FOOJ'S SILVERPOINT PORTRAITS AND WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS

[FUJI]

1 hour ago, Clicker said:

 Have taken the liberty of adding “watercolour paintings” to your title for this thread Fooj ... hope that’s ok with you ...

No problem........ many thanks !

If you think I should cease sending none photographs, please tell me....

FUJI

[kev7d]

1 minute ago, FUJI said:

If you think I should cease sending none photographs, please tell me....

Keep them coming FUJI. Its great to see your skills.

[Clicker]

It’s in the coffee lounge  Fuji ...  it’s not limited  to photography topics in any way  as far as I am aware .... 

[FUJI]

My pro artist pal and tutor/mentor challenged me to paint a cut glass bowl with fruit.....after some research and practice I had a go at this....finished just an hour ago, so very fresh.

Not my favourite subject, but. I enjoyed the challenge....

 

FUJI

[kev7d]

That is awesome Fooj.  

[FUJI]

Portraiture is one of my favourite genres ....especially using Watercolour.

 

Here I have been trying out a set of very beautiful watercolour pigments from S Korea, as y can see they are of superb quality....I have also been learning how to create abstract backgrounds incorporating random textures...this is done by laying Cling-Film over wet paint...or...a sprinkling of salt.

Scrapings of watercolour crayon plus picking out highlights with a compass-point help give depth and texture...only the white highlights in gauche aren't Korean pigment.

The original reference photograph was taken by an online friend who gave her  gracious permission.

 

FUJI

Edited April 17, 2018 by FUJI

[kev7d]

Background looks great to me.  Subject looks great also.  

[johntwo]

Just full of character Fuji.  I think I prefer your portraits to your still life.  The portraits seem to make a connection.  In this last one, it's the eye contact.

Edited April 17, 2018 by johntwo

[CMunzel]

I’ve only just came across this thread and am so glad I did. I appreciate you sharing your silverpoint & water colour drawings & paintings, Fuji. Love your commitment to mastering the silver point techniques (which I have only the vaguest understanding of) and how you use your street photography portraits as starting points. it’s great to see the photo and the drawing that came from it. I hope you keep posting as it’s fascinating. 

[FUJI]

4 hours ago, CMunzel said:

I’ve only just came across this thread and am so glad I did. I appreciate you sharing your silverpoint & water colour drawings & paintings, Fuji. Love your commitment to mastering the silver point techniques (which I have only the vaguest understanding of) and how you use your street photography portraits as starting points. it’s great to see the photo and the drawing that came from it. I hope you keep posting as it’s fascinating. 

Thank you K ....... Yes ! It was my Street Portraiture that kicked me off into tackling the technicalities of Silverpoint Drawing.....the whole idea of drawing with a sliver of silver or gold wire fascinated me......I just had to ..have a go, especially after being challenged by my pro-Artist pal and Tutor, who claimed it would be too slow and stilted.

After tackling the first two, I found my stride, so to speak.....an interesting exercise and one to be returned to one day.

What I find fascinating too, is the way I have been influenced and inspired by the work of another...Street Photographer in Kuala Lumpur .....Sawsengee, a very gracious and generous lady, who gave her permissions freely .....

I much appreciate the interest shown by members...... it keeps motivation high....Thank You.

FUJI

[FUJI]

Another character portrait done in Watercolour with full permission from the original Portrait Photographer.........Sawengee in India.

FUJI

[CMunzel]

Im interested in Sawangee who you refer to, Fuji. I couldn’t find any info about this person with a quick Google search. 

[FUJI]

4 hours ago, CMunzel said:

Im interested in Sawangee who you refer to, Fuji. I couldn’t find any info about this person with a quick Google search. 

Sawsengee, as far as I know isn’t a professional photographer, although most folk I’m in touch with say she aught to be....during the past three years since she first began posting her work on the international .....Ephotozine....Photography Forum....I have been an active member there for almost as long as I have here on TIPF.

Sawsengee, has built up a very large incredible portfolio of Street Portraits, most with black backgrounds, but she doesn’t use Photoshop just a free photo editing suite ....her interest is to trawl the streets of India with an absolute passion for recording truthfully the very essence of character from her subjects. Sawsengee offers a rupee or two tea or food in exchange for permissions, then she chats to reach the point with no obvious posing.....

‘She has a large following on that international forum, I receive regular comments and messages regarding my Street work....we often compare notes....it was very recently that she gave her gracious permission for me to interpret any if her works into a Watercolour version.....

giving me a very real but enjoyable challenge, that I can share.

My Two Photography forums are what help in a huge way to keep my old brain working and me motivated to get out and about with my cameras....my online...friends are many and varied, and are valued as much as the friends I meet with on a regular basis.....photographers, artists or just old friends.....

Still living in my home town at 80 helps ....so many folk have known me for a lifetime, besides the thousands I worked with and fir over the years in my work.

Back to photographer..Sawsengee....her portfolio can be found, on the Ephotozine forum under her name....I think that you can look in as a none-member....give that a try....then let me know if it worked please.

Thank you for your interest.

FUJI

[FUJI]

The third Watercolour Portrait in my current series of four based upon the amazing Street Portraiture of ....Sawsengee..... An amazing lady photographer who tours villages, towns and cities in her home country seeking out amazing characters and colour, using only natural light and a modest camer.

Sawsengee uses only free photo software to carry out a minimum of post processing.....I did receive ready permission to produce my portraits on ....hand-made paper, using a newly discovered  set of ShinHan Watercolour pigments from Korea.....an amazing combination.

PHOTO VIA MY iPhone 5 S ....

