Pet portraits are not overly challenging and very rewarding creations. When I did them years ago there were few artists working specifically on pets. So trying to inject more creativity into day to day life in 2009, I made the straightforward decision to start with what I already knew. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

I should have done my research first…

Now, the world is awash with pet portrait artists. Far too many are, sadly, awful. But there are some who are excellent, who can deliver character and a clear likeness, and push their work beyond simply duplicating a photograph. What has also become clear is that I cannot compete with these folks on pricing.

Pet portraits are heavily labour-intensive, particularly to get the quality I strive for. To bring my pricing to compete with most of the good, established artists around, I simply could not survive. Add to that I would need to be chained to a drawing board for 8-10 hours every day, plus the tasks of promoting, order processing/shipping, etc. I’m not sure how some of these artists are able to offer the pricing they do.

There is also the problem of growth: there isn’t any. There’s a maximum level of productivity for one person creating art. And with a saturated market, there’s very little opportunity to increase pricing over time. and poor opportunities to create additional works.

The more I looked into this aspect of the art business, the more I realised what a nightmare it could become.

I will still produce pet portraits here and there as commissions, of course, but will not be actively promoting them as a specific service.

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I was delighted in October to have my work accepted by the SGFA (Society of Graphic Fine Art), and Saturday was my first experience of one of their “Drawing days”. A group of members agree to meet at a location to chat and draw. The British Museum is a common target for these meets, offering such variety of subjects. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

This trip was specifically focused on the print room and an exhibition titled Revolution on paper: Mexican prints 1910–1960, but a meetup was also a big focus and my chance to learn more about other members of the society. Watch a video about the exhibition produced by the British Museum.

I learned a great deal wandering around the print exhibition with some people who understood much more about some of the print processes than I – plus a little help from Wikipedia here and there. Seeing the visual strength of some of the lithographs and lincuts, and the subtle tones of drypoint, I’m sure a printing press is in my future! (It is times like this I feel the gaping holes in my knowledge and experience having not attended art college.)

With so much to see and new people to chat to – many of whom wanted to natter with “the new boy”, I only managed one, brief sketch before having to head home.

Who are these people?

The members were a selection of artists and illustrators very much as I expected, and much like those I have worked with in various art and design studios in the past. I did not get to converse with everyone, but they were all a pleasant bunch to spend some time with and I did appreciate the chance to discuss “art stuff” in place of technology for a change.

The next drawing day, in 2010, will be a visit to the Imperial War Museum, which relates to the theme of next year’s SGFA exhibition in the Spring. It also relates to the second TableRappers novel now in planning (but no more on that just yet!). I haven’t been there since I was a teenager. I suspect I’ll have more than one drawing after that visit.

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I have an everlasting fascination with the way our minds recognise patterns, even in chaos. Without this we would not have art, writing, or see Jesus in pieces of toast. We strive to see order in chaos and our minds form recognisable shapes even in the most abstract patterns. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

This first piece of art is something of a pilot – a proof of concept, if you will. It consists of 486 unique, abstract symbols, each drawn by hand using a hand-made bamboo pen and permanent ink, onto a sheet of A2 paper. The piece was created over several days, with only a few icons being drawn at each session.

What do they mean?

Each icon is an entirely random doodle, conceived at the moment of completing the previous one. There are repeating shapes and elements, some of which are deliberate, but others evolved and appeared as the work progressed and the need to find new shapes and patterns became an increasing challenge.

If you look at the piece for more than a second or two, you will begin to recognise some of the icons elements. In fact, your mind will crave that recognition, searching for shapes that resemble familiar objects or ideas with which you associate. But they are just random shapes, lines, dots on a sheet of paper.

That is what this and the subsequent pieces are all about.

But there’s another layer to this

My initial plan was to hammer out this first piece, work at it until it was complete. But after a few rows I realised I was beginning to repeat certain shapes, or at least had to fight the urge to do so.

In a flip-side to you looking at the icons searching for meaning, I found myself instinctively basing icons on the everyday thoughts skipping through my head. My mind was trying to inject meaning into what should be just random icons. Fascinating.

Hence my decision to draw them in brief bursts of 20-30. I avoided struggling with repetition and my mind did not drop into a daydreaming state to influence the icons. Still, some repeating elements only appear part way down the page, while others disappear after several rows.

…and another

I can almost tell each drawing session by the style of the icons. Though unencumbered by influences from stray thoughts, I could not avoid influence from my overall state of mind. Sometimes passive, sometimes stressed, sometimes frustrated, you get the picture.

