It is some time since my last blog as my wife returned from an overseas trip and contributing to the organisation of a violin recital by our son. (This sounds like a confessional!) But! I have at last added the remaining figure on the right of the composition. I was unsure about this figure, as he has quite a long neck which I have shortened. Even though I have adjusted the figure some what, the neck is still long, accentuated by a small face. I decided to leave him as he is to represent the real differenced between people at large. His stance is solid and determined which will, subliminally, give strength to the composition.

One more figure added. There will be one more figure facing on the other side of the bench and One just visible on the other side of this figure. Then a little more on the bench with some utensils around and hanging and I shall begin painting. Perhaps by the end of next week.

However little I add to the painting preparation I shall blog it. An emergency in my renovation a bathroom kept me busy today. The back of a male figure is added but I will need to add something to connect him with the girl on the left. She has a figure to her left so I shall push the hand of that figure in front of the girl so that connects the 'circle'.

No drawing to show today,but I have started to add a figure between the girl on the left and the 'waver' This will complete a circle of figures and will be a back view. I will add a couple of isolated figures to the right of the main group as, to be natural, there are always people who find being with a group uncomfortable and I want this to be an element of the work.

I added another figure today but he is different from the others.  The other figures are all focussed on the cooking but he engages with the viewer with a wave. I find , like a lot of artists, drawing hands to be quite difficult especially an open hand facing the viewer. The most common error is making hands too small. If you place a flat hand on the front of your face you will discover that most hands are as big as the face. Whilst this is quite a large painting, the figures are quite small, so any slight change in angle makes a big difference to the accuracy of the pose and proportion. I have shown the full canvas to give an idea of the size of the painting and a detail which shows the drawing a little clearer.

It is quite a crowded table and stove, which is how I think a kitchen in this setting should be. At the painting stage, it will be the contrast that will make sense of the chaos. Tomorrow is a day off so will be back at the weekend.

My laser treatment this morning has 'opened my eyes again'. I can now see more clearly out of both eyes and get a much greater sense of depth. I decided to spend a little time on the canvas and began introducing a fifth figure at the back of the composition.

Not much action today as it was my teaching day. Just a few more items for the bench top. Tomorrow  I may not be able to do much as I have an appointment for laser surgery on the lens of my left eye. I have been painting with only one eye in focus for a few months, as the eye was not able to be corrected wearing glasses. We shall see ( if you'll pardon the 'pun').

A little more action on the stove with a few more arms. I am not entirely happy with the hands and the pans yet but will try to make adjustments when painting. If I rub out the pencil too much it makes the canvas too dirty and I am reluctant to start again at this stage though I have been known to do that.

When  there are groups of figures in a painting that are close together, it is important that limbs appear to belong to the correct person. There are a few arms reaching over the stoves but not all the complete figures are visible. Also I want the faces of all the figures to be focussed on their tasks, save one who will reach out to the viewer with a wave!

A second figure has been added to the foreground. A rather tall, bearded young male leaning on to the end of the bench.

I have had a couple of days hiatus from my art work but have spent some time today adding some utensils to the bench top. I am not completely happy with the elliptical perspective but will make slight adjustments when I paint. If I over sketch at this stage, the canvas becomes a bit grubby with the graphite.

I have adder her hand resting on her knuckles on the bench top. I may need to make slight adjustments when I paint. I have also started to add some of the utensils, which will be scattered on bench tops throughout the painting. It will be the shadows that give things form but I do not draw them in before I paint.

I shall continue with my feminine consumer series but felt that I needed change so I have also begun to add the figures to my next oil painting based on the idea of a cooking school. The pencil work is quite faint because I don't want the graphite to affect the paint. To give an idea of scale, the painting is approximately 90cm by 101cm. The hands in any figure painting provide the greatest challenge for me. The most common fault that artists make is to make them too small. A single hand can almost cover a face! Of course when fingers are bent in different directions it can appear smaller.

I have to say that i am a little disappointed in the shoe print. There are a couple of lines taken out that shouldn't have been, the ink isn't evenly distributed and the are a couple of over-cuts. That being said, I have to remember that I don't possess a lino press, so the print was done using hand pressure with a roller and the tools I use need to be upgraded. The major over cuts can be filled and the ink distribution problem can be addressed, but the missing lines will have to stay missing. I must add though, that I feel that one of the attractions of a hand done lino print is its propensity to imperfections. I may complete another block of the same drawing at a later time but, in the meantime I will continue my drawing in preparation for a painting of handbags and my oil painting based on a cooking school which has been in hiatus.

The shoes are taking shape on the lino block and the textures covering them. The background will be quite plain in contrast to the shoe textures. There is still some more to remove but the blue areas will be the printed image. Not forgetting that the image will be reversed. Even though I have an image in my mind I am never sure with a print how it will look. That is the charm - the unexpected.

I have spent my 'art' time today cutting into the lino with the shoe theme. It is not interesting enough to include today so I have added the result of a lino cut demonstration I did when I was teaching. It is based on the croton plant.

It will take me some time until I am happy with a composition for a painting of handbags so I will continue sketching until I am. In between this I have decided to do a lino print based on a shoe sketch I posted a while ago. The outlines on the lino are a little difficult to see but they should become apparent as I remove some of the surface.

