Jools

Jools

Acrylic on canvas

16x16 inches

A portrait I've just finished of a fellow artist that I've done as part of a portrait exchange. Its such a good idea! Jools is working on her portrait of me so will be great to see. She's a fabulous portrait artist so I'll be in good hands.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Heading for home

Heading for Home
Pastel on paper
8x12 inches

A local scene that I've worked up in the studio from a plein air sketch. Added the surfers from a reference photo taken on the same day.

This was a nice day- bit windy as I recall!!

Ryan

Morning light at Bass rock

Morning light at Bass rock

Pastel on paper

12x8 inches

I realised how long it was since I posted a landscape! I've been focussing mostly on figurative/portraiture work for the last year or so and have neglected landscapes

Better late than never! Here's one of my favourite muses, the Bass Rock. This was worked up in the studio from a plein air sketch I did a while back. I really liked the soft light that I saw that day- nice violets and peach/yellows.

Ryan

Roland

Roland

Acrylic on canvas

16x20 inches

I'm really working hard on my portraiture at the moment. Feel like I'm getting better and more confident with each one, so I'm happy to be progressing.

When it comes to portraits I'm a huge fan of Lucien Freud, Sir Henry Raeburn and John Singer Sergeant's style and I guess this stylistically guides my portraits (still a long way to reach their standards, but you've got to aim high!!)

2nd year at Leith School of Art is in full flow, so being kept busy with that.

My first Linocut print!

Life #1

Linocut print on paper

My first attempt at linocut relief printing. I enjoyed the abstract mark making opportunities of the medium. Limiting to black and white makes for a bold design, hopefully I've included enough interesting variety of marks with recognisable imgages in there to.

I really enjoyed the excitement of lifting the first print off and seeing the image for the first time- a real buzz!

Ryan

The brown hat

The brown hat

16x12 inches
Pastel on Murano paper

Bought some lovely new Sennelier soft pastels and decided to give them a whirl on some portrait practice. I liked the quizzical look the guy had and wanted to capture some of that.

Ryan

Made from girders

Made from girders!
Acrylic on canvas
8x8 inches

Another small still life. A well known Scottish soft drink- like to include some contemporary items that portray life in Scotland at this moment. Also liked the strong bold complementary colours blue and orange that make this striking!

Ryan

Peter

Peter
Oil on canvas
12x16 inches

A recent portrait, using a limited pallette.
Titanium white, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, yellow ochre and raw sienna.

Trying to keep a sense of colour harmony as I did with Becka. Really enjoyed doing this one and am pretty pleased how it turned out. I wanted to capture the emotion in his face and am calling it a success.

Ryan

Becka

Becka
Oil on canvas
16x20 inches

Here's the final painting done from life. Finished it quite a few weeks ago but work committments have made posting tricky

Ryan

Oil life sketch

Here's the first part of a three-week project we're doing at night-class.

Becka (sketch)

Oil on paper 6x10 inches

We had an interesting approach to our colour pallette. first we made a 'parent' colour Yellow Ochre and titanium white. Then we mixed this into a range of primary (yellow ochre, Alizarin crimson, Ultramarine blue and Lamp black) and secondary colours (derived from mixing our primaries 50:50).

Then we were limited to this pre-made pallette for sketching out our composition idea for a final painting. This took 25 mins so have ready made colours helped from a speed point of view!

Over the next two weeks we are painting the final image

Ryan

Leith School of Art term 2

I've been busy beavering away at my life drawing and paintings course at Leith School of Art. Term 2 is in mid-flow and again is high paced and challenging. The emphasis this term has been mark-making, and I've really been enjoying the use of different media and the new effects you can create.

Here's some recent portraiture work that illustrates how the different media are influencing the marks and approach I make to the same subject

Charcoal and chalk

Oil bar and graphite

Ryan

Happy Birthday Rabbie Burns

250 years old- and still looking pretty good!

Hears a drawing I did while digesting my haggis, neeps and tatties. It was Burn's night, celebrating the 250th birthday of Scotlands National bard. Caught up in the spirit of the year of homecoming and a' that, I raised a wee dram for Robert Burns.

Auld acquaintance

Pen and ink on paper

8x10 inches

The drawing is obviously based on the famous Alexander Nasmyth’s portrait of Robert Burns that hangs in Edinburgh's Scottish National Portrait gallery

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/1962?initial=N&artistId=3547&artistName=Alexander%20Nasmyth&submit=1

Ryan

First of 2009!!

Happy 2009!!

