James Flynn

Here I am again, irritated by the internet. Why do I do it to myself? Do I want to spend the entire morning endlessly typing the same email signature and username over and over? Loging in to all these different websites? Do I enjoy waiting for pages to load up, entering in my details, only for the page to crash? Well, i'll tell you now, I must do. I must absolutely love it, because I do it day in, day out. I am even doing it now, writing up this entry, despite having hours of frustration working on this very site.....

As you possibly might be able to tell, I am not loving the internet right now. I don't mean right now, as in the past few days or weeks, I just mean this morning. I will not name and shame any websites, but I will just say that if people want more visitors to these sites, they should make them more "f#**+#g" easy to use! Ah, that feels much better, I feel like a massive weight has been lifted off my chest, all I need to do now is lift all the other weights off and I should be fine.

What have I been up to, I hear you ask?.....

Well, other than being slightly irritated by lifes annoyances, I have in fact, produced some more artwork. This is number two of a series of black and white portraits, and a follow up from "a tonal study" from a previous post. Her'e it is, titled - "the weight of the day", please let me know what you think.

James

Hello again, hope all is well. All is going fine over here, another day another dollar as they say, I have not seen the dollar yet, but the day has been ok. Ok considering we are at that time of year again. I try to distance myself as far as possible from all the fake hype surrounding this time of year, and I succeed to a certain point but, it seems that christmas is forcing it's way into my personal space once again. This post is not a negative rant about anything, I can just feel myself getting irritated already..... Anyway where was I? Oh yes the day has been ok, I managed to plough myself through the usual crowds at the high street earlier, to spend money I haven't really got. How is that a good day I hear you ask? Well, I am producing a lot of good artwork just lately, and I cannot wait to get it out there. Thats what I am excited about. Black and white, high contrast work is my preffered genre at the moment, and I am producing a series of charcoal portraits, and I am pleased with my progress. Following yesterdays post, here is my first of the series, simply named, "a tonal study".......

I hope this piece, portrays the energetic mood I was in at the time, as I did get carried away, and really "went for it", which is exactly how it should be. This is possibly one aspect of art that I like the most, the fact that you can see what mood, or what someone was feeling when they painted something, and I hope I have achieved that here. I can see that my work is entering a new phase just lately, and I cannot wait to start another piece very soon.

I will leave you this time with something I came across by an artist named - Oleg Shuplyak, I am always searching the internet for interesting new artwork, and any other great stuff that crosses my path, and I thought I would share this little gem that I found recently. I do not know alot about this painter, but I thought this was worth sharing here.

Until next time,

James

I am sitting here writing this entry in reasonably high spirits, despite being subjected to around two hours of prime time garbage TV. I say subjected to, because I occasionally have no choice in the matter. If it was up to me I think I would actually get rid of the TV now, for the little amount of time that I actually watch it, it is not even worth having. Don't worry, I do not plan on rattling on about rubbish all night, I have got some more work done tonight aswell. I have just finished a new piece simply titled - "a tonal study". This is a new portrait I have done using charcoal and white pastel, my new favourite medium. I will post a photo of this new piece tommorow,( I would add a photo with this entry, but I do not like taking photos under artificial light, as it casts an orange glow. Much better to wait till the morning.) but for now, I would like to express my new found love for charcoal.....

It's been a very long time since I have done a lot of work in charcoal, I have actually always regarded it as one of the hardest mediums to work with. Until recently, I had pretty much left it alone, but now I cannot get enough. I am always on the lookout for nice reference material to work with, and I am very much into my black and white, high contrast stuff right now. The classic "rembrandt shadow" type portrait shots are great with charcoal and white pastel, and I certainly had a good time tonight with this medium. I really like the way you can just "get stuck in with charcoal, it really is a very forgiving medium, especially when used on paper washed with watered down black acrylic, with is my preffered method, which you may have guessed. Haha I just needed to get that off my chest, because I have got a few more pieces lined up like this, and I will present them as a series when my exhibition finally happens, which by the way, is going to be a very large exhibition, seeing though I have around forty paintings to show and counting!

I just also wanted to say that I am looking forward to next year now, I am finally starting to get things going, I have got plenty of ideas in the pipeline, I aim to have my own sketch column in a newspaper pretty soon, and I am eager to get my framing studio up and running, so I can get busy framing too. Good times, busy times, but good times. Thanks for the support from everyone on twitter too, much appreciated, come back tommorow and I should have my new piece uploaded here too.

See you soon,

James

Hello again, at last I can finally show you this painting I have just finished. It actually didn't take too long this one, only a few days. (Quite often, the best paintings are finished quickly, I find). It really did kind of "paint itself" too, however much that sounds like a cliche. What I mean by that is, I had this painting in mind, but in the end I just painted spontaneously, rather than to a plan. And I am pleased that I did, because I am happy with the end result.

As you have probably guessed already, this is a view of vancouver,canada. I found this reference picture in a holiday brochure a while ago (it is worth taking a trip to a travel agents for some reference material by the way!!!), and I have finally painted it. As for the pretty woman is this painting, well, you are not supposed to exactly know who she is, but I think I acheived what I was going for there....

Anyway, here is stage one....

