tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-98009633318177252024-03-14T10:54:19.059+00:00illustrations by Brett BreckonBrett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-6169584732234911882022-09-26T11:14:00.002+01:002022-09-26T11:20:06.601+01:00The First Dragons of Dragon Days<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFClN-xZpHs7EbvSrt9uU5WVO4PeROAov4nZ1TH_hX5RDmmkxjEKraMibiogeUJQs8D2vNKDNraGJt9tJ4O5rm6wI81PzTWL-7nX-ppwErDJyq3aHnmiwlonLXw1_jCa5-0ENA0jHTD__FFS1XFYJZsLpa65Kn8AU34QISixgzymgJPk9bETZo_rRz/s2717/picture4%20crop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1033" data-original-width="2717" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFClN-xZpHs7EbvSrt9uU5WVO4PeROAov4nZ1TH_hX5RDmmkxjEKraMibiogeUJQs8D2vNKDNraGJt9tJ4O5rm6wI81PzTWL-7nX-ppwErDJyq3aHnmiwlonLXw1_jCa5-0ENA0jHTD__FFS1XFYJZsLpa65Kn8AU34QISixgzymgJPk9bETZo_rRz/w640-h244/picture4%20crop.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> Having just posted about my new dragon painting <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-newgale-dragon.html" target="_blank">The Newgale Dragon</a> celebrating the 20th Anniversary of my completing the first dragon illustration which ultimately led to the books <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2021/09/dragon-daysgwlad-y-dreigiau-quick-look.html" target="_blank">Dragon Days and Gwlad y Dreigiau</a>, I thought I would just go back to those first four illustrations that were born out of a wish to take my work in a different direction. Actually 'illustration' is the wrong word because the paintings were not illustrating any text at that time - they were merely whimsical, very much products of my daydreams while out kayaking off the Pembrokeshire coast, but also derived from an idea of Wales being the land of the Dragon, and wanting more stories to evolve about such beasts.</span></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsmMt7IFDjoM_akiwGC-3YAMqCKAVDPAq84SsYPKikMPUte3mXSvQDpRvJ1RvP812daF8UrUowhwX6tlUHfs7eTYo8D0FiDaArAtK4wkqmvoqTcgIA7aiTEVXguxWsp90TpT_5Gllmd0a9mrqeziDop7BEdBTiM4zD_WsdacLQcnWFFc_q5a5KSvAG/s2717/picture4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2702" data-original-width="2717" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsmMt7IFDjoM_akiwGC-3YAMqCKAVDPAq84SsYPKikMPUte3mXSvQDpRvJ1RvP812daF8UrUowhwX6tlUHfs7eTYo8D0FiDaArAtK4wkqmvoqTcgIA7aiTEVXguxWsp90TpT_5Gllmd0a9mrqeziDop7BEdBTiM4zD_WsdacLQcnWFFc_q5a5KSvAG/w644-h640/picture4.jpg" width="644" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There are two of the original four paintings signed off as August '02, and I very much remember that this was the first one. I had a working title of 'Snakey' because of his long tail and neck. In the books his is the fourth story out of twelve - that is: 'Cerrig and the Bridge of Ice' in Dragon Days, written by Michael Ponsford, while in Gwlad y Dreigiau the story is 'Y Darogan-Ddreigiau' written by Caryl Lewis.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In my many, many hours kayaking and surfing around the shores of Pembrokeshire, and beyond, I often had my trusty Canon waterproof camera with me to capture scenes and adventures. It was a 35mm film camera with a fixed lens, a far cry from what is available these days with all the advantages of digital technology - a bit of a 'happy-snapper' camera really, but it gave me a lot of fun and left me with a lot of memories.......and also reference material. This is one of the photos it produced of a little bit of rock protruding above the water at half tide near the Pen y Cwm end of Newgale beach, probably taken in July 2002. As you can see, with a few alterations, it became very much the background for my snakey dragon.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7wwByzf16K6ewhyouzyha1ilJQdt5PH2Rv_iQBv2J3JuZNEmjI01BKZAKuZ2lF85rh9SWGO8KVBsRQzyu9rTzaMso9vjR_1VokJtKCNnvXMFZXhObL7Qs-zrD8nOIkimE2QVCuv0-Pi7nVRc-MMRanqrHNZv2Ah9be5b8-JpE9_2X4SNml1da9y69/s2130/2022-09-25-14-26-51-01%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1480" data-original-width="2130" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7wwByzf16K6ewhyouzyha1ilJQdt5PH2Rv_iQBv2J3JuZNEmjI01BKZAKuZ2lF85rh9SWGO8KVBsRQzyu9rTzaMso9vjR_1VokJtKCNnvXMFZXhObL7Qs-zrD8nOIkimE2QVCuv0-Pi7nVRc-MMRanqrHNZv2Ah9be5b8-JpE9_2X4SNml1da9y69/s320/2022-09-25-14-26-51-01%20copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Probably on the same kayak trip along that bit of coast I paddled my boat through a narrow tunnel through the rocks and took these two photos - I was always in awe of the light effects on the sea when the water is so clear, and the colours, especially in the caves, are often intense and amazing.</span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzbVEjafcEqD9p5KC_qorY6vuYR_SojGC_Ku7Zhk9zaACTsxJV4973j_ZuEBtr-tgaZBumA3xAnIM4HL4IKMIdDUvZFn6SYXeyunM52kJb7Y5IPPse2hwagIbDEnf461WCv_apKu5ARnNdvHAZKCs_zgqVc14uZtKWrN4nnoWKP6Fmh9ex2kx_LFXz/s2144/Ref4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2144" data-original-width="1493" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzbVEjafcEqD9p5KC_qorY6vuYR_SojGC_Ku7Zhk9zaACTsxJV4973j_ZuEBtr-tgaZBumA3xAnIM4HL4IKMIdDUvZFn6SYXeyunM52kJb7Y5IPPse2hwagIbDEnf461WCv_apKu5ARnNdvHAZKCs_zgqVc14uZtKWrN4nnoWKP6Fmh9ex2kx_LFXz/s320/Ref4.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxwOQkUPglhzjPMvIPt48SqHa9EmBMFklMZNiZwZDyDaIDCB0WccihdDmPdDm1zMk7F86D8xjuafRyAGXstds6j-6zUg2aw7fcWV8PQCFmVmG6_zgeChlYS3bfkSQqTqTy1CekOaf4mpdkxMUYb0Kz08WbDnqxICP-wI0RKQs5avhvLA4BCWJwpTS/s2156/Ref5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2156" data-original-width="1497" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxwOQkUPglhzjPMvIPt48SqHa9EmBMFklMZNiZwZDyDaIDCB0WccihdDmPdDm1zMk7F86D8xjuafRyAGXstds6j-6zUg2aw7fcWV8PQCFmVmG6_zgeChlYS3bfkSQqTqTy1CekOaf4mpdkxMUYb0Kz08WbDnqxICP-wI0RKQs5avhvLA4BCWJwpTS/s320/Ref5.jpg" width="222" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With a little twisting and widening to fit the square format I had set myself for the paintings the photos gave me the setting for the second of my paintings that month - the Purple Cave Dragons. In the books this became the illustration for the sixth story: 'Elgar and the Dragons' by Christine Evans, and 'Y Dreigiau Piws' by Bethan Gwanas. Seals were also regular companions on the kayaking trips.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9RfG5lv4c2GEHv7OEylnx8Ov049ZGnpcyGM381lzvtzNPeR3oVmlLw_I1AfP9jjHOntxi_k_sX2t2F3JJllb5IzWz8JXD6poMkj2k80gPS5CoVk2eg0fFm8GZu2OGd7Zft7ldG5tBY6NQ9gD4Cgvrk9GMJKuULrP6gheqTmGUKAh43aD7EtKTBOG/s2713/picture6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2702" data-original-width="2713" height="638" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9RfG5lv4c2GEHv7OEylnx8Ov049ZGnpcyGM381lzvtzNPeR3oVmlLw_I1AfP9jjHOntxi_k_sX2t2F3JJllb5IzWz8JXD6poMkj2k80gPS5CoVk2eg0fFm8GZu2OGd7Zft7ldG5tBY6NQ9gD4Cgvrk9GMJKuULrP6gheqTmGUKAh43aD7EtKTBOG/w640-h638/picture6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In September '02 I signed off the third painting, for which I had a working title of 'Bambi' because I thought this delicate little dragon had an innocent, gentle and wistful look about him. At this time I was still working on the paintings purely for fun, and towards no particular end other than they may perhaps become greetings cards or something like that. Their main function was to add a new dimension to my portfolio of work - which in those days was a physical album of work when the internet was still pretty much in it's infancy and websites were fewer and far between, and this portfolio needed to be lugged around to show to people. Goodness how things have changed!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Again I found a snapshot of clear water over rocks as a starting point, but I introduced blue reflection of sky onto the ripples to make appear it an even brighter piece</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvoXrqoYPkzKzU4pRn46DBKtznIF1jXZJ7i_0AEuP-jZ97CzDpwfRfJs1oohCQ4Ick2CtCa5HLE4B2ckxFt25nVbWz7LAjgCLWYAEIFHT1J66EBRkGHebxDMhwOsm5U8K24hdT-_wROXrpmOiOeZjtq-qcSVMMVdwl2cKQJBf1rPPe8HHyw66i8ah/s2118/Ref3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1466" data-original-width="2118" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvoXrqoYPkzKzU4pRn46DBKtznIF1jXZJ7i_0AEuP-jZ97CzDpwfRfJs1oohCQ4Ick2CtCa5HLE4B2ckxFt25nVbWz7LAjgCLWYAEIFHT1J66EBRkGHebxDMhwOsm5U8K24hdT-_wROXrpmOiOeZjtq-qcSVMMVdwl2cKQJBf1rPPe8HHyw66i8ah/s320/Ref3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">The main medium in all my work in those days was gouache, but more and more I was adding watercolour for brighter, more transparent hues and I think this is a good example of me using both in equal measure in a painting.<br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBZFudwbk1vWWswQ7IQei0BE6JoQ8U_uiY2u83lIv6EXS5g_ZTHZTnGrNh77Sp539omP2jn2wPBBCUkKMUSSr2haSOqHd71rWBUyaE34dC0mJyZyKZ31oIgIEJW0mCtRG6l-GtwxoEYSJhDa4NyMn_OsnrevS443zzFLUUYMlKyThT3Ghg3t2FPxb/s2727/picture3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2727" data-original-width="2711" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBZFudwbk1vWWswQ7IQei0BE6JoQ8U_uiY2u83lIv6EXS5g_ZTHZTnGrNh77Sp539omP2jn2wPBBCUkKMUSSr2haSOqHd71rWBUyaE34dC0mJyZyKZ31oIgIEJW0mCtRG6l-GtwxoEYSJhDa4NyMn_OsnrevS443zzFLUUYMlKyThT3Ghg3t2FPxb/w636-h640/picture3.jpg" width="636" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Which brings us to the final painting of the four, which I called 'Exodus' in my head at the time, and it was possibly the only one of the four where I really built up a story in my mind as I painted it, and that story was where something terrible must have happened to see a vast squadron of red Welsh dragons flying away from their homeland as the unmistakable shapes of Ramsey Island, the St Davids peninsular and Whitesands slip away below them as they escape westwards. This may have been a pivotal image for editor Mairwen Jones when she saw these four pieces and declared an interest in Gomer producing a book from them, and in her quick and excellent decision to have the book take on a chronology from the very beginning of time at the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq2oRY4GGBEkvLhIcOWZbfO_dxS201UVxlLr_lPE3cRLzj-DeyTqv5UCWH97ftDfBxNhbPFQxSUBnBzFMzR0NO7DsqFPMfaVQ2jz06U_w4ePW69P04kZh8G3H2pnjbk-Dv5X6uvCUoJlM/s2048/picture1.jpg" target="_blank">big bang</a>, all the way through the twelve stories and poems in each book to the modern day. This image became the ninth in the books, and in Dragon Days it went with Peter Oram's story 'The Fire Offering', while the Welsh title was 'Y Dreigiau Cochion' where it was accompanied by a beautiful poem by Tudur Dylan Jones.</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv3CFLLIYCbMmBQNYnBnrF_EfeEH3Nk_2hz1vV_6nucA7OCDS62eVbvEX0ePWoZFo0dADs_fW3g22aDsOa9M-N4kIkQVSZDa8PuSP5JS4BCDVaInahl7onGy_Jd7nrqHg1o9eC-ktAn5kp8QUeOPXFvZDYwZl-h0oghGxhBkgjFSJwAlz4ZyS1Vi78/s2714/picture9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv3CFLLIYCbMmBQNYnBnrF_EfeEH3Nk_2hz1vV_6nucA7OCDS62eVbvEX0ePWoZFo0dADs_fW3g22aDsOa9M-N4kIkQVSZDa8PuSP5JS4BCDVaInahl7onGy_Jd7nrqHg1o9eC-ktAn5kp8QUeOPXFvZDYwZl-h0oghGxhBkgjFSJwAlz4ZyS1Vi78/s2714/picture9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2714" data-original-width="2713" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjypFg8lsvjx9Lhc0HU_GhmrttF44KvCSZSZ1u9YSYPyUCuc-1E88ZJI52MyjHHYxKpxXsxks425oFkVZeeUL_oXhgMtkoeDEsTBaKFLiqoHTpqeA26r6FXQU0b--QpPY4tLMNCp_4hXQHr8rtoSpj9PhSmOmKGZ6NK2YnHwX837bVFZP50DZMzWJmQ/w640-h640/picture9.