12fp(s) - painting 7

I'm not happy with this one:


It was a bad drawing to begin with, and then once I was painting it I couldn't decide what to do with the brushstrokes, which has made the whole image a bit of a mess...
I should either have made the whole thing quite controlled and 'realist' so that the painting looks conventionally decent, or I should have gone with my instincts and let the brushstrokes run wild so that the image is more Impressionistic and interesting; but instead of doing either of those I've just got this monotonous painting that is kinda poor in all elements.

12fp(s) - the series so far...

I'm struggling to find more interesting film stills on the Internet for me to paint, so after doing 6 (out of the 12 planned paintings) here's a photo showing the series so far:

Did you notice that I've removed one painting?

I'm pleasantly surprised with how nicely the paintings go together, but I had to remove my second painting because it looks nothing like a film still (it is much more like a portrait painting), so it seemed completely out of place when placed amongst this series.
Although removing that painting now means that I've only done 5 paintings and need to try finding another 7 film stills to paint, I do have a couple of possible alternatives from previous years if I can't find enough to fill the series...

There's this painting of Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation, which I used to illustrate the introductory blog post that outlined my plans for this series:

And there is also this painting from March 2008, which shows Ken Stott portraying Tony Hancock in a British television programme from that time:
(OK, it's not strictly speaking a "film still", but the painting does seem to fit-in with this series).

Neither of these paintings would be ideal for this series (because again they seem more like portraits), but what's the alternative?
I seem to have spent days on Google Images looking for adequate stills, but I keep coming back to the same bunch of films.
I haven't even been able to find a good image from any of the 22 James Bond films!
What films am I forgetting to look for???

12fp(s) - painting 6 [SOLD]

If there is a film in this painting series that people have a good chance of recognising, it is almost certainly going to be this one (mainly because 4 out of the previous 5 films were either Finnish or from French New Wave cinema of the 1950s/60s)...


This is a quick painting from an American film of 1959, directed by the legendary English filmmaker who most influenced the development of my graduation film (Pigment of Imagination) last year.
My dad quickly identified the actor and several memorable scenes from the film, but he struggled to recall the name of the film. Can you do better?

I have used the tubed watercolour paints (like yesterday's painting) for my second time, and although I had to wrestle with the paint in order to get the colours and textures that I originally desired, the finished image is slowly beginning to grow on me.
I can't tell whether I am warming to this painting because I like the aesthetic, or if it's just because I see hints of Edward Hopper in it (much like the first painting, which coincidently was of another 1959 film!) But one thing is for sure: this is one of the most memorable scenes in this great film, and I now have a strong desire to do nothing but watch the full film (once again)!

12fp(s) - painting 5

I decided to do something a little different for this painting...


...That's right, I've painted it all with just one colour.

The colour of paint (Phthalo blue) looked good on the tube label, but now that I've done the painting I'm not so keen on it - it just seems too bright/bold and sour.

As well as using a different colour scheme than usual, this is the first time I've ever done a painting with tubed watercolours (instead of my preferred watercolour pans). As this painting only used one colour I'm unable to make a full analysis of both types of watercolour paints, but what I did notice is that these tubed paints offered a wider range of tones and also allowed me to paint consistently strong lines.
Even though that isn't apparent in this finished painting, I'm hopeful that the ability to paint a fuller range of tones and strong lines with tubed watercolours will allow me to create more Expressionistic paintings in the future - perhaps in a style reminiscent of Van Gogh.