Icons in each session seem to reflect that, on a very subtle level of course. When tense or frustrated, for example, I would take less care in loading the pen nib correctly with ink (one loading lasts but one icon), so lines tend to be thicker and flow into other lines due to the amount of ink being placed. Other, early morning icons tend to have a less certain hand with shapes that do not quite close or that break over the defined boundary.

What’s next?

I have a string of ideas along similar lines. From much larger pieces (same size icons), to sheets with just one icon, to sheets that do reflect actual ideas and object, to icons that are based on stories, books, songs.

So far this first piece has taken me on a very unexpected journey. What was to be simply a grid of random little shapes, became a surprisingly expressive process. I’m sure there are more surprises to come.

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Learning and discovery are what drive me to get up in the morning. Once life gets down to mundane routine, I start to feel very uncomfortable. Art is playing an increasingly significant part in (almost) day-to-day life now – in part thanks to the Pet Portraits, etc. – so I thought it was time to explore other aspects of artistic work. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

I have always wanted to explore more abstract works, and having not made it to art college – I aimed myself firmly in the direction of the graphic arts at the time – I have never really got around to experimenting.

Thanks to the book Abstract Painting by Rolina van Vliet, we now have many weeks of unique projects to work through. The book walks through abstract principles of composition and colour – and breaking such forms – through a series of guided exercises. Each exercise aimed at  experimenting with one particular technique, be it paint or drawing medium, colour, composition, texture, etc.

The initial project was so rewarding to the two of us, we decided to create a little website to document each project and post up our works side by side for all to see and comment. The site at Doing Stuff, presents our personal experiences and thoughts about each work, but does not say which of us produced which piece. We thought it might be fun to have visitors guess who did what, and already the results are intriguing. I hope friends and all will continue to follow the site and comment/guess each week.

I don’t like rules

That is perhaps the main realisation I have stumbled on now that I have worked the sixth project this weekend. Most so far have developed along the lines of:

1. Follow the directions while feeling increasing animosity towards the developing image
2. Try to beat back the urge to release whatever is bubbling to the surface
3. Plod along, following the instructions until something snaps
4. Respond to the urge, let out a surge of energy, and create something that is bordering on satisfactory

(One such surge-release ended up in a dead canvas, ripped and splattered with black paint!)

What I am learning is that there is something instinctive that gets released when painting like this. I’m not saying these surges of energy produce masterpieces, but they do reflect elements of what I am feeling and how I am reacting to the creative process. It’s uncomfortable, disconcerting, exhausting, but fascinating, and I am intrigued to see where it will eventually lead.

I don’t know how to handle acrylics

That’s the second realisation. I do have an excuse, having not touched acrylic paint since I was in school; I’m just a tad rusty! How artists cope with working wet-on-wet on large canvasses, I’ll never know. There are drying retarders and other techniques, but the paint still requires very different, and more spontaneous working style compared to oils.

That goes a little against my inclination to consider a painting’s development. It means that the work must generally be completed in a single sitting – at least if I want paint to mix with other paint on the canvas itself.

Oils, for example, allow time to sit and ponder the next stroke, to examine the work as it progresses and direct it based on developing ideas. Acrylics bring out the spontaneous in me, which though bursting with far greater energy, does leave me rather deflated afterwards.

The result perhaps is that I will ultimately select the medium based on the image I want to create. If that is what I learn from these exercises, then it is a valuable and ultimately productive lesson.

Go make a guess

The first project is up on the site, and a few guesses as to who produced which piece have already been left. No clues, but it is fascinating to read why a particular individual matched which piece with which artist. Above all, it is fun, so if you have not commented already, get yourself over there and make your guess!

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SPAIN
Could our plans be changing? With more and more thought about what is important and what are the core reasons for wanting the move to Spain, we could end up getting there sooner. Find out if we are there yet: AreNeilAndJenInSpainYet.com!

PET PORTRAITS
Bringing more and more art back into day to day life. Recent experiments with pencils have led to Pet Portraits possibly becoming a semi commercial project.

GODADDY PROMO CODE CHANGES
The show is partly suported with GoDaddy promo code discounts, but our previous codes are about to expire! You have until the end of August to use the old codes, but here are the new ones:
MTECH410 for 10% off
MTECH411 for 20% off 35 or more (around $56)
MTECH412 for 30% off .com domain names and reneswals.
These new codes are valid right now, and will not expire until at least July 2010

ABSTRACT ART
Yet another creative project in progress. Jen and I have started a long series of abstract art projects, working from the book Painting Abstracts, by Rolina van Vliet. A website with the results coming soon.

