Posts Tagged ‘Movies’

It’s been a while since I posted anything in here and I really don’t have any good excuse. A few days ago I ended up in a weird place that can be compared to one of Tim Burton’s movies and since then I’ve tried to shake that and continue painting the portrait of 101 year old Agneta. But I failed miserably :(
While trying to get out of that dark inspiration I’ve done some one layer paintings in Photoshop, one of them are above.  When painting in one layer only it’s a bit easier to make a painting look “painted”…like an oil painting for example. And it’s more difficult too since it’s so easy to mess up.

The subject was not really planned and it’s been painted before…several times. For those who doesn’t know it’s a scene from “Phantom of the Opera”. Digital “oil paintings” with an added canvas texture differ from the real thing in more than one way, but a major issue (at least for me) is that the end result is too perfect. When you paint on a real canvas you will end up with a layer of paint that is thicker in some places than others, which means that it will cover the texture in the canvas. If you want to do that in Photoshop you have to add the canvas texture and then paint a second layer on top of that to mimic the thicker paint layer. And it’s time consuming as it is.

My main problem when I paint in Photoshop is that I tend to spend way too much time with details. Details are ok to a certain point, but after that you kind of leave the traditional painting techniques behind and enter the realm of reality. And sure, if realism is what you’re looking for, it’s great :D Sometimes it’s nice to leave that bit behind and that’s what I struggle to do.
I’ve got no progress saved on the painting above mainly because it’s experimental, but also because I’m still learning. It’s far from perfect, but what I focused on was the brush strokes and the “feel”. I guess you could say that it was a surface matter more than anything :p

I was also looking for that swift style that Edgar Degas used when he painted his ballet girls. He was the master painting the tulle in those ballet tutus and make it look effortless. Exactly how simple it really was I have no clue since I never really painted a ballerina, but I do know that sometimes it can be more complicated to simplify an object than not and still keep the essential details.

The white “border” on Christine’s top in the painting above should have some detailed lace, but I choose to leave that bit to the imagination. It might have looked better if I painted it the way I usually do, but since that was not the goal this time I decided to leave it this way.

Other than that the technique I used consists of a sketch to begin with, then paint in rather basic colours, including some greens and blues, which later are almost covered with the shades for the skin and other colours. After that I alter between the smudge tool and the painting tool in Photoshop CS5 to get the painted effect and the blend the colours. That way the underlying tones of green and blue are mainly covered but still mixed and a bit visible here and there in shadows etc.

So now you know what I’ve been up to :) I’m not sure when this Burton period will be over, but until then there will probably be more odd paintings posted here. Or maybe not. Depends on if I come up with anything worth showing. I already have 5 or 6 other paintings that just never came out as anything and that I’ve made during these past 3-4 days. Art is just like time, very relative.

Hope your Friday is a good one :D

Lets do the food stuff first. If you’re not interested in my juicy adventures in the kitchen right now, skip this and take a peek below instead. Today we invested in a new mixer/food processor. I already have 2 different kinds of hand mixers but you can’t make juice in any of them really. And the smoothie maker I used for the past few days belongs to Robin’s mom…and noticing that the engine on that machine isn’t really strong enough for hard veggies, I don’t want to push fate over the edge too much. Might burn the engine and then we’ll owe her a new smoothie maker.

So today we got a Kenwood mixer/food processor instead. I love food processors because you can use them for nearly everything, at least if you do a lot of cooking from scratch. They chop, blend, mix, slice and dice pretty much anything from the fridge. The normal price for this machine was nearly £80, but we paid only half of that. And for a £40 mixer/food processor it’s very good :) At least I’ve tried out the mixer…or liquidizer  as they also go by. It ate both cucumber, apple slices and celery like nothing. And without smelling as if it was about to burn :p So it was a good buy :) At least so far :p

If I continue this Rawfood diet in the long run I will most likely buy a juicer instead, but this will have to do for now. This is something I can use no matter if I make my green love juice every day or not.

And then there’s my grandson and his walking skills next :) His mom posted this video on her blog earlier today. She’s trying to get him to walk on his own, not just when you hold his hand, but it’s too convenient to crawl still :) And it’s not until his dad is coming home from work during lunch that he takes a few steps on his own. Alexander that is, not his dad :pp
So the walking starts around 2.33 minutes into the video after Peter stepped into the hallway :D

Alexander’s mom had some fun turning him into Alexandra instead…hehehe His dad wasn’t too happy about it, but hey….it’s not like she dressed him up in a dress or anything :p Not sure why so many men react that way…it’s not like changing the hair style on a boy for a few minutes is going to make him less “male” or anything :pp
I think he’s cute no matter what :D Maybe I’ll send him that dress that she doesn’t have for him too….hehe