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv3CFLLIYCbMmBQNYnBnrF_EfeEH3Nk_2hz1vV_6nucA7OCDS62eVbvEX0ePWoZFo0dADs_fW3g22aDsOa9M-N4kIkQVSZDa8PuSP5JS4BCDVaInahl7onGy_Jd7nrqHg1o9eC-ktAn5kp8QUeOPXFvZDYwZl-h0oghGxhBkgjFSJwAlz4ZyS1Vi78/s2714/picture9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Each of the paintings are 230 x 230mm in size, on hot pressed watercolour paper. They each took about two weeks to conceive, develop through sketches and paint. Between these four and the next eight there was a gap of several months while the details of the books were worked out and the authors were contacted and agreed to be on board with the project. After that I had to press on and develop all the other pictures and get them to their respective authors so that they could weave their magic around my pictures. The next picture I did was signed off in May '03 and the last one in the series was in March '04. I also had to create a smaller 'incidental' image for each story, a large image for the end papers in the books, a small image of a dragon's egg (below) to be used as a device to hold each page number, and 24 illustrated drop capital illustrations which were black and white line drawings coloured digitally, 12 for the English language book and 12 for the Welsh language version. It was a happy two years of work and it all started with a photo of a rock in the sea at Newgale. Please find the books if you would like to see more. I have copies for sale, as well as fine art prints of the images. I hope you enjoyed looking at these first four.</span></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijF6k6rkkIq8gV9hAi9D7T3-6SFZPHtBAMtpgETRg6QMihEBzSxhiW8TOXdq8axk9AQ0nageWxF1U2Uie6oHfMkgjDh7kiQ3zZOHoHV67xy-4zqBaJ8455754_fKXt84x8VUsLJeII5kG707t4jRJIaKKtnugkAriR1gCfqP-DEeClPHIxQdKypTxb/s1077/dragon%20egg.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="1077" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijF6k6rkkIq8gV9hAi9D7T3-6SFZPHtBAMtpgETRg6QMihEBzSxhiW8TOXdq8axk9AQ0nageWxF1U2Uie6oHfMkgjDh7kiQ3zZOHoHV67xy-4zqBaJ8455754_fKXt84x8VUsLJeII5kG707t4jRJIaKKtnugkAriR1gCfqP-DEeClPHIxQdKypTxb/s320/dragon%20egg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><br /><p><br /></p>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-85271523353255090232022-09-23T17:57:00.000+01:002022-09-23T17:59:24.472+01:00The Newgale Dragon<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVaDRG4OOIhrEkzk5YEmptXpNgqDhenlu6-0BKzvbrgS95wSjPm-v5_avQrmIPwIM8Xjiqf1OzL3isb4ob4Jbz-Qzrsq1oAPiPEnzfrScHtBDWQ8LAROdKokraZa0gHUiwrw3PuMwkRT5qTN2dlanEPyblub6L2mN6MZaiPh28vGJMei6tVU8RYpl/s5906/Newgale_Dragon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4724" data-original-width="5906" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVaDRG4OOIhrEkzk5YEmptXpNgqDhenlu6-0BKzvbrgS95wSjPm-v5_avQrmIPwIM8Xjiqf1OzL3isb4ob4Jbz-Qzrsq1oAPiPEnzfrScHtBDWQ8LAROdKokraZa0gHUiwrw3PuMwkRT5qTN2dlanEPyblub6L2mN6MZaiPh28vGJMei6tVU8RYpl/w640-h512/Newgale_Dragon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">Newgale Dragon ©Brett Breckon 2022</p><p style="text-align: center;">Oil on Canvas</p><p style="text-align: center;">50 x 40cm</p><span style="font-family: arial;">In August of this year I decided to mark the twenty year anniversary of my signing off the first of the dragon paintings which eventually became the books <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2021/09/dragon-daysgwlad-y-dreigiau-quick-look.html" target="_blank">'Dragon Days' and 'Gwlad y Dreigiau'</a>. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It seemed like a really good idea, and a lot of fun, to create a new painting in the same spirit as the first ones were made - a celebration and also a little marker to see how my craft has developed in those intervening years.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Back then in 2002 I took advantage of a natural break in my commercial work to create some portfolio pieces to hopefully push my work in a different direction. The two year slog that saw me do all the illustrations for 'The World of the Medieval Knight' was still fresh in my mind, and I wanted to steer away from the necessary slavish duty to historical accuracy and enjoy myself more with myths and legends. But without such a text to follow I instead took inspiration from my many kayaking sessions and adventures around the Pembrokeshire coast and simply imagined it as a world where dragons existed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">To start with four un-commissioned pictures emerged, all small gouache and watercolour paintings in a square format 230 x 230mm in size - this in itself was a little rebellion after too many commissions to fit portrait configured book pages. I slipped these into said portfolio and the first person to see them was Mairwen Jones, then the chief editor at Gomer Press, and she immediately suggested a book of short stories and poems where authors would write their words to give the pictures context. She also suggested the book should work chronologically from the beginning of time to the present day......and so leap forward two years and in 2004 the books were published. Unusually for the publishing industry here in Wales the books were not translations from one language into the other, but the 12 stories and poems in Dragon Days are 12 authors interpretations of my pictures, and the stories and poems in Gwlad y Dreigiau are different interpretations by 12 different authors in the Welsh language.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The timeline idea of the books left me with a little problem for my anniversary painting as I had covered from the Big Bang to the present day already, so the only place to go was the future! And that was where I decided on a little fun bringing in elements that were important to me.</span></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJL2DTaaDBGgfB6PazJr5JFveEl58GGg1geq-JNWhcPvZMTUjHOtluJ_2FDSpB9xvkUKm5fTXeE48c7AAFRB_9Dz9fHz3YcAz2V4Q0mSg5Qw_VHs8wwROwh3crD2Xmwh_spFvo4rv76DRSO8jxlmKmMnDWASM77anS3jCN628Lz1a6cNaCvQhgSwD/s2521/Newgale_Dragon_detail4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2426" data-original-width="2521" height="616" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJL2DTaaDBGgfB6PazJr5JFveEl58GGg1geq-JNWhcPvZMTUjHOtluJ_2FDSpB9xvkUKm5fTXeE48c7AAFRB_9Dz9fHz3YcAz2V4Q0mSg5Qw_VHs8wwROwh3crD2Xmwh_spFvo4rv76DRSO8jxlmKmMnDWASM77anS3jCN628Lz1a6cNaCvQhgSwD/w640-h616/Newgale_Dragon_detail4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here I need to say I ditched the square format right from the start - this wasn't going to be a 13th picture in any future edition of the books, and anyway I always tell myself at the start of any painting - the rule is there are no rules!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But I had long wanted to draw a dragon on Newgale - my closest beach - and anyone who knows it will recognise the distinctive shape of Rickets Head in the distance in my painting.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkaao1DVo2R4S7hLjaasYhGINJO-5LK7ZpIZSSq25EoUCZ0kpTtH6cGx0YwsgLgOVkmn0DLo4in67rKrPE3YWYwix3npmYDUPJQGfQmCe-nv9aF0gH3IrpqqE87_IMewrr2K1QH3b4Ql1kDZ2T6Kxsb5j82sAfwaL1JSIBg4OZa0Qwh_P589ku3Re0/s2463/Newgale_Dragon_detail2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1786" data-original-width="2463" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkaao1DVo2R4S7hLjaasYhGINJO-5LK7ZpIZSSq25EoUCZ0kpTtH6cGx0YwsgLgOVkmn0DLo4in67rKrPE3YWYwix3npmYDUPJQGfQmCe-nv9aF0gH3IrpqqE87_IMewrr2K1QH3b4Ql1kDZ2T6Kxsb5j82sAfwaL1JSIBg4OZa0Qwh_P589ku3Re0/s320/Newgale_Dragon_detail2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial;">I seem to be in a yellow phase of painting just now, so the sky became an ochre backdrop and the hills a misty purple - perhaps being a little post-apocalyptic with the near-future theme there.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And then there is the dragon himself - covered in the pebbles of the great long pebble bank which frames the back of the huge sandy beach and which, for the moment at least, keeps the sea at bay at high tide and stops it making it's way inland. This camouflage was a nice idea I thought as in the last story in Dragon Days I had created tiny little dragons that are so small we don't see them very often, suggesting that was the way of the modern dragon, but now I have confounded that theory as this Newgale dragon is a proper big one, but you don't see him because he hides under the pebbles! It also meant I didn't have to work out a pattern of scales all over his body.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiF-tXcYM_-r_sUUGO0Ncn00PbbRx7oTLP4jwYXoA8vrO28GiAn2PYjBJ69JDnTU0KbRZDb5KoxlYUmGw3m8W_IF8Zyqs59gJe-Qg8a9761vzHdfdLmWBVIF6bg-N1MaDc5DV3siV-EvYcuhNiOf9gZhI8mjNM1G9WKkiKSAVovbiRLksAUF3kBipo/s3468/Newgale_Dragon_detail1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1980" data-original-width="3468" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiF-tXcYM_-r_sUUGO0Ncn00PbbRx7oTLP4jwYXoA8vrO28GiAn2PYjBJ69JDnTU0KbRZDb5KoxlYUmGw3m8W_IF8Zyqs59gJe-Qg8a9761vzHdfdLmWBVIF6bg-N1MaDc5DV3siV-EvYcuhNiOf9gZhI8mjNM1G9WKkiKSAVovbiRLksAUF3kBipo/w640-h366/Newgale_Dragon_detail1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The other element of the painting is the dragon's rival for ownership of the (lifeguard's-coloured) beach ball - she is none other than the daughter of my most successful print star <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2013/03/little-queenie.html" target="_blank">Little Queenie</a>, and she is flame haired just like her mum. Her bike is a rethink of my old <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYN42qTggPN/" target="_blank">1980 BMW R100 sidecar outfit</a>, now a hoverbike! I had to let the actual bike go a couple of years ago, and I miss it very much, it was such a spectacular beast - so this was an excuse to pour over photos of it when it was in my ownership and call it research.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I did, just, get the new painting finished in August, to keep to the 20 year idea, but being oils it is only now varnished and ready to show.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDRo1iIPhS_KjPoMotvR1UE4gXo2bSg42Hn1fTfrZokYTDV7PQvPmspN5wSQCGXBapDACGzJOzHrv45OPsxER4szH8Xl1hDQ0Sc8kaXeSWEFw-Ef6WlZNgq7tyeuSL8-4IhpMTR-Ck_KSYvU_Ybe_VXqHjyJFuKap1UYLxRhewONfazRyVh66emMA-/s2095/Newgale_Dragon_detail5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2095" data-original-width="1972" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDRo1iIPhS_KjPoMotvR1UE4gXo2bSg42Hn1fTfrZokYTDV7PQvPmspN5wSQCGXBapDACGzJOzHrv45OPsxER4szH8Xl1hDQ0Sc8kaXeSWEFw-Ef6WlZNgq7tyeuSL8-4IhpMTR-Ck_KSYvU_Ybe_VXqHjyJFuKap1UYLxRhewONfazRyVh66emMA-/s320/Newgale_Dragon_detail5.