Greta

At last night's life drawing class a hot roomful of sweating artists (well, I was perspiring delicately) struggled to capture the Lithuania curves of lovely Greta. I'd decided to get out of my comfort zone and try a medium I hadn't used in years- charcoal. The results are mixed, I think but it's an interesting challenge. I'll have another bash at it soon. Here are the best efforts.

Bill Carman

Lately I've been finding a lot of talented gits on the internet whose work I've been blissfully ignorant of until now. It seems there are many talented gits out there producing fabulous work and here's my latest discovery- Bill Carman.
Maybe you've heard of him before but I hadn't and his work is strange, weird and beautiful all at the same time . Reminds me a little bit of two other heroes- Sean Tan and Carlos Nine. You can see more of his stuff on his blog at-
http://billcarman.blogspot.co.uk/

More digital paintings

I'm still trying to get to grips with the fine art of digital painting. It's good fun and I think I'm making progress thanks to the tutorials in Imagine FX magazine. Here are my two latest efforts. I found a great shot of the young Orson Welles (I'm a huge fan of the huge man) and fancied trying a speed painting of it in an hour. It was a few minutes over the hour but possible in that time as I was working in black and white which speeds things up a bit. Then after seeing George Parkin's Facebook posting about seeing Elvis Costello live I got the idea for the other one. I've long been a fan of the Boris Karloff version of Frankenstein's monster so this was a good excuse to paint him. I was hoping to bash this one out in a couple of hours but it took most of the day. Anyway, I was quite pleased with it so I think I'm making progress. More tomorrow.

Frankie

At Jake's Thursday lunchtime class yesterday the model was the amazing Frankie whose hair reaches nearly to the ground and who always reminds me of a silent movie star. She's always a treat to draw and here are my favourites from the session.

Johanna

In last night's session at the Sussex Arts Club we were once again lucky enough to have the elegant and wonderful Johanna as our model. She's shortly moving to Edinburgh with her partner and she'll be missed in Brighton. Here are my best efforts. I may take a leaf out of Geo Parkin's book and try to work one up in  a more graphic style. But then Geo makes it look very easy and I'm sure it's not. Hey ho!

Digital dabblings

This morning I did another digital speed painting. It took an hour an a half and is a caricature of the Twilight saga actor Taylor Lautner. This is my third speed painting and about my seventh digital painting overall. The advantage of the speed painting exercises are that you have no time to get bogged down in irrelevant details you just have to bang on with it. It's a great way to learn and it doesn't get in the way of other work and deadlines. I intend to carry on doing one a day until I've learned how to do it to my satisfaction or I'm bored shitless with it. Yesterday's subject was Liam Neason who I painted before watching him in a great film called The Grey last night. It's about wolves so maybe wolves are becoming an unconcious theme for some reason. There was also a wolf in the caricature I did of Amanda Seyfried. Hmmm. Well I am very hairy. Awoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The divine Miss Potts

Saturday afternoon was the last in the Museum of the Muse sessions presented by the models showcasing influences and muses from the past. Lucy Potts chose as her influence Olga Desmond who was the first woman to ever appear naked on stage. This occurred in St. Petersberg but her first appearance on stage there was also her last as further performances were banned by the mayor.

The divine Miss Potts, who reminds me of those fabulous photographic models from the 50s, was illuminated by light from below which made for very interesting shadows.  Here are my best efforts. I'll miss these inspiringly different Saturday afternoon sessions but I'm sure the ever inventive Kate Shields will come up with another fascinating idea soon.

SFX

This months issue of SFX has three (count 'em!) THREE articles illustrated by yours truly.

I have a regular spot in the mag called Development Hell written by the legendary Nick Setchfield where I illustrate a film that is in development. This can mean that we don't know who is starring or directing or even what it's about. Sometimes we only have the title as in last month's article which was about a film called Boy Scout versus Zombies.

Anyway, this month was about a sequel to the old movie Twins with Danny de Vito and Arnie. It's to be called Triplets and has Eddie Murphy joining the others as the third triplet. I was also asked to draw famous aliens in the style of a Victorian etching. That was fun! And finally a mock-up poster of a 1920s version of War of the Worlds which was planned but never filmed. So my thanks to SFX for three really fun jobs.

Sophie

For yesterday's session at Jake's studio the model was the beautiful German girl Sophie who I last drew when she was covered in paint swirls at the Grimm's Fairy Tales event. She's great to draw. I think I'll have to lay off the life drawing soon before I become addicted and have to attend Life Drawers Anonymous- "My name's Paul Cemmick and I'm a life drawer." Oh the shame!

Speed Painting

In an effort to learn digital painting I've started doing a one hour speed painting every morning before I start work proper. I've done two so far and I find that it's a great way to learn a new working method quickly. The end result will vary and sometimes it'll be shit but that's how you learn. I intend to carry on with this until I feel I've acquired some sort of competence with, what is to me, a new method of working. The weird alien was fun and I managed it quite comfortably within the hour but I think I was a bit ambitious trying to do four portraits even in monochrome. The bottom right one is supposed to be Marlene Deitrich but it doesn't look much like her.
Tomorrow I'll do just one which should be easier. We'll see!

Kate the Great

Last night's session at The Sussex Arts Club featured the fabulous-to-draw Kate Shields.

Here are my best daubings.