So 
here’s my attempt at ‘fixing’ my painting. I changed the colour of the shadows, added outlines to everything and signed it.
Although still just as obvious, I think the blue does work better. I’ve been thinking about why this is (I did it because I looked at it and thought ‘those shadows need to be a bright blue to work’). I wonder if it’s because the orange shadows are basically orange with a little blue in them to darken them, and the blue ones are just white with the same type of blue in…If that’s true it’s probably a good rule for shadows in general – add the same colour to darken each colour along the line of the shadow.
I still think it would have looked better if all the colours had been dark, muted and ominous, but whatcha gonna do?
I just got back from an oil painting class in Oxford. The class was in impasto oil painting, based on Van Gogh’s chair:
It was pretty fun and the teacher was good (even though he had a little bit of the ‘I know better than you do what’s best for your art’ thing going on).
One really useful thing he did was give us 3 pointers for mixing paints:
1) To look at a colour wheel when deciding how to mix paints. See where the colour is and which way you want it to go (i.e. if it’s yellow do you want it to go towards red or blue?)
2) To darken a colour without losing it’s vibrancy you need to use the opposite colour on the colour wheel. If you want to dull the colour use black or grey.
3) I’m struggling to remember the third…oh that’s poor! He said we should write it down! I’m sure I’ll find it in one of my books so I’ll come back and edit.
The actual painting was really fun. He told us to hold our brushes almost parallel to the page so we could put the paint on really thick. Then he pretty much left the rest up to us.
The one thing that was a bit of a shame is that he clearly had a particular mood in mind for the chair which he made fairly clear. He said that he wouldn’t have put in the shadows and if he did he’d ‘understate them’. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been watching too many Tim Burton films recently or maybe I’m just a bit morbid, but you simply can’t put a green, run down chair with uplighting and massive shadows in front of me and tell me to paint a nice, calm picture. I thought the shadows were really cool and wanted to do them (almost more than I wanted to do the chair!).
So, anyway, I ignored my teacher and put in massive shadows, which I thought was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. He went round gushing about everyone elses paintings, and threw mine dirty looks when he went past. Eventually I asked for help, and he told me it needed more colour. So he put a load of bright orange on the floorboards :-/ now, this would have looked lovely, if the painting didn’t already have a massive deep purple shadow. I put it in because it was easier to do than to disagree, but it didn’t look right to my eye. It certainly wasn’t what I had in mind. He then told me that he thought the shadows were too dark and I should change them. They only looked too dark because he’d gone and put flippin’ orange on the floorboards. If he’d done them a nice murky blue everything would have been fine. *sigh* I guess I should’ve just done what I was told and done a calm chair painting. I just thought it was a bit of a shame that a professional painter couldn’t get into someone else’s art enough to say ‘ok, so you’re going for sinister and foreboding, this is the colour you should be using for the floor’. Maybe I was just being a brat, I dunno.
Anyway, enough talk: here’s the piece (I may go back and change things).
Ah! Tea!
Mar 14
Why is it the most exquisite moments in life happen when you’re either uncomfortable, or going to be uncomfortable? That moment when it’s 6.30am, dark outside, you’re completely cosy and warm in bed and your alarm goes off telling you you have to leave that pillow-filled haven to get ready for work…The trouble is, I’m almost glad I have to do that on occasion. As bittersweet as it is, I feel my life would be impoverished without it.
Yesterday I had one of those moments for tea. As much as I love tea I don’t depend on it in the way some people seem to, but yesterday was so different. I was coming back from Oxfam Live in Nottingham, where I’d been helping out. I’d left the house at 7.20 am that morning, and it was about 9.20 pm and I hadn’t had any food since lunch. I was so hungry and tired, my hands were shaking from lack of blood sugar and I was generally miserable.
