More teef...

Just thought I'd post the two creatures I painted today during my two creature workshops. The number of creatures I have ever painted have just shot up by 300 percent since yesterday;-) I had fun today, hopefully the students did too.

Morning Teef

Afternoon Teef

Teef...

Teef

Since I'm doing a creature painting session with the 1st year students tomorrow I thought I'd better paint a creature as a bit of practice. I actually found the process very interesting as I was following the methods used by Aron Simms in one of his Gnomon tutorial DVDs. It's a completely different way of working to what I usually do. Good exercise. So there we are... my first ever monster... with big teef.
:-)

The long dark teatime of the soul...

... to quote the wonderful and very much missed Douglas Adams.
Since my painting of the lovely Sean's wrinkles a creative drought has come over me. Don't get me wrong, I have attempted about ten new paintings over the last week and a half. And I have discarded every one of them. They just didn't 'feel' right. I have no idea what has happened... but it's tremendously frustrating. I wait all day to get home from work so I can paint - when I'm not going singing of course - and then... nothing! I paint into the night, then look at it and go 'meh' and then delete it all again.
So for lack of anything else... here's a sketch of the Earl. This time portrayed at more the age that he has in my western.
If you see my creativity lying around somewhere, give me a shout... Haven't got a clue where I've left it.

The Earl - sketch

The Amazing Anthony!

Earlier this year I became rather fascinated with an old Western. The John Wayne classic, Rooster Cogburn. It wasn't John Wayne or indeed his co-star, my all-time favorite female actress Katherine Hepburn, who enticed me so completely. It was the oddly compelling character of good guy gone bad, Breed, played by the actor Anthony Zerbe. I just fell in love... with his voice, his persona, the way he could ride a horse like you wouldn't believe. He also had the best squint imaginable. Next to him everyone else just looked... hammy.

Breed from 'Rooster Cogburn' -  a squint to die for<3

As is my obsessive way I instantly had an irrepressible urge to make my own squinty cowboy as an homage to the fabulous Breed, resulting in my first ever cowboy painting, my 'Lawman'... which was posted on this blog earlier this year.

This painting is incredibly special to me as it brought with it a change in painting technique and was also shortlisted for the most recent edition of the amazing digital art book series 'Expose' by Ballistic Publishing. And though it didn't make it through the final round I'm still in complete awe to have made it to the final selection from a combined 12000 entries.


'Lawman'

I also looked into the the career of the actor himself. Anthony Zerbe has an impressive track record. At 77 years old this year he is still a working actor with more than 40 years in the business. He is awesome in every way and have played so many amazing roles. I found that I had actually seen him in a fair few films without even realising it was him. It turned out that he played a rather sweet Bond villain called Milton Krest in 'License to Kill' and I suddenly remembered seeing the film on telly as a kid and being very angry with Bond for setting Milton up and getting him killed by the big, bad main villain. And he's been in a ton of Westerns.

Milton Krest from 'License to Kill'

And then I had this crazy notion... Perhaps he'd like a print of my 'Lawman' painting, seeing as he inspired it and it was so special to me.
So I found his address on-line and sent him a letter, giving every contact detail imaginable, asking if he would be interested in a print... And he e-mailed me back less than a week after I had sent the letter! And he said yes:-) Turns out he is the loveliest, sweetest, politest person imaginable... and very, very funny. So I had a big, high quality print made and sent to him in California. Once it had arrived he sent me this picture:-)

Anthony Zerbe and the 'Lawman'

Mr Zerbe you have inspired me more than you could possibly imagine and made me so very happy:-) I wish you all the best in the world, may you continue to squint your way into the heart of everyone who comes across you!
A truly wonderful actor and person:-)

Christmas is coming...

Sean

My recent wrinkle exercise utilising Sean Bean in the guise of Eddie stark has launched me into a new-found fascination with the craggy face of the blue-eyed, disgruntled looking Northerner who can't seem to make it through any film he appears in alive.

'Don't stop doing what you do, I will be your something old, your borrowed and blue.'

All I want for Christmas is you, Sean:-D

Aichel

Aichel

Another sorcerer from my middle earth story. Aichel, best friend of Raynfalg and father of Aisis and step father of elf king Eirian. This made for some interesting family dynamics as Eirian was already two centuries old when Aichel married his mother.
Hope you like him:-)
Ok, bedtime.

A spring in his step

Elf King Eirian - wip

A very quick initial sketch of King Eirian sporting his spring hair colour. Funny how elves look a lot less like elves when you can't see their ears;-) Work in progress:-)

Winter is coming...

Eddie

Eddie really doesn't want to go back to finger-painting college;-) Well, I had fun with this one trying to get the appropriate look of resigned despair on his face. Also, I think I might have just fallen in love with Sean Bean's wrinkles and baggy eyes:-D
Enjoy:-)