The first quick sketch to get me used to the form of the subject for my next painting. There are many, many forms colours and materials of handbags so I will need to complete a few of these I think.

I have not blogged for the last two days and it may be a while before I am able to post any work, as I am still doing preparations for my next piece. I have the intention to work with handbags or make-up but have not yet found a display that I like. Some establishments are not easy to facilitate, where the display is accessible and , not everywhere is as accepting of males rummaging through trying to find interesting shapes to draw/photograph without buying!

The painting is finished! I am happy with the result at this time, though after I have finished a painting, and have spent some time looking at it, there are always small things that I would change given the opportunity. Slight changes in tone or colour, minor compositional adjustments etc. But, for now, I am happy. My next project will be a few days in genesis even though I have had it rolling in my mind for a while. I will continue with consumerism aimed at the feminine gender (handbags or make-up etc.).

I am getting close to the end with this painting and I have to be careful that I don't rush the finishing touches. Whilst I invest a lot of myself in my work over a period of time, I long to see the finished product to see if it lives up to the imagined

image that I was trying to achieve

The background colour to the last show has been added. The 'paste' stone jewels will need to 'shine' a little to make the shoe come 'alive'. It will be the contrast around the stones that will give them a dimension. Whilst the pink thong shoe is the same colour as the one on the bottom of the painting it appears slightly different taking into account that the light on the top would be lighter.

The rear of the shoe in helps it to make more sense. Some of the background here is semi abstracted with some suggestions of shoe shapes as I don't want the background to draw attention on this part of the painting.

The image is a little confusing as the silver sho

e is on top of the pink one but, once the heel of the silver shoe is completed it will make more sense.

This silver sandal has a rich metallic pink thong under and a matching pale pink thong next to it. I shall try to reflect some of this colour in the shoe.

A familiar thong sandal but a different colour.

This shoe is a background shoe but it is important as a link between the foreground facing shoes and the small shoes in the distant background.

Contrast on the sandal added and a little more of the background which gives the dimension to the setting. It may not be obvious, but I have included the suggestion of a woman's torso in the background which may or may not be obvious to the viewer. This doesn't matter, as the subject is the shoes as a collective. The next shoe in the upper background has delicate colouring that resembles marbling.

Just a few shadows added and the form is beginning to become apparent. The surface of the white straps will still need some subtle shadows to made them feel more dimensional.

The silver shoe is complete and the white sandal underway. The white of the sandal will achieve form once all other aspects around it are complete. To do this requires the addition of subtle shadows. It is important not to make the shadows too dark at first. It is much easier to darken than to lighten shadows. In fact, it is almost impossible to lighten a shadow enough that has been applied too darkly in the first instance.

The shoe painting continues. This is not so much one painting as each shoe is a painting in itself. Whilst this shoe is silver, its interior is black with a silver streak delineating the sole inner from the side. The sandal next to that is white which, because I never use white paint, has to be rendered by leaving the white paper and adding subtle washes to indicate form.

This was one of my favourite shoes to paint. I like the colours and the textures which resemble snake skin but very unlike snakeskin in colour. This is in contrast to the shoe to the left shown from the back, yet to be painted.

I have added the shadow on the pink shoe and made a start on the next one by adding the inside colour colour. I shall build up the texture on the outside of this shoe in stages but the sole will give a clue as to the colours i will use.

The top pink shoe is well under way. This shoe has two tones of pink, one with a blue bias on the     in sole and a warmer pink on the body of the shoe. One of the colours, of course, would not be visible when worn. I like to combination of the pinks with the orange shades of the cork platform sole. The shoe next to it will provide the greatest challenge to me. It is a shoe in purples and blues with a few traces of pink in a snake skin pattern with reflected highlights of light. It golden yellow sections on the inside and outside of the shoe. Of course the designers will have been aware that little traces of the complementary colour to purple make for a pleasing combination.

I have added the suggestion of a male figure in the top right corner background but you may need to enlarge the picture to see it.  There may be other suggestions of figures, as it adds to the 'human' element of the work. There is no point in having a retail display with no customers! (Though the customers are not important in this case!)
I will not paint more today, as I have been asked to officially open an exhibition by three artists at the Percolator Gallery in Paddington, Brisbane this evening. The exhibition is called 'Obsession" which is quite apt, as most artists have an 'obsession' with their subjects.

When I start a new row of shoes, I need to think about the whole row and how the colours, shapes and the position of the shoes are in relation to the composition. I want to paint while I am thinking, so have started the first shoe by painting the cork platform sole. I am not yet ready to paint the shoe, so I have added some more of the background. Whilst I 'suffer' when I'm painting, that is I am sometimes a bit tense about colour choice etc, this painting is still exciting for me to do. It is so different a subject than my usual topic of flora and fauna it is a tonic.

I decided to change the last shoe on the bottom row to a black sandal similar to the brown one above.
I had intended to paint another orange coloured shoe but felt that the shoe would not have been the best balance for the composition. I think that the original shoe lead the composition off to the left and I wanted it to 'arrest' the eye of the viewer and bring it back across the painting.

The latest addition to the shoe rack is a strapped sandal with silver straps. Painting these to make them look reflective is to paint the reflections. The colours from the surrounding and the shadows are all reflected in the shoes.