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MISCELLANY

Rambling, incoherent musings exposing the offbeat way my mind works

Alfred Bestall was the artist responsible for 'Rupert Bear' as published in the Daily Express - and the annuals - from 1936 right up to the 1970s. He also wrote the stories. His art and creative skills are legendary. This is my tribute to his work.

Below, I've drawn Rupert sitting and conversing with a bird, a typical Bestall setting. Pencil construction, then inked and the pencil work erased.

I should point out that though carefully referenced from Bestall's original works, I prefer not to trace: tracing is too 'deadening'. That means errors may occur and in this case, my 'Rupert' is perhaps just a little 'heavy'! Here, I've completed the picture by adding colour. I've stayed with Bestall's system and left Rupert's face and hands without colour, as always depicted within the pages of the annuals. Rupert was in full colour only on the annual covers.

The painting on the left is a freehand interpretation of a work by the great Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha. Working in the closing years of 19th century and on into the 20th century, he created wonderful graphic art and was sought after as an artist for both people and products. His advertising material shows an amazing quality far in excess of its often humble product placement.

Once again, freehand pencil construction - aided by dividers to fix accurately the proportions - then inked in, using Mucha's outer heavy line. I found it difficult to do justice to his glorious hair depiction, but I gave it my best shot.

Finished with watercolours and, I believe, a touch of gouache on the flowers.

I remain in awe of this artist's talent, and to produce something that has a semblance of his style was a total pleasure. If only I could have created the original!

Popeye the sailor

I've always been fascinated and slightly awed by the creative skill of graphic artists and cartoonists, so when the art group task was to draw or paint a favourite character from childhood, I chose Popeye. Popeye was around well before I was born, created by the American cartoon artist Elzie Crisler Segar in 1929, in his existing strip cartoon 'Thimble Theatre'. I do remember buying Popeye comics in the late 1940s and I recall the artist for these was Bud Sagendorf, who took over the artwork after Segar's early death at 43 in 1937. As always, I bought the comics to look at the artwork - any stories came a distant second in my estimation. I had the same admiration for the work of other graphic artists.

Working method: I started by freehand sketching, using numerous reference images but letting the pencil freely 'suggest' form. The character's heads and bodies are based around circles, with Olive based around a reversed 'S' line. Once satisfied with the pencil work, waterproof pen was used to select the optimum outline for each character before erasure of the pencil construction. Finally, colour was applied using Gouache. I suspect I've made the characters just a little taller than the original cartoons presented them, but that's the result of my 'no tracing' preference.

'Somewhere in Time'. This is a watercolour of composer John Barry. 25cm x 17 cm, with wide border (not shown here) that can be trimmed to fit an A4 frame.

The fragment of musical notation is from his theme from the film 'Somewhere in Time', hence the title of this painting.

Wordsworth:

The Solitary Reaper

First verse

Wordsworth wrote this evocative poem about the lone peasant girl reaping in the fields and singing as she worked:

'Behold her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass!

Reaping and singing by herself;

Stop here, or gently pass!

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,

And sings a melancholy strain;

O listen! For the Vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound.

He ends the poem with

I listened, motionless and still;

And, as I mounted up the hill,

The music in my heart I bore,

Long after it was heard no more.

This is a freehand sketch inspired by a painting titled 'The Peasant Girl' by the prolific American artist Henry Bacon (1839-1912).

He painted in oils and in watercolour, landscapes and figures, the sketch of mine shown here, though inspired by his work, hardly does justice to his meticulous artistry,

Coffee and Croissant

Shall I or shan't I? the young woman is thinking as she looks at the tempting croissant.

This is colour pencil but with gouache for the jeans and with Posca pen for highlights. 7" x 11" plus border, on tinted media board. £50

French Street Scene

This is painted in gouache, with pen outlining. It depicts a fairly typical scene of a French street cafe. I painted it from photographic references: in particular, the stubby Frenchman's laid-back attitude and serene natural self-confidence caught my eye.

Tinted media board. Approx. 11" x 9" £50

Experiments with a black surface

Two drawings using Canson black heavyweight card. Above is 'Black Magic'. I think the picture speaks for itself. I used colour pencils to create this work. Approx. A4 in size. £45

The picture below is titled 'Golden Silhouette' and is almost contre-jour with just the outline of her face being illuminated, plus a hint of the red-gold hair. Approx. A4 in size. £30

'DAWN'

This is something of a pastiche! Based once again upon the artistry of Alphonse Mucha, this different version of his 'Dawn' echoes his styling but features a 1920s girl and is a colour pencil painting on Bristol board.

Approx. 7" x 14"

FOR SALE

enquire please

'DUSK'

This is the second and complementary painting to the 'Dawn' above. Again painted with colour pencils and solvents, and featuring a different girl to Mucha's original (both girls on these two pastiches are based upon French models from the 1920s)

Approx. 7" x 14"

FOR SALE

Enquire please

'Ballet Dancer' This is a colour pencil drawing enhanced with solvent. Polychromos colours on Bristol board. Approx. A3 in size. £95

Miss Gabrielle Ray English actress, dancer and singer, known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies. This watercolour is based upon photographs taken in the early years of the 20th century. If anything, it shows that beauty is timeless. I painted this deliberately in a slightly 'Mucha-esque' style, as befits the time period. Sadly the lovely lady suffered from depression and spent her later years hospitalised. £95

ROSE. You may be forgiven for wondering why this is here. Well, it happens to be - for me - unusual because it is a painting done directly with the watercolour brush, with no prior pencil construction and NO ALTERATIONS. The first line painted is the only line painted, hence the obvious changes in my picture compared to the original photograph (below my painting). Oh, one last point: the painting was created with the rose upside down! This is a method intended to help the artist see shape (form) instead of recognizing the item and introducing bias due to preconceived ideas about the appearance of things.

