Desert Painting

Oil on Canvas 24" x 18"

Painting of Camels approaching the pyramids and sphinx that closely based on a photo by Jovelino http://1x.com/photo/43091/ I just added the Sphinx and Pyramid to the composition and adjusted the colour palette.

I took this on as a study in levels and subtle hues. Balancing the hue shifts of the sands while retaining their levels proved quite tricky because of the incredibly small differences in the colour steps. I found that the darker levels where much more forgiving but the bright sand areas in the centre around the sphinx and pyramid required a lot of controlling the mixing. Any kind of minute colour pollution ruined the colour mix so keeping your brushes clean and the turps clean was essential. Forces you to develop good painting practices :)

In from the rain

Oil on Canvas 18" x 24"

Commissioned oil painting. Portraits not being my forte, I was quite pleased with how this turned out.

Eyjafjallajoumlkull Eruption - oil painting

Oil on Canvas 24" x 18"

Finally finished this commissioned painting of the Eyjafjallajoumlkull eruption, photo by Gunnar Gestur Geirmundsson. Yep, the famous eruption that grounded so many planes in mid 2010.

Kells - Aoibheann and Daithí

Digital art - 10'' x 13''

I did this as a Christmas present for my older brother Gordon and his wife Denise. A manipulated photo of Aoibheann (niece) and Daithí (nephew) in the the Celtic/Insular Illuminated style of the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

It took me longer than I first anticipated, in reality it ended up taking me the guts of a year to complete. The above image is from the photoshop file while the gift itself was printed and transferred onto good quality art paper before it was float mounted and framed. The dimensions of the print match that of the pages from the book of Kells.