Horse…thing

I’ve been story-hungry for as long as I can remember, and as a kid, the one thing all my favourite books had in common was that they were animal stories. Lady and the Tramp, Lion King, Bambi, The Jungle Book, When Lion Could Fly, When Hippos Were Hairy ( God, I loved these books!) and later Black Beauty and Call of the Wild. One of the rarer animal-centric books I read was Dimple: The Adventures of a Little Donkey. I re-discovered this book while organizing my shelves recently, read it cover-to-cover and came across this very beautiful illustration:

 

I’m not sure what it is about horses, for me. Maybe it’s because literature is populated with so many empathetic horse figures, always portrayed as simultaneously gentle and powerful, that has shaped my mental picture. Maybe it’s just the naturally graceful lines that form your average horse-outline. ( It has always seemed really fitting to me that they’re described as a creation of Poseidon’s. There does seem to be something of that same calm/might of a sea, about a horse.)

Either way, turns out I like horses. Except, I can’t really draw horses, so I’ll leave you with this dragon-horse hybrid of sorts, instead.

Maybe I should just claim it’s another obscure Greek mythological figure?

Row, row, row your –

😉

As you can see, I’m still very much taken with watercolour work and trying to figure out the tricks of the medium. It seems works best when foresight (of which I have about zero)  is involved, but it’s really a very forgiving medium, and ideal for experimentation. The  transparency of the paint also makes it a great medium with which to recreate the effect of light/reflection/shadows (hence all the water!).

Thoughts?

Quick one

 In an attempt to feel slightly more productive than practically a month and a half of holiday-ing has left me, I made this quick watercolour piece last night.

 It’s not quite what I was picturing during exam time (that I would do a painting a day! Or every other day! Or something.). Exam time makes everything seem more interesting than it does, otherwise.

But it’s a start. And I still do have more time on my hands than I have use for, so I’ll try to be more consistent in updating this blog.

Until next time, here’s wishing you and excellent 2013 ( bit late, I know). Keep the comments coming!

Lazy days

 “Loafe with me on the grass—loose the stop from your throat;

Not words, not music or rhyme I want—not custom or lecture, not even the best;

Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice. “

– Walt Whitman

( Kindly overlook horrendous figure in corner. Thank you.)

( Pointing it out is kind of defeating the purpose, isn’t it? Oh, well. I’m counting on you to not actually be reading past Whitman.)

The Mountains are calling…

… And I must go

I came across the above quote from John Muir (author and naturalist ), spent all morning looking at pictures of hillsides I wanted to disappear into, and somewhere along the way, produced this:

I trust you know where to find the comments section. 😉

Behind the scenes

Man, this never gets old.

Pretty much the best thing about blogging (particularly when your audience refuses to leave you comments–I’m looking at you!) is having access to the behind-the-scenes stuff: the blog statistics and search terms and so forth. It will just never stop being amazing to me that someone in Poland or Greece or Croatia (which I’m not even sure I can locate on a map!) or Ireland! ( I have an irrational fondness for all things Irish) is sitting around, looking at… this!

Blog visitor map

(Sidenote: Fuzzy, are you promoting my stuff in Singapore? I don’t think it was quite up there a couple of weeks back.)

The search-term information is great, also, because I get to learn what it is that appeals to people who are not even looking for my blog in particular. And sometimes, it’s indicative of people who are, in fact, looking to find it again. Which is ridiculous and awesome. There are those too, that are just hilarious and/or confusing ( ‘best top falawars’, for instance, is a recurring search term, for reasons beyond my understanding.).

Anyhow, if you’re reading this, hello and welcome and thanks for stopping by! And if you have a minute, leave me a comment because it will totally make my day.

~BWC

Neon

Well, I’m back to the heavy-handedness (and how*)!

This painting has been in the works in some capacity pretty much ever since I heard John Mayer’s ‘Neon‘ (I always associate his music with colour and pattern  (Don’t ask.)).Then I came across the always-amazing Leonid Afremov’s gallery and it occurred to me that his style and use of  colour would be perfect to capture the feel of the song.

Add some Chemical – X and you have:

“She’s always buzzing just like
Neon, neon
Who knows how long
She can go before she burns away...”

*There is literally a whole second layer of the same painting beneath the one you see. Well, not the same; it turned into a murky mess, so I redid it all. I’m a true madman, I really am.

Reference: http://society6.com/CGIdesigns/John-Mayer-Blues_Print

Watercolor experiment

Hello again!

I find that I’m naturally inclined to be pretty heavy-handed with my paintings. But I’ve always loved good watercolour work, which calls for much less mucking around than I’m used to. I also recently watched a video by an artist who recommended counting brush strokes to reduce superfluous painting. And so, I’ve been trying out  watercolour painting, albeit not keeping count of my strokes because I’m not sure there are numbers large enough (see: mucking around).

Anyhow, here’s a quick piece I made about half a month ago, which I present to you in typical BWC fashion ( i.e, much belatedly).

Great Perhaps

“Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” That’s why I’m going. So I don’t have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.”

“I was born into Bolívar’s labyrinth, and so I must believe in the hope of Rabelais’ Great Perhaps.”

Both quotes from John Green’s Looking For Alaska, which was one of my favourite reads of 2011 (and also of all time).

Midnight in Paris