being listed the interior is in a desperate state. I sketched the cinema as it was for about a decade after I moved here until closure towards the end of the 1990s.

So, as I said, we sold this one while I was making the rest of the sketches. So in the end we decided that I would do another sketch of the Plaza to replace this one. I don't really like repeating sketches, and I was tempted to try from another angle. Still, the fact was that this image of the Plaza had sold, and my daughter really wanted
as close a copy of this as possible. So, putting my 'commission head' on, I resolved to give the 'customer' what she wanted, and produced this version of the same scene. It's obviously not a perfect copy, because I'm not that good - however there is an obvious difference. I changed the film advertised on the large board above the entrance, just so that both pictures have that little bit of individuality.

So altogether, the pictures which actually made it into Oxfam show, the Plaza, which is still standing, after a fashion, a blast furnace in Port Talbot steelworks, which is still standing, Margam Castle, which is still standing, the Miami Beach Funfair in Aberavon Beach, which was removed a good 40+ years ago, and the level crossing in Station Road, which was taken away when the town centre was extensively redeveloped in the late 70s. I've used the scans of the pictures below, rather than photographs of them in their frames:-

Zara's Metro Station

I finished the painting for Zara on Wednesday evening at the Artist's group. Here it is: -

Commission - Pontrhydyfen

A client saw my sketch of Pontrhydyfen Aqueduct - which you can see for yourself in my sister blog 100 Faces of Port Talbot - click on the link below

100 Faces of Port Talbot - Pontrhydyfen Aqueduct

and contacted me to ask if I could paint a picture of Pontrhydyfen. 

"After a fashion," I replied, "I can." So here it is - 16x12in, acrylic on canvas board:-

Wedding Invite Commission

I undertook a commission last week to provide some illustrations for a wedding invitation company. Here's one of the finalised designs: -

I did the original illustration of Fombon Castle - I also think that the coloured paper and wash tinted variations look fantastic.

The company is The Invite Press, and if please, by all means check out their shop on Etsy - just follow the link: -

The Invite Press Etsy Shop

They also have a Facebook page - please check this out as well: -

The Invite Press Facebook Page

Commission - Frankel

I completed the Frankel commission last night. I took some advice from the other artists with regards to how far I wanted to go with the background, and I'm glad that I did as I may well have been tempted to overdo it otherwise. The main thing was that I wanted Frankel himself in clear focus, but the crowd behind sort of blurry and out of focus, ad I think I've achieved that. I've sent the photo to the client, and hopefully he'll like it, Mind you, if he doesn't I wouldn't be unhappy keeping this one and sticking it on the wall of my studio.

Commision: Roxy

Another dog commission this one. Pushed for time at the weekend, this is the product of three evening sessions.

Commission: Julie's Dog

A few months ago my daughter commissioned me to paint her friend Sam's pet dog as a birthday present for her. This was the painting: -

Sam's Dog - Commission

In all honesty I don't think that it's the best painting I've ever produced, but Phillippa, my daughter, was very happy with it, and Sam made a point of thanking me, and asking if I could do another picture now that her dog is a little older. I haven't see Sam since, so that one's on hold for the moment. Still, Phillippa has asked if I could do a painting for another friend called Julie, whose birthday is next. This is Julie's puppy: -

Julie's dog - Commission

I'm much more pleased with this one. The colours work together a lot better with the background, and I just feel it's a better painting.

Cathcart Road Glasgow - Commission

The gentleman who bought this painting: -

apart from liking it as a painting had bought it because he used to live in the area. He asked me if I could paint a building in which he used to live, as it is now, and sent me a couple of photographs. I also did some research on the net, and this is the painting which resulted - there are several stages of painting it in the photos below: -

I've waited until the painting arrived by my client and he got back to me to say that he likes it - phew. It took a long time this one - about 3 hours to sketch it out, and then 5 or 6 hours to paint it in 2 sessions.

Commission: Puppy

Hot on the heels of the Glasgow tram, I've been asked to paint this puppy. Here's the photo: -

Cute little chap, isn't he? Here's the preliminary sketch onto canvas

I'll maybe keep the background white on this one. Here's the painted dog anyway: -

Commission: Glasgow Tram

I took the painting along to the artists' group last night, and it took a couple of hours to finish it. Here's the finished painting: -

Glasgow street scene with tram

I'm pleased with the way that the cobbles turned out. Basically I laid down a wash of very light, creamy yellow, and let it dry while I added other touches like painting in the tram wires. Then I used I browny purple, and a grey blue to paint in the cobbles - different dilutions giving me pleasing different shades of each. 

Criticism: - The tram itself isn't at all badly drawn, but it's not perfect, and could have been done better. 

However, as an example of the learning curve I'm on, I have to be pleased with what I've accomplished here. Buildings and cobbles are nicely done, and I think show a lightness and delicacy of touch that I wasn't capable of 6 months ago. 

As regards the chap who commissioned it - well, we didn't discuss price before I started, and I'm waiting for him to get back to me.

UPDATE - 19/2/16 - This painting has now been sold 

Commission: Glasgow Tram: Day 2

I started early today, and continued from where I left off yesterday - the buildings. First job was to paint in the rest of the stone/brickwork, trying to get in the variation of the colours in the stones/bricks as I went.

This was taken after about 45 minutes more work. The brickwork is done at this stage, and some of the windows, although there was still a bit of work to do. Within an hour and a half of starting I'd finished this part of the painting, which you can see in this next photo, which was taken after about 2 hours. : -

By this time I'd reached street level, and I got to paint in the little car, which I really wanted to do yesterday. You can also see two of the three figures as well. As you can see, I've been using a pretty watery palette - for the background buildings at least, I pretty much completed the buildings within between two and a half and three hours of starting out today, and then it occurred to me that it might be nice to work towards a finish tonight at the artists' group. So I stopped for now - here's the painting as it is now: -