Update

Hi all,
It's been a while since my last post so I thought I'd better update you. The last 18 months have been grim due to health issues, (mostly my wife) and then the dreaded virus came along to cheer us all up.

I have to say that art has been my saviour and given me  something to focus on. I don't know how people without creative hobbies have got on in the lockdown. They must be pulling their hair out.

One of my latest paintings.

Anyway, I have managed to do a bit of painting and drawing even though I haven't had time to post them. To make ammends I have just updated my digital and traditional art pages for you to look at.

Even though I'm saying it myself, I'm amazed at how much my digital painting has improved during the 18 months since I bought my ipad. If you go to the digitasl paintings page and scroll to the bottom to look at the oldest image, then compare it to the one at the top, I think you will agree with me.

The surprising thing is that my tradditional drawing have also improved. I can't make my mind up which I like doing the best, so generally I have one of each type of project on the go at the same time.
I am also managing to make videos of my digital work and you can see the lastest one here.

If you enjoy the video please consider subscribing because I'll be doing another one soon. Hopefully my next post will be along quicker than this one. If you have any questions please don't hessitate to ask, and keep safe.

Christmas Card

Hi all,
Following our tradition, I painted a Christmas card for my wife. It was inspired by a photo I took of some deer when crossing Cannock Chase a few months ago.
Here is the photo.

And here is the Christmas Card.

I think it came out pretty well considering I didn't take too much time over it. If you would like to see how it was created, I have done a short video. Please click on the link below to watch it.

Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed please consider subscribing. The next video is of me painting a longtailed tit.

Red Admirals

Hi all,
I've just done a video of how I painted the two red admiral butterflies and uploaded it to youtube. If you would lke to see how I went about it please click on the link below. If you like what you see please consider subscibing because I will have another video coming along soon.

Here is a decent picture of the actual finished painting. It looks like a lot of detailed work but if you watch the video you will see that it is easier than it looks.

I think that it is amazing how quickly one learns to paint when using digital techniques. I struggled for years with watercolour and, to be honest, I didn't actually produce anything fantastic. I would describe my watercolours has, mediocre. If you want to see how much I have improved since I started painting on the ipad last Christmas, check out the gallery tabs at the top of the page.

Partridge done in pencil

Hi all,
Just updated the galleries. Two new digital painting, one of a pair of red admiral butterflies and the other of a long tailed tit that stopped still long enough for me to get a reference photo of him.
I have also upload a new image on the traditional art page.

I'm trying to spend a bit less time on the digital to give my eyes a bit of a break. So I have done a pencil drawing of a partridge and I think it is my best pencil drawing ever. I think the improvement is due to the time spent on the ipad. I have learnt a lot through digital painting because it is so easy to try something and if it doesn't work nothing is lost. I just erase the bit I don't like or delete a layer and I'm back to where I was. With traditional art there was always the fear of taking a risk because the painting could be ruined and I guess that led to mediocrity, well in my case it did.

Here is the partridge but please take a look at the others as well.

 Thanks for looking

Peacock butterflies

Hi all,
The digital painting is still going well although I do have a concern. I love painting digitally but I have a feeling it is affecting my eyes. To try and reduce the problem I'm doing two things. Firstly, when I do a new painting I get rid of the white background straight away. I choose a bland colour and leave that in place until I change it for the proper background when I paint it. Here is a painting  of some peacock butterflies on an aster type plant.

I made short video of how I painted this image and it shows how I used a bland background at the start. Here is the video.

If you enjoy it please consider subscribing, it would be most appreciated.

The second thing I'm doing to save my eyes is to do a bit more tradditional artwork. I don't think I'll be going back to watercolours but I'm going to give pen and ink and graphite another go.

I did a quick ink drawing of a partridge to see how it felt after amost a year of digital art and the experience was positive. Here is the drawing, nothing special but it didn't hurt my eyes at all.

If you have any comments please fire away and I'll be back soon with another butterfly painting.

Tortoiseshells

I have done another butterfly painting in what is going to be a series of four. In my last post I showed you the first one of some painted ladies and I thought it was my best painting so far. Well I think this one is going to run it a close second.

The butterflies are good, but I also like the scabious flowers and the buttercups. It  is beyond my wildest dreams to be able to paint images like this and it is all down to doing it digitally. The combination of ipad and an app called Procreate make it all so achievable. I would love to know what you think, please feel free to comment.

If you would like to see how I painted this image, which includes the copies use of stamp brushes, I have done a short video which shows how it was done.

If you enjoy watching the video please consider subscribing, it cost nothing and if you don't click the bell icon you won't be bothered with reminders. The third in the series will be along shortly

My Best Painting So Far

Hi all,
I have just finished the best painting I have ever done and I'm very pleased. I painted it on the ipad using an app called Procreate and it came out very well indeed. I might be biased of course so without further ado I will show you the painting and you can judge it's merits for yourself.

There you have it, three painted lady butterflies feasting on an imaginary plant that resembles cow parsley. The reference photo was one that I took in the late 90's when we had an invasion of painted ladies. This butterfly is not native to Great Britain and usually only a few make an appearance from overseas.

I painted the butterflies first to make sure I could do them justice and then I painted the flowers on a separate layer. They were painted using a couple of stamp brushes that I created myself and it made the job a lot quicker. Painting each one of those small flowers seperately would have been tedious to say the least.

Here is the reference photo.

I increased the distance between the butterflies to improve the composition and I changed the flowers. The vebena bonariensis that are shown in the photo are nice enough, but I didn't like the combination of orange and purple.

If you would like to see a short movie of me doing this painting, here is a link to a short video I made showing how it was done.

Any comments or question about the painting will be welcome and if you enjoyed the video please subscribe for future offerings.