Odds and Ends. Some very odd.

So I'll call this page my odds and ends. It has all kinds of things.

Let's start with a couple of Hollywood icons, Brando and James Dean:

They're both 'pop art' in style - but then I think that both actors (particularly Dean) are remembered in that way. I'm fairly happy with both of these and again it was a case of playing with what isn't there.

 

Moving on to Rupert Murdoch (below). Can anyone feel comfortable with the amount of cultural and political influence that this man has? 

This is the most recent drawing that I have done (at the time of writing this) and I'm quite pleased with it actually. It's recognisable and I actually pushed myself to put a big more darkness on there too.

I'll add a rare landscape here - a copy of a Van Gogh (I love Van Gogh):

What can I say - everything looks like shit compared to Van Gogh, but I tried!! 

The next one is a 'Batman'. I don't generally do the gothic fantasy art or super hero stuff, but I thought I'd give it a try. So here is the caped crusader, and not too badly delivered.

Finally I'll add a Disney cartoon: Dr Heinz Doofenschmirtz from the cartoon 'Phineas and Ferb'. I watch this cartoon with my kids and he's easily my favourite Disney character!

Politics

Politics is thorny subject because it evokes such strongly held beliefs - or at least it should do.

My personal belief is that politics has been monopolised by one position for quite a long time and it has been tiring to choose between three parties (in the UK) that so closely aligned to one another (and pretend otherwise).

As I've mentioned somewhere else in my blog, I'm a liberal and a socialist. The picture (above) of Margaret Thatcher came out reasonably well - it's recognisable. The hair isn't right and it tends to highlight the struggle I still have with drawing hair.

The picture of Louise Mensch (right) is more satirical than a portrait. Let's just say that I really can't stand the woman. So I've managed to open this post with two people I really think have damaged the politcal landscape.

I mean - in my eyes - nobody has done more damage to Britain than Thatcher (yeah yeah I know that will really upset some). Louise Mensch, for me, just epitomises the greedy selfish career politician that has prospered of late. Two years in her constituency before she jacked it in. Her husband spilling the beans that she was unhappy that she wasn't moving into a government role soon enough. 

So Thatcher was an evil figure to me - whereas Mensch was just the typical lightweight political parasite - trading on image and nothing more - that followed in her wake in a chorus of 'me me me'.

Below is a picture I drew of Tony Benn. The man was (is) a hero to me. A very good, honest, decent man who served his conscience and his principles and worked hard for ordinary people.

I'm quite happy with the Tony Benn - it manages to capture a lot, but it could be better. 

Below is an unfinished (I'll get round to it) picture I call 'Burger Queen'. I'm really quite happy with the image - the eyes are pretty 'ok' and the hair is better than my usual (teeth too). Originally I had a proper crown on her head, but I'll be honest, I got struck with the idea of replacing it with a cardboard Burger King one and I couldn't resist.

I'm not a royalist.

 

Tony Blair - two of these. Like most people I'd like to see Tony answer for the lies that were told regarding the second gulf war. His recent opinions published in broadsheet newspapers about prosecuting wars in the middle east and sweeping through to other regions really worried me. I'd describe him as a dangerous, smarmy, egotistical lunatic.

The images below were drawn after his remarks against Jeremy Corbin. Neither image is ideal, I'm not totally happy to be honest.

David Cameron - just the one here (below), and it's quite cartoon. It's probably more suited to the blog that I'll eventually do on politcial satire. This whole blog is going in that direction. I was quite happy with this one, it caught the slightly rubbery, airbrushed spitting image style that is perfect for him.

 
So we're well on the way to political cartoons, so here (right - perhaps that should be far right?) is a cartoon of Nigel Farage that I did ages ago. I really see Nigel Farage as the lowest scrapings of the barrel. Dog whistle politics at the very worst - because it's always framed around the 'I'm not racist but...' narrative and 'What? Me?' innocence when people inevitably point out that he is a small minded bigoted misogynistic racist.

I really didn't spend much time on this cartoon so admittedly, it's probably as dodgy as he is. Although, maybe not.

The music ones

Elvis

I'll start with the Elvis section. I went through a period of drawing Elvis quite a lot. I was reading Peter Guralnik's two volume biography of his life and I guess that motivated me. I'm not a massive Elvis fan - I can see him objectively for what he was - which was incredibly talented, flawed and exploited. I was still really getting used to the Wacom stylus at this point too.

(above) is from the later years when he'd gone back to performing and was splitting a lot of time between Vegas, Hawaii and Memphis.

(right) is based on an early image of Elvis - well, post army, but during his movie days.

 (above) is a rough one from a still of the 'Comeback Special' (which was 1968 I think) and to the right is a later Vegas period but it's tiny and it pixellates really easily!

Jimmy Hendrix

I play the guitar (badly) and I think that anyone who has ever tried will only sit in awe of Jimmy Hendrix. For me he was massively underrated for his musical contribution though. There's no doubt that he is one the greatest guitarists of any generation - but I think his musical talent was much greater than a single instrument and the great tragedy was that we never heard his full contribution as a producer and writer.

