The Discovery of Spain: From Goya to Picasso

This afternoon I went to the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh, and saw some great stuff.


They're currently showing an exhibition about the influence of Spain on British art called The Discovery of Spain: From Goya to Picasso.
The exhibition consists of a large array of paintings from British art collections related to Spain; and as well as British artists who worked in Spain, the exhibition also includes several high-profile paintings by the likes of Velazquez, Picasso, and El Greco.


I was unfamiliar with most of the paintings in the exhibition, and although there are many paintings I'd like to bring to your attention, I can only remember the names for a small series of work by El Greco.
I didn't know much of his work before visiting this exhibition, but it certainly held my attention the most. There is a wonderful - almost Old Master or Romantic - sense of lighting and contrast that makes these appealing paintings really stand out.


A massive copy of Lady In A Fur Wrap [above] was used as the poster image at the top of the staircase, which looked really impressive from a distance, however the small scale of the original is much more intimate and captivating.
The contrast between her light skin and the dark background is really strong, which makes this image cry out for attention before her big brown eyes seduce your attention away from the other four El Greco paintings aligned around it.
There are few other paintings that have captivated me like this one, but as much as I really admire it, it is the El Greco painting called An Allegory (hanging right beside it) that had a stronger impact on me.

An Allegory [below] is darker and has a much cruder painting style than Lady In A Fur Wrap, but by utilising a single light source it has much stronger visual impact...


This digital image is terrible for conveying the actual lighting and colouring of the original painting, but it held me in awe.

Landscape 01 - Doral, Florida

For a potential gallery exhibition in the New Year, I'm creating a series of colourful landscape paintings, and although I've known about it for over a month, I've only just got around to starting the series...
So here's Landscape Painting 01, based on a photograph from my 2007 summer holiday in Florida, USA:


This is another one of my acrylic fingerpaintings, and although the sky works well, I'm not too fond of the texture in the lake area along the bottom section of the image.
In my opinion, the contrasting textures almost make it seem like two seperate paintings stuck together, however I think the colouring mitigates this to some extent and kinda unifies it as a whole - and the colour is my main priority, so it doesn't bother me too much... But I'd be interested in hearing what other people think of it.

"Bonnie's Tale" - seal animation

Everyone loves seals don't they?

You know what I'm taking about: those funny animals like what appeared in the Marx Brothers film Copacabana (1947), and occassionally in Tom & Jerry cartoons like the episode titled Little Runaway (1952) below.

Well apparently not everyone: and that's the reason for a new short animated film called Bonnie's Tale [below] animated by Edinburgh College of Art graduate Selina Wagner, with narration by Richard Briers (the voice of Fiver in the 1978 animated film Watership Down)...



The film was commissioned by Advocates For Animals as part of the Look Out For Seals campaign to highlight the need for a reform of Scotland's Conservation of Seals Act 1970.

After watching Selina's lovely new animation, please clicky here and enter your details to sign their online petition urging the Scottish government to review the Conservation of Seals Act, and help protect a beautiful, but endangered, species.


Some background information:
Scotland is home to about 45% of the world's grey seal population, but shockingly, there is no law to protect seals from being hunted in Scotland, which means that they are becoming a "conservation priority species in the UK and Europe". In some parts of Scotland, the seal population has declined by 40% within the last 5 years alone!
Seals are getting shot by fishermen and fish farmers who think of seals as a competitor because they both hunt fish - however fish are not the main food source for seals, and indeed fishermen, other fish, and sea birds all kill more fish than seals!
The Conservation of Seals Act 1970 was supposed to protect seals, yet major loopholes mean that fishermen can shoot seals all year round (even during breeding season) if they come within "the vicinity" of fisheries and equipment - however there is no definition of "vicinity" within this law, and an Arbroath fisherman escaped penalty in 2006 for shooting seals half a mile from his fishing nets!
Also during 2006 close season, four pregnant grey seals were found shot dead with gunshot injuries to the head at the Point of Vastray in Orkney. The police investigated it, and although the area was found covered in blood, nobody was charged. What makes it worse, is that seals only produce one pup each year, which effectively means that up to 4 unborn seals were also killed. Within the last 40 years there has only been only been one successful prosecution under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970!

penciltestdepot.com

Is a great blog (put together by Jamaal Bradley) that collects and displays a range of animation pencil tests in all their glory. It's well worth a look if you're at all interested in animation... http://www.penciltestdepot.com/

What's an animation pencil test, you ask?

An animation pencil test is basically a video clip made from the animation drawings (called "frames") that, when shown at 25 frames per second on PAL TV systems, create the illusion of movement... BUT unlike the final piece of animation (as you'd see it in the cinema or on TV), the pencil test only shows the animation as simple line drawings (without the inking, colouring, and other effects that get added later in the production process to create the finished piece of animation).
A lot of people enjoy pencil tests because they often display a vitality that goes missing after it's been inked and coloured. In some cases the pencil test will also show the animator's thinking process, changes, and other notes, which provide a further insight into how the frame-by-frame animation was created.

To demonstrate what a pencil test is, here's a 5 second video from one of my old 1st Year animations dated circa April 2006.

(But obviously PencilTestDepot.com has animations of a much better quality! So go check it out).