Streetfighting Men WIP

(Photo taken in Dubrovnik)

(Sketch worked up in Photoshop from traced photo)

(WIP, with some paint and collage added)

This is a painting long in the gestation. I took the photo on holiday in Dubrovnik in 2012; the men were quite a long way off and the photo definition was really poor. So poor that when I tried to enlarge it in Photoshop it became hopelessly pixellated and I gave up on using it for a few years.

More recently, I bought a lightbox and tried tracing the printed photograph, scanned the tracing into Photoshop and then added some colour.

The next stage was to square it up on a 10 x 10 in. board, then add some collage. For that I dug out an old piece of an etching I'd saved from the Print Room bin at University (30 years ago!) - hence the curious round shapes at the right produced by someone's finger print on the etching plate's soft ground.

At the left I stuck down a torn fragment of a sheet that had contained a Gestetner stencil (science fiction fans will know all about those!) I'd use to produce a fanzine even longer ago. Who said stuff doesn't come in useful?

The stairs in the foreground have been started with some pieces of paper torn from a Sunday magazine supplement. 

The collage additions have produced a few challenges for the development of the painting. Hurrah! I like a challenge.

Lopud Harbour

Lopud Harbour
(0.8 marker in A5 sketchbook)

Pat and I spent a lovely relaxing week on Lopud in Croatia last month. The island is part of the group of Elaphiti Islands, just off the coast of Dubrovnik and has no cars on it. If you don't feel like walking, there are golf buggies to get you around.

Before I went I had my usual fantasies of coming home with umpteen drawings, but the practicalities of doing so were soon evident. The town of Lopud lies in a long strip on the coast and the land rises steeply behind; a dip in the hills allows a road to a decent sized beach on the opposite side of the island. Apart from that, it's a matter of walking tracks, many of which we found quite demanding.

As a result, it's difficult to get far enough away from the buildings of the town to get a good view of them. And to draw anything other than buildings would mean standing in the middle of the street in what was a baking hot sun. This drawing was done from the shelter of the Elaphis Bar and Pizzeria while taking time over a 500 ml glass of draught lager. The only real problem I found with it was that boats had an annoying habit of sailing into harbour and then sail away again after I'd accepted that I'd have to include them in the drawing!

I generally set myself the task of coming home with at least one drawing from any holiday so given that we also had a thoroughly enjoyable time on the island, I'm not in the least disappointed.

Missoni

While we were in Dubrovnik this year, we found an exhibition of decorative fabrics by Ottavio MIssoni. Missoni was born in Dubrovnik and it was as the founder of the Missoni fashion house that I knew his name, but the wall hangings and rugs were a real visual delight.

Missoni Rug

Missoni Screenprint

Missoni Wall Hanging














Missoni Wall Hanging

Missoni Wall Hanging

Missoni Four Panel Wall Piece

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe"

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe"

On the flight back from Croatia I picked up a cold which has plagued me for the last three weeks. As a result I haven't felt up to posting anything here. Yesterday, however, I got round to looking at my photographs from the trip and picked out this example of Belgian Surrealism found on the island of Lokrum within spitting distance of Dubrovnik.

Korčula

Korcula, from Neno's Rooms, 16 Sept 2012 
(0.8 marker in A5 sketchbook)

We spent our second week in Korčula, a beautiful little island off the Pelješac peninsula.. After the somewhat frenetic atmosphere of Dubrovnik,  Korčula  provided a haven of calm.

Regular readers of this blog may remember that on a previous visit to Croatia we've stayed in  Korčula  before; in fact, we stayed at the same Neno's Rooms, though this time Neno gave us a bigger apartment with a better view of the Old Town. It's interesting to compare the view I drew this time with the one from the previous trip:

Korcula Town (Pilot disposable fountain pen, 2 pages of A5 sketchbook)

Croatia for the Third Time

Ploce, Dubrovnik (0.8 marker in A5 sketchbook)

Pat and I have just returned from our third trip to the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. The weather was mostly great (there were three terrific thunderstorms), which makes it even more dispiriting to be sitting looking out of the window at the grey windy wet weather of Gateshead.

We spent our first week in a lovely little apartment overlooking the Ploce Gate of Dubrovnik. From the patio outside the apartment we could sit and watch the boats go in and out of the Old Harbour and see the people scurrying over the bridge into the Old Town. I did this drawing on our last day there.