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><p><br /></p><span style="font-family: arial;">A little side note is that the frame I made for it is from of a length of pitch pine architrave from a Welsh chapel conversion given to me by Mairwen Jones when she renovated the old place as a beautiful house. So I thought it was apt that I was able to do a bit of machining to the timber and make a solid and lovely frame out of it, bringing the exercise to a suitable conclusion.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA7NtAWYOIiOI7LPdF04w9NrFJEnyA7r-LWh8TjqrfS4X_uec4QlsUDgtV2GGHWw0XLjof389W3K1rhLefl6HAs4yFw3iU8colG68dlp0cp2chHglSYODZy6qmewomlW2Ltedlu5m2CfbrVec1n6XP4QGj4cw0ayO1keACvKTSKVhrJNmlmVTVieAO/s1873/Newgale_Dragon_detail3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1873" data-original-width="1654" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA7NtAWYOIiOI7LPdF04w9NrFJEnyA7r-LWh8TjqrfS4X_uec4QlsUDgtV2GGHWw0XLjof389W3K1rhLefl6HAs4yFw3iU8colG68dlp0cp2chHglSYODZy6qmewomlW2Ltedlu5m2CfbrVec1n6XP4QGj4cw0ayO1keACvKTSKVhrJNmlmVTVieAO/s320/Newgale_Dragon_detail3.jpg" width="283" /></a></div><p><br /></p><span style="font-family: arial;">The new picture is going to be on display at Picton Castle's Courtyard Gallery for two months from the 1st of October, where it will be in the company of the 12 main text illustrations from the books, so please get along and have a look if you are lucky enough to be in Pembrokeshire during that time.</span><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHk3yJg8Urk1mYrfHSYnUjFspdu6kii87kV8ZRTkuDE072HsTd3tZWxGBwWjoNGZmzzRJOK9t2rngrZ7uVq3D-wVFu78O2Qoe80QvK-7h9zEiTUVDZWet5D4-aesPrhpUuTxwycyuLCOdtJ4F6crj0p_msTWO5orKLB3_SyNFBcOq9Cu5tC1WT3iI/s2551/Newgale_Dragon_framed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="2551" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHk3yJg8Urk1mYrfHSYnUjFspdu6kii87kV8ZRTkuDE072HsTd3tZWxGBwWjoNGZmzzRJOK9t2rngrZ7uVq3D-wVFu78O2Qoe80QvK-7h9zEiTUVDZWet5D4-aesPrhpUuTxwycyuLCOdtJ4F6crj0p_msTWO5orKLB3_SyNFBcOq9Cu5tC1WT3iI/s320/Newgale_Dragon_framed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-86298480291272202242021-09-28T17:41:00.006+01:002021-09-28T17:41:31.892+01:00The Marionnettiste<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzVJuHWOCzbQtUIly9zMpG1vq-QIXrLYNGh6JFpC0hW7dLcH1s7IEwI4rhSV6KjQOJm287bw6AHlelj5KgqPouh3XLxPjRTHEj73G1yZ_uQq_4kIhQpbtKeY3DueXRonBf_yFtl97xPe0/s2533/Marionnettiste_600_crop4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1242" data-original-width="2533" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzVJuHWOCzbQtUIly9zMpG1vq-QIXrLYNGh6JFpC0hW7dLcH1s7IEwI4rhSV6KjQOJm287bw6AHlelj5KgqPouh3XLxPjRTHEj73G1yZ_uQq_4kIhQpbtKeY3DueXRonBf_yFtl97xPe0/w640-h314/Marionnettiste_600_crop4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">The Marionnettiste (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2021</p><p><br /></p><p>A short while after working on the <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2020/04/celestial-twins.html" target="_blank">Celestial Twins</a> scraperboards I was rummaging through old sketches and found a drawing I had made sometime - years - before and which I had back then thought had potential to become a Christmas card image - a painting was the intention, but it got superseded by a different idea at the time and the sketches and little thumbnail doodles around it were consigned to the scrapbook until this rediscovery. It led me to reconsider aspects of the drawing, change what were some very festive elements, and soon I became keen to start a new scraperboard based upon it - another one with a background of a thousand stars......I never do myself any favours!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBZC-UC8CvG0KDwrsv28D23AG5Q4fGoGO0aHVZXwOef78t7kKLP3OcAjEkAy2EIwBOpoz6_IXGnPWam5x58-kPafgHUjYMobkGueOTmECnXph8muyBJQE4T0QXlYIkkEz-a0hFVfdCfk/s2048/2021-02-04-17-4-21-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1444" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBZC-UC8CvG0KDwrsv28D23AG5Q4fGoGO0aHVZXwOef78t7kKLP3OcAjEkAy2EIwBOpoz6_IXGnPWam5x58-kPafgHUjYMobkGueOTmECnXph8muyBJQE4T0QXlYIkkEz-a0hFVfdCfk/w452-h640/2021-02-04-17-4-21-01.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Early sketch</div><br /><p>So, without worrying too much about what is all about, The Marionnettiste evolved as a space doll, floating through the galaxies observing and being amused by what she saw and playing with stray astronauts and LEM's. She rides an amorphous glowing, living, hairy tree rock, probably a sentient being in it's own right, and is untouched, but fascinated by, time (because she is a doll, and in space) which so ravages us mere mortals. She has piercing blue eyes (I know this because as I said, originally this was going to be a painting, in colour) and likes gold and black and white as her colour scheme in dress, which is why she likes the Lunar Excursion Module so much because it matches her outfit. She also caught a transmission of a Transvision Vamp video as it floated through space and she really liked Wendy James' hair so tends to emulate it a bit. I think the thing is, I have to do pictures like this off my own back every now and then because they are the ones that publishers and authors never sent to me to create when I was more active illustrating books, though I waited in on the off chance many a long day........</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnSQaQIpYzxUriwyRoSVKQp_MbTWFuSgTQd-pBbOf4_T-OI8L_3IMYztWKNa5xJmCRIvDwSlER8Mrh_nuUrjERybdvKEGSKxrG3oAZA2-FW_7kWOOXu90RCF7-tUjmCtmnYqMWKw9T2w/s2048/Marionnettiste_crop3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2033" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnSQaQIpYzxUriwyRoSVKQp_MbTWFuSgTQd-pBbOf4_T-OI8L_3IMYztWKNa5xJmCRIvDwSlER8Mrh_nuUrjERybdvKEGSKxrG3oAZA2-FW_7kWOOXu90RCF7-tUjmCtmnYqMWKw9T2w/w636-h640/Marionnettiste_crop3.jpg" width="636" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoBtIjxqclukW3zZbGBlFycu804ZymORix80NIkKoWJS0C4YtHgcMvSGj681IYx__MatwefhJ2CnganivtNsVrjUW9gHb12NTm_iWlSJ3IcFADJpE54Anrfc3uxmKIuhyphenhyphen9oeNLWPS979o/s1839/Marionnettiste_crop2_200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1839" data-original-width="1835" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoBtIjxqclukW3zZbGBlFycu804ZymORix80NIkKoWJS0C4YtHgcMvSGj681IYx__MatwefhJ2CnganivtNsVrjUW9gHb12NTm_iWlSJ3IcFADJpE54Anrfc3uxmKIuhyphenhyphen9oeNLWPS979o/w638-h640/Marionnettiste_crop2_200.jpg" width="638" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi2kludBvj1gDRorXEZZM_Mu0snAAI7Eib-Z7On9-UpPYl1GWUedGf4Mw_9hwCS0PuRHU6O_SegusSVdRw9atHeKVov0W92onERbipLa7JTnd1WtcdYkvIdpIGFUjl4N69tZcH3O4ci4w/s2048/IMG_20210415_081954.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi2kludBvj1gDRorXEZZM_Mu0snAAI7Eib-Z7On9-UpPYl1GWUedGf4Mw_9hwCS0PuRHU6O_SegusSVdRw9atHeKVov0W92onERbipLa7JTnd1WtcdYkvIdpIGFUjl4N69tZcH3O4ci4w/w640-h480/IMG_20210415_081954.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPNRMPOV4UoLTefj65f8zC6P0V4tNcfWcCm1JVVxgEcYpSBYKkE9NNLHAw7GfziPq3ebzp8U8_ODmBXmtKqOggFP8AsPfasfIQ2priVb6wPvDtkekyvMlJ95Kgm_UAbHnxf36mDEcm38M/s2048/Marionnettiste_200_no_border.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1249" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPNRMPOV4UoLTefj65f8zC6P0V4tNcfWcCm1JVVxgEcYpSBYKkE9NNLHAw7GfziPq3ebzp8U8_ODmBXmtKqOggFP8AsPfasfIQ2priVb6wPvDtkekyvMlJ95Kgm_UAbHnxf36mDEcm38M/w390-h640/Marionnettiste_200_no_border.jpg" width="390" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Marionnettiste ©Brett Breckon 2021</div><div style="text-align: center;">scraperboard</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-21601309258604740792021-09-28T12:26:00.008+01:002021-09-28T12:26:58.171+01:00Dark Tales from the Woods - a quick recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsLLCeN6I-s-hYQDZWgWpV6xybXcLfJmWC5JfUfQnaKxI5BM8ElQ1CBeU0wyzjTH_kPB_L48VXXb54s9ifUtckX7a02bh3Y4_UmKNvzPhvrq92B78kB-qA4yYuh4chSGhKJfhtVioEZzE/s2048/Cover+A-W_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1405" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsLLCeN6I-s-hYQDZWgWpV6xybXcLfJmWC5JfUfQnaKxI5BM8ElQ1CBeU0wyzjTH_kPB_L48VXXb54s9ifUtckX7a02bh3Y4_UmKNvzPhvrq92B78kB-qA4yYuh4chSGhKJfhtVioEZzE/w440-h640/Cover+A-W_small.jpg" width="440" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">Cover design for Dark Tales from the Woods, scraperboard composite image coloured digitally</p><p style="text-align: center;">©Brett Breckon 2021</p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Tales-Woods-Daniel-Morden/dp/1843235838/ref=asc_df_1843235838/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=311266996946&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12119145251159683682&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007434&hvtargid=pla-572449852553&psc=1&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank">Dark Tales from the Woods</a>' is <a href="https://danielmorden.org" target="_blank">Daniel Morden</a>'s retelling of some of the stories told by the Romany storyteller Abram Woods back at the beginning of the 18<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> Century.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The text was an absolute delight to illustrate – it is so full of darkness and mischief and bad goings-on, countered with the fairy tale tradition of good coming through to conquer evil in the end. At </span>the time<span style="font-family: inherit;"> I was commissioned to produce pictures to go with the amazing text I realised it gave me an excellent opportunity to work once more using scraperboard, a technique I had always liked for it’s clean lines and ease of clean and fairly faithful reproduction, but which I hadn't found a suitable outlet for in several years.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The seven stories each had a main image designed to grab the reader’s attention, illustrating a high part of the drama or a particularly visual moment from the text. I didn’t seek to pull my punches with the illustrations, although I remained aware of the proposed young age group the book was to be aimed at, and luckily I was able to test the pictures out on my own children who at the time were of an equivalent age. Luckily they were both very enthusiastic about the somewhat gory content of some of the pictures. As time passed and more and more people saw the work, it seemed always to be the odd adult who raised an eyebrow about one or two of the images, but I put that down as a symptom of the modern world. Whatever it might be that I depicted in my pictures, there happens to be far more gore and shocking behaviour in the text! And that text is a delight to read, and even </span>more so to see performed if ever you can catch Daniel in one of his <a href="https://www.thedevilsviolin.co.uk" target="_blank">performances</a>. </p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqfZh4HtTXRLAQoRCpIeynDnHCCG-HFE7S8uyG4TVKbnvOzYjk8LoqwVP-r00Tpk-hampWaOY2FKLGQR9aeKTA-N_kASSQh-iKLoi1KUTkvHjZlEkrqqSD1oPGNLM0-eftsKJKSbd-n4A/s2048/Fiery+Dragon_rgb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1419" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqfZh4HtTXRLAQoRCpIeynDnHCCG-HFE7S8uyG4TVKbnvOzYjk8LoqwVP-r00Tpk-hampWaOY2FKLGQR9aeKTA-N_kASSQh-iKLoi1KUTkvHjZlEkrqqSD1oPGNLM0-eftsKJKSbd-n4A/w444-h640/Fiery+Dragon_rgb.