The Hard Sell

BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS! BUY MY THINGS!

BUY THEM! NOW!

I've been busy lately researching and setting up the infrastructure to hopefully start selling more of my work- original paintings, prints, etc. and also to publish my artwork and to take commissions.

As such I have stores on various sites such as Zazzle, BigCartel and Etsy, amongst other online galleries. Why not check them out! :) I'll be updating them regularly with new work and products.

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/LukoStore
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LukoStore
http://www.LukoStore.bigcartel.com/

Eventually I hope to have a dedicated website, showcasing my work and providing an ordering system too. It'll be useful for promotional purposes, to put on business cards and the like.

What's the time Mr. Wolf?

I took the opportunity this week to re-work the wolf painting that I originally posted a good many months ago. I was not happy with it at the time or afterwards as I felt it could do with some more detail and better colour balancing.

I'm reasonably happy with it now. The edges look more like how I wanted them to the first time round, with more definition against the background. I also took some time to improve the eyes, as they looked a little bit too intense before, like the wolf was tripping rather heavily or something. Now he just looks mildly drunk.

Something Something Tiger

Another painting, another deliberation over the title.

The tiger was done in record time, compared to the other paintings, which I'm quite happy about. I intend to keep on lessening the time it takes whilst maintaining the same or higher quality in future output.

The tiger, gorilla and wolf are now framed and ready for exhibiting at the Reading Rooms in Berkswell over this coming weekend (Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st July), so it will be interesting to see what happens...

Mother and Child!

'Mother and Child'. Or something. I really struggle to come up with good titles for finished paintings. I seem to want to just say what the painting is of, like 'Lion'. 'Tiger'. 'Wolf'. 'Paint on canvas, applied by a brush over a number of hours, whilst listening to the inane babble of ITV's Loose Women'.

I really tried with this painting, but all I could come up with (before Mother and Child, which is pretty rubbish really) was 'The Universal'. Which is incredibly pretentious. Ha. Oh well, something to work at...

The painting itself, I'm quite happy with. Again, I feel like I could have done more, as usual, but it was becoming a case of ever diminishing returns the more I worked on it. I'm still learning what works and what doesn't. I still haven't mastered what brush to use and when, instead sticking to the same one or two brushes, which probably aren't always best suited.

Ideally I'd like a really, really fine and stiff brush to get the really fine details on, but I can't seem to find any for sale.

To Post or Not to Post

I've been in two minds for a while now as to whether or not to make this post. The reason being; I'm not all that happy with they way the above painting has turned out. But then I decided there's no point in only showing things when you're happy with them. If I did that, I'd probably never ever post on here. I almost always feel that there's more I could have done with a painting or sketch. Most artists probably think that way. It's what drives us on as human beings- the eternal search for perfection.

Actually, that probably gives the wrong idea about what I'm aiming for in my work. It's definitely not perfection. Not in a photo-real sense anyway.

Unfortunately with the wolf painting I ended up leaving it too late, and being as I had a deadline for its completion- the hand in date at the gallery in which it is now hanging- to me it appears unsatisfactory. I know that if I had managed my time slightly more effectively I could have achieved a higher degree of detail and finish. As it is, to me at least, it looks incomplete and lacks detail, which is a shame as I can see its potential.

At this moment I should point out to any future potential employers or clients, that on a professional basis my time management and ability to reach deadlines satisfactorily is impeccable :) The wolf however was done purely for personal reasons, so I'm allowed to slack off.

Officially a Professional?

Great news, I've sold my first painting. In fact it actually sold a few months ago. I'm now working on another. Stay tuned.

It's flattering to know that people are prepared to part with their hard-earned in order to have something I've created. It also provides a nice confidence boost and incentive to keep doing more. Hopefully, quicker, better and more often.

Finished Lion Portrait.

I should have made this post a couple of months ago, but the lion painting has been finished, framed and exhibited. As always I felt like I could have done with another week or so to fine tune it, but never mind. With any luck someone will like it enough to buy it.