I went to get a baguette from Upper Crust and the sign for tea behind caught my eye. I don’t usually approve of buying tea out because it’s so ridiculously overpriced, but I really wanted it this time so bought some. That meal turned out to be the single most perfect moment of…maybe not my entire life but definitely the last few weeks! Words are failing me here. It was like that moment when you are painting a face and you add just one brush stroke that just completes your artwork and takes the painting to a whole new level. It was amazing, the difference between before and after was so incredible.
Part of me is rather sad that we don’t get these moments enough in our rich, stuff-filled, Western world. I’m sure if we didn’t have everything we wanted at our fingertips all the time these moments wouldn’t be so rare.
Wow, what an amazing book! Just finished reading this and not only was it a really great story to read but it also made me want to read more Gaiman, and find some books on Norse mythology.
It’s very similar to Terry Pratchet’s ‘Good Omens’ in theme – they both talk about the migration and demise of Gods. For me this book is about enjoying the characters. There was a ‘plot’ and it did have a definite conclusion, but a lot of the joy of reading this book was simply in following the main character, Shadow, around and seeing what he does. You immediately empathise with and become interested in his character. You want him to see what he does next, even if it’s just driving a car and not asking his boss questions.
The other characters are great too. I had to stop myself from going and looking up all their names and the stories behind them, but now I’ve finished the book will begin to do so.
I’m not going to say anymore about it because I don’t want to spoil it. But if you have an interest in stories, mythology, religion or magic you’ll definitely enjoy this book. If you don’t have an interest in any of these things you’ll probably enjoy it anyway so go find a copy and start reading!
Playtime
Mar 5
This is my newest piece of art. It’s called ‘Playtime’. Bonus points for anyone who can spot the influences on it.
I’m desperately trying not to be one of those smug English people who comes back from holiday and ‘knows the ways of the world’ but it’s becoming harder and harder the longer it snows in England. Yes it’s been snowing. Yes we’ve had rather more snow than we’ve had in the past (last I heard there had been 16 inches of snow but I guess there’s more now) . Yes, it’s taking longer to get everywhere. I understand all this…what I don’t understand is why the entire country is freaking out about it. Surely the upper middle classes have been on ski holidays and seen this level of snow before?
I guess I’m just a bit crusty having spent Christmas in Canada, where they have a hell of a lot more snow than over here:
Notice the sidewalk is beautifully clear...
This was taken when I was in Canada in 2008 and shows easily as much snow as we’ve had this year. You’ll notice, though, that the sidewalk has been cleared of snow. I don’t know who did it but it’s certainly not an uncommon sight in Canada. Each person clears their driveways and the sidewalk in front of their house. The shopkeepers have a responsibility to clear the snow from in front of their shops. Then the council does the rest. Simple really, and they do it because if they didn’t society would break down…like it has in England…
I hear so many people talk about being ‘snowed in’ or saying something along the lines of ‘you can hardly walk on the pavements because they’re so covered in snow’ then sitting back on their sofas, watching TV with a mug of tea. Everyone has a shovel, why on earth aren’t they out shoveling the pavements round their house?
I couldn’t believe that they hadn’t shoveled the paths at work – it’s crazy. Must make it totally impossible for the less able bodied to get around. I’m certain that they could’ve found a few people willing to take some time off work to go and clear them too, I guess it’s just lack of foresight.
Now, of course, it’s almost impossible to do this – the snow’s been left far too long and been trodden down into ice. I tried with my sister today to shift some of it on the pavement and it was pretty strenuous work. Hopefully next year the English will be more prepared for Canadian weather.
The Sandman
Jan 10
Just been reading my Christmas copy of The Absolute Sandman, Vol 3. I’m actually quite surprised at how good it is – I get the impression it’s one of the less well liked of the volumes so I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as the other two. It completely exceeded my expectations. As with Volumes 1 and 2 it was generally really engaging, enjoyable reading (I’ve already read 300 pages of it today) with moments of absolute brilliance thrown in. One particularly good part was the protrayal of Orpheus’ descent into the underworld. There were a couple of moments where I had to take a step back, re-read and fully absorb the way certain parts were depicted because they were so clever and brilliant. I won’t talk more about it because I’ll never do it justice, but you should read it. Now.
