Back On-line - September 17, 2015

Hello all
Sorry for not posting for a while I was very ill. Just undergone a liver transplant here in BC Canada.
Thanks to a matching donor things have gone extremely well so far.

I do also want to thank all the doctors, nurses, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and supporting staff at both Vancouver General and St Pauls hospitals for their tremendous work and care.

The transplant seems to have bern a success and I am now working on recovery and mobility. At this time I am still at VGH until I can stand on my own two feet and be somewhat self sufficient ready to go home.
I must also thank specially my sister-in-law and my brother for their incredible help during this time. My sister-in-law just jumped on a plane from Toronto and dedicated herself to support me until I have recovered. This is a long term commitment that I have really appreciated. Thanks to all my friends that have supported me through this. I have a second chance now.

I was very fortunate that a liver match was found so quickly and made available.

During the wait for the liver I was maintained three times a week through dialysis both as inpatient and outpatient at both VGH and St Paul's Hospitals. It appears at this time following the liver transplant, my kidneys seem to be responding nicely now and hopefully will be able to go on without further dialysis in the future. We shall see in the next while.

I look forward not only getting back to working again but especially back to doing artwork again.

Cheers
Dave

Blog Not Closed Just No Art Activity

Sorry  all..

It has been a while since I did any new blog entries. Partially for health reasons, partial because I have not completed any new pieces of art for a while.

I'll see if I can get back into this again and start blogging.

Cheers
Dave

Doug & Hugh's - Milwaukee Trip 2013

My old friend Doug and his pal Hugh took a motorcycle trip to Milwaukee from Sept 22 through Sept 27. Their trip was to see the Harley Davidson plant in Milwaukee. Their ride took them fron Ontario (Doug from Brampton and Hugh from Wasaga Beach) to Sarnia, to Lapeer Michigan, Muskegon Michigan, across Lake Michigan by ferry to Milwaukee.

You can follow Doug and Hugh's trip here:
Doug & Hugh's Milwaukee Trip

The following is a Sepia tone watercolour of Doug and Hugh during their trip.
22" x 18" watercolour on Fabriano Artistica 140lb Rough paper.

Step 02 - Final - Oct 06, 2013
Tried a new technique to do the face and I am not really 
happy with the outcome.

Step 01 - in progress

This was from Doug and his gang's trip in May/June 2013 to
Connecticut and Maine

F1 On Three Wheels

Mark Webber Loses Wheel In Pit Lane

Step04 - Painting In Progress 

Further painting - detail not yet added

Watercolour 16" x 28" on Fabriano Artistico 149lb Rough

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Step03 - Painting In Progress 

Roughing In

Watercolour 16" x 28" on Fabriano Artistico 149lb Rough

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Step02 - Drawing In Progress

Drawing using black watercolour and pencil

Watercolour 16" x 28" on Fabriano Artistico 149lb Rough

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Step01 - Drawing Started

Drawing using black watercolour and pencil

Watercolour 16" x 28" on Fabriano Artistico 149lb Rough

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Aston Martin GT #2

"Aston Martin GT #2"

Step03 - Further painting progress

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"Aston Martin GT #2"

Step02 - Painting in progress

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"Aston Martin GT #2"

Step01 - Drawing in Black Watercolour & Pencil

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Depicted -
#99 Aston Martin Vantage V8 [Aston Martin Racing] GTPRO
#40 Oreca-03 Nissan [Boutsen Ginion Racing Team] LMP2

Aston Martin GT

"Aston Martin GT - 2013 WEC Silverstone"

Step04 - Painting complete

27" x 14" on Fabriano Artistica 140lb Rough Watercolour paper

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"Aston Martin GT - 2013 WEC Silverstone"

Step03 - Further painting 

27" x 14" on Fabriano Artistica 140lb Rough Watercolour paper

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"Aston Martin GT - 2013 WEC Silverstone"

Step02 - Painting in progress

27" x 14" on Fabriano Artistica 140lb Rough Watercolour paper

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"Aston Martin GT - 2013 WEC Silverstone"

Step01 - Drawing with Black Watercolour & Pencil

27" x 14" on Fabriano Artistica 140lb Rough Watercolour paper

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DTM Racing Series

"DTM Racing Series" - Audi - Driver: Rockenfeller

Step02 - Painting complete

22" x 11" on Fabriano Artistica 140lb Rough Watercolour paper

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"DTM Racing Series" - Audi - Driver: Rockenfeller

Step01 - Drawing with Black Watercolour & Pencil

22" x 11" on Fabriano Artistica 140lb Rough Watercolour paper

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World Wide Sketchcrawl #39 - Part 2

World Wide Sketch Crawl

Drawing marathons from around the world. Hundreds of artists, sketchers, sketch journalists in countries around the planet sketch on the same day. The idea of SketchCrawl is that of a global drawing marathon: taking a day to journal and draw all that is around you. Everyone participates by sketching something in your environment (city, home, street) and post the sketches on the forum at http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/

The day is always decided by the web site creator from San Francisco, Enrico Casarosa .

This is the second sketch from my Saturday session.

"Cyclist" - colour version

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"Cyclist" - sketchcrawl #39

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World Wide Sketchcrawl #39

World Wide Sketchcrawl - Vancouver, BC - 13-Apr-2013

I had a late start today and did not get out for my "crawl" until afternoon. I was able to do sketch the sketch below, and started by doing the rough of another. The second was a cyclist, so speed was definitely a key factor, as these guys don't stay still for long. I'll see about finishing the second sketch asap as I want to use the cyclist as a base for an up-coming painting.