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Fiery Dragon</div><div style="text-align: center;">Scraperboard ©Brett Breckon 2006</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbw27oAjgKdFZeYZMqazB-mRhZQftR7JlVUThVKNVPoeWtVdJnWXkx-4nSd9g4XOlRPjlkWKHqCfu1gfmY_L-VsNyF7X_2p7fGJ2Twr-t7smDJ2ZOyePraO10j5JVTJ9JC9eVtnZENou8/s2048/Leaves+that...+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1419" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbw27oAjgKdFZeYZMqazB-mRhZQftR7JlVUThVKNVPoeWtVdJnWXkx-4nSd9g4XOlRPjlkWKHqCfu1gfmY_L-VsNyF7X_2p7fGJ2Twr-t7smDJ2ZOyePraO10j5JVTJ9JC9eVtnZENou8/w444-h640/Leaves+that...+.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Leaves that Hung but Never Grew</div><div style="text-align: center;">Scraperboard ©Brett Breckon 2006</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDKYLiYQFuQ2cjItIDV9-FV0LM3iGa2QPFQSjTvBdgO4yqEc-_WY0xPtt1NYupmfOCsNxIbrfoF267fcbfp6dQgrgVIoa1SNrevAUQ-ZRHqMa69p4XaOyKTlAsZKh4naWlgTLUE63UaXo/s2048/MaryMaid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1419" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDKYLiYQFuQ2cjItIDV9-FV0LM3iGa2QPFQSjTvBdgO4yqEc-_WY0xPtt1NYupmfOCsNxIbrfoF267fcbfp6dQgrgVIoa1SNrevAUQ-ZRHqMa69p4XaOyKTlAsZKh4naWlgTLUE63UaXo/w444-h640/MaryMaid.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mary Maid of the Mill</div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Scraperboard ©Brett Breckon 2006</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBk_QHC9p6N4lteF3UQXewidCeVUWuL5yGf8DkT6UTc9em3xrHT8Ci-EmdaL_nWic-Bwo6vW7nzo4Ykovza6dl7n_kNA4mu_L0yJECmjxUa5IwAeBbdv0uPPen3kgUtSsQMXGCzDZroo/s2048/Squirrel%2526Fox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1419" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBk_QHC9p6N4lteF3UQXewidCeVUWuL5yGf8DkT6UTc9em3xrHT8Ci-EmdaL_nWic-Bwo6vW7nzo4Ykovza6dl7n_kNA4mu_L0yJECmjxUa5IwAeBbdv0uPPen3kgUtSsQMXGCzDZroo/w444-h640/Squirrel%2526Fox.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Squirrel and the Fox</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Scraperboard ©Brett Breckon 2006</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaaM4-NxhhWs3OSnZ7nAGTaWFkPyexAM-W5NxBNlE51pS7hyPdyN1ymp6ykM4EBDLQXu-i7tT07Js2Fqh2JjV5rekutpWBbq5BpsWAPA6y8HeFXtA0rkADufVmD2s7ZwwvOHFVeRenVHI/s2048/Three+swans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1419" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaaM4-NxhhWs3OSnZ7nAGTaWFkPyexAM-W5NxBNlE51pS7hyPdyN1ymp6ykM4EBDLQXu-i7tT07Js2Fqh2JjV5rekutpWBbq5BpsWAPA6y8HeFXtA0rkADufVmD2s7ZwwvOHFVeRenVHI/w444-h640/Three+swans.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Three Swans</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Scraperboard ©Brett Breckon 2006</span></div><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have happily worked with Daniel on two subsequent sister volumes of collected stories - '<a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2012/12/where-was-i.html" target="_blank">Tree of Leaf and Flame</a>' and '<a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2017/03/coming-soonsecret-tales-from-wales.html" target="_blank">Secret Tales from Wales</a>', and I remain extremely fond of this the first set of pictures, and proud of them and of being a part of a very successful Welsh publishing product.</span></p><div><br /></div></div>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-81661783118946566362021-09-28T11:15:00.000+01:002021-09-28T11:15:08.913+01:00Dragon Days/Gwlad y Dreigiau - a quick look back<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVflFkkF_FN6Yn4yyd13nRLsQuqgE9Nbx76y_1bE_CDJOsErb-EzdysVje49vvIBKczfzSUtS6jmScjYOMvyxR9EMx8j0nONxpOtlU0y7ba4KXfsfnCGi276f-qDHl0FCy4eaeutZLJTc/s2048/Hardbacks.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1314" data-original-width="2048" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVflFkkF_FN6Yn4yyd13nRLsQuqgE9Nbx76y_1bE_CDJOsErb-EzdysVje49vvIBKczfzSUtS6jmScjYOMvyxR9EMx8j0nONxpOtlU0y7ba4KXfsfnCGi276f-qDHl0FCy4eaeutZLJTc/w640-h410/Hardbacks.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-family: arial;">First edition hardback versions of Dragon Days and Glad y Dreigiau, published by Gomer/Pont 2004</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In a couple of days time I will be hanging 25 pieces of my work at Picton Castle's Courtyard Gallery which will be on display for the Autumn/Halloween period. It has been fun digging out pieces that fit the dark theme and mood of the witching season, but as I wasn't completely restrained to provide ghosts, ghouls, skeletons and skulls, I have taken the opportunity to air a few other pieces of myth and legend, and dragons fit that bill.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I can't believe I haven't written about Dragon Days/Gwlad y Dreigiau in any depth on here, so maybe next year - 20 years since the first painting for the project was created! - hopefully with a little more time on my hands, I will put that right in some fashion, but for now I will highlight three pictures from the books that will be at Picton Castle.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The two books are each a series of twelve stories and poems set in chronological order from the creation of the universe to the modern day. The first picture indeed shows dragons emerging from the fiery cauldron that was the beginning of the earth itself as the first creatures to inhabit our planet. Buried in this story is the heart of the theme of Dragon Days - that dragons are the true custodians of the earth. Their diminished presence today at the hand of mankind, they are around but we don't see them so much, is a metaphor for how we humans have treated everything else on the planet and pushed so much to the edge of extinction. But - that heaviness aside, the book is a delightful trove of stories in prose and verse which plays on all our emotions - there is fun, silliness, sadness, danger and excitement, all provided by 24 of Wales' best authors who were roped in to add words to my pictures.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I will tell you more about the genesis and process of creating the book when I write more broadly about it in the future, but for now here are the three pictures that will be at Picton Castle.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq2oRY4GGBEkvLhIcOWZbfO_dxS201UVxlLr_lPE3cRLzj-DeyTqv5UCWH97ftDfBxNhbPFQxSUBnBzFMzR0NO7DsqFPMfaVQ2jz06U_w4ePW69P04kZh8G3H2pnjbk-Dv5X6uvCUoJlM/s2048/picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2041" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq2oRY4GGBEkvLhIcOWZbfO_dxS201UVxlLr_lPE3cRLzj-DeyTqv5UCWH97ftDfBxNhbPFQxSUBnBzFMzR0NO7DsqFPMfaVQ2jz06U_w4ePW69P04kZh8G3H2pnjbk-Dv5X6uvCUoJlM/w638-h640/picture1.jpg" width="638" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">'In the Beginning' ©Brett Breckon 2021 Gouache and watercolour on paper</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">23 x 23cm</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEwXr6I5RgO_-T28y7FX29IG7fjkgr_Y3jroD0HEBLHedwXQxG8CEq06neHqkUhSZxjKKzKAKU91MdYPo_8CWtp9Btil_Mk7Px89NWTylxC1uFje4dIX_K3bOR-RkkcSARSAVlA5wKEY/s2048/picture5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2037" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEwXr6I5RgO_-T28y7FX29IG7fjkgr_Y3jroD0HEBLHedwXQxG8CEq06neHqkUhSZxjKKzKAKU91MdYPo_8CWtp9Btil_Mk7Px89NWTylxC1uFje4dIX_K3bOR-RkkcSARSAVlA5wKEY/w636-h640/picture5.jpg" width="636" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">'Fallen Knight' ©Brett Breckon 2021 Gouache and watercolour on paper</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">23 x 23cm</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1Czp7X3zaPcSuL9ER8vO4v95ssCxjugThy7rlFvoErF3YLizwh3zQ4l1owxDzMa7bGK6CH5zavXfWrPB199ZWTnS6aXGL_aKyQD99ZtI0ZJG1i0C1JdP26C8ilOXnM-lEZQoMvMsTd0/s2048/picture10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2046" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1Czp7X3zaPcSuL9ER8vO4v95ssCxjugThy7rlFvoErF3YLizwh3zQ4l1owxDzMa7bGK6CH5zavXfWrPB199ZWTnS6aXGL_aKyQD99ZtI0ZJG1i0C1JdP26C8ilOXnM-lEZQoMvMsTd0/w640-h640/picture10.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">'Porthgain Dragon' ©Brett Breckon 2021 Gouache and watercolour on paper</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">23 x 23cm</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">NB: The original hardback first edition of 'Dragon Days' sold out fairly quickly and was replaced with a soft back version, this is the cover:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6okZXzCRaVNJNOxgvX41ii2hB55439Cv_si4gZPo9qnN9M8IZs9A7if9dzfuu66askZ6ANMbKSoHKHDNmasprKNR9SMfY6eISQeDg7gzunjayIHbBKrGT9v7z6OKsByZvT1qsheL6to/s2048/paperback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6okZXzCRaVNJNOxgvX41ii2hB55439Cv_si4gZPo9qnN9M8IZs9A7if9dzfuu66askZ6ANMbKSoHKHDNmasprKNR9SMfY6eISQeDg7gzunjayIHbBKrGT9v7z6OKsByZvT1qsheL6to/w480-h640/paperback.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-59960129434411202532021-09-25T12:40:00.004+01:002021-09-25T12:40:33.831+01:00The Blueprint<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiszHePzWzoqweafwyKyzE4CfdCsKPBJ0A-CU0pa5_WygH54CvIqoUjz3JkY1VYD_RuHiIuZDr37skLLF5smA0gdP25WqQp89KaT0DIiHJhpEHqqpiWOIXWqONXc4-gUU99G83tvn6Tkzk/s2048/Macro_detail1+copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1371" data-original-width="2048" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiszHePzWzoqweafwyKyzE4CfdCsKPBJ0A-CU0pa5_WygH54CvIqoUjz3JkY1VYD_RuHiIuZDr37skLLF5smA0gdP25WqQp89KaT0DIiHJhpEHqqpiWOIXWqONXc4-gUU99G83tvn6Tkzk/w640-h428/Macro_detail1+copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> The Blueprint (detail)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">'The Blueprint' - also for a while known as 'Dark Angel' - is probably a personal favourite piece of all my own work, which is saying something when I think of all the pictures I have made in the past 41 years being a self employed artist. I conceived the idea for the painting in early 2013 and, being a somewhat slow worker, plus fitting the work in between commissions, I finished painting it in the early summer of that year. She was very much a follow-on from my '<a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2019/12/fearless-heart.html" target="_blank">Fearless Heart</a>' angel but at the same time was a distinctive step away from the realism in that picture to a more stylised look, specifically with a nod towards some religious iconography.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The original painting is fairly small at 18" x 22" (30.5 x 56cm) and is painted in oils on a panel.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The figure is a flame haired angel, who has cropped her hair, taken down her halo with her right hand, while her once-fine Tudor dress has taken on a leathery darkness and in her left hand she holds a heavenly gold-backed blueprint of a café racer style motorbike - clearly this has been something of an epiphany for her and she has 'fallen' for the dream of life on two wheels. I think she would have to change her wardrobe a bit more to make riding feasible, but presumably we catch her here on her way back down to earth and no doubt she would get the outfit fixed in time.