Incredible facts about Hendrix include the fact that he wasn't playing fifteen years before he died. In addition he was only famous four years before his death. Despite all this, look at the mark that he left on music.

Anyway, this was one of the very first pictures I drew when I got my stylus setup.

 Jimmy Page

This is my drawing of Jimmy Page. I love Led Zepplin, and for me Jimmy Page is the focal point of the band. This was my first experiment with drawing onto a black background and adding light and colour to define the shape of the image. It came out 'ok'.

 

John Lennon

This is the first  example of me showing a drawing of someone I really don't like. I'm an avid reader of biographies and I've read a lot by and about the Beatles and numerous figures in the music industry at that time. Everything that I had read about Lennon portrays a pretty horrible human being - despite his popular image as a leader of the peace and love movement.

This is a copy of a painting that someone else did and it's a graduation from the Jimmy Page image - starting with the pink water coloured background and over laying with heavier darker pop art style that looks like a screen print. Despite the fact that it's Lennon, this is one of my favourites and I'm really happy with how it came out.

Johnny Cash

Two images of the man in black here. I am a massive Johnny Cash fan. His stripped down style and his dour gritty subjects really get me.

As with Elvis I recently enjoyed a superb biography of Cash - written by Robert Hilburn - quite unflinching. 

I was reasonably happy with how both of these came out although the mono one (right) came out a bit like the Irish actor Colm Meaney!

The picture below tends to show the struggles that I have with drawing hair.

The Rolling Stones

A friend recently asked whether I preferred The Beatles of The Stones. I said that I prefer the early Stones and the late Beatles. Some pretty good fence sitting there.

When it comes to The Stones I'm a Keith Richards fan. For me he is the musical heart and soul of the group. I'm not deliberately running Mick down here - he's irreplaceable - but Keith Richards is the mojo for me.

So (below) I did a Keith Richards and it's bit post-impressionist, kind of Van Gogh (he says modestly lol). It's a very recent drawing and I was quite happy with it.

Usually I'm a bit of a coward when it comes to colour and particularly putting heavy dark shading on a picture. So my stuff can be a bit pale and it lacks contrast at times.That's something I'd like to improve certainly. Anyway quite happy with Keith.

Mick (below) is also done in the style of oils, and it was a bit rushed really. Never have been happy with his neck, but I suppose he'd recognisable so that's something.

Peter Green

The Green God. The man is a pure genius and I'm drawn to his tragic relationship with that genius. I'd love to research how genius really affects people. For me, in so many cases, it's like putting a huge engine in a little car - the rest of the vehicle (brakes, shocks, chassis etc) - just can't cope and eventually it just blows up. The fact is (at least for me) Peter Green was just the most gifted blues guitarist of his generation. I'd draw Paul Kossoff into the conversation here too.

Still the picture below, on black, came out ok - but I'll always be unhappy with his right hand (any pointers anyone?)

For now, that's probably my musicians, although I'll probably draw more soon.

Welcome to the Art Cafe!

I've called this blog my 'Art Cafe' because I just wanted it to be a chilled out friendly place where people can look at pictures and cross reference to their own and exchange ideas.

I do a lot of drawing - I find it relaxing and it helps me to switch off. I draw something most days. So I thought that I would create a blog to share my drawing and engage with like minded people - maybe someone will get in touch with me and help me to improve. Maybe I can help someone else.

I draw all kinds of things - but mainly portraits of people in the public eye. I tend to try to draw people who elicit some kind of strong response from me. Sometimes people who I feel negatively about, some who I admire a great deal.

I also tweet a great deal - usually daily - and I share a lot of stuff that I have drawn on there (@PublicPriestley). I love it when people respond and get in touch. 

I enjoy drawing political satire and cartoons. I might do a section just for those. Politically I'm liberal socialist in my outlook, a bit of a lefty - but even if you don't agree with my views, please don't let that stop you from getting in touch about art, or looking at my work for what it is.

I also like writing - and I'm working on my first novel (which at the moment is entitled 'The Devil and the Debt Collector'). I also have a children's story that I wrote for my sons, but I'm struggling to illustrate it. Get it touch if you're interested in getting involved in that.

I just want to get this going so that I can throw things out there and see how (if?) people respond.

All my stuff is drawn on the computer. I use a very cheap piece of software called 'Paint X' (i think I paid £6 for it in the App Store). I use an Apple iMac with a Wacom Stylus. Everything is hand drawn. It took a while for me to get use to the stylus, but I'm pretty happy with it now. I would definitely recommend a Wacom. I'm thinking about upgrading my software to something like Adobe Illustrator - but it's a bit pricey. If you've got any experience with it, let me know.

I'm going to try and group my blog pieces around general themes. I don't know. We'll see how it works out.

If you've got this far, thanks for staying with me. Please do get in touch.