Category: Pens

Delusions of Grandeur

9/5/2013

The latest piece I'm working on takes its cue from Antoine de Favray's fabulous but incredibly pompous portrait of Grand Master Pinto which hangs at St. John's in Valletta.

Favray probably set out to adhere to the unwritten rules of the standard commissioned work - that is to portray the Grand Master in all his worldly glory and surrounded by a plethora of symbols of grandeur: crown, shield, sword, drapery..you name it and it's all crammed in Favray's portrait.

But I tend to see this portrait more with the eyes of Goya when he set out to paint the Spanish royal family. Goya probably did not intend to caricature the family of Charles IV when he executed that particular painting but the unflattering depictions surely approach caricature...

Pinto died in 1773 and twenty five years later the Knights of St.John were unceremoniously bundled out of Malta by the cunning Napoleon Bonaparte.

On the right is Favray's portrait for comparison - and yes I am fully aware that comparisons are odious....

I am in no way attempting a lookalike or trying to add all the paraphernalia in the original work. I tend to cut down on the fireworks and keep to the straight and narrow road. My aim is pure and innocent mockery....

The frivolity of Man has no limits and I reckon this great painting (unintentionally?) brings that out completely.

Starting out with some rather tedious coloring in ...I love taking pictures of my left hand

Cautious start on the Grand Master's face

The face completed...

Finally the image is completed two months after starting out.

Altogether I used about nine colors out of the possible range of eleven colored inks I have, combining three or four colors for the curtains and carmine and black for the cape.

For the face I also combined colors: sepia, burnt sienna, yellow and a hint of vermilion.

I am now ready to start on something else...whatever and whenever that will be.

I hope it will be soon!

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A few more early drawings...

17/1/2013

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I hate the time when I am not working on a "proper" drawing - something that takes up a couple or more weeks from start to finish...a drawing I can mull upon while building bit by bit. It's that time right now so I doodle and think until something crops up and I have a work-in-progress to look forward to a couple of evenings a week at least.

To beat this boring waiting period I scanned a few more early drawings - yeah and I haven't posted anything here recently either so...

An old sketch this one - must be the time I first read A Clockwork Orange...

Shipyard worker - sketch from 1987 or thereabouts.

Woman out shopping - I don't think I ever developed this idea further...

The Wizard of Marrakech - a drawing from 1987 - the only time I visted Morocco. I was struck by the colors and smells of this amazing country and the city of Marrakech in particular. I did some sketches while there
and later developed a market scene from the various drawings, This remains a favourite drawing.

Untitled drawing also from 1987. Nothing came of this.

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Start to Finish

25/11/2012

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Away from the mostly digital work I do there is nothing I enjoy more than picking up pen and paper and working on something I will do purely for myself, something that is driven by the simple need to draw - drawing as a relaxing and (yes) therapeutic activity.

A few weeks back I started mulling over the theme of the mother and child - a theme repeated oh so often in religious as well as secular art. So I played around with a couple of sketches until I had a working drawing I could use to take off with. When it came to putting in a background it just had to be a Maltese themed landscape - and it was then I hit upon the Gozo Citadel (ic-Cittadella in Maltese) as possibly the ideal backdrop.

I have always loved the view of this ancient redoubt sitting atop its rounded hilltop as you are coming down the road from Zebbug so I chose that particular angle . The rest of the landscape I left as simplified as possible.

By my normally very slow working rate this one was completed pretty fast... I started the pencil sketch on 3rd November and a day later started working with ink. I completed this on the 25th November - less than a month. Good job I never got the Sistine Chapel commission.

I used Faber Castell TGI-S technical pens with nibs ranging from 0.13 to 0.35 and Pelikan permanent inks in various colors: black (naturally), vermillion, cobalt blue, yellow, green, sepia and burnt sienna. I rounded off with a light dusting of Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils.

I took shots of the drawing as it developed and here they are...
The Citadel Madonna - a blow-by-blow account!

Working drawing. Baby Jesus needs to be altered...

...and off we go. Work in progress.

Introducing cobalt, vermilion and burnt sienna inks...

Sketching in a background with a couple of pics for reference

Giving the background wall, fields and citadel some color: using green, cobalt, yellow, burnt sienna and sepia

Almost done with the ink...now a few touches with colored pencils...

...and I reckon "The Citadel Madonna" is ready!

Madonna face detail

Citadel detail

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Work in Progress number the Nth

1/7/2012

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After labouring so much on my last drawing I thought a simpler design would perhaps tax me slightly less... so here is the happy pneumatic couple on their wobblesome dance of life.

There will be color in this one and I am reckoning on bright and lively coloring. Bright blue sky and for the "dance floor", it will probably be a grassy hilltop.