"Lions"

A friend of mine wrote a poem once, entitled "Lions". The poem went as follows:

"...
...
...
...... Lions!
...
...
... "

The pause and delivery were integral to the poem's success. Obviously it was better in real life than it is on paper, but to this day it remains the only poem I can recite off by heart. And that, I think, speaks volumes.

It was with this poem in mind acting as a vast well of unending inspiration, that I began my latest painting.

That last sentence is not true. I painted a lion cos I like lions and thought it would be a fun subject. I've only just remembered the "...Lions" incident as I write this.

The painting in its state above is probably about 95% complete. There are a few little bits and bobs I want to tidy up, but as always with painting this could go on indefinitely. The painting is acrylic on canvas, approximately 12 by 9 inches in size. I like the mixture of fine details with broader brush strokes and blocks of colour.

Inspired by my holiday...

...I painted this caricature of my travel buddy. It's based on a camel ride we had when visiting the ruins of Petra in Jordan.

Still not finished.

Another work in progress snapshot. I did a couple of hours over the weekend on this painting, adding some background first, then adding some more detail to the face and improving the contrast in the process. The scan as always has changed the white balance, so it's not entirely representative of the actual painting. In fact, it's not even a scan as my goddamn printer is broken. I have nothing witty to say. Leave now.

Despite the new job, I've still managed to continue with a bit of painting and sketching in my free time.

The above is a work in progress attempt to paint my other cat, Lucy. It's early on, so lacking much detail or refinement. I'm finding her a lot harder to paint than Minnie however, I think mainly due to her having far fewer colours in her fur and markings. Also, the fact I've chosen to paint an image of her in which she's squinting, her eyes therefore not fully in view, is probably not helping. Eyes being a main focal point of a face, providing character and detail, etc.

Ho hum. Lesson learnt. Always have eyes.

Another copy of some existing concept art, again from Fable II. This time a big breasted woman, staple of the video game industry. THEY'RE BIGGER THAN HER HEAD! o_0

And a silly little Darth Vader doodle.

Surprise!

It's been a while. It appears I've gone the way of many Bloggers before me, having started off with good intentions, but then, err, forgotten.. yes forgotten, to post.

Actually that's a bit of a lie. I've not forgotten really. I've been meaning to post but other things keep on getting in the way. My health for one. Also, I've not really felt like I've had anything particularly worth posting of late. But to remedy that, here is a more or less finished scan of the painting of Minnie, my cat.

'More or less finished' in that I could keep working on it, but I'm choosing not to as I'd like to move on to something else. I'm not entirely happy with the background; with hindsight I think keeping it more plain and less busy would perhaps look better. Either that or making it as detailed as the foreground (Minnie), as opposed to the annoying In-Between I seem to have settled on. Next time Gadget... Next time.

Yet Another Quick Update.

Hot off the press, this is the current revision. I've been focusing on fixing the background this afternoon having messed it up somewhat a couple of days ago. It's a definite improvement, looking less like the work of a child and more like that of a man. A big powerful man. I'm in the experimental process of gauging how detailed to make the background whilst keeping the foreground the main focus.

More Work in Progress.

Just a quick update on the painting of my cat; I hadn't done any work on it for a while, but found time today to do a few hours. The results of which can be seen below. Unfortunately the scan has desaturated a lot of the colours and messed up the contrast (as with the previous images on this blog). But in real life it is looking pretty good! Honest.

Work In Progress.

Here are two early scans of a painting I have started based on the sketch in my last post.

The first is the result of 30 minutes of quick blocking in of colour. I'm using Acrylic paint.

It was after this that I realised that I needed guns. Lots of guns. I mean brushes, lots of brushes. More specifically; some fine-tipped brushes with which to apply the detail.

So after a trip to WHSmith I continued for another couple of hours, adding some more definition and getting the colours closer to real life, as shown in the second image.

With reflection, the (main) eye doesn't look quite right, it's the wrong shape, which I think is the fault of the initial layout sketch. It will be the first thing I attempt to correct when I resume painting.