{"id":2009,"date":"2005-03-20T08:34:20","date_gmt":"2005-03-20T08:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=2009"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:54","slug":"working-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/working-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Working Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or All Work and No Play\u2026<\/h4>\n

This time, no amateur philosophizing, no more fooling around.
\nIntroducing the fully illustrated newsletter (which means I can substract nine thousand words and still get away with it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Started in the evening, after spending the day reworking another picture. This is the initial slopping about of colour prior to really starting in on detail. There is a very light pencil sketch underneath (somewhere), just to more or less position things. This initial step is a totally crucial undertaking not to be interrupted. It\u2019s also the five minutes during which the picture is either going to be a picture or another go.
\nIn this case, lots of water with the board at an angle to make the colour flow, and no taped edges so as not to have it pool along the bottom. The format was taped off once it had dried and become flat again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Next evening, working more or less from back to front, or at least deciding from back to front what goes where\u2026 The photo of the unusual skull is from Canada (an as yet largely unexplored territory, thinly populated but rife with all manner of incredible and fabulous creatures).
\nI enjoy pictures like this, since they can really go anywhere (one hopes in an acceptable direction) and occasionally end up quite different from what you started out doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Left: Finished the creepy individual in the backgound, along with the fetching pile of skulls, and having suddenly decided to move the foreground figure, I took the trouble of redrawing him on a sheet of tracing paper and postioning it until I found the best spot (and angle). Quite often, a degree or two, or a quarter of an inch can spell the difference between a composition that works and one that stutters.
\nRight: The kind of flotsam that accumulates around my feet when working on a picture – drawers of documents, books, photos\u2026 Next time I\u2019ll sweep the floor a little (either in the traditional manner or in Photoshop)before taking the photo. Once a job or a theme are done, there is a good hour\u2019s returning everything to the shelves and drawers. If I ever want to worK as a librarian or archivist, I\u2019ll have had ample training\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Left: More or less finished picture. Another half a day or so of fiddling will see it done. I loathe having to whisk a picture away immediately, there is always something that could do with a little more work.
\nRight: The kind of flotsam that accumulates on the table, a gentle sedimentation of coffee cups on the table and caffeine in my system. If I ever want to work waiting on tables, I\u2019ll have had ample training\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Left: Blocking out some vignettes for the same project. Very simple rough sketches done directly, and then on to colour. It\u2019s enjoyable to work on two separate tables, when the attention wavers on one piece, you can cross the studio and put some colour on another.
\nRight: Getting ready to start another colour piece. Re-sketching in the dragon from an initial scribble, figuring out more or less where things will go. Paintings like this don\u2019t really need more than a few light lines, since they are more or less invented on the way. The initial sketch is just a reminder of proportion and focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Left: Finished up the vignettes, and have now emptied my entire library of books on Celtic design, hunting down the right motif for a decorative frieze. (That\u2019s why they call it Celtic knotwork: it never does\u2026) I hope I own every decent book on knotwork, if there is one I don\u2019t have I\u2019ll corner it one day. What a fabulous art form.
\nRight: First colour for the dragon. Once again, this is the time when the phone can ring on the hook until the answering machine kicks in. Though I have a decent idea (usually) what I\u2019m going to do, it\u2019s crucial to get the first colours right, especially when doing flames and smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The flaming dragon has more or less figured out where he goes. Things like the tail are done by staring at the paper for a while and then painting in one quick – and indelible – stroke rather like calligraphy. After that it has to be shaped and fleshed out, but with a bit of luck, that initial line is the right one. So strange there is no way to plot it out. I often find myself suddenly tracing the very violent line of some crucial curve without warning.
\nUnfortunately for my artistic peace of mind, a kind soul who visited Ireland sent me a dozen beautiful jpegs of the Cliffs of Moher, so I suddenly decided I should paint some in the background, which means working around the foreground elements, but who can turn one\u2019s nose up at vertiginous cliffs, a stormy sea and Irish fog?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all folks. Back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n

SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED<\/p>\n

Very strange signature session last Wednesday. Arrived late, as had forgotten exactly where the bookshop was, sat myself down, requested coffee please no sugar and signed and drew and signed and drew and came out of my daze two and a half hours later to whisper to the shop owner that I had to go in half an hour and could only draw three more pictures and would just sign the others. A chorus of groans reminded me that a few dozen people had spent 3 hours in line for the second time only to be turned away, so we convened a third session for everyone in the shop in a month or so. It\u2019s all a total blur.\u00a0 And I\u2019m doing the same next Tuesday in Paris. Still in that Irish fog. Where WAS the edge of that cliff?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cDEEMWORTHY OF OPPURTUNITY\u201d…<\/p>\n

Approved mortgage rates. Biggest Pharmacy! Next Move Higher for Strong market Leader! Watch my Impotence Endurance! Small Company in the Right Sector! Need a Low Mortgage Rate? Our Running Hot Pick for Immediate Acquisition! Seriousness is of Benefit Here! I Bumped Your Car. This Company is Cranking up the PR in High Gear! Soft Cialis Tabs. Upside Pressure Signals Institutional Interest! Remember Me? Complexe Impotence Problems Information. I Found Your Keys. Stock Positioned to break Out on Record Sales Pace. Catch Housewives Cheating! Profit From Unparalled Profit Research! Ultram Cialis Celebrex Soam Ambien. Real-time Alert For Hot Stock Feature. Say Nill to Pricey PC Program! Good News. Hi There. Your Mortgage Has Been Approved. Forget Viagra, There\u2019s a New Game in Town! Be With Our First Rank Link and be a First Rank Worker! I Missed Our Appointment. Start Your Trading Day With a Bang. Cheap Meds! Get VIP Status – Buy Cheap Rolexes! Savvy Players Would be Wise to Load Up Early! Wonderful Wrinkle Remover! 14 Day Trial! Free! Presenting Mortgages Simplified. Your Credit Rating Doesn\u2019t Matter! You\u2019ve Been Approved! Get Your Green Card Today! Save Your Financial Future! You Can Stop Smoking in Two Weeks! 15 Minutes to Prepare for a Night of Love! Money-back Guarantee! Your Lifetime Chance to Live and Study in America.<\/p>\n

These are the headers of ONE night\u2019s spam filtering on the web site. Other ages left us the Illiad, the Mabinogion and Hamlet. The 21st century will leave a legacy of spam. More information is transmitted from a modern metropolis in a few months than everything contained in libraries throughout the world (in quantity, not quality). I hope aliens ARE listening from space. They\u2019ll turn about and head home for sure. Unless of course they\u2019re looking for pills or a cheap mortgage\u2026
\nMY HOME AND NATIVE LAND<\/p>\n

And last, but far from least:
\nMore news on the book signings in Toronto<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or All Work and No Play\u2026 This time, no amateur philosophizing, no more fooling around. Introducing the fully illustrated newsletter (which means I can substract nine thousand words and still get away with it). Started in the evening, after spending the day reworking another picture. This is the initial slopping about of colour prior to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-2009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","tag-illustration"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-wp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}