Giant Kingfisher - Brazil

Used a plain white frame here as the image is a fairly weak color style and with a hint of monochrome sketch.  From an original photograph I took in Brazil when visiting the Amazon and the Pantanal some years ago.  Added gentle coloration to the bird which is actually a rather superb fluorescent deep green green with a white throat and large dark head, just  to liven up the mono look of the illustration.
Perched on an old fence post swamped in the river and an overcast day reflected in the grey water, I used color pencil shading as cover for the entire background.

Cormorant - Brazil

Still on the Amazon I used a favorite photograph as the basis for this color pencil style illustration. Perched on a dead tree stump in the green water the bird, as they do, it was twisted around to look back along the river at something that had caught the eye, which made for a slightly unusual pose.  Again used a virtual frame which hopefully suits the subject.

Red Cardinal

Another wonderful bird which happened to be sitting on a tree branch close to a house with a rather smart reddish painted wall, which just seemed to fit nicely with this superb bird.  Again color pencil style background to give the setting and then pencil work on the bird itself to complete the image.  Another frame to set the illustration off and give some impression of how the picture would look on the wall in the lounge or gallery.

I’m doing a little series of these with around 20 birds from around the world, with the actual photo (or a photo) image on the same page to illustrate it properly and then a description of the bird, habitat and so on.  So far they’re looking quite good and I’m fairly pleased with it, though I still have to manage another 14 to complete the set.
If it’s successful I’ll see about adding another 20 later in the year.

A UK country town scene -

Street crowd - Cumbria, UK.

Managed in a watercolor style illustration image with minimal detail and using lots of subtle colors and textures.

Street crowd - Heidelberg

Composite style photo- illustration with color washes applied just to liven it up a bit, from a basic sketch layout beneath. Lots of fun doing this one and managed quite a few different effects from this one.

Always playing around with these “snaps” of life in the towns, cities and streets of the world and often done initially from cafes and sidewalk restaurants as either photographs or first time pencil sketches when able.

Makes my holidays complete!

Sketchbook town

Done in black and white pencil style with just a touch of color here and there it works quite well for me.  I’m trying a small series of these in this style, so it should be interesting to see how they all turn out.

South Victoria Dock- north end in Dundee

The new apartments here and a promenade walkway along the shore with only the remnants of the quayside cranes on the lower right in the background to remind you that this was once a thriving seaport.  Since I rendered this picture it’s all changed again with rows of apartments now lining the route. I understand even the cranes have possibly moved again too, so I’ll have to take a look soon before I forget the way!

At the other end of town is the old Mercat Cross at Nethergate, beside St. Mary’s Church, still there fortunately, though since it’s inception way back in 1586 it’s been moved a few times too! The present location is the latest since 1993, though it wasn’t moved far, just a little to the west.  Of course what was around it has changed, hotels gone and buildings changed and even a complete set of railings separating it from the road at one time too.

Old Mercat Cross at Nethergate, Dundee

Originally way back in the 16th Century it was actually located in the High Street at the junction of the Overgate, nearer the true center of the town, moved in 1777 near this location, then moved again 1874 when the little steps and the octagonal base were added. The column has a Unicorn on top if you were wondering what that was and made of resin bronze I understand.

It would be interesting to see an overview of Dundee monuments as an animation as I’m sure many of these would be jumping all over town as each council or town planning decisions were passed over the years.

Maybe a project worth doing just for the fun of it!
Anyway – just two aspects of Dundee where there are many, many interesting places of historical interest and if I remember correctly was one of these “City of Culture” nominations – maybe it should really be “City of Change”…..!

Just hanging on

Gives a nicely textured image to a lovely cartridge drawing paper background and I kept it as realistic as I could, which is not the way I like to “paint” these days, favoring more the impressionist to probably what you would call surreal.  I haven’t posted many of the surreal images, though that may change as I progress with this rather new style.

Red breast

Once again a color sketch idea to drawing paper resulted in this, but with more solid color cover and not too much detail.  I have to think this is a work in progress really, though I’m sure I’ll be trying a few more in this particular manner in the next few posts as it is really interesting.

The algorithms used here are amazingly complicated and I’m sure that with practice and with experimental time, it should be possible to really start to replicate my own color sketch style of the past – but we shall see. . . .