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Oh, as for that hair - I was very swayed by the wonderful painting called '<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Millais,_Bridesmaid.jpg" target="_blank">The Bridesmaid</a>' by Sir John Everett Millais, and just thought that if the figure in that painting were to crop her hair drastically it would certainly be a statement of intent, a signal that a new life had begun for her!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The tattoo across my angels' chest reads 'Crudelius est quam mori semper timere mortem' and is a quote from the 1st Century Roman philosopher Seneca, and it means 'It is more cruel to always fear death than to die'.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWWJr0_Yc1BkpcPeBLIQi2t2S35gI57Rd0DA_qxunx2YANAaK2bYugKg_tj2TGYEzJIkC2FYrFdvDgVgpU84aToayUtDzw7GS2IRdxsOQYYMxawphqZDrEO25plNPtC5S9AgpC3ki2q6Y/s2048/The_Blueprint_detail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1369" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWWJr0_Yc1BkpcPeBLIQi2t2S35gI57Rd0DA_qxunx2YANAaK2bYugKg_tj2TGYEzJIkC2FYrFdvDgVgpU84aToayUtDzw7GS2IRdxsOQYYMxawphqZDrEO25plNPtC5S9AgpC3ki2q6Y/w428-h640/The_Blueprint_detail.jpg" width="428" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Blueprint (detail)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The repeat pattern of the skulls on her dress was fun, if fiddly!, and it is a theme I have returned to in my more recent digital picture called '<a href="https://www.brettbreckon.com/digital?lightbox=dataItem-kiyxlg1q" target="_blank">Devilwoman</a>', so at least I am consistent with both my devils and my angels!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiCQpqQsUGEcWuQ5CeAnOQ8cdE1o4Kyz6I3CBSiQVo7RkvcQYdXDtteXmKtx4QnpRd0jpKsMcljrUvUiNb3BDhIB4k5YTq1F5XoEyMI0Uaeu0dq7rJvNH92MR9BlgXgakFH8t4bmv5wk/s2048/The_Blueprint_dressdetail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1872" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiCQpqQsUGEcWuQ5CeAnOQ8cdE1o4Kyz6I3CBSiQVo7RkvcQYdXDtteXmKtx4QnpRd0jpKsMcljrUvUiNb3BDhIB4k5YTq1F5XoEyMI0Uaeu0dq7rJvNH92MR9BlgXgakFH8t4bmv5wk/w586-h640/The_Blueprint_dressdetail.jpg" width="586" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Blueprint (detail)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Once I had my idea, and thumbnail-sketched the layout it was down to a bit of research, mainly for the gown and corset which is all mock Tudor. More recently the corset research actually led me to another project (all these things tie in nicely!) when I made an armoured angel corset light fitting, which you can find if you scroll through my Instagram pictures, but here is a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CEReumIB7mf/" target="_blank">link</a> to one of them so that you can see what I mean. I also had fun making the drawing for the café racer blueprint - it is a composite bike, with a lot of Norton in it. I did a quasi-technical drawing in pencil and scanned and inverted the colours of it to look like a chalky drawing and interpreted this with paint and a very fine brush on the actual blueprint in the finished artwork.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyrwM2CFcCyvVzhNhRiWBijZqAOKVzNKS7R52iueyIJCIEjjOs5BmOR6kX03xuTyQoKjkG-Gt1QZjmhtoS_B2WTkO3Zeg_Gksla3-rlMYBUo0WFFQdn1NeD2AoGJA-6zAQL1z2A7ta20/s2048/Bike_tech_draw_invert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1745" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyrwM2CFcCyvVzhNhRiWBijZqAOKVzNKS7R52iueyIJCIEjjOs5BmOR6kX03xuTyQoKjkG-Gt1QZjmhtoS_B2WTkO3Zeg_Gksla3-rlMYBUo0WFFQdn1NeD2AoGJA-6zAQL1z2A7ta20/w341-h400/Bike_tech_draw_invert.jpg" width="341" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Well, I think that is enough info for now on the bits and pieces of this painting. I will leave you with the whole piece, which will be on show at Picton Castle this autumn for the Halloween season, hope you can get to see it!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVGZtn5sS0xRn-uBSxONczVH2tVfzGIkAtnCdrREbjyO6bVUmDcSiFKtKaQSAmP1keE64Ajrt7AlyvuYqlHTw-n6tarnRkRg6nWqk2EpFyGH7i_ca7Y5m-Rn3RaBXFmPec7tCxGvZk7M8/s2048/The_Blueprint_med.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1342" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVGZtn5sS0xRn-uBSxONczVH2tVfzGIkAtnCdrREbjyO6bVUmDcSiFKtKaQSAmP1keE64Ajrt7AlyvuYqlHTw-n6tarnRkRg6nWqk2EpFyGH7i_ca7Y5m-Rn3RaBXFmPec7tCxGvZk7M8/w419-h640/The_Blueprint_med.jpg" width="419" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Blueprint ©Brett Breckon 2013</span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Oil on board</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p></div>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-86778940714159046052021-09-22T14:54:00.000+01:002021-09-22T14:54:04.048+01:00Rhiannon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSjPpDAn5Jr74zTZRyPo3fn_YmXBV-_grHV8hZw6EChGaG7DKH3wAcoZzteLzzVo5TXAwFBtVUd754ocukcCVNHHQxRlH0OnG0ahqFdGCqBoytzrfehWtFrPEW3TlwQvPhd1j-B5COE8/s2048/Stag_line.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1235" data-original-width="2048" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSjPpDAn5Jr74zTZRyPo3fn_YmXBV-_grHV8hZw6EChGaG7DKH3wAcoZzteLzzVo5TXAwFBtVUd754ocukcCVNHHQxRlH0OnG0ahqFdGCqBoytzrfehWtFrPEW3TlwQvPhd1j-B5COE8/w640-h386/Stag_line.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">'Stag' ©Brett Breckon 2012 Scraperboard</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Title banner illustration for the First Branch of the Mabinogi, from which comes the story of Rhiannon</span></div><div><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> When I was asked to do the illustrations for <a href="https://danielmorden.org" target="_blank">Daniel Morden</a>'s volume of tales based upon the stories of the Mabinogion, to be titled <a href="https://www.gomer.co.uk/tree-of-leaf-and-flame.html" target="_blank">'Tree of Leaf and Flame'</a> I think I probably had a glimmer of hesitation, the tiniest atomic particle-sized moment of doubt, a fleeting glimmer of a whisper of negative thought - about the idea of undertaking <i>yet again</i> the creation of images for this oft-visited trove of stories. But the split second passed - this was a Daniel Morden book, and no way would it be anything like anything to have come from the annals of Welsh folklore before, and working for and with Daniel is always fun and always makes me produce something unlike anything I have done before.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Don't get me wrong - I utterly love the Mabinogion and will never tire of the stories within it, and who knows I might visit them to produce more imagery based in those stories again one day, in a totally different way for me.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So, having said yes I awaited the arrival of the first draft of the text with anticipation. My files show me that this must have been just on a decade ago, because I started a file on my computer in August 2011 titled Gomer/Daniel/Mabinogi, and the work went on for the next months, scattered by the usual meetings, discussions, production of sketches, roughs, and ultimately artwork, which in itself would then be scanned and cleaned up and made ready for printing so that the book itself emerged later in 2012.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Scraperboard is, for me, the perfect illustration style for Daniel's books. The stories are so black and white, probably with an emphasis on black, and in early discussions with me Daniel underlined that even more than in our previous collaboration <a href="https://www.gomer.co.uk/books-for-children/myths-and-legends/dark-tales-from-the-woods.html" target="_blank">'Dark Tales from the Woods'</a> the pictures in the new book should have that yin and yang type of contrast as that is what the stories all hold in common with each other. The sleeve notes about my work inside the dust jacket of the book sum it up nicely: 'They (the illustrations) convey perfectly the double nature of Daniel's tales, that interplay of light and dark, good and evil, delight and despair which characterises the Mabinogi.'</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSh_-C4QOMdIRIOlc1k1R1r_xIxp7EN6p51zfKjv1n_YfHx9vjK5r2uh55L9JxIMHhjtkYDH7A7HozCLUmMZ92Pf9UvJjygp95r-zBi3Grv-FV2-q3pFLcIVcjTJnLqENHyH0QJ5effPo/s2048/Cover_D_Mab_%252Bmice.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1406" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSh_-C4QOMdIRIOlc1k1R1r_xIxp7EN6p51zfKjv1n_YfHx9vjK5r2uh55L9JxIMHhjtkYDH7A7HozCLUmMZ92Pf9UvJjygp95r-zBi3Grv-FV2-q3pFLcIVcjTJnLqENHyH0QJ5effPo/w440-h640/Cover_D_Mab_%252Bmice.jpg" width="440" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Cover artwork composite, scraperboard sections combined and coloured digitally</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">©Brett Breckon 2012</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And there is perhaps no story or part of a story in the book where there is more of those interplays - especially where delight cascades so horrifically into despair, as when Rhiannon awakes to find her sheets soaked in blood, her hands and face smeared in the same clotting redness......and her baby gone!!! In the background the six chambermaids who had been charged to watch over their queen and the new prince are delighted that their evil plan to avoid the blame that was theirs, and they happily listen as husband Pwyll metes out his punishment on the innocent Rhiannon........please find and read the book!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I don't have a lot left in my files of the build up to the final scraperboard, but there is a sketch that seems pretty close to the final pose of Rhiannon. I worked the image out in Photoshop as much as possible and really made sure I had that solid black and solid white thing going on, with just the minimum of crosshatching to describe the folds of her white bed gowns, the bedding sheets and the smear of blood on her face. In that respect it is a largely pen and ink drawing on a white scraperboard with the scratching back being only a minor final treatment. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3O4ngq3RXLiJ9ttnbsbqFZCHCUmkRXV7JLts9tRoHZ8X9J4z7x38pG4iDm5zwJzAGU4a-7IUmgrw95W7zoG6KfK0ig3RhAkQOGD6wbPXNLOPe3sbh8YrSdnkFQY1csUbQ5Q3SW7o_ZU/s2048/scream_sketch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1844" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3O4ngq3RXLiJ9ttnbsbqFZCHCUmkRXV7JLts9tRoHZ8X9J4z7x38pG4iDm5zwJzAGU4a-7IUmgrw95W7zoG6KfK0ig3RhAkQOGD6wbPXNLOPe3sbh8YrSdnkFQY1csUbQ5Q3SW7o_ZU/w576-h640/scream_sketch.jpg" width="576" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYcDhqOR5WcRPcgTPvfA4fgOGuH1N_R-A7pf0xvydzsIFiRLPpOOEp-PJN8fdxrepOy_K6gIFVopxIhvfpqOt8R11XsPRsISpU7OWh5RUuQsm5OgaG4pDarMN_hdceN8ym-5DjahEq9JI/s2048/Rhiannon+copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1421" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYcDhqOR5WcRPcgTPvfA4fgOGuH1N_R-A7pf0xvydzsIFiRLPpOOEp-PJN8fdxrepOy_K6gIFVopxIhvfpqOt8R11XsPRsISpU7OWh5RUuQsm5OgaG4pDarMN_hdceN8ym-5DjahEq9JI/w444-h640/Rhiannon+copy.