Here is a peek at a work in progress, started yesterday, one of a couple of personal pieces I have on the go...
I'm quite pleased with it so far and am letting it develope organically. Sometimes it's nice to start painting and see who or what appears on the board. I originally thought that it might turn out to be a character from one of my visual stories, Asterith the druidess. However she's turned out a somewhat more wistful figure, and a brunette (because there was brown paint on the brush), so probably not. As she has a medieval air (and looks less of a tomboy than the character I had in mind), I'll probably change it so she's riding side-saddle. Maybe a more precise theme will emerge as the piece progresses.
Unbelievably, it's 20 years to the week since our family holiday in Brixham, the little fishing town in Devon that made such a lasting impression on me. I was eleven at the time my sister eight, and we were both entranced by the place. We stayed at a former fisherman's cottage called Bay View, in North View Road. The view of the harbour at night was especially beautiful, with lights reflecting in the water. A photo I recently saw on DA reminded me powerfully of it.
We went back the two following years (1991 and 1992) but I haven't been back since. Brixham is picturesque place and I hope it hasn't changed. I have fond memories of the replica Golden Hind, the ship in which Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe, and of Perils of the Deep, the shell shop, the aquarium, the fishing boats...
At the end of the long pier was a strange industrial platform called Longbow, the function of which was a mystery at the time. I've lately looked it up and apparently it was a former salvage barge, converted into a missile testing platform for the Navy, and since put back into service.
Also in the harbour was a statue of William of Orange, who landed there and went on to become William III. It was and presumably remains a favourite perch for a Jacobite seagull who poops down the Dutch usurper's collar. Trips we had from Brixham included to Drogo Castle on Dartmoor, and to Dartmouth. We also went to Paignton, where we saw the Disney film The Little Mermaid. Ariel was the subject of my first crush. Silly, I know. (She'll never leave Eric...) This brief moment from my childhood explains the continuing fascination that I have with the nautical, and also why mermaids occasionally appear in my pictures. It taps into nostalgia for these times.
I've started a pencil copy of a painting I much admire, 'The Accolade' by Edmund Blair Leighton (1901). Full of gravitas and chivalric spirit, this has long been one of my favourite paintings, though I have not seen the original (in a private collection somewhere, apparently). Getting a likeness of the queen's face was a challenge, given that the whole face is literally smaller than a thumbnail, but it's coming on ok...
I was inspired to complete one of the 'influence map' things that have been cropping up on DA. Worcester Cathedral by night, Due South, Burne Jones's 'The Fall of Lucifer', Winona Ryder, Don Quixote, Bouguereau's 'Dante and Vergil in Hell', Vlad the Impaler, Royal Holloway University of London, a spooky mask, the spooky church from 'In the Mouth of Madness', a lemur, the replica Golden Hinde at Brixham, John Collier's 'Lilith', Lady from E. B. Leighton's 'The Accolade', Waterhouse's 'A Mermaid', Red Dwarf, Waterhouse's 'The Lady of Shalott', Guinness, Canova's 'Penitent Mary Magdalene', Knight from E. B. Leighton's 'The Accolade', HMS Victory, Howard Carter examining the mummy of Tutankhamun, the old Fella from the old DeviantArt back in the good old days, Father Ted, the Knights Templar, Kenneth Brannagh as Henry V, cup of tea, Lord Byron, San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, and Zurbaran's 'St Francis'.
Awaiting a call about a book presently, which I've propposed writing, and which the publishers seemed enthusiastic about. That will keep me occupied for a while. I've been working on the last few scenes for a web comic today, and have some backdrops for a game to do before the month is out. I'm hiping to get some traditional painting done soon, as well,soon, for a change from photoshop. I was thinking of doing a Lady of the Lake scene, for instance. I see ConceptArt.org recently has that as a subject for a character of the week contest but I was too busy to enter. I also thought about doing Shaijar al-Durr, the Sultana of Egypt and wife of the Mameluk sultan Aybeg, who first helped him come to power and then stabbed him (or had him stabbed) in the bath.
