and some more fish - though stylised

Digital play with the lino below

lino cut

digital experiment

I've been working with a couple of students doing linoprints and decided to have a play myself - it's not something I do very often as I prefer collagraphs as they are more painterly.

Before it gets messy I thought I'd scan the lino into the computer and then of course couldn't resist playing with the image in Photoshop. I think I can do more with this.

Over the weekend I hope to make time to have a go at printing it in oil paints. I'm not so interested in straight roll up prints but may do some later. I like the potential of colour changes with using oils and the brush marks and textures that happen.

It might work to have a shoal of them, or a line of 3 or 5 - lots of room for experimenting.

Sam's book is progressing well but recent illustrations haven't been water so I haven't shown them here. I thought it was high time that I appeared with some water related work :>)

A day at the beach

The interaction of sea against shore fascinates me.   I think it appeals to most people.  There is something primal about standing on a shore and feeling, hearing, tasting the waves as they roll in.
The water sculpts the land and the rocks near the shore to create peaks and valleys and it carves out openings, eventually collapsing rock til it returns to sand once more.

I have revisited this pastel that I did a couple of years ago of a stone archway on Laguna Beach in California.  The action of surf against what looks to be a fairly sandy stone created an archway through it.  What it doesn't show is the scale of this arch.  Its large enough for 2 people to walk through easily.

I wasn't satisfied with the first pastel, so went back and reworked it a little.  I wanted to intensify the colours in the rocks against the blue sky and now I think the piece is about where I want it to be.  I'm not proficient in pastel simply because I haven't used it enough.  I enjoy it when I do, so perhaps I should be picking it up more often.

There is benefit in revisiting a piece and creating it in several mediums.  There is always something new to learn with each visit.  I have recently created another painting of this view in oils which is on my blog and am considering a full size charcoal piece of it also.

And more explorations of the ocean on rocks with my digital sketch using the program that Vivien mentioned yesterday in her post.  It is a very useful way of dropping quick ideas as thumbnails for future use.  Yes, I could have used paper, but this way is even quicker.  This is from an image taken at Topsail Beach last month.  Watching the waves wash over these rocks is an endless pastime for me.  Bell Island and Kelly's Island are in the distant background.  Bell Island is still inhabited and was once famous for its mines, now more as a tourist destination, as the mines closed in 1949.

Still with a watery theme, but on my blog, is the work in progress of an aging dory that I spent time with last summer. I played with digitized manipulations of this boat, trying to decide the best medium for it.  I finally decided on pen and ink and a pointilissm technique.  You can have a peek at the progress here.

online sketching and using photoshop

Sketches/doodles done online here Vivien Blackburn

Julie posting a link to this fabulous time-eating site - sketching with the tools is so fluid and the marks it makes delicious! Click to see it larger and you'll see what I mean. I did this quick sketch from memories of walking through the dunes and down to the sand on the Norfolk coast. (I must get over there with Spring on its way) I used the shading, chrome, ribbon and long fur tools in this.

then combined with colour on my computer .....

making it more wintry

I could play for hours! I'd love this as a proper programme, actually on my computer, that would produce large scale drawings.


It's really worth clicking on them to see the lovely marks it makes properly. And play have a go ..........


oh dear .... Julie this is addictive

Digital experiment

Sennen Sunrise, digital experiment from plein air sketches. Vivien Blackburn

I want to work on a series of large canvasses from the plein air sketches of Cornwall that I've shown here and on my blog (links below).

As I can't get on with them today I had a quick 'play' with photoshop to come up with some ideas that take images forward - and I quite like this one. I do like doing paintings of night/dusk/early dawn. I think I'll have to have a go on a fairly large canvas and try to get this light :>)

It might be a challenge to try a large watercolour too.

links to relevant sketches:

sketches done plein air

other digital experiments here

more

oh for more time to paint .....

Digital imagery - using the computer to think around ideas for painting

Dawn at Sennen. Digital image, Vivien Blackburn

Sometimes I like to use the computer to work out ideas for further paintings using the sketches and paintings I've done plein air.

These are 3 I've done that may well find themselves developing into oil paintings.

The top one is a combination of the pearly dawn sketches and the wild seas - which were in a totally different light but the movement of the waves was beautiful, as were the dawn colours. Result = wild dawn :>) - I can definitely see this one being developed in paint.

Rainy Day at Sennen Cove, digital image. Vivien Blackburn

This one would lend itself to being developed as a a watercolour and coloured pencil piece don't you think?

Stormy Day, digital Image, Vivien Blackburn

With its muddy colours this one has more of an east coast feel - again it could be interesting in oils.

What do you think?

Do you use the computer this way?