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><br /><p></p></div>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-48199046143244184132021-09-17T15:58:00.001+01:002021-09-17T16:40:18.611+01:00Wish, another look<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUUyi9Pk8ra2-3xjFcoB0hheBjrgcOzKHLhtxQPcw9d0tnyOstgVr89_-7E-KgvEOMGv0xlg-mAPMVQtLLxuEFwPovBOOOZaVU0zZEDWOH5ihaA9h-dROgoyZlIxOzCeLpV_Qqa4iKZs4/s2896/headcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="2896" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUUyi9Pk8ra2-3xjFcoB0hheBjrgcOzKHLhtxQPcw9d0tnyOstgVr89_-7E-KgvEOMGv0xlg-mAPMVQtLLxuEFwPovBOOOZaVU0zZEDWOH5ihaA9h-dROgoyZlIxOzCeLpV_Qqa4iKZs4/w640-h240/headcrop.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Wish (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2017</span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> I posted some pictures of this scraperboard image of mine nearly four years ago - it had been my Christmas card for 2017, and at the time I was really pleased with how it turned out.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Since then the original has hung on the wall here, where it still makes me smile, and my wife Lucy often declares it her favourite of all my pieces, which is nice.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Recent days has seen me taking a fresh look at the work as I prepare to put it with several other images, largely scraperboards, to go into an exhibition at <a href="https://www.pictoncastle.co.uk" target="_blank">Picton Castle</a> here in Pembrokeshire over the Halloween period. The gallery organising staff felt some of my darker pieces might suit that spooky mood, and I have been having fun deciding which ones to include.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">With that in mind I thought I would re-visit some of the works, one a day if I can stick with it, for a few days and maybe throw a little more light on the process of how each one came about, depending on what I have left of sketches or work in progress snaps as the works evolved.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So 'Wish' is one of my larger scraperboards, with the inked in area measuring just over A3 size - this was designed to reduce to fit the A4 folded to A5 size of said Christmas card, with a little bleed all round.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2Uio4dITcEfz4dfntysiringeJDLuqvXGvUix_g601NnU7HOIye2u5M2wzXj1d3n6-MEYBqxNjr2ODvWYroWe2zsLOTkOIEeFY1jH7O4xjS5GTIm3t9D077JGJAWYPf38drBOFx9eE4/s2048/Sketches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2Uio4dITcEfz4dfntysiringeJDLuqvXGvUix_g601NnU7HOIye2u5M2wzXj1d3n6-MEYBqxNjr2ODvWYroWe2zsLOTkOIEeFY1jH7O4xjS5GTIm3t9D077JGJAWYPf38drBOFx9eE4/w640-h480/Sketches.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">My sketchbook is very thin on this one, but possibly because it was a fairly fully formed concept with very simple content. Above is a page of tracings showing the face evolving, along with the final tracing that was transferred to the white scraperboard. I like my little note on the tracing paper saying 'stars define' which just reminded me I didn't have to do any hatching work to suggest the form on the fairy's body to define her shape - instead she was to be silhouetted there against the star field. Oh, and my goodness were there a lot of stars to scratch out of the ink!........a feature that has gone on to appear in a few other large pieces, and which I rue starting every time, but upon completion I find those little cosmic universes quite beautiful. Also the sketches remind me that originally she was to be holding a taper candle, but a star-topped wand soon took it's place, which then gave the title to the piece</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBhUviPNTmrh8O4kDlp-gzarJQ4wdHHRV_H5DkXDa5YlELXx1vjAWOIqnf23AhyphenhyphenNL08EXyS94UNjuyGnhUJY4ouXG60ZHoVlGP-uFgEefRRDnck0eyHu7BfKsDaGLWGORigTMse2cwAiU/s2048/DSC_0418.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBhUviPNTmrh8O4kDlp-gzarJQ4wdHHRV_H5DkXDa5YlELXx1vjAWOIqnf23AhyphenhyphenNL08EXyS94UNjuyGnhUJY4ouXG60ZHoVlGP-uFgEefRRDnck0eyHu7BfKsDaGLWGORigTMse2cwAiU/w640-h360/DSC_0418.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM75qToufid1PeJhJ6bwinoc5sCw1rkZ3zig5z1srZ1U-dlbslUrExSUdUKUz-t5CbraLO0KUbTb31g4CVKEwkSDKxS6zzcFdH17ix_bAmLm9yew2DW5OTI_7_Iw47cUhGGBBf46KSZZs/s2048/DSC_0419.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM75qToufid1PeJhJ6bwinoc5sCw1rkZ3zig5z1srZ1U-dlbslUrExSUdUKUz-t5CbraLO0KUbTb31g4CVKEwkSDKxS6zzcFdH17ix_bAmLm9yew2DW5OTI_7_Iw47cUhGGBBf46KSZZs/w640-h360/DSC_0419.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZU0qgt-otKr_xfh9BdtZYbWbZHOd3Qk_j_j7rQgQZxdOnBFKhclzniong_2lDDXGwoJ1ApvuKiH3AFlEVyNhWuM2vQmgcsQBMMGgn1AsDc3mKmPw7HrXwV3TKHgPDYG_XfxBpGtKioC4/s2048/DSC_0420.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZU0qgt-otKr_xfh9BdtZYbWbZHOd3Qk_j_j7rQgQZxdOnBFKhclzniong_2lDDXGwoJ1ApvuKiH3AFlEVyNhWuM2vQmgcsQBMMGgn1AsDc3mKmPw7HrXwV3TKHgPDYG_XfxBpGtKioC4/w640-h360/DSC_0420.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEN62CtK79FaWs3WDy6Rt36kS2gIjEbQg6gPBK3RdqZRWPQP-Sp6WZ8m7yh0gyPUnNKe6oajJfH3aUO91EBKh7TYE8TRb3yP0Lk8_fUvLB08iXE8CaES3zeFP7UGdZR6k7awJSnbAp4Xk/s2048/DSC_0421.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEN62CtK79FaWs3WDy6Rt36kS2gIjEbQg6gPBK3RdqZRWPQP-Sp6WZ8m7yh0gyPUnNKe6oajJfH3aUO91EBKh7TYE8TRb3yP0Lk8_fUvLB08iXE8CaES3zeFP7UGdZR6k7awJSnbAp4Xk/w640-h360/DSC_0421.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTDBLhK8rFH2e_nmBEXnTYmig7nhczRZu6ZEV4LBkxbGsEhlJbL4QysQ21F1VjWHzTTmcXEwOytOGaphdbUc6LojrL-ZTz5TPtnq6Ozw_pXdywppOssK4IFC7jfdIPPFYj0PlzaDzxZE/s2048/DSC_0423.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTDBLhK8rFH2e_nmBEXnTYmig7nhczRZu6ZEV4LBkxbGsEhlJbL4QysQ21F1VjWHzTTmcXEwOytOGaphdbUc6LojrL-ZTz5TPtnq6Ozw_pXdywppOssK4IFC7jfdIPPFYj0PlzaDzxZE/w640-h360/DSC_0423.JPG" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Works in progress, November 2017</span></div></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The fabric of her dress was also left at stark black and white, with vaguely Christmassy patterns simply blocked into the shapes I drew.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The part of the image I enjoyed working on the most was her hair, and again I have returned to twisting flowing locks many times again in later images.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">A final thing to say is that for the first time I have had giclée prints made of Wish, and in many ways they now outshine the original as they are printed on a crisp white board using eleven inks, including three different blacks to make up the rich darkest of blacks. The original scraper boards do tend to yellow quite a bit over time, but it gives them a wonderful warm feeling of mellowing with age. The giclée prints will be for sale at Picton Castle, or to order from me.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglv5tBHynmz1wvAlwgxgxKxpBtGzIwgW5R2k2OOQQRH8i08KEEc3yLSQQXgmqPf3_r0Qs5qi6vxv80Mz9545ji-V2UyO0DKZqR4X2i83iTQfhBisHfPMDG4kmTSfvfuk2n2njQlJoO_7k/s2000/BeaconXmas17_grey_300x2000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1429" data-original-width="2000" height="457" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglv5tBHynmz1wvAlwgxgxKxpBtGzIwgW5R2k2OOQQRH8i08KEEc3yLSQQXgmqPf3_r0Qs5qi6vxv80Mz9545ji-V2UyO0DKZqR4X2i83iTQfhBisHfPMDG4kmTSfvfuk2n2njQlJoO_7k/w640-h457/BeaconXmas17_grey_300x2000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Wish ©Brett Breckon 2017</span></div><p></p>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-16946338088242324432021-04-15T14:04:00.008+01:002021-04-15T14:04:54.768+01:00Selfie 1 - the digital line art<p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is really a post to remind myself I haven't mentioned my two 'Selfie' artworks on here.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Selfie1 is a digital work, while Selfie 2 is a traditional piece of oil on canvas which used a lot of the drawn detail from it's digital partner - the whole exercise was intended to see if I could figure out why I work in different mediums, and which, if any, I prefer. Jury is still out on that one, and the whole story is yet to come, but meanwhile I go back to the genesis of the project often - which is this colourful line art of the angel taking the selfie. This is a crop, but I like that as it uses and fills the format so well. More to follow soon :-)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Pp3_fFd38XbPcfg2ORB4PMG2EuC7mgaIYKPMHqW42K3KNpv__DOD9IllHFmLbBK-W37toU-jrs23FrRDDaJIurLOsQLiUVCbBzpCwKcjOmfQpoArZvFh9JzaQE2ORzMuWnTkAiQQh7o/s2048/Selfie_colourart_line_crop3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1435" data-original-width="2048" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Pp3_fFd38XbPcfg2ORB4PMG2EuC7mgaIYKPMHqW42K3KNpv__DOD9IllHFmLbBK-W37toU-jrs23FrRDDaJIurLOsQLiUVCbBzpCwKcjOmfQpoArZvFh9JzaQE2ORzMuWnTkAiQQh7o/w640-h448/Selfie_colourart_line_crop3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><br /></p>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-13189684690348022552021-02-20T17:31:00.000+00:002021-02-20T17:31:57.353+00:00Ladies of the Bike<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLrX2w_bS4aoLTOwqOumFmLppR1fVsqQJf4qPCSbwhdnSj7q4UAJLyuWTH4c_mmgFcq14-9Sz6MIe-1SAAxY-feEz-PYYSQJfuLw5WMErMaeTWfQxz5TBCwCxTM_f4k_e4v-V7mSEgSXs/s2517/Trust%252BZip_crop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1249" data-original-width="2517" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLrX2w_bS4aoLTOwqOumFmLppR1fVsqQJf4qPCSbwhdnSj7q4UAJLyuWTH4c_mmgFcq14-9Sz6MIe-1SAAxY-feEz-PYYSQJfuLw5WMErMaeTWfQxz5TBCwCxTM_f4k_e4v-V7mSEgSXs/w640-h318/Trust%252BZip_crop.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Here are two new digital pieces I am making available as fine art giclée prints - 'Harley Girl - Trust' and 'Zip'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Both pictures started life as ink on paper line art, a little over A3 in size. The basic drawing for Harley Girl is with a looser line than I usually use, being completed almost totally with brushes, while Zip went back to my usual</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">more </span><span style="font-family: arial;">controlled line style using pens, with just a bit of brush for the looser strands of hair. That said the tattoos on Harley Girl were too detailed for brush and were created with black pen line on an overlay sheet, transformed to colour in Photoshop. </span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcb6oNcuFdlhODjJhZhkFPDrkDR3OLpn63hFFna4-G1X87BQ2yUR2VafVjAHXwaQLw7Nx-2lhm67DY3uIeeiVXODs0yZTwUAaUsSKUqDH3t-BOK9ddJftJvywWF0hFv0X_rSPqLF8uXc/s2048/IMG_20210220_153719.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcb6oNcuFdlhODjJhZhkFPDrkDR3OLpn63hFFna4-G1X87BQ2yUR2VafVjAHXwaQLw7Nx-2lhm67DY3uIeeiVXODs0yZTwUAaUsSKUqDH3t-BOK9ddJftJvywWF0hFv0X_rSPqLF8uXc/s320/IMG_20210220_153719.