As you can see, this stage was all about getting the measurements down. Mapping out the painting in a way, I used watered down burnt umber acrylic at this stage.

Here, I started to put down the lights and darks. With any portrait, I find it is best to simplify everything at first, and just see a face as light and dark areas. I also started to put down the scenery here too.

Here, a little more colour was added to the face, I also like to get some detail down around the eyes at this stage too. I realized at this stage, that this painting was going to be very "colour harmonized", meaning I was going to basically paint the portrait and the landscape, using the same colours.

James

Another day, another drawing. It's been a busy day today, I had the pleasure of visiting sunny hastings..... well I say sunny, what I really mean is cloudy hastings..... Well, what I really mean is cloudy and windy hastings..... Well ok, what I really mean is cloudy, windy and wet hastings!! I didn't mind though, I like it down that part of the coast. I like brighton and hastings in fact, so it was nice to get down there even for a short visit, which it was.

I managed to get a couple of sketches done while I was there, not sketches of hastings itself though (I don't think that would have been a good idea today!) just my usual drawings from papers and mags etc, I like to keep my drawing skills sharp you see, here's todays fav....

Good old Lenny Henry was in the paper for something.... bit of promotion probably, I only buy the papers for drawing material anyway, I don't bother reading them!!

I had another idea for a great painting whilst drawing this today, but you're just going to have to wait a while i'm afraid haha.... it will be good I promise.

I should be able to post the photos of the painting I am currently working on by tommorow or the next day, which I cannot wait to do, so stay posted.

See you soon

James

Just keep going. Thats the plan for me right now, I have been busy as always, had a productive day today working on yet another painting. I have been taking photos at various stages with this one, so I will be posting those as soon as it is finished. (I am finally able to put photos on this damn blog!!!) I have combined a portrait painting, with a citiscape all in one here, and I am very excited to get this one out there, should be added to portfolio page very soon.

I am still quite far away from my exhibition, I am aiming for next spring roughly, seems like a long time but, I still have a lot of framing to do. Not to mention all the logistics and promotional tasks that come with something like this. So i'm not going to rush this, it will be worth the wait. It is basically going to be a collection of three years worth of work, all in one exhibition. Quite a variety, portraits, landscapes, citiscapes, I paint quite a variety of genres you know! You will hear dates and location nearer the time so don't worry.

Well, thats about the most of it for now, I still haven't got any news back about my feature in the local paper, but it hasn't been that long. I will keep going until I get it, thats for sure. Here's a recent new sketch I did of tory George Osborne......

Until next time....

By the way technorati, this is for you - JURMQM3AF648

I am in very good spirits despite the fact my commission has not gone ahead. I was asked to paint four portraits for somebody, all of the same subject, this at first seemed like a daunting task, but I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, this is not going to happen now as the customer has pulled out......but never mind it happens.

On the flip side, I am producing more news sketches than ever before, and I am really enjoying doing so, I scan the papers everyday to find new stories and news events, and produce a drawing more or less everyday. So naturally, I am looking to take this one step further... I have been on the phone today speaking to a local newspaper, who might just be interested in giving me my own column, this would mean my news sketches would be published in this too. I cannot wait to sort this one out and get it up and running, and I am doing everything to make it happen, so watch this space.....

I also have a new painting in mind so I will keep you posted on this too.

See ya next time

James

As promised, here is the current update.... just finished new work titled "Ganymede and the Gas Giant". I am very excited with this painting, along with "The Beauty of Earth", I think these two will get a good response at future exhibitions, and it is very likely that I will be producing some prints of these too, so very happy indeed. I am now very eager to start my new commissioned paintings, which involve me painting the same portrait four times! This should be very interesting, and should keep me very busy for a while, possibly up until christmas....... well, the target finish time for these paintings is the 21st december, so I better hurry up and find the reference picture that I am hunting down at the moment. Please see my new painting in the astronomy section of my portfolio, and I will keep you informed of my progress with the new commission.

Thanks

James

I knew my positive thinking would pay off. It looks like I have another commission at last. Very happy about this indeed, it always feels good to get a commission, this one is particularly good because it has sentimental value, so it will be a very memorable painting. I will definately show you all my progress, step by step on this.

I am yet to finish the gas giant by the way, I have been very busy self promoting lately, something which we all have to do in this busy world, it is very nearly finished, but there is no rush, anyway it should be done in a week or so, will let you know. Be sure to keep up with my frequent news sketches by the way, the papers are a constant source of drawing material for me(at least they have some kind of use), just follow my twitter profile @artistjames.

See you next time

James

I am in much better spirits since my last post, despite going through slightly slow times financially. There are always dry patches, and I am getting some work, so thats a reason to be happy right? And I am busy everyday exploring new avenues, so I am confident that things will get busier, just have to keep going.

Anyway, as promised, I am keeping you updated with my ongoing projects,and surprise,surprise its another space painting.(I am painting more space paintings than portraits lately). Yes, my new painting is of Jupiter hence the title of this post, and I have to say, I am very pleased with my progress if I do say so myself. In fact, I think it will be finished in a day or two, if not tonight when I will be in the studio painting away. I will add it to my portfolio, and post it on twitter when completed, so keep an eye out for it.

Until next time

James