 

FUJI

[FUJI]

The fourth of my set of four Watercolour portraits, inspired by the amazing Street Photography of a lady called....Sawsengee....a fellow Street Photographer in Kuala Lumpur....

She has graciously given me her full permission to use her amazing portfolio of over 1000 portraits of subjects befriended by her on her travels.

Painted on hand made Watercolour paper from a paper-mill in Somerset.

FUJI

[Clicker]

Fabulous work Fooj ....just fabulous ... what a lovely gift , letting you paint all these wonderful characters ... you could finish up with enough work for an exhibition !  Tremendous stuff... well done You  ...

[FUJI]

A complete change from my recent style, more in the traditional manner of executing a Watercolour Painting ...... infants and young people really challenge the Artist, a very different, much softer,  approach is required.....I was determined to ...have a go.

Just one of the portraits from my archives, taken with full permission and blessing of parents and grandparents....that young lass is three years older now, so looking very different.

FUJI

[Korky]

Those eyes are really captivating, Fooj. Good stuff!

Korky

[Clicker]

Another very fine example of your talent with water colour Fooj...  you must have enough work for an exhibition  there ....

Lovely expressive eyes ...

[FUJI]

This pic could have gone in to the....SLICE OF LIFE .....section, but I thought that it fitted in here much better....of course it wasn’t taken by me but my my great Olympus O1 owning buddy Brent ..... he puts up with this old fogey on fairly regular ...Street-Photography ... jaunts into Coventry City .... or to much quieter venues.

This in one of a series taken as part of a project for his Photographic Club.

Just yours truly in his painting corner, part of a tiny glass conservatory/ more like a porch really.

FUJI

[CMunzel]

I’ve always been fascinated to see artists working in their “studios” so I appreciate this photo of you painting:  seeing how you hold your palette, the big brush and the other paraphernalia of your art. 

[FUJI]

I know that a number of you like to keep up with my painting progress.....a couple of years ago a pro artist mate of mine nudged me into serious painting again, after a lapse of circa 30 years.

I look at my....Art.....as creative photography minus a camera.

After a shaky start, I have slowly regained my confidence and skills set essential for Watercolour.......I won’t throughh all the phases of realism, working from photographs, portraiture, plus many bold experiments with lots of failures along the way. Just like photography or any other hobby , take it seriously and it immediately hits your wallet, but only the best will produce the goods.

Currently I am doing an in-depth study of well known Watercolour Artist Shirley Travena ...a lady with a fresh/daring approach to what many see as a boring medium.

Im doing my best not to copy her work directly but to use her controversial techniques to produce my own take on my chosen subjects......I feel as though I have just passed through many inhibitions and past learnings to reach this point.....so its......onwards and upwards from now on.

Here are a few of my recent exploratory efforts.

 

 

 

[Craig]

Don't know how I ever missed this thread FUJI....?
Not only are you a superb photographer you are an equally superb painter....!

Makes me sick.... lol  I doff my cap to you sir!
Craig  

Edited November 1, 2018 by Craig

[FUJI]

49 minutes ago, Craig said:

Don't know how I ever missed this thread FUJI....?
Not only are you a superb photographer you are an equally superb painter....!

Makes me sick.... lol  Craig

Thank Craig,

 

I have been a very keen artist since being a small child during the war....a cheap paintbox a brush and a drawing book is all I ever wanted....it’s a long story, I leaned my skills d=during evening classes including a A Level Art when I was 25...I became a member of our local amateur theatre, couldn’t act, knew nothing about lighting or sound, so became a scenic artist...recently a Pro artist friend motivated me to paint again. Painting keeps me happy, as dies photography and my workshop.

Thank you for your interest and kind comments.

 

FUJI

[FUJI]

Just like photographers, Artists go through phases of technique and equipments..... as you will see from my previous posts to this thread, my media choice has been water-colour, used in a much bolder way  than than those ...rather twee, studies of the past.....As I regained my old Artistic confidence, I reached a kind of Artistic Plateaux, not really finding my own path.

Over the past few months I have been cataloging all of my Art works dating back to the 1960s , these have been placed in a self published hardback for my family and close friends....This process made me recall, that back then, I had a complete fascination for the...French Impressionists ....especially their use of colour....but what got me most was the...Pointillist works of...Seurat, Signac Pissarro and Van Gogh...their paintings throb with light and have a way of almost shimmering, owing to the use of small dots or dabs of, mainly primary colours.

Rather than use oil paints back in the 1960s  I used equally bright but easier to handle....Oil-Pastels......I  did many works especially of Life-models both during evening classes, and during workshops with the Coventry and Warwickshire Society Of Artists....

Going through my old work, has re-kindled my interest, so, recently I have  been regaining my previous enthusiasm for the technique of Pointillism, and its theories of....Optical Color mixing..... red dots next to yellow dots = orange....blue dots next to yellow dots = green ...and so on...with correct proportions of each primary colour making up the inbetween colours and tones....the technique takes some getting used to, and my studio can sound like a..riveting shop....but it’s an extremely satisfying and relaxing occupation.

The first work here has been carried out with an underpainting if Watercolour, that has been enhanced by ...Piontillism using Oil-Pastels....these are very soft and rather n]messy to use.

The second work is a study in pure Pointillism, using my extremely bright...Japanese Watercolours ....relatively thick pigments, in a super range of colours....thus was done using a single thin rigger brush.

Pointillism, works in exactly the same way, as an ink-jet printer....they use microscopic dots of primary colours to form every other one.

I know that some of you like to follow my progress with brushes, paper, pencils and pastels.

FUJI