It's good to be back painting after all the Christmas and Hogmany chaos!
Here's another small still life continuing my series, in this one I liked how the shadow patterns linked the cherries and keep the eye moving around the composition

Three cherries

Acrylic on canvas

8 x 8 inches

Back to Leith School of Art tomorrow- term 2 kicks off and I'm really excited. I really enjoyed the first term, which culminated in a exhibition of all the students' work. I was amazed at how many people were there, and not just for the free wine!!

Ryan

Whisky in the jar

Whisky in the jar
Oil on canvas

8x8 inches

A small still life continuing my series (http://revanspaintings.blogspot.com/search/label/still%20life), with the light source coming from back right. I wanted to get some of those refelctions and shadows

I was aiming to get the right balance between suggestion and details

Weeks 5 and 6

Wow I have neglected posting again! Here are some more works from my ongoing Leith School of Art course.


Week 5- Brush and Ink on paper. Trying to capture the effect of the strong light on the torso

Week 6- Acrylic on paper- we got painting this week with the tutor restricting us to black and white to concentrate on values.

Need to photo the next one soon!

Cast shadows -Week 4 study

Cast shadows- Week 4 study

Charcoal on paper 33x22 inches

This week we had a wee bit longer on our main pose so I got more of a finished image. We were instructed to try to use the side of the charcoal stick for the first 30 mins with no measuring and using shading to define edges. Drawings by Seurat were used as an example.

In the last part I used an eraser and some lines to redefine parts that were in need of more resolution.

Ryan

Leith School of Art week 3

I know what you're thinking, where is week 2- I was on holiday OK!!

This week we studied the etchings of Rembrant, drawings of Degas looking at mark making and using directional hatching marks to show the different planes of the body.

Fiona seated

Charcoal and white chalk
23x33 inches

Ryan

Leith School of Art week 1

I've not been posting much recently as I've been doing evening classes at Leith School of Art. We've just finished the first half of term 1 (6 weeks) so I'd thought since I've got a week off I must catch up with my blog!

http://www.leithschoolofart.co.uk/

I'm studying figure painting and drawing with a great teacher called Andrew Paterson, whose life-size oils are amazing!

http://www.andrewpatersonart.com/

In the first week we did a lot of quick sketching and loosening up exercises, culminating in a 45min final pose in charcoal. We had to draw looking directly at the model (and not at all at the paper! more difficult than you would think) this lasted ten minutes before we could even look at what kind of mess we made! Amongst the jumble of lines and marks, the loose basis of the drawing.

Next we had to attack what we had done with the rubber, which smudged, merged, softened and lightened our original image. Then for the last 30 mins we got to work proper! Tring to keep some of the sponaneous mark of the under drawing and refining it. As it was the first week I was definitely rusty and was knackered at the end!

Life study week 1

Charcoal on paper 23 x 33inches

Save our Titians!!!

The National Galleries of Scotland has one an amazing collections of old master paintings but a significant number are part of a loan 'The Bridgewater Loan'. 27 works including two giant Titians and a Rembrandt self portrait, Poussin.

These paintings have been on loan since 1945 but the owner now wishes to sell . He has offered us the chance to acquire two key works Titian’s Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto on extremely favourable terms

We need to secure £50 million by 31 December 2008 to purchase the first painting, Diana and Actaeon. If we don't raise the funds then the painitngs will go on sale on the open market


http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/8685?initial=T&artistId=11008&artistName=Titian%20(Tiziano%20Vecellio)&submit=1
Titian's -Diana and Actaeon

If we are successful with this then we get the opportunity to buy the second Titian (another £50mill ) and secure the remainder of the loaned paintings for 21 years

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/8686?initial=T&artistId=11008&artistName=Titian%20(Tiziano%20Vecellio)&submit=1
Titian's- Diana and Callisto

The Scottish gallery has launched an urgent appeal for public money to keep these paintings in the public collection- it would be horrendous to think of works like these going into a private collection or worse a bank vault.They have linked up with the National Gallery London in a joint bid to raise the huge funds required in the extremely short space of time

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/supportus/page/3:5883

Ryan

Green pepper (and friends!)

Green pepper and friends

Acrylic on canvas
8x8 inches

The next small still life and again my mind is on food! I'm enjoying getting these really simple set-ups with vibrant colour and light. Trying to avoid the traditional dark backgrounds to make something more contemporary. Having the white paper to sit things on flattens the picture frame and allows the light and reflections to jump around. I also like the blue/violet shadows you get.



Ryan