23 cm x 31 cm, trimmable to a minimum 21 cm x 29.5 cm (A4) £65

I've given this painting the title 'Study in 3' because only three colour pencils were used in it's creation. The pencils were from the Derwent Drawing Pencils range, wax colour with a relatively soft and thicker than standard core. The three colours are blue, red and white, partly smoothed with solvent and on an A4 grey multimedia board. Some of the 'old masters' - traditional master artists - worked in only three colours, usually as preliminary studies for more developed artwork, though these would likely have been chalk pastels rather than wax colour. It does show, if nothing else, that a whole gamut of colour isn't always essential.

£85

'Native American Girl'

£150

This is an A3 sized pencil portrait of an American Indian girl. For me, it serves as a reminder that beauty is universal, not limited to race or colour or culture. It is, as the poets are fond of saying, 'in the eye of the beholder'. If, blinkered by our upbringing, attitude, religion or birth nation, we fail to see that obvious fact, then we must learn to think for ourselves, think again and open our eyes.

Pencils used were Faber-Castell 'Polychromos' and Stabilo original. The support is Bristol board. No penwork, just the colour pencils.

'Native American Girl 2'

Another proud and impressive young woman of native American descent. This one is approx. A4 in size and is also a pencil painting. £120

'The Story of a Starry Night'

This stylised pen and colour pencil work is based upon a very tiny fragment of a very old radio advertising leaflet. As I drew I ignored the old radio - a 1933 wooden cabinet model - and concentrated on reproducing in freehand form the tiny image. I had to enlarge this considerably in order to see any of its limited detail. Why did I bother? This is of its period, Art Deco, early 1930s with bold yet simple penwork. It is a tribute to the unknown graphic artist's talent. It is not a slavish copy as some of the original was obscure or missing and the colouring is of my invention. The title was borrowed from a Glenn Miller recording, Miller's version of Tchaikovsky's 'Pathetique' symphony (first movement). Painting is for sale, please enquire

Pre-Raphaelite woman

The image on the extreme left above is a photograph of a sketch by English artist John William Waterhouse, clearly an artist who appreciated the stylings of the pre-Raphaelites. He produced a finished oil painting based upon this sketch. The subject was inspired by Tennyson's narrative poem 'The Lady Clare', itself based upon the 1824 historical novel by Susan Ferrier. My entirely freehand and adapted version to the right was sketched with a single 'B' pencil but with the additions of charcoal white for the highlights. Drawn on tinted card, A4 in size. For sale, please enquire.

The Pre-Raphaelites were a like-minded group of highly skilled artists who eschewed the vogue for falsity and pretence in subject matter and prettiness in art, preferring a more realistic approach. They drew and painted what they saw, not what they imagined. Taking their cues from the period before high renaissance, before Raphael's influence, they created a Victorian rebirth of older ideas coupled with a more humanistic and natural art, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, prints and decorative design. Perhaps the most well known names within the original group are John Everett Millais (generally considered the founder of the movement) William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. For sale, please enquire

'Girl in red' is a pencil painting, main colour being Sanguine. In the style of the old masters but with a modern twist. Photo source from a copyright-free website. Not a direct copy, my freehand interpretation. Slightly larger than A4 in size but could easily be trimmed without loss of image. For sale, please enquire.

Also commissions undertaken for similar works

Oak tree branch with acorns

I live close by a lake surrounded by a densely wooded area filled with broad-leaf trees, among them being many Oaks. I picked this branch up one day as I walked through the woodland and painted it in watercolour.

For sale, please enquire

'Christmas Gifts'

Based closely upon the styling of magazine advertisments from the mid 20th Century period, showing a time of positivity and a kind of luxury that in truth, only some of the people at that time could aspire to. No harsh reality here to spoil the pretty picture. If taken on face value, it is pleasant and inoffensive enough and although it represents little of actual life, it is redolent of the artwork inspired by commercial artists such as Andrew Loomis - not that I am claiming to be in any way equal to him!

Colour pencil, pen and some use of solvent. 23.5 cm x 21.5 cm plus border. Available for sale, please enquire.

'Ecole Francaise' aka 'French Girl'

About 200 years ago in Paris, France, Hippolyte Flandrin sketched this image of a model (above left). As can be seen the original image is badly degraded and low definition. I sketched my version of it using a simple copying technique outlined on my 'videos' page. Flandrin became famous especially for his religious biblical scenes, often found in French catholic churches. Actually, this model bears a passing resemblance to his wife, to judge by his portrait of her. Who knows? Whatever the case, the years cannot dim the obvious mastery of this artist. The finished version is shown below.

The tree of knowledge? Or is this truly Eden? The picture above right is of a bookplate by Louis Rhead, an American artist renowned for his book plate work. My update in full colour (Luminance pencils) has the banners 'Veritas' (truth) and Nam Amor Artis (for love of art). Pictured on Strathmore grey mixed media card.

The Diarist aka awaiting the muse

Above left is the original book cover by Mucha, another of his glorious female subjects. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to copy and so I removed the decorative elements using Photoshop, as can be seen above right. I then set about drawing a freehand interpretation of the lady, using grey tinted card. After inking in, I erased the light pencil sketch. Colouring was by Caran D'Ache Luminance wax pencils. Obviously, my work in no way compares to his artistry but to be fair to myself, I did draw this at 10" x 8" size: no doubt his original was somewhat larger. I did not attempt an exact copy but chose to simplify certain aspects such as the folds of the dress, the hair and the bow on the dress. The alternative title I've given the recreation refers to Erato, the Roman muse of lyric poetry.

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