Tay Street, Perth, Scotland.

From a series of Perth prints, sketches and paintings from a few years ago and some of which are still hanging around in the odd gallery.

St John's Kirk, Perth, Scotland.

Heavy brush style with high coloration oil style painting to old canvas works quite well for this old church in Perth.  Often painted over the years and this particular view a favorite for artists.  Virtually the same as it was 100 years ago depictions of this church can be seen in various galleries from sketch to paintings to old photographs.  Always reassuring when places like this rarely actually change and a where that little bit of the past still has relevance today.

George Street, Perth, Scotland.

Showing Perth Museum & Art Gallery at the end in it’s old pillared cupola style building and managed as a painting style image to a canvas textured background.

Then another image of St John’s Kirk but from another angle “from St John’s Street” showing the knave of the building. Been a church here for centuries, though the oldest existing part is the choir which is 15th century and is standing on the site of a much older church and there are records apparently back to 1328 when it was ordered to be repaired by King Robert.

St John's Kirk, Perth, Scotland.

A high color illustration in painted style which was produced as a picture for an article on the church some years ago and one which I’m still rather fond.  Found it today along with a whole pile of Perth images, sketches and drawings etc. that were done over the years for various projects.

Here’s someone who visits us quite regularly and today was no exception – my favorite Red Squirrel.

Wee Red - Happy Christmas!

Morning visits

And finally a Christmas bush (or that’s what I call it) in all it’s glory – one of a series of paintings on board I managed to do some years ago – I liked it then and I like it now.

Anyway Happy Christmas and may your God go with you wherever you are.

Imperial Dehli

The above image inspired by an old advertisement for the hotel.

This is another Imperial Hotel but located in Vienna on Karntner Strasse and is possibly my absolute favorite in Europe – there again I love Vienna so perhaps I’m biased.  The Karntner is one of the major inner Ring roads of the city and a great location for the Opera and the center.

Imperial Hotel - Vienna

Then of course I could not leave out the marvelous old grand lady of hotels, Raffles, shown here as it was in the early twentieth century.  It is shown here in a colorist impressionist style – the only hotel for me when in Singapore.  This picture is a little unusual in that Beach Road actually runs right across the entrance and this view -

Raffles circa 1910?

was from the sea.  A viewpoint that actually can’t be repeated, when Beach Road was on the sea and today the sea is long gone, being reclaimed land for many years now.

So just some pictorials of three of my favorite hotels in the world – each brings back many memories and each still wonderful to visit.

Pocelain kingfisher

The reason for this attempt was the finding recently of an old tin in my old studio, in which was a small collection of brushes.  These were no ordinary ones as I remember I had to specially go and buy them at the time.

A friend had made some wonderful pots and so on in porcelain, but not being an artist, asked me if I could manage something for her very new serving plate she’d just completed.

Not being an expert on pottery, china or porcelain painting though an artist on other mediums I dashed out and found out the basics and off I went and got some suitable brushes and oils and things, which hopefully would suffice.

In this old tin though I can still recognize the Squirrel hair and a couple of Shader brushes and a few pretty stiff looking Scroll? brushes. There’s a few others there, but not used for some 40 years, I’m jiggered if I can remember what they were called now, though Berry brushes? come to mind.

Whatever, there they were and it did indeed bring back memories of that time and I do recall that after a few attempts on some lesser plates, I managed some pretty fair pictures at the end of the day – and she was very pleased as I recall.

This particular image is a copy I suppose of a painting I had done in real life, which was actually oil on board, but I recall I used it as the idea for her first plate as she wanted a series of bird wildlife images and a set of 8 eventually turned out.

Goodness knows where she or where the plates are today, if indeed they exist now, but this is my sort of homage to that time and using the computer managed this effort. I have to say I’m not displeased with it at all and if truth be known probably better than the ones I did all those years ago.

First scribble

Finished

Poster style perhaps at the end though the usual highlighted and over-saturated colors as I tend to do these days.  Maybe a result of cataracts and declining visual acuity and advancing years, but whatever it is I quite like the impressions resulting.

Impressionist and Colorist of course are possibly my favorite Art forms and it seems that I’m sliding into this paint mindset without conscious effort – not that it’s a bad thing – I quite like it!