Air Canada – New York to Toronto in bad weather
1) Having already canceled one of my flights and booked me on another which they said was likely to be canceled, flatly refused to put my name down for another flight that day incase mine didn’t leave. By the time my flight was canceled that later flight had already been booked up and I was told there wasn’t another for 2 days.
2) Refused to give me any compensation for the delay – not even a meal voucher. Made me pay for my own shuttle to another airport just so I could spend the night there and get a flight the next day.
3) Did allow passengers to change their flights free of charge over that weekend to try and avoid traveling during the bad weather.
Thomas Cook – Trying to fly to Gatwick when it’s snowing
1) Thomas Cook definitely get bonus points for the hotel and free food. That alone would pretty much put them above Air Canada in my view. I’d definitely choose TC over AC in future if I had a choice.
2) On the other hand, dragging us all to the airport, when they knew full well that the flight wasn’t going to leave until the next day was not cool. Was also completely pointless, as they then had to pay for a hotel and meal vouchers for everyone. Strange behaviour.
3) My seat on the plane was really poor – lumpy seat and recline didn’t work. Made the flight very uncomfortable.
4) Plane was far too hot. Waste of energy – boo!
5) They really didn’t give us a lot to drink – I don’t like it when they don’t give my liquid on flights now that they’re not allowing you to take yours through security. It seems very unfair.
Sheraton – prefers business men to delayed travelers
1) Was really poor to not let us choose food from the menu – surely the meal voucher should let us get whatever we want within the price. Otherwise what’s the point of putting a value on it? You may as well just say ‘good for one meal’.
2) Rude staff – wouldn’t let Karl use the phone for a very short phone call when there were 3 there, completely unused. Bar staff were very unhelpful. Receptionist refused to call TC and ask about our flight. I just really don’t think that sort of thing’s necessary. Admittedly we didn’t pay full price (or TC didn’t) but they’re still getting revenue from us. I don’t believe for a minute that they made anything less than an absolute killing on the food. I don’t see why we should be treated differently from their other guests…
Verdict
Best: Thomas Cook – TC did do a lot to try and keep their customers happy. The hotel made a big difference because it turned the delay from something really upsetting and tiring to just a bit irritating. The poor seat was unfortunate, but on any other flight they would have probably changed me to a different one without question. Yes, they should get it fixed but these things do take time.
Second: Air Canada – Was really unimpressed with how little they did for customers. I was completely on my own in New York when this happened so had a miserable (and expensive) night trying to sort things out. I felt very alone and rather scared about how I’d get home. This would certainly make me think twice before booking an Air Canada flight again.
Worst: Sheraton – Although the actual experience wasn’t nearly as bad as with Air Canada (no matter how crappy the staff are staying in a 4* hotel is always nice!) Sheraton get worst because their behaviour was completely unacceptable. At least Air Canada did give people the option to change their flight, which I imagine was the bare minimum that they had to do legally. Sheraton, in my view, were pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable given that TC were actually paying them to keep us there. I’m really iffy on the idea of them knowing that TC will give their passengers $25 to spend, and so creating a meal that is exactly $25 and insisting that that’s the only one they can get for their voucher. Seems rather underhanded. And the grumpy staff were inexcusable, however we paid for the room, we were still guests at their hotel and should have been treated with courtesy.
Igloos in England
Jan 9
The cool thing about getting home is seeing all the snow everywhere. It’s nice to see England like this – everything was white when coming in to land and there are loads of snow/ice sculptures everywhere. This is a particularly good one:
(image courtesy of my Dad!)
Apparently they made the bricks by filling sainsbury’s boxes with snow. Kinda wish I’d been in England to join the fun! It’s all just getting a bit frustrating now – no one can do anything, everyone just wants it to end.