Well, it’s time to start dinner here (won’t forget today :p) and I’ve got a couple of rainbow trout’s to prepare and put in the oven. Last night I cheated and destroyed my “diet” by going to McDonalds at 10PM. Not the best thing you can do at that time, but we were both hungry and at least my day was gone before I realized that I missed dinner.
Will make up for it today with the fish instead :)

Hope your day is less rainy than ours :D

We went up to the ruin of Scarsdale Hall for lunch today. It’s not the first time and certainly not the last time either. It’s a nice escape when it gets too hot within the walls here (and I mean the high walls that is surrounding this lot) since there’s always a breeze up there.
As most of you already know, it’s across the road from us and a popular place in the summer for picnics. And it’s completely free :D

The video above is a bit shaky. Or to be correct, it looks as if it was a high sea at the time…but it’s just me walking with my cell phone trying to aim at all the right things. The walk-through is kind of rushed, partly because I didn’t want the file to be too big for YouTube, but also to keep down the size of the file on my phone.
It’s a bit more than 6 minutes and it’s enough if you’re not interested in old stuff :pp
I’ve added some annotations, even though it wasn’t easy since it’s a quick tour :p If you want to make it more useful and are interested in the annotations I suggest that you pause the video when they show up.

Ok…now I need to go out there and fetch a bit of oxygen again. Sun is slowly setting, but we still need that thunderstorm.

The gardener here is doing spring cleaning and this is what our backyard looks like today. I tried to add Audioswap at YouTube, but that seems to be a service that is more out of order than available, so you’ll have to listen to the wind for about 45 seconds :p
The wall behind that flowerbed is about 200 years old now and it’s still standing. Although it’s been mended here and there of course. And the broken window you see in the beginning of this video is where we had the fire last summer :p Behind that window a neighbor had a shed that mysteriously caught fire.

Sunny today and still warm and nice out there :D
And I’m a bit bummed that YouTube haven’t fixed the audio “service”, but oh well.

As soon as I get the money back for that Flip Ultra HD that never arrived, I will buy a Flip and show more of both this place and the Hall down the road. At least that’s the plan :)

I’ve been awake and around since 7.30 AM today for whatever reason. It’s Monday, but it’s Bank Holiday Monday and Easter Monday so I refuse to do anything remotely connected to work :p Instead I’m preparing a new painting.

Above is my grandson peeking over the edge of the table and they are all doing just fine again. No more tummy flu :)
This new painting that I’m preparing will be in a style that I know Robin and his RPG gang will enjoy. At least I hope so. It’s very rare that I paint anything remotely close to Fantasy stuff or game characters, so we’ll see how far I get. I tend to get bored with it quickly and I don’t know why.
However, I will make sure that you don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy it :)

A bit of catch up since this blog was down for a few days:

We saw the movie “Wanted” the other night. Neither of us are familiar with the graphic novel the story is based on, so we sat down with a clean slate so to speak. But I’ve seen in reviews that it doesn’t have a lot in common with the original story.
In any case, if you haven’t seen it it’s a very violent movie, so if that’s not up your alley you should skip this one. The pace is very high and it really makes your level of adrenalin stay that way all the way through.
I’m still not sure if it was good or bad. I liked the story even if I guess I’m way pass the fascination with violence. My kind of movies are more in the category of “The boy in the striped pajamas” or “The Kite Runner”.

Doctor Who…is back.  And he did come back with a bang, just like he was expected to do.
Matt Smith is the 11th doctor and well, he’s not David Tennant…who did have a way with this character that will have to be very difficult to live up to. But I think Smith will be ok in the end too. Depends a bit on for how long he will be Doctor Who I think. Tennant did have a few years to grow with the character and make him into his own, so I’m not judging Matt Smith or anything. Sometimes change takes a while to get use to no matter which side of the TV screen you’re on.

And the first episode was a big mix of brand new and the traditional high speed Doctor Who action. Fast dialogs, twists and turns, a lot of running and aliens. And of course, the new Tardis. With a swimming pool in the library. Beat that :p
The characters are getting younger and Tardis is changing accordingly to that. Just the way it should be I guess :)
I really liked the new theme too. The music is new, even if the piece is the same as before. But this new version fits the 11th doctor and his redheaded assistant better :)

From the previews of the rest of the season it looks as if they put a higher gear on this doctor than the former ones I’ve seen. And the things happening around him. Another thing that I noticed in the end of that preview was that the doctor was firing a gun, which is very rare. Doctor Who dislike weapons and rarely use them.
Maybe this new doctor is of a different kind all together. He certainly doesn’t like bacon for one thing :pp

Time to go back to my painting again. I will be back with a sketch a bit later tonight.
Hope your Monday is a good one :D