"Street-Sale" - Sketchcrawl#39

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Adora Project

On Saturday February 09th I began looking for something to paint. I wanted something a bit more challenging, preferably including a human figure but with some kind of theme or purpose. I just happened to be checking out some marvellous paintings on the blog site of Ramesh Jhawar and noticed he had painted a portrait of a little girl "Adora". Apparently this was his contribution to the "Adora project", a project started by her father where he has commissioned hundreds of artists to create portraits of his beautiful daughter.

This is my second portrait attempted for submission. The first entry I did needs to be re-worked as I am not happy with the result. Concept I like but not the execution. You can find the first version on the same blog site.

See my journal blog site, reference at top right of this blog.

"Adora - Sleeping Beauty"

Finished Painting in Black Watercolour & Pencil

14" x 19" Watercolour and Pencil on Arches 140lb CP paper

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"Adora - Sleeping Beauty"

Step04

14" x 19" Watercolour and Pencil on Arches 140lb CP paper

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"Adora - Sleeping Beauty"

Step03

14" x 19" Watercolour and Pencil on Arches 140lb CP paper

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"Adora - Sleeping Beauty"

Step02

14" x 19" Watercolour and Pencil on Arches 140lb CP paper

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"Adora - Sleeping Beauty"

Step01

14" x 19" Watercolour and Pencil on Arches 140lb CP paper

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Eyes

Last Sunday I decided today to paint the view I see every morning as I wake up. Paws on chest I inevitably find a pair of eyes staring at me and a sighing fishy breath. "Get up you lazy bones - time to work". This of course is followed by Miss Fluffy curling up on the vacated bed and dozing off for a good nap. Job done!

Fluffy is an all white cat with two different coloured eyes which can be seen in the painting. The other marked features are her pink nose and ears. She is fairing well for a cat of over 13 years.

The painting started with my framing of the subject in such a way as to highlight the eyes and nose. Secondly I did not want any fiddly background and so went with the black as a contrast (hey black works for me well these days).
I then proceeded to paint in the eyes and the nose. 

Still not finished but this is the result of approximately an hour an a half made up of 3 x 1/2hr sessions. 

"Eyes"
Watercolour and Pencil on Arches 140lb CP Watercolour paper
15" x 22"
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Jack Blah!

"Jack Blah" 

15" x 22" Watercolour with Pencil

Started 27-Jan-2013

Completed 30-Jan-2013
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The intent of this painting was to portray absolute feeling of blah-ziness, Jack is such a fantastic subject to paint as his expressions are worn freely on his face. It also helps that Cara (his mom) is so adept at catching these times with her camera. Priceless moments. This painting was based on such a photo taken by Cara.

I have been going through a black and white watercolour phase for the last while specifically to improve my understanding and portrayal of values. In this case I believe the black and white (or grey-scale) adds to the mood being portrayed.

I am also trying to come up with my way of painting ... I use an original sketch or photo and roughly draw in minimal features (lots of poor vision and squinting helps) to establish fit within the painting area. I then start with the very darks to establish the key features. Then from there I work from what I envision in my head that the final painting will look like. Never be afraid to try new things.. 

After darkening some shadows and shading, adding folds in sleeves of shirt and doing limited cleanup...I declared this finished. Did not want to take the edginess away from the painting by smoothing too much out.

Miss Fluffy

"Miss Fluffy" almost finished

"Miss Fluffy" - 24-Jan-2013

Sketchcrawl #38

I had big plans to sketchcrawl at Granville Island yesterday, but due to some work and feeling a bit wiped out, I ended up crawlin' at home. I sketched the following in between handling other things. I still have to finish it today.

Since I was unencumbered by travel and the elements, I sketched large on a watercolour half sheet figuring I can turn the sketch into a painting.

Here is Miss Fluffy half asleep and half keeping a wary eye on me. LOL
FYI.. she seems to have taken to sleeping in the magazine indent in my Japanese coffee table.

"Sketchcrawl #38 - Miss Fluffy"

15" x 22" on watercolour 140lb Arches CP

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Guitar Man

"Guitar Man" - Final Thu Jan 17, 2013
15" x 22" Dry-brush watercolour on Arches 140lb CP

"Guitar Man" - I progress Tue Jan 15, 2013

Art-hritis

It has been tough to finish the two paintings this week. I was hit hard with Arthritis in the hands that had my fingers curled up for four days. The pain was really intense too.

Getting old is really nasty sometimes.

It sure gave me appreciation for my hands though.

Cheers
Dave

Jack's Dragon

First attempt to paint something for a young boy

 in a kid-like style. Watercolour on Arches 300lb rough

22" x 30" image

Morgan Freeman

My first attempt at dry-brush watercolour

Original Pencil-only sketch from Nov 2012
7.5" x 11" image

B/W Watercolour using dry-brush watercolour technique
Determined to increase the contrast over the original sketch,
I wanted the darks really dark,
15" x 22" image

Faces - Who dat??

A short while ago I decided to experiment with pencil-only sketches of faces. I started a new sketchbook 7.5" x 11" (Watercolour paper slightly rough) dedicated to these faces and restricted myself to three pencils (4H, HB and 2B). I tried to capture the individual nuances of each subject.

Let's see if you recognize the individuals so far in the first 6. I expect to continue adding new ones on a regular basis and see if I can improve as I move forward.

Face# 01
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Face# 02
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Face# 03
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Face# 04
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Face# 05
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Face# 06 - Still in progress

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Sea Village-4

"Sea Village #4"

28-Oct-2012

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