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Follow that painting, day last

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I may have killed it. On the other hand, it may have more life in it than before I decided on a background to make it ‘pop’ then began fiddling around with the figurative elements. This was yesterday, a fairly ordinary portrait with not much to recommend it. And here’s today’s version which, to my surprise, looks better on-screen than out there on the easel. There’s more gouache (also some white watercolour because I ran out of white gouache), oil crayon, conte and charcoal, a calligraphy pen for scratching out top layers to reveal lower ones, some paper towel dabbing, … Continue reading Follow that painting, day last

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Follow that painting – day something-or-other

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve been picking over the detail and adding/removing parts of the background and figure elements to bring out the main features. This is where we were at close of play last time and that wrist was bothering me, along a bit of a Herman Munster forehead. So here we are after the application of some ‘pop’ colour (the orange) and an adjustment of the background with more gesso, half-dried then scrubbed with a grout brush to make texture. I think the wrist is better but now I can see that all that vigorous scratching has dislodged a patch of colour … Continue reading Follow that painting – day something-or-other

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Follow the painting – day 3 maybe 4

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve done a lot of prowling round this portrait; viewing it close up, sideways, from a distance, on screen, good light, poor light, glasses on, glasses off. Why? To get different impressions of the shapes, tones and shadows, movements and statics so I can get a view from outside my painter’s bubble. I’m happier about the face and glasses now but the wrists and the watch need more attention. In monochrome, that dark patch stands out and it shouldn’t – it looks as though it weighs an absolute ton too! Forehead could do with some lightening up after I pulled … Continue reading Follow the painting – day 3 maybe 4

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Follow that painting Day 2 (or maybe 3)

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve been squinting at this thing sideways for a little while, trying to decide what to do with it. Persevere and see if I can wrangle a decent image out of it or take the coward’s way out and smother it? I’ve had another go. Or two. Here’s the horror movie version; some undercoating to use as a base for colour layers but creepy or what?   Happier with that for now but oh look at that fat, flat wrist! I’ve added more gouache to the surface then, once dry, some detail with oil crayon which can be applied then … Continue reading Follow that painting Day 2 (or maybe 3)

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Follow that painting: Day One

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I don’t do portraits and I’ve only ever done one self portrait, handily fudged by the size of the phone in front of my face. But the OCA course is about to demand I take another crack at it so I thought I’d get a head (ha!) start. I mean, all that learning-by-osmosis from Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Year has to have had some effect, right? Here we go then: Step one – pick a suitable selfie. Ok, that’s Step two; step one is getting something decent in the first place. Then, to get a feel for the larger … Continue reading Follow that painting: Day One

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Sketch book – sheep

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The more I draw these animals, the easier the stroke and gesture become. There’s a simplification to the process, as if the necessary motor function has moved (is moving) from a conscious to an unconscious process. It’s moved away a little from the Henry Moore biro/wire frame technique so it’s a bit more mine. They all have muddy bottoms at the moment and what I thought were ewes with udders turn out to be anything but! The one bottom right still looks more bovine than ovine. Conte on gesso prepped support. Nice tooth to it. Continue reading Sketch book – sheep

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Sketch book: Schiele, Degas, and Celmins

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

After watching Bryan Eccleston’s description of his (not a)sketch book, I felt freed up to start adding a few more cut-and-paste pieces in mine. These are photos from a couple of my books and some screen clips from a Research Point recommendation, Vija Celmins: Degas because of the contrast with Paula Rego (whose work I prefer, at least in terms of her style if not always the content); Schiele because of his lines which are so spare and still so descriptive (again, style but not content), and Celmins because of her obsessive approach to detailing in these photorealistic pieces. It’s … Continue reading Sketch book: Schiele, Degas, and Celmins

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Bryan Eccleshall

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Interesting ideas about art v work, what ‘finished’ means, and ‘audience’,  and the predominance of process over outcome. I like the idea that work is generative – each iteration building on the last, and reflecting juxtapositions of past and present concerns. Also Bryan’s sketch books are marvellous and I’m going to shamelessly pinch some ideas – especially the one about being less precious. I’ve already started down that road but I hadn’t quite got onto the notion of including things cut out of other things because they’re interesting and might trigger something later or on just by sitting there. And … Continue reading Bryan Eccleshall

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Part 3 Project 2, landscape

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

  Breugel‘s Winter landscape with skaters and bird trap 1505; Monet‘s Grand Canal, Venice 1908; and Stuppin‘s Catskill Moon 2013. Three landscape artists whose images caught my eye when I was trawling for examples of the genre. I already knew of Breugel and Monet but hadn’t come across Stuppin before and actually thought it was one of our local artists, Sarah Duffield who uses very bright and largely unrealistic colours for her work.  I was driven to have a go myself on the black sugar paper I’d pasted into my sketchbook, just to see what would happen.   These are Faber-Castell pencils and … Continue reading Part 3 Project 2, landscape

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Paula Rego

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve been looking at different ways of drawing and trying to get a feel for the intended audience and Rego certainly has something to say about dancers. Maybe her audience is the people who idealise the delicate images made by Degas; a reaction to that sense of prettiness. Her Dancing Ostriches are robust women with muscles, which maybe makes a statement about the image of dance being unrecognised for its athleticism and here she’s maybe over-emphasising the musculature of her dancers to make the point. Ballet is not an Olympic event but ice dance is, and the floor work of … Continue reading Paula Rego