Well I managed it at last, here it is:
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Mea Culpa
So much happens to me, I cannot understand why I can't keep this blog going. However now that I have given my last demonstration this year maybe I'll have more time.
I have been able to upgrade my copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10. This has been quite a revelation for me, I'm at present dictating this blog using it. With only minimum of training it is extremely accurate and seldom lets me down.My last demonstration was at Virginia Water, I was showing them how to tackle watercolour paintings using a photograph as a reference they were very welcoming and as soon as I can manage I hope to include it in the blog.
I have been able to upgrade my copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10. This has been quite a revelation for me, I'm at present dictating this blog using it. With only minimum of training it is extremely accurate and seldom lets me down.My last demonstration was at Virginia Water, I was showing them how to tackle watercolour paintings using a photograph as a reference they were very welcoming and as soon as I can manage I hope to include it in the blog.
Friday, 5 February 2010
An even fewer seconds
Sorry about this it has been taken off already.
If you are really keen to see this video I can send it to you.
All you have to do is ask.
If you are really keen to see this video I can send it to you.
All you have to do is ask.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
A Few Seconds of Fame
Well I've never thought of being on TV myself, but a friend of mine Curtis Dowling, who is very much a Television Antiques Guru enlisted my help in this small section from the London version of "Inside Out" a topical news magazine.
It was dealing with the current Exhibition at the V & A Museum of Antique Fakes and talked about the Antiques world and their general problems.
For the next seven weeks it will be on iPlayer HERE
It was dealing with the current Exhibition at the V & A Museum of Antique Fakes and talked about the Antiques world and their general problems.
For the next seven weeks it will be on iPlayer HERE
Monday, 18 January 2010
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Drawing from Observation
Back again, I've neglected this blog for too long.
With more than a little disquiet I have been thinking for some time about the way that some painters go about producing their work .
In these days of easy do-it-yourself photography many painters rely entirely on working from photographs. What is far worse is that the desired result is as near to photographic perfection as the artist can manage. Whole books are written on how to achieve this detailed verisimilitude.
There is a big market for tracing paper, projectors and lately digital methods of reducing photographs to line drawings so that nowadays many feel that there is no longer a need to acquire any facility in drawing at all.
The worst of it is, that this is accompanied by the feeling and the statement that, "the end justifies the means."
Swayed by sales of their work, many painters soon restrict themselves to a narrow band of achievement largely governed by what they can readily sell.
I feel sad that the true joy of learning to draw and paint is completely lost to them. It is the process of drawing from 3D sources directly onto the paper and in the process, learning to "see" as only an artist sees.
It is common knowledge among art teachers that people only use their eyes for two purposes, to avoid knocking into things and to identify things, they then forget about looking at all.
David Hockney recently remarked that you could only know something properly once you have drawn it and that everything you hadn't drawn, you hadn't properly seen.
Using a photograph slavishly denies you this pleasure and thereby an artist's eye (way of seeing). Using someone else's photo is to a large degree much worse because you even lack the experience of being there when it was taken.
Having an eye on the finished result is even worse because nobody can paint the picture they can imagine.
Forget the market, it's the doing of it that counts, you will make progress only by making mistakes and using acres of paper, there is no substitute for experience and hard work and you will only get that by doing it for its own sake.
With more than a little disquiet I have been thinking for some time about the way that some painters go about producing their work .
In these days of easy do-it-yourself photography many painters rely entirely on working from photographs. What is far worse is that the desired result is as near to photographic perfection as the artist can manage. Whole books are written on how to achieve this detailed verisimilitude.
There is a big market for tracing paper, projectors and lately digital methods of reducing photographs to line drawings so that nowadays many feel that there is no longer a need to acquire any facility in drawing at all.
The worst of it is, that this is accompanied by the feeling and the statement that, "the end justifies the means."
Swayed by sales of their work, many painters soon restrict themselves to a narrow band of achievement largely governed by what they can readily sell.
I feel sad that the true joy of learning to draw and paint is completely lost to them. It is the process of drawing from 3D sources directly onto the paper and in the process, learning to "see" as only an artist sees.
It is common knowledge among art teachers that people only use their eyes for two purposes, to avoid knocking into things and to identify things, they then forget about looking at all.
David Hockney recently remarked that you could only know something properly once you have drawn it and that everything you hadn't drawn, you hadn't properly seen.
Using a photograph slavishly denies you this pleasure and thereby an artist's eye (way of seeing). Using someone else's photo is to a large degree much worse because you even lack the experience of being there when it was taken.
Having an eye on the finished result is even worse because nobody can paint the picture they can imagine.
Forget the market, it's the doing of it that counts, you will make progress only by making mistakes and using acres of paper, there is no substitute for experience and hard work and you will only get that by doing it for its own sake.
Friday, 11 December 2009
New Technology
I've just found a nice youtube clip about the difficulties presented by new technology in publishing, hope you like it.
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