To Blog or Not to Blog...

Opus I. The Apophenia Series. Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 76.2cm (40 x 30 inches).

Well it's been over a year since I last posted anything on here. It was never my intention to make this a daily blog like the Self Isolation Residency, but it was certainly supposed to be more frequent than annually! All that aside I an now back and with a new painting, so I guess the answer is...To Blog.! This is the first one based on one of my A/D Sketches produced last year whilst travelling. See below images and details of the sketches, studies and painting. 

Gel pen sketchbook study.

Monochrome A/D Sketch.

Finished A/D Study 006.

2023 became a strange year in many ways, for various reasons I was compelled to lead something of a nomadic existence throughout it. As a consequence of this traveling lifestyle I was removed from my studios for months on end, forcing me to reimagine my practice. Once again, as with the Self-Isolation Residency, 2020-2021, I approached this 'problem' as an 'opportunity' wherein I began to  explore new ways to work while travelling light.

​One of these new approaches has been to create thumbnail studies in a very small sketchbook, primarily using black and white gel pens. Theses were next photographed with my phone whereupon I could continue to develop them, firstly in monochrome before experimenting with colour. These studies were finally conceived as fully fledged digital drawing and 'paintings which I call A/D (Analogue/Digital) Studies.

In the images above I'm showing the development from the sketchbook thumbnail sketch, to an enhanced, monochrome, digital drawing followed by full colour A/D Study. This process shows how I build up layers of digital colour, much as I would with oil paint, as in the completed oil painting, Opus I, at the top of this post.