Just finished invigilating the GCSE exams, and in between fetching paint, ink, acetate, pencils..... I managed to finish off a painting that I started at home about a week before. This is another rainy York scene. this time Monk Bar.
Here it is in stages...

Early stages, blocking in, and a bit more drawing than usual.

Establishing the tones..

..starting to build up details..

..a few more details.

It needs to dry off for a while now.

In school, cleaned up the window and the bar.

Done.

New Shirt

I did my second painting of the holiday today, and the second one of 2012. It feels good to be painting again. Who knows, maybe I'll start running again soon?
It's called The New Shirt, and is a painting of Coney Street, looking towards Micklegate.

It's not finished; I need to tidy up the shop structure, but it needs to dry off before I can do that.

Final bit of detail.

Something old, something new..

Something New.

I haven't painted anything since the first day of the Christmas holidays. I broke my new year 'duck' over Easter; the results are below. It's of St Sampson's Square in York, in the rain. It was a bit of a struggle,but at least I am painting again.

Here it is in stages...

 No drawing, just blocking in.

 Mapping out the main tones...

 A few details, and then time to leave it for a while.

 Getting rid of that pavement on the right.

err..finished?
Here's a picture of my palette, for no other reason than I can!

Something Old

This is an older painting of The Shambles, which I did last year. It's smaller than the one above, but just as rough and ready.

A few of my more recent paintings arranged in the corner of my studio.

Match fitness

Painting can be a little like football; if you don't do it reguarly it becomes a little more difficult. Today was the first time that I have been able to pick up my brushes for a week or two. I am still interested in painting cityscapes, and this one is of Goodramgate in York. It is bigger than my recent paintings and is the first piece that I have done on canvas for a while.

This was an old abandoned canvas from school. After giving it a burnt umber/indian red ground I blocked in the main tonal areas. I didn't take a picture of that stage, so this one is when I start to refine the main shapes.

More refining of shapes and details. The photo that I used for reference (taken on Saturday), was against the light, so the colours are limited.

Finished.

The Cross Keys, Goodramgate.

Gillygate again

This is the second in a series of paintings of cities, mostly York, that I plan to do. It is also from one of the photographs that I took last Saturday.
Again it is oil on board, 30x30cm.

Stage 1: After an initial thumbnail sketch in my book to work out the composition, I map out the main shapes. 

....next step is blocking in the big shapes. there is not much drawing in my paintings - I find it too restrictive.

 ...mapping out the main tones...

...starting to pick oput a few details...

....a few more details and it's starting to come together...

That'll do.

'Gillygate'

York

I went into York on Saturday, whilst Sara took Archie and Joey to Waterworld. The light was great and I managed to get a few reasonable photos, mostly looking into the sun. I intend to make a series of paintings of York, and will use some of these for reference.
I did the first of them today, as an oil sketch. It is of Gillygate, and is painted contre-jour (against the light).
Here it is in three stages:

Blocking in on a burnt umber ground.

...most of the main tones and shapes mapped out..

Gillygate, ContreJour

When Saturday Comes.

After tiling for the last two week ends, it was good to have saturday free day to pick up my paints again. The day was beautiful, but rather than go out (very tempting), I decided to stay in and paint. I worked from a photo taken last year in Topsham when we visited Matt and Gilly. That day was overcast, with a low hanging cloud.....just like sunday, when I did go out.