Only problem is I am frequently quarreling with my pen (!) as the response I get is not altogether in synch with the pressure (or lack of it) I apply.

I thread cautiously with non-reversible pen work - and in 30 degrees plus heat ever more so.

Excuses excuses....

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Color Cautiously

3/2/2012

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It is a week since my colored inks arrived from Cult Pens http://www.cultpens.com (very reliable people and a quick dispatch) but in spite of my clear enthusiasm to get my hands dirty and try one or two colors out, I really have not found the time to do so until now.

This was no ordinary week for me… it was the week I finally severed my 30 year long employment at Air Malta and decided to take up the early retirement scheme which was on offer. Which does not mean I will not need to work of course ….economic realities dictated I find a new job (until such time collectors are stampeding over each other to buy my work) and I will jump into my new job on Monday. Would really have loved a short sabbatical – two days of it is simply not enough to catch up on so many loose ends.

Anyway back to those inks. Pelikan inks are supposed to work well with the technical pens I use…this is a rarity as most colored inks will invariably damage the somewhat expensive techies… not an option in these economically dark days.

So I am initially filling just two new pens (so kindly donated by a dear, dear friend – thanks Anne!) – the 0.18 with sepia and the 0.25 with burnt sienna - and see how it goes.

I am still a bit wary that the inks will damage the pens beyond resuscitation so I will monitor the pen behavior closely over the weekend…before I put a third color into another pen. However... Pelikan is a German product and the Germans are usually as good as their word.

If they say it won’t clog, they normally mean just that.

The drawing will be uploaded in the Drawings and Graphics section as soon as it's done.

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Reversing Failure

30/12/2011

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When I started drawing again with pen and ink back in August I picked on a drawing I had failed to complete years earlier (pens behaving badly, wrong use of color, excuses, excuses...) and started reworking it from scratch.

I think that the result – my work “Arena”, featured in a previous blog post – is decent, and at least I finished the second version to my satisfaction (always enough of a reward).

In between doing my regular cartooning, I also completed “Ladies of the Night” – again a picture which I am fairly content with.

Then I spent a month working on a piece but had to give up when the emerging picture was not looking good to me – and spending time on it began to feel like so much time wasted. With “In-Nemmiesa” I returned to the drawing
I like; the type of drawing I am eager to come back to and add upon at the end of a day’s work at the office. The evening winding down therapy session I might say…

I was looking at some older work and I came across “Blind Man’s Bluff” (above) dated 1989.
I did two versions of this work, both are sort of completed but neither one is good enough in my opinion.

So whereas in November I decided to give up gracefully on a drawing which wasn’t turning out quite as I wanted, this time (as I did in August) I will rework “Blind Man’s Buff” from scratch. Perhaps it will be third time lucky for this double failure…

I don’t know what inspired me to deal with the subject of sex for sale in such an in-yer-face manner but I suppose it still falls somewhere in my general idea of subjects which intrigue me; relationships, the human condition etc. I will stop here before I start to sound too damn arty farty for my liking.

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Ladies Of The Night

5/10/2011

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Work on this drawing is ready. This one took just about a month to complete. The coloring is almost an afterthought in this image as I saw color here as something simply to suggest a mood to the drawing. So the coloring is pretty much faded - almost hinted at. I used just one pen throughout - the Faber Castell TGIS 0.13. When I was through with the pen work I added some discreet pencil colors.

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Work progressing well...

22/9/2011

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I started inking this work at the beginning of September. Three weeks and thousands (upon thousands) of pen strokes later I am pretty much nearing completion of the "monochrome phase" where I use only pen to do just about everything. The coloring will be something else - but it will definitely have to be subtle and subdued - nothing in-yer-face. Up to now I have used just one pen (frugal? who me?) and that's the reliable Faber Castell TGIS Technical pen size 0.13.

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Completing the Picture

27/8/2011

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I am nearly done with this drawing, the first time I seriously picked up my pens in a year. In between the day job and my other cartoon work this took 27 days to complete. It's a largish drawing measuring 40cm x 48cm.

I used Faber Castell TGIS technical pens in three sizes 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20 and color pencils laid on lightly at the end. The pencil colors I dissolve for a smoother finish.

I have to admit I enjoyed this a lot and I will certainly return to this medium again. Very soon I hope!

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Some Progress

11/8/2011

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Still drawing and still enjoying. Been at it for ten days now - just fitting in an hour or two here and there. All the characters are done but now the rather unexciting bit of building up shades - mostly flying by wire. After that I will probably apply some limited form of colour. Back to cross hatching now...there's a lot of that to do.

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Delusions of Grandeur

A few more early drawings...

Start to Finish

Work in Progress number the Nth

Color Cautiously

Reversing Failure

Ladies Of The Night

Work progressing well...

Completing the Picture

Some Progress

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