Peter’s punny postcards in the papers

A nice article in this weeks Herne Bay Times by Roger Kasper.

090513 ‘Quink Koi’ sumi-e style

This is my first stab at a Japanese-style 'sumi-e' or ink and brush painting in a 10 minute lunchbreak at work. The paper is a poor base for the wetness of the ink but better than not painting at all! I only have limited art supplies at work (not surprisingly) and this was executed with a size 5 rigger. I'd love to try some sumi-e at home with my size 16 squirrel hair brush and some decent heavyweight Langton paper, but will have to save that for another time. This is great practice anyway. I used a previous biro sketch for inspiration. A good start.

The long, slow road to the Sargasso

I had a dream about riding on a giant eel decades ago as a child and the image has remained with me. In the drawing a tired couple and their baby have lashed themselves to a giant eel to hitch a desperate ride home under the safety of moonlight. Not quite as unlikely a tale as you might think as the European eel is a remarkable creature. Every adult eel leaves its freshwater habitat and returns to the Sargasso sea (which surrounds Bermuda) to spawn, thousands of miles away from the 'homeland'. A bit like salmon and sea-trout, but in reverse. Incredibly, they cross damp fields by night, able to breathe for long periods out of water. I remember my local fishmongers in north London kept them alive in big black plastic trays, in a centimetre of water, so that they remained fresh. European eels are now sadly declining in numbers so perhaps this allegorical image will do it's small bit and help inspire more interest in them. Interestingly, Arisotle had his own views on where they came from. He stated that they were born of "earth worms", which emerged from the mud with no fertilization needed — they grew from the "guts of wet soil". Black and blue Bic biro and white sketching pencil on my usual sketchpad.

090506 ‘The Trout that turned’ main drawing

Very pleased with the outcome. The sense of grievance is conveyed nicely by the trout and the surprise by the angler comes across well. Sometimes it just all gels and comes together and last night it did just that. I used the paler blue biro to ghost some lines in first to get the sizes right in transferring visually from the thumbnail sketches. Blue and black biro on the usual brown sketchbook paper. Many of the fish and fisherman sketches are done purely for the pleasure of it, i.e, not necessarily drawn as part of the sketch-to-painting process, but I will certainly come back to this one and develop it in some form or another at a later date. Any opinions out there?

090506 The Trout that turned thumbnail sketches

More ‘fantasy fishing’ sketches on last night’s train journey. I wondered how the hunted could turn the tables on the hunter. Using perhaps a very English cheese and pickle sandwich to entice the traditional fly-fisherman, the trout skilfully reels in an unsuspecting angler from his swim. With a tricky viewpoint to convey, I always employ the simple thumbnail sketch to sort out the options available. The first frame lacked dynamism, being side-on, the lower left lacked perspective energy, the top right was getting there, but was lacking something. The final lower right frame almost had it, but note that in the finished drawing, above, I’ve changed the angle of the angler ;) and by so doing I have enabled perspective to help me get his head bigger with the foreshortening and the emphasis is now on his face and sandwich, which is as good as it gets!

Completed ‘Vintage in Ventnor’

The finished painting, a postcard of which will be available for holidaymakers at the bungalow in the background.

Half-painted Vintage Vacations postcard...

Back to Vintage Vacations last night, which is now half-complete. (Or if you're a pessimist, 'half-started' ;) You don't get much more bespoke than this. To be completed tonight and uploaded on Friday (24 April 09). Tomorrow's a day off to pursue that other passion - fishing.

Man catches fish thumbnails

The thumbnail sketches show my original thoughts. Not happy with the fussiness of another figure in 1. Poor dynamism of scale in 2. Angler not interacting well enough in 3. 4 was closest and note the extra scribble adjusting the angler's arm, making the whole thing cleaner and easier to 'read', shape-wise. I onced picked up a great tip from a Disney artist when I used to work on character designs, which was always imagine the drawing as a silhouette. Make good negative shapes happen and it will work so much better. The last frame with amended figure hopefully demonstrates just that.

Man catches fish, fish swallows man

Blue and black Biro sketch combining two subjects very close to my heart, drawing and fishing! Sketched on the train to work this morning. A defiantly stubborn fly fisherman keeps hold of his catch, despite the fact that he's been swallowed whole by a hungry giant carp. Will make a great painting someday when I've finished my current round of postcard paintings. Note that I initially drew the carp's adipose/soft dorsal fin, (near the tail) wrongly, but this is a sketch, so it stayed in. I also forgot his whiskers, so characteristic of the carp, but it's more a fantasy fish than representative, so accuracy is unimportant.

Hut silhouette thumbnail sketches

Whilst I need to wait until this evening to produce a pencil sketch for Vintage Vacations, here's a few I prepared earlier which are similar to last week's posting, Dog walker and Whitstable and wine, though in the end I painted the latter directly without a sketch. Sometimes the best paintings, especially watercolours, are spontaneous. Anyway, these sketches were doe in black Biro on the train. I think I'll revisit the idea at a later date.

The next postcard... ‘Vintage in Ventnor’

As I mentioned in a previous post, my girlfriend Fiona has a little 1960s chalet/bungalow down by the sea near Ventnor in south-east of the Isle of Wight, which for my foreign blog readers’ benefit, is positioned just off the south coast of the UK. It’s a charming place with a unique atmosphere and gorgeous coastline. Anyway, Fiona’s friends Helen and Frazer run Vintage Vacations there, a retro experience whether you choose to holiday in an authentic American Airstream trailer, beach shack, tin tabernacle or 1960s holiday bungalow. See http://www.vintagevacations.co.uk/frontpage.htm What better place for a Peter Gander-style postcard, I was thinking, so this morning after completing ‘Hutspots’ last night, I got sketching again. The bottom left scamp is my favourite, the composition is sweet and natural. I’ll be working that up into a bigger sketch, full-page size very soon...