I repainted this witchy image yesterday as part of my watercolour practice. (see yesterdays post for the older version…) I liked the painting but wasn’t completely happy with it, then I popped it into photoshop, added a flat blue wash, picked out the highlights and now I’m far more satisfied. Cheat? me?
A recent watercolour exercise…I’m working on some new stuff for my portfolio right now and this is one of the doodles I produced whilst attempting to get my watercolour skills back up to scratch…
And here’s a quickie from a while back….
A recent sketch with some colour added… Just some more traditional exercises, I’m not tackling anything too elaborate as I’m getting re-aqcuainted with traditional mediums…. I’ve used acrylics here, I don’t play with acrylics very often as the colours seem to get duller as the paint dries and it frustrates me enormously. I thought however, that those particular qualities would work well with this particular scene as I was after a more muted look than normal, allowing for the blue and white of the falls to illuminate the piece.
I’m putting together a new portfolio, just traditionally painted for a change, and in order to produce work of as high quality as I can, I’m setting about getting my watercolour skills up to scratch, here’s what I came up with today (based on yesterdays doodlings…)
Not much to report right now, a couple of projects on the go…keeping busy as always. Here’s a quick Peter Rabbit watercolour doodle I scratched away at before starting work yesterday.
And here’s the initial pencil sketch before I added the inks and colour….
sure beats cars and buses and planes and trains… And at this speed, you get to slow down and enjoy the view.
The wonderful Selina Fenech has just kindly plugged me and my art via a lovely little interview over at her website:
http://selinafenech.com/2011/artist-spotlight-aaron-pocock/
Feel free to pop over and have a read and whilst you’re there, have a look at some of her own fabulous artwork….
I spent a wonderfully different weekend at the brilliant CYA conference in Brisbane. It’s true… I crawled out of my hidey hole and ventured out into the big wide world and spent Saturday and Sunday surrounded by lovely books and book lovers, creators and editors. I made some new friends and rekindled some old friendships… Had a great time. There’s something about spending time with like minds… (particularly when you’re an artists) it helps to keep one grounded (or at least quite happy in orbit. I was happily humbled (the brilliant Sarah Davis) gave my portfolio a very honest critique and as she cast her discerning eyes across my doodlings and scribblings, I somehow felt a part of me open up and prepare for my next wave of learning… it’s an incredible experience, to be in the company of peers and masters, it helps you to look at your work in a completely new light (and wish the very same light was switched off at times…). So anyway, now I’m all recharged and raring to go. I’ll be spending my spare time (chokes on coffee… spare time?) painting new work for my portfolio… For those interested, I’ll be moving back to traditional mediums for this, I’ve been itching to make the switch for a while so I’ll be using this time to get my painting back up to scratch. I started a new one in watercolour this eveing…ah watercolour! Such a liberating medium…
Back to the conference… What an action -packed two days… I sat in on some incredible lectures, Anne Spudvilas and Sarah Davis were so very inspiring, got to chat to some big named authors, I offered advice where it was needed, signed autographs, carried tables, drank coffee, drew pictures… drank coffee…. drank coffee (etc). I’m very much looking forward to next years conference. Tina Marie Clark and Ally Howard work their socks off to make these events so very enjoyable for everyone. Highly recommended!
This recent colour study is for my beautiful wife Katrina, who’s unswerving devotion to her family fills me with love and hope.
Here are a couple more tracks I’ve been working on lately…
Recent drawing (see earlier posts) with some colour added in photoshop. Trying for a more traditional look than usual, muting the colours as opposed to saturating them, I’d like to build on this a little…
My latest Mer-doodle… Having lots of fun with these.
Recent youtube demo. I’ve been asked often how I go about painting in photoshop and how I make the art look as though it was painted traditionally. This one addresses those questions, feel free to have a look and shoot me any questions you may have…