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Harley Girl ©Brett Breckon 2021 - brush line drawing detail</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK3XO0PAd6RLH0ZDFQB4-lEssQ7H9lVfw4otDwHqVHIFH5gwax6SuCE5EpDKRa9RArWzq62KOGYRKznXLhfLkhYMSl4BKr8j-4fOTbPY5av8OF_CqbX1AYc3a-QVEEwWJBSeOgJoymTXE/s2048/IMG_20210220_153732.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK3XO0PAd6RLH0ZDFQB4-lEssQ7H9lVfw4otDwHqVHIFH5gwax6SuCE5EpDKRa9RArWzq62KOGYRKznXLhfLkhYMSl4BKr8j-4fOTbPY5av8OF_CqbX1AYc3a-QVEEwWJBSeOgJoymTXE/s320/IMG_20210220_153732.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Zip ©Brett Breckon 2021 - pen on paper detail</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Once scanned and edited the colour was added in Photoshop and again the approach was a little different for each piece. I think because of the looser brush technique for the line element, Harley Girl has simpler, more direct flat colour. This was also influenced by two or three colour ads from etc 1950's which I am a fan of, especially the bold red background and areas of white both contrasting with the black lines. But Zip has a bit more nuance to the colour, and a bit of shading/tonal contouring to the face which is the main focus of the piece........although I think the boot heel abstracted fro the whole makes an arresting image by itself too (it is currently the first image you see when you go on my website <a href="http://brettbreckon.com">brettbreckon.com</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaXB-wFWcQfDYUPWPVJ_jTV7jrHnYDSD9OIFkxbocEI-lt-ECwyNMrQHfjk0giwwP78OucQxPwxeUsQAFogD6D2vyR_mhDrdDVaCT32qTRMvUYWKpLKOE0pDNdMZl3GiOG1X9TPSnUUw/s2048/Zip_crop2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2045" data-original-width="2048" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaXB-wFWcQfDYUPWPVJ_jTV7jrHnYDSD9OIFkxbocEI-lt-ECwyNMrQHfjk0giwwP78OucQxPwxeUsQAFogD6D2vyR_mhDrdDVaCT32qTRMvUYWKpLKOE0pDNdMZl3GiOG1X9TPSnUUw/w640-h640/Zip_crop2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Zip (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2021</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrYXc5m0jADdrBrSJzZuen4bVKyLE4JnHwm7mARpdmrsfttaCwVsHK3ueBd_IX7BANCLE3camyMqPBj-om5y9MHc0nfR7KWTHxM-H91yTA7dd64i-AhN8X3eVenuqoZTeZx2hAx6QeW4/s2048/Zip_crop1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2018" data-original-width="2048" height="630" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrYXc5m0jADdrBrSJzZuen4bVKyLE4JnHwm7mARpdmrsfttaCwVsHK3ueBd_IX7BANCLE3camyMqPBj-om5y9MHc0nfR7KWTHxM-H91yTA7dd64i-AhN8X3eVenuqoZTeZx2hAx6QeW4/w640-h630/Zip_crop1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Zip (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2021</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvQa51uLwy_PJPIlkBaFctcJ2dhZoyO63mw0XgP-GYqcs9E8IPzgLreipIj_V2y7qP4ab2u55luvzCs0rrUwtWtRvJ9tydNGJPfkwFNbd3bk8EaNe5kfEs7nHHsW6bhBOfD9-BUV2044/s2048/HarleyGirl-Trust_300_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2047" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvQa51uLwy_PJPIlkBaFctcJ2dhZoyO63mw0XgP-GYqcs9E8IPzgLreipIj_V2y7qP4ab2u55luvzCs0rrUwtWtRvJ9tydNGJPfkwFNbd3bk8EaNe5kfEs7nHHsW6bhBOfD9-BUV2044/w640-h640/HarleyGirl-Trust_300_crop.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Harley Girl - Trust (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2021</div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The other obvious difference between the two is the format. Harley Girl is square and is only being offered as a limited edition of 50 prints at size 500 x 500mm. Zip is in A-format and I am going to make her available at A2, A1 and A0 size - the bigger the better I think with this one, I hope you agree.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYd_JgYaXQepRhhE7xosszbMrJ1XeGnN8VsxbQW6wnvD4XZbanXNei1g7ciNzpuiomu7yuuQlb108lLYyJX33jFPiPrqE4JZGkjt48briUE5xBidvCqEz35XYrb4xHRZXrbIZd_Dgywmk/s2048/HarleyGirl-Trust_300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1975" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYd_JgYaXQepRhhE7xosszbMrJ1XeGnN8VsxbQW6wnvD4XZbanXNei1g7ciNzpuiomu7yuuQlb108lLYyJX33jFPiPrqE4JZGkjt48briUE5xBidvCqEz35XYrb4xHRZXrbIZd_Dgywmk/w618-h640/HarleyGirl-Trust_300.jpg" width="618" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Harley Girl - Trust ©Brett Breckon 2021</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3NdPKUFBLqJAYx4yRn9MewJHd13YG1vjZmKSDgswXqwl7OqMc_tlwBtQZ6XO9WkIobQf4vOmR7YGSdNunSVVZ7Xy3FMTK3mLc4j2KLhtjEjmUk6freJPZIepPhqzITB7B3-Mxb4fzkGY/s2048/Zip_300.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3NdPKUFBLqJAYx4yRn9MewJHd13YG1vjZmKSDgswXqwl7OqMc_tlwBtQZ6XO9WkIobQf4vOmR7YGSdNunSVVZ7Xy3FMTK3mLc4j2KLhtjEjmUk6freJPZIepPhqzITB7B3-Mxb4fzkGY/w452-h640/Zip_300.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Zip ©Brett Breckon 2021</div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: arial;">The pieces are on my website with links to contact me if you are interested in prints or would like more information about the pieces. </span></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><br />Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-74445930877674189202021-01-05T15:36:00.004+00:002021-01-05T15:40:13.657+00:00Wishing you all a Devilishly good New Year<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6g5oe2NocQDAWyQXmjVmNvtvbv84LHK5CyFmA2JiDVH91XfFloAusTP8cW-p4DUg2yTFNYJ_g1mhWO-JvOQTSLwjZLfBjokw56icMkem1fzJMB_9SFG7IJ1KPze6EaKtHxanQakTLKhQ/s2048/Devil_Woman_crop400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6g5oe2NocQDAWyQXmjVmNvtvbv84LHK5CyFmA2JiDVH91XfFloAusTP8cW-p4DUg2yTFNYJ_g1mhWO-JvOQTSLwjZLfBjokw56icMkem1fzJMB_9SFG7IJ1KPze6EaKtHxanQakTLKhQ/w516-h640/Devil_Woman_crop400.jpg" width="516" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Devil Woman ©Brett Breckon 2021</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Devil really is in the detail - more to follow or see my website for the full image. Large format prints will be available soon.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Keep smiling, the best is yet to come, happy 2021 x</span></div><br /> <p></p>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-63399695652554796142020-12-28T14:29:00.003+00:002020-12-28T14:37:14.124+00:00Sha-la<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPiFK4tbg9C_cQxfVLC9_08aW6jI3m7UXdaZ_WYn9jkyPr3FHBja2HrUtGuSxbmrg-3aIHUss42m2s3WNiA8MeZmtXxNghxjpOquka27sUo7lzD08XAtVoIJX_ZNL6XB2lhZBxHna8qA/s2048/Sha-la.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1547" data-original-width="2048" height="485" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPiFK4tbg9C_cQxfVLC9_08aW6jI3m7UXdaZ_WYn9jkyPr3FHBja2HrUtGuSxbmrg-3aIHUss42m2s3WNiA8MeZmtXxNghxjpOquka27sUo7lzD08XAtVoIJX_ZNL6XB2lhZBxHna8qA/w640-h485/Sha-la.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">'Sha-la' ©Brett Breckon 2020</span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Sha-la is a painting that has been on my mind for a long time, ever since my airbrush days of the 1980's really, but at the end of the summer of 2020 I found myself with the time and compunction to finally get at least a version of this skate girl painting done. I say a version because in all the time the idea has knocked around between my ears, whatever image to finally emerge has transmogrified a million times for sure, and if I had left it another week or two no doubt this isn't the image you would be looking at now. For example the two swallows on the left of the picture flew straight out of my <a href="https://www.brettbreckon.com/paintings?lightbox=dataItem-kj8gmuzr" target="_blank">Selfie 2</a> image, which I am yet to write about here but which actually just preceded this painting on the easel, so they wouldn't have featured except for when they did. Actually the pose next to a 50's American car, in this case a 1958 Plymouth Fury, also initially meant to pair this with Selfie 2 which features a 1958 Chevrolet Impala, but She-la became a much more earthy image and ultimately the pairing didn't really materialise.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The why's and wherefores of the image I won't go into - it now exists and can mean to the viewer whatever they would like it to mean. Most of you might get the title reference, but it doesn't matter if not, I thought it was a nice sounding title. But here is a run through of the painting building up over the course of a couple of weeks. The painting is 60cm x 45cm, oil on canvas.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">All images are © Brett Breckon 2020</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO7RpLPeqjgy5VVk3F0kzwDaoct_dEzmX7vLiLhCji5I1oIV5uVVNuXWwXLt0aEGo2vHooXCK49s4hRjsX3L5Wf3_iozErx9tuifONdrPdtw9arhHgkINeLpza2vIPF22tLOx82fqXOgM/s2048/001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO7RpLPeqjgy5VVk3F0kzwDaoct_dEzmX7vLiLhCji5I1oIV5uVVNuXWwXLt0aEGo2vHooXCK49s4hRjsX3L5Wf3_iozErx9tuifONdrPdtw9arhHgkINeLpza2vIPF22tLOx82fqXOgM/s320/001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtpur2BbJDisvtRTI9PFEyxdElFvZ4bcjlD7prAgHflszdMThPlxAtO-XoxjlcR4c2K2hYEQUTcfH5QXxqLy18u6HsrloucWDPbtTimUrUUmcg8YDh6uhvx9_9YeagryDAT5rBywTZeBQ/s2048/002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEvoLXT2AKJbi2d-5oVd8fygJk2xJS38LsPItDmNO3BSaKbhlxMFkQ-LfRtb-QzYhkEndXQHyAUZeHfjLMxiOwn2QwKejy_fB8w9vUUzj99xuco_hJOYA2Mn0kE4NbBlW17GJXq7QZVaA/s2048/018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEvoLXT2AKJbi2d-5oVd8fygJk2xJS38LsPItDmNO3BSaKbhlxMFkQ-LfRtb-QzYhkEndXQHyAUZeHfjLMxiOwn2QwKejy_fB8w9vUUzj99xuco_hJOYA2Mn0kE4NbBlW17GJXq7QZVaA/s320/018.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-56851656242056492892020-10-13T10:22:00.001+01:002020-10-13T10:22:19.109+01:00Lucy's Fairy<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGlclTzTvBd4THRlihyphenhyphenEwGRswxTj1XDGWjiyI-cfo5c4NQD25dTG3polCPdS5WRENpmiOG8njSHjb0K2jeBR-NIyL1EM2iGMOK6_268Om03tpcS-j9cDG3dybVUktc3cz28im6gDJZExY/s2048/Fairy_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1069" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGlclTzTvBd4THRlihyphenhyphenEwGRswxTj1XDGWjiyI-cfo5c4NQD25dTG3polCPdS5WRENpmiOG8njSHjb0K2jeBR-NIyL1EM2iGMOK6_268Om03tpcS-j9cDG3dybVUktc3cz28im6gDJZExY/w460-h240/Fairy_crop.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Lucy's Fairy (detail) © Brett Breckon 2020</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Today I am unveiling here a picture I made back in February at the request of my wife who wanted a new image for our own greetings cards for the year.....it seems this might be a new thing we do every year, watch this space (but if I do a new one for 2021 you won't hear about it here until this time next year!)</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Lucy specifically requested a fairy as she really likes the slightly tipsy fairy I painted for the Welsh Christmas book 'Hosan Nadolig'</span> (<span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Christmas Stocking</i></span>) <span style="font-family: arial;">back in 2014, the original of which is on the wall behind her desk at the moment. That one is called 'Another One?' and shows the aftermath of a Christmas tree fairy eating too many brandy-laced mince pies, causing her to fall from the tree, bend her wing and break a bauble.