Natural Redhead

Felt-tip pen and watercolour on paper, 23x30cm: I enjoy this way of image making using different coloured felt-tip pens and washes of watercolours. It's so direct. I like the way the watercolour either bleeds into the pen lines, or sometimes, is repelled by it. I also like a red-headed girl and this one looks like she is flying high like an Arabian princess on her magic carpet. Either that or she is just having fun (as redheads do) on her Bedroom rug. I'll let you decide and let me know what you think. No rudeness now!

David's Daffodils

Pencil on paper, 30x43cm: Pencil doesn't photo very well but I hope you get the idea of this spray of daffs. Working in the studio with these flowers in a vase I let the joy of their trumpeting form guide my hand and while I am happy to let the line stand against in part against plain white paper I also want to show the flowers with a dark background to make them stand out.
Neocolour on paper, 43x59cm: I love these pastel-like colours and am always very happy working with them. They make good strong marks and can be over-laid with other colours, or just white, to modify the base colour and give a wider range of more subtle colouring - something I am not generally renowned for!
Neocolour on paper, 30x43cm: A closer view of these fabulous, happy smiling flowers.
Acrylics on paper, 43x59cm: A loose interpretation of the same bunch in acrylics this time trying to vary the background by introducing shadow forms on the wall behind.

Pastels Extravaganza!

Jacqueline bought these lilies yesterday even though all our vases are already full! I'm not complaining because these look just fantastic and are giving me the eyeball and saying: "Paint us!" "Paint us now!" Happy to oblige I take them on a short, but hazardous, trip from the warm Dining Room where they are enjoying happy times in comfortable surroundings to the frozen wastes of my studio. That'll teach them for looking so elegant, Ha!

Pastels on paper, 43x59cm: Lilies In A Vase. Without any preliminaries I started drawing with two or three different colours in a kind of bold sketchy manner. I was keen to keep their trauma to a minimum! There was not too much for me to do since they almost draw themselves. The only cause for deeper thought was to decide what background they might look best with since I couldn't really put in the chaotic surroundings of the studio. I decided something gentle and simple was in order so blocked in my favourite blues and purples. Pleased with this as it stands but already I can see how to develop it further in paint. I'll return to it another day and see where I can take it next. In the meantime I better get these lovely ladies back into the house before they freeze their petals off!
Since I'm now in the mood for some bold colouring I made this pastel from a small photograph in the paper which caught my attention. Great colours and a dynamic pose. Just the kind of thing I like so much.
Pastel on paper, 43x59cm: Multi-coloured Shift Dress by Armstrongs Vintage of Edinburgh, with pink stockings and blue knitted beret. You won't miss her walking down Buchanan Street, or Princes Street for that matter!

Figure Composition

Charcoal on paper, 43x59cm: This dark sketch has lain for more than two years in a cardboard box unloved, unappreciated, an undeveloped wondering when it's time will come. Well a few days ago I was in an equally dark place and pulled this out to see what i could make of it. The original souce material is long gone although I do recognise somewhere in it's murky depths a couple of figure sketches I made in a lighter frame of mind.
Charcoal on paper, 43x59cm: This drawing (above) was made to reprise what i had already done to try to get back into it and bring something new into the light.
Charcoal on paper, 43x59cm: In preparation for painting I made this linear drawing to try to bring forth the bones of an image before plunging in to painting.
Oils on canvas, 50x80cm: Three Figures Standing Together. If anyone can help me with what this may be about I would be eternally grateful!

Checks and Stripes

Pastel on paper, 43x59cm: The fantastic colours of these two models dresses and their easy poses demanded that I put them together and create something new, just for fun!

Rock Chic

Charcoal pencil on paper, A5: Brilliant image seen in the paper of a lovely lass playing electric guitar ( identity withheld to protect her innocence!). The image is too good to miss - how often do you see a girl in a dress with a guitar around her neck belting out some funky music?
Charcoal on papre, 43x59cm: Second attempt at catching this lassie, with her knobly knees and skinny legs rockin' to a heavy beat!
Oils on canvas, 50x80cm: Under the spotlights she belts out her rythm of lurve and I am captivated and sent!

Orchids

La la la, going absolutely crazy with this incessant rain. Every time I go out of doors I get buckets of water down the back of my neck! So, I stay in and paint these orchids:

Pencil and watercolour on paper, A4: My wife thinks I do things to make these beautiful flowers come out and brighten up our kitchen, but I'm telling you I don't do a damned thing - they just do it by themselves! Time after time they bud, flower, and fade, bud flower, and fade, bud, flower...... Here I am working in the kitchen. It's freezing outside and pouring cats and dogs and I am keeping the company of these lovely ladies. They smile, they curtsey, they shyly turn away, but I am captivated! I'm in love (again). I stare and they answer back with a coy show of intense colour. They giggle and flutter their eyelashes. I blush because I know what they are saying about me. They are bold, they are laughing at me now. I love their company. They are courtesans, they are girls, they are fabulous young women in beautiful dresses. They have sweet faces and bright tasty lips. They make me feel alive. I draw. I paint. But can I capture their beauty? Can I hold onto their style? Their delicacy? Their giving? I would give everything I have to go out dancing with these Brazilian beauties. I hear the rhythm of Samba in my ears, in my feet, in my loins. We dance into the night, laughing, sipping margarita's, holding close, whispering, shouting! I'm exhausted! Too old for this! Bollox - lets do it again.....