Arggg!

Arggg!

Less writing, more painting

So there really is little to say about the elephant this time. I have been working hard on it, in fact more so than before as I have been trying to stretch as much painting time into the day as possible. Only about a week ago I had my finish date fixed (8^th March) and there is still a fair bit to do, I really hope I won't have to pull a few all nighters to try to get it done. When it was arranged it seemed like a fair amount of time and enough to get what looks to be very little done, unfortunately it is also some of the trickiest and most detailed work. I am also slightly concerned that I don't like some bits of the most recent developments, granted they are unfinished but still when they are done I doubt I will have any time to paint over or redo them. Scary stuff all and all and 'The Fear' has definitely set in, I am even considering get up at 6:00am so I can start working at 7:30 tomorrow. Yes I am MAD, this is evidence of the sheer level of fear I am under.

Anyway here are the most recent photos.

The truth is out there........under a bush or something

In December I blogged about my walking trips. Having started them in October I realised that by mid to late January I would have reached 3 months, I have also recently hit 100 photos in my album. Since then I have been meaning to write something about them, a reflection of sorts of the season and time. Unfortunately I have been busy with other things and producing a relatively large number of blog posts recently about the elephant among other things. Knowing my style as I do and the fact I can go on and on and on I didn't want to post too often so this has ended up waiting a while.

After looking back at the previous post I saw that I mentioned a need to show accurately the local area. This has since in my mind become a question of truth, are the images I produce an accurate reflection of my area? And I think the answer is No. But not No because I haven't been doing a good job but No because they can't be. The fact is that one photo a day might give an accurate image of my local area to me but I have the benefit of experiencing each of these days. Not only every sight but smell, sound, feel of the air and going deeper all the overall and varied psychological effects involved with going out, seeing what's there and coming back to look over the images. Some of the images I have taken are in fact visually accentuated versions of what I saw and I can only say that they are not untruthful because they conjure up or maybe show the essence of that walk, that moment not just the image but the feel of the day in all it's senses. Other photos (and this is more often the case) fail to produce the same feelings that I felt at the time.

The fact is the camera works in a completely different way to the eyes and brain. I knew this before but maybe I didn't appreciate it. How many of you have seen an amazing scene, one you feel worthy of capture but when shown on a computer screen it looks dull and uninteresting. Other times what image have to captured on a whim not expecting anything much only to when you look at it again find it is one of the most interesting images you have taken. There are many reasons for this and I'm sure the people out there who make professional observations about it can explain.

Personally I've not done much research on the topic. However for me some of this effect seems to stem from the brain taking what the eye sees and assigning areas of an image importance. But when reproduced on a flat surface it doesn't react the same way. The camera also doesn't cope with extremes as well as the eye/brain and certainly my little compact struggles under certain conditions. Dull and grey day? Well expect your images to be lacklustre, washed out or underexposed (the white cloudy sky confuses the cameras light meter royally) and lacking depth. But nowhere does the camera pick up the fresh clean breeze, sound of birdsong or some of the subtleties of light. Please don't tell me to switch to video, all I'd be adding is some tinny birdsong and I'd lose the clarity of a clean crisp shot.

In fact a dull cloudy day is the worse day to be photographing in for me. If it is light enough macro shots can come out well but other than that very little just pops off the page. Unfortunately after the sunny late autumn days and the sunny and clear snowy days of December/January, late Jan and early Feb seem to have brought a spate of these dull days interspersed with the occasionally sunny one. I have to admit that while I really enjoyed Autumn and most of the winter I am ready to be photographing flowers close up and seeing what spring brings. Rather than taking 90 odd photos around a lake and finally settling on another macro of a fungus.

As to truth. Well it will certainly be 'My Truth'. As I guess it always would be since I am choosing the image everyday and it is bound to be the best and most personally interesting photo I have taken. It's just some days I taken half a dozen upload worthy photographs and other days I struggle to be enthusiastic about the one best of the bunch, mediocre shot that might very well bring down the quality of the whole. So if you ever find yourself looking at my photos and finding there is one or two that you find mind numbingly boring and poorly lit just realise that there is something in it I liked, something that to me said this reflects today's walk, something that might look a hell of a lot better with a little sun but will probably never get posted again with it because I dislike to repeat myself and most of all, the best (in my small view) out of a bloody bad day.

But that's life, that's the weather and that was the point I was making when I started the walks.

'Phant-tastic

So I promised another posting on the elephant in my previous blog post. But alas I find myself with very little to say. It has been going well and the increase in daylight hours has been quite a shock to me truth be told, so now I am happily working till 4:30pm when before I could barely get myself going again after lunch (knowing I would have only an hour at best to work in).

So the elephant, well it is resplendent in various shades of green. I have got to about the belly level although there are still aspects that I need to get back to. It is a process of layering, taking the furthest away points in a scene and painting them first then working forward remembering to put down enough base colours so that I don't stall myself. And while this was prevalent during the last posting I have worked into quite a good system and am surprising myself with how much I get done.

The trunk is only partially finished as of yet and while I ache to get on with these little flowers I have other more pressing concerns that need dealing with first. His eyes I also want to get on with but they also are low priority as yet and I still have the bizarre notion of doing one blue and the other orange that I need to work out before I deal with them.

My mother has become quite enamoured with the whole thing, actually wanting to use a camera to produce images to send to relatives (She distrusts technology and is not the usual choice for wielding a camera). She has even named the elephant 'Edward' and since I completed the mouth area has decided he looks like he is happy about what I am doing to him. It is a little far for me but I don't mind it and I will admit happily that he is starting to look less dopey the more paint is on him and indeed he seems to have developed a smile, goodness knows from where. He will not however be named 'Edward'.

I also realise that I started this post saying I didn't have much to say. I think we will all be glad that I didn't, for goodness knows how long it would have been had I had.

Finally I will say that I have decided that although I like the idea of the grand reveal, there is not really any sensible reason to not show off a little how far he has come along. The pictures range from the last entry to today. By no means exhaustive but a far approximation. I hope to have at least one more entry of him finished but maybe I'll find something else before then. Oh and I should mention that there is a new mini site with elephant info about the parade up now: http://www.elephantparadelondon.org/index.html