Prints!

a Bassetts day again but all good

So,  the tattoo design (to add to the text . . . in black on the tattoo, but done in outline here) that's already there).  Good to get me practising the whole photo blue pencil first draft then inking on top.  I've got a cartoon that I'm doing for a research paper, so really just picking it up as I'm going along

Some more camel work . . . really enjoying getting Chester's bottom lip and eye happening

a tiny landscape on board
 

and a little bit more on two of the KWs

Editioning

Really not my usual weekend studio time . . . yesterday boxing and priming, today  editioning some lino reliefs I've been meaning to do for a while.  Not something I'm predisposed to be any good at at all . . . clean fingers, tidy processess, routine actions . . . hmmmmmm  . . . but I mangaged all the editions I wanted (10s) of 4 camel prints and one edition of 5 of the portrait of Kuman.  Not quite sure what I'll do with the 'not good enoughs' for the editions . . . birthday cards perhaps or collage . . .

Main thing was I actually felt like the practice with things like knowing the right consitency of the ink, knowing the right 'level' of the ink on the glass and the roller and the lino was kind of starting to make me make less mistakes.  Still working on keeping things 'clean' so a perfect print is not buggered up by Al's dodgy thumb smear . . .

Came home and got onto a bit of what is more natural, pushing paint around a bit of canvas . . . getting Chester looking like Chester and thinking about the text that will go in the background to tell the story of his travels between the three camel operations in central Australia that he's been involved with:  Ross River Resort, Frontier Camel Farm and Uluru Camel Tours.

boxed and ready to go!

18 paintings in 3 boxes, one sliced thumb, two lessons learned (not about the thumb:  seems I'll never learn that one about taking care with sharp things, paying attention, going slower etc etc etc :)).  1:  a big table's SO much easier for building boxes.  2: cheap packing tape is just not worth it (worth anything .. .  it simply doesnt do that sticking type thing one kind of has purchased it for in the first place)

But, with the additional task of doing a final tape with decent tap , all three boxes (much lighter and more manageable than when I tried to get a similar number into 2 boxes for a show in Darwin a couple of years ago) are READY TO GO!

So today:  no painting, no drawing  But finalising some source images, stretching canvases (8!), and preparing and boxing pictures . . . yup, a proper 'work' studio day which makes me even more look forward to the editioning of the linos tomorrow and the drawing and painting on monday;

a tweak and some overpaintings

the teak (lower third to sort the dodgy lines and composition . . . thanks Lesley for the putting it upsidedown strategy)

Painted over the old KWs (to avoid temptation to keep fiddling with them)

and then realised how much I like painting both camels and local country, so began this too

one end and lots of beginnings (and one beginning again)

 the end . . .  really enjoyed finishing these dancers . . .

 the begin-again: rethinking the KW triptych and playing with going minimalist (so had to go with new canvas as I couldn't scrape back) . . . process not product painting here completely

 and these are the beginnings:  another aerial 'coming home' south of the gap

 a fellow from Port Lincoln

 my biggest camel ever: and funnily enough also the chap I've done the smallest image of too (a 12cm square monoprint).  Just blocking shape and a bit of tone at this stage, but already loving the connectedness to old Rajah's quirky character

And this is Chester   . . .  kindof average size.

finals for Desert Inscapes

not quite

still finishing up . . . the final of the uluru camel string

softening the clouds of Ilparpa landscape

major reworking of Geofrey's left eye position (bugger!) and now need to sort the relative sizes (again)

and still redrawing the KW composition

Last hurrah

Back to work tomorrow so pretty much pushed to get the last of the Desert Inscapes show pictures done (well signed, with some post living with it tweaks and tidyings in a few weeks time)

Loved painting every day for a month after not painting at all for a month while doing the road trip . . .

bit more tidying and finishing

tidying up

Did some final tweaks to these two . . . patterns on the red skirt and some more highlights and contouring of the range . . .

and spending more time than I'd expected on the sand ripples (havent even started on the bushes in the background!)

big and little brushes

 Just need to work on shadow detail on skirt on far right, a bit of feet/sand  and then done!  Strewth but patterned fabric takes time . . .

 detail from the camel shadows piece.  Treading that line between getting some interesting details of the sand texture and grasses in while still keeping the whole thing big and broad.

 Interesting working across the three pictures (two here only today) in terms both of colour and contour.  Think if I get the hair/head shape sorted the other bits should come together more easily.  Getting the oblique angle of the head and not flattening it to the vertical will be the ongoing challenge.