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Minor technicality is the personal audio podcast journal of Neil Dixon.
Keep up to date at minortechnicality.mevio.com
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A Minor Technicality Podshow : MT50-Minor Technicality – Sun, sea, sand and pencils

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PetPortraitArt.co.uk ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

This currently very modest site will be a focus for promoting pet portraits and hopefully generating a few commissions. Little more than an about, how-to, and simple ordering process right now, I hope it will grow, particularly in featuring new works as I complete them.

Many similar sites (and there really are many) also feature technique articles and videos, so I am pondering something similar. Perhaps some live streaming when I am working on a piece as there does seem to be a fascination in how images like this are created.

With my current schedule I can just about manage to produce a couple of these portraits in a week, so here’s hoping the orders do not start flooding in just yet! But if you know someone with pets who might appreciate a portrait, let me encourage you to point them at the site.

This does mean that I will not be doing many freebie sample drawings from now on – as a few of you have asked – unless I have nothing else in the pipeline to work on.

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Having this week purchased additional gear to make the most of drawing and sketching on-site (as opposed to snapping photographs and sketches then working purely in my “studio”), I set out in the glorious sunshine to visit a few locations tagged earlier as “possible places to draw”. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

First it was the roads

I am sure Britain’s drivers were conspiring against me. No matter where I tried to end up, something would spring up to bar my way. Inconsiderate parking, traffic queue, or simply no access to the particular area without a long walk (by long I’m talking a mile or more).

Two near collisions in the car later (people were mad this morning!), the sprinkling threat of rain showers, and the total obliteration of the initial good sunlight, forced me to head home in a stressed huff.

When the roads improved, the weather did not

I tried again later. This time heading to a particular church which now was in the closing stages of a wedding, with the accompanying hoards of cars removing all hope of gaining access. The light then failed once more.

This time, however, I did stop back at Maidenhead bridge for a little – and I have to say desperate – look around. Sadly, I could not “see” the drawings there, either. Perhaps all hope was lost on the day, so I returned home, in a double-huff.

Let it stew

I needed a task that was so straightforward that I could leave the day with having achieved something, anything. I opted for “watching some television”. I succeeded.

Determination (read: bloody-mindedness) kicked-in and I began pondering once more about those places I had visited. The detachment of time and geography allowed my mind to filter out the details and work purely on visual composition, contrast, and the image as a whole. A few spontaneous scribbles later and I had three strong potential compositions of and around Maidenhead bridge.

Too much information

I have this problem in supermarkets where on being sent to forage for a particular item, I fail to spot it in the cacophony of colours, shapes, and words. My brain struggles to filter out the noise to find the one detail I need.

Visiting a location to draw, I think I must have the same problem.

I should explain for the non-initiated: Rarely does a scene make for a good piece of art entirely as it stands. You know the phrase “artistic license”? Our minds work differently when looking at art compared to photography. Somehow, we understand a photograph represents a true capture of the scene. But far more consideration, particuary to composition, must be made in order to draw the same scene with success.

One must move a tree a little – for example – or remove it entirely. Perspective must be distorted, tonal values altered to increase contrast and represent depth. Thought must be applied to the focal points of the drawing, deciding what to leave in and what to leave out. Without these considerations, one might as well just have a photograph.

This is what I have learned today: I cannot simply turn up at a place and immediately “see” the means to render it artistically. I must visit, look, sketch, photograph, then allow all that information to simmer, allowing my mind and memory to let go of the details that are irrelevant to the scene, while enhancing those that matter (to me).

I suppose the devil really is in the details.

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I had forgotten the challenge of rendering short, fluffy cat fur in pencil!

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The latest batch of artworks are up on my flickr and artBlog. The most recent (above) is something of a departure from previous work there, and perhaps might surprise a few regular visitors. 

Before becoming wrapped in the world of the web, I earned some of my crust as an illustrator. Mostly for publishing but also other commissioned pieces such as pet portraits. I thought it was about time I revisited those subjects as an exercise in doing something a little different.

The above is the result, based on a randomly selected photograph on flickr. It was enjoyable to working like this again and I think I am going to do much more, and even take on new commissions.

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It’s been a while since I’ve put pen to paper several thousand times and come up with a new drawing.
So here are two! Each are 190 mm x 190 mm drawings, pigment ink on acid free cartridge.

See the full versions on my flickr stream by clicking one of the images above. Both will shortly be are available for sale as originals and prints.

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