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaJ7Gewrcc6PwYfuLn8PONOl0o4npn1K5hQb1TcxwejctTctBFerep56BBmglTDJhC1pCczJuSfCxnLp15x7WlXO1DrHDVxRjwzZu0BeM6aVIf-JIr980VIVyh6Fk1i21kXOKmY24O-y0/s2048/Another_One%253F.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1617" data-original-width="2048" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaJ7Gewrcc6PwYfuLn8PONOl0o4npn1K5hQb1TcxwejctTctBFerep56BBmglTDJhC1pCczJuSfCxnLp15x7WlXO1DrHDVxRjwzZu0BeM6aVIf-JIr980VIVyh6Fk1i21kXOKmY24O-y0/w457-h361/Another_One%253F.jpg" width="457" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Another One? oil on board 290 x 230mm © Brett Breckon 2014</span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This new picture was a golden opportunity to play with the digital style I have developed, especially using a lot more colour in the line part and a whole raft of fluorescence in the body of the piece, so it was good fun from start to finish.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr17btjWduysZVpENSeNxNeasg0BVHgmarNcfPQVICC9X4zEDq_cfEiz3u5Ii07lPDzFFaDE0vj_00grSphvvq2-ZEMWPKVy0MBaJ7fPh4UBwIAupOslY1ReWRdhhVwxKzMmhU9maMIfk/s2048/sketch1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1616" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr17btjWduysZVpENSeNxNeasg0BVHgmarNcfPQVICC9X4zEDq_cfEiz3u5Ii07lPDzFFaDE0vj_00grSphvvq2-ZEMWPKVy0MBaJ7fPh4UBwIAupOslY1ReWRdhhVwxKzMmhU9maMIfk/w403-h512/sketch1.jpg" width="403" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Early pencil sketch © Brett Breckon 2020</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDaeaws51ajww-M1pW3vxRyin76MSrRL6Ad5BVnuG55kf7QIEsmqZhZbxQCvU5mR-Fm0vcFnh7BMvl0iSuNAMtqCP7-gQz15xJc_mFyn2DBycLcxkWGy2vF_InPgdOFLsVIQqfK58yFX4/s2048/line1_bright33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1499" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDaeaws51ajww-M1pW3vxRyin76MSrRL6Ad5BVnuG55kf7QIEsmqZhZbxQCvU5mR-Fm0vcFnh7BMvl0iSuNAMtqCP7-gQz15xJc_mFyn2DBycLcxkWGy2vF_InPgdOFLsVIQqfK58yFX4/w349-h478/line1_bright33.jpg" width="349" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Ink line artwork © Brett Breckon 2020</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPn520aHtDiJBR8jN2CuUkiw0YOTHCzFeth9K7czS8UIXqpNNQuer3iavzA0snJx3PMEnuTA3ccUed4lvlkvlRNOUGRUz0CEdot4an1vj1WD46jylCO9Onne04V89K_L3yTEOGC9EkPM/s2048/faerie_A3_300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPn520aHtDiJBR8jN2CuUkiw0YOTHCzFeth9K7czS8UIXqpNNQuer3iavzA0snJx3PMEnuTA3ccUed4lvlkvlRNOUGRUz0CEdot4an1vj1WD46jylCO9Onne04V89K_L3yTEOGC9EkPM/w493-h698/faerie_A3_300.jpg" width="493" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Lucy's Fairy © Brett Breckon 2020</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><p></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Now that we are nearing the end of the year this image is being made available as giclée prints and as A5 greetings cards. Contact me for details or see my website if you are interested</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /></span><p></p>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-53054705892663614652020-04-27T14:13:00.000+01:002020-04-27T14:13:38.571+01:00Celestial Twins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEH4b0tYswhcduRajBIcW9DCn_tOiiOjMe36-vWxs981unGuPQKHwJ_vt5No-3FDvwRU4CqamETGtcBVxWKoUKUy1Jak8msRKuUrXRGfkANXCQ_5Nw-Y-5AUxpcgTtuNDR2o2W-VjCRak/s1600/Celestial+Twins3000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1213" data-original-width="1600" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEH4b0tYswhcduRajBIcW9DCn_tOiiOjMe36-vWxs981unGuPQKHwJ_vt5No-3FDvwRU4CqamETGtcBVxWKoUKUy1Jak8msRKuUrXRGfkANXCQ_5Nw-Y-5AUxpcgTtuNDR2o2W-VjCRak/s400/Celestial+Twins3000.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Celestial Twins (colour) ©Brett Breckon 2020</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is about two large scale (for me) scraperboard images I made a couple of years ago. I didn't give them much of an airing on social media at the time as they were purely experimental pieces and in many ways they didn't turn out as effectively as I would have liked - particularly from a technical standpoint.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However coming back to them I am finding myself more and more pleased with them as images, and the minor spiritual deflation I felt about the technical aspects has been replaced by an appreciation that there is merit to them in other ways that I had maybe overlooked when I stored them away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently I have been looking at both the actual original scraperboards themselves and on screen at the simple colour treatment I gave them digitally - which by the way was always part of the experiment/masterplan for them, and I am drawn back to their potential and to thoughts of what I was trying to achieve. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphen23iEjT2qaBRZ05l0kWuS-QuQSGYyyT0UOL4ADyqDKST7Qks3KYjHMwfHYz8KNruizJVv1MJ550EFtBY0oWSomsWj9klEcE_xzD6UFe4pkKkav-o1eROt58lNwj2goJ5fcJ8Xz6v2QY/s1600/Celestial_Twins_originals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphen23iEjT2qaBRZ05l0kWuS-QuQSGYyyT0UOL4ADyqDKST7Qks3KYjHMwfHYz8KNruizJVv1MJ550EFtBY0oWSomsWj9klEcE_xzD6UFe4pkKkav-o1eROt58lNwj2goJ5fcJ8Xz6v2QY/s320/Celestial_Twins_originals.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The original scraperboard images on my drawing board</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At some point along the creative line I knew I liked the idea of the imagery, but perhaps thought that I had chosen the wrong medium in which to attempt them. But I surely knew that I didn't want to do them as oil paintings, and the felt that to give them my full digital treatment was likely to look a bit gaudy and take me down a less contemplative path. That last thought is one I am reconsidering as my digital work evolves I think maybe I could and should revisit them from that angle. If I do I shall update this to let you know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so back to the beginning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heavenly bodies, celestial twins, shapes in the stars, worlds beyond our own, the expansion of mind, our spiritual journey, the hereafter, cosmic forces, gods and goddesses, the universe inside of us, the fleetingness of life and the eternity of the universe, 'my god, it's full of stars'...........so many thoughts and ideas skipped through my mind as I imagined and created these two pieces, and the song references in the titles attest to how I dug into my inner hippy to try to help me escape from the more conventional realism I usually work with. Certainly the Matthews' Southern Comfort version of Joni Mitchell's 'Woodstock' went around and around while I worked on the first piece 'Stardust and Golden' and it was an incredibly serene image to work on - I got lost in the process, and even in black and white line I thought the female figure seemed golden, and indeed stardust. In that respect I must have felt it was succeeding.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHAW0pKH77y76bzgT4Py8f628FFIAvl5k06j1dvLVXpVgCYnZXCBOzX2gIQlYZWPYE95q8atSftBkHKtg14A0F5RT23E029sdXCvFj3hdSpJTBT2DB-bJE7-i_dPUwrgP75OSu5R-SQl0/s1600/G%2526S_grey_300x2000w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1032" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHAW0pKH77y76bzgT4Py8f628FFIAvl5k06j1dvLVXpVgCYnZXCBOzX2gIQlYZWPYE95q8atSftBkHKtg14A0F5RT23E029sdXCvFj3hdSpJTBT2DB-bJE7-i_dPUwrgP75OSu5R-SQl0/s640/G%2526S_grey_300x2000w.jpg" width="411" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Stardust and Golden ©Brett Breckon 2020</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I liked the idea of the liquid mercury body (and I could hark back to airbrushing exercises early in my career of chrome and steel androids for this), or maybe, more likely rather than a high reflective surface it is a transparent pliant glass infused with stars, galaxies, nebulas - a goddess microcosm containing all these things going on an eternal journey through the vast infinity of space, but with the same infinity of space inside her. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so 'Cosmic Dancer' saw her star-filled twin emerge from the same mindset. For this one I switched from a white EssDee 502 x 305mm scraperboard as the starting point, to the more traditional all black one the same size - this was to end up with more black than white, and this contrast actually helps make them a pair, like yin and yang whose opposites are complimentary. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGtf2uqa-2dH6AKoUCM34rBecO_9OEUTXB9BU44fsRxpSZKoW4GIs1aBIZQcW7QTjL04ZGtThF83KELRgG2sjivOobzLURJfUfefCtK7746d7MTIbs_oww_ohr-tVwDePhbbWqw06vjbo/s1600/CD_grey_300x2000w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1037" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGtf2uqa-2dH6AKoUCM34rBecO_9OEUTXB9BU44fsRxpSZKoW4GIs1aBIZQcW7QTjL04ZGtThF83KELRgG2sjivOobzLURJfUfefCtK7746d7MTIbs_oww_ohr-tVwDePhbbWqw06vjbo/s320/CD_grey_300x2000w.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cosmic Dancer ©Brett Breckon 2020</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The technical difficulties or failures I alluded to at the start of this were really that the simple process of removing black ink with a sharp tool to reveal the white chalk layer below has limitations that I well knew but hoped to work around in order to achieve more of a glass-like surface to the body images. Some artists who work in the medium achieve amazing texture and detail using the fine dot method, like a pointillist gravure, and the results are very photographic and impressive. But this isn't me - I prefer a bolder more flowing hand-worked look that hatching achieves, and at the time of creating Cosmic Dancer I hoped I could vary the hatching more than ultimately I felt I did, and the resulting surface that is the reflective chrome/glass skin of her body wasn't what I expected to end up with. Now, however, I really like the flowing pools of pattern that swirl around each other to convey the idea of a moving living surface, like rivers of lava.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When it came to adding colour I certainly didn't want it to detract from the scraperboard themselves, so it is a very subtle treatment I have used, and while I like it I am not sure it takes the images anywhere new particularly, perhaps just softer and more likely to be appreciated as wall art should I ever get prints made. As to that I would love to see them as very large images one day. It could be that while I might well re-approach either or both as a fully digital project in the future, I may also revisit the colourisation as they stand at the moment and play with that a bit more.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxd4W6iVmlrLKvkFFWXXEhCnIaR-0BrDvkac1nA2H4tTuKzUGnh2CQ9i9tqqwEeTpxSP5vamVUEDXaiocHlvicDN18zynUh9YaxyDXHFR4f2_A5f-FP3K-uhLwI-uyeE82tIIDAcWqyBU/s1600/Cosmic_Dancer2020_200px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1037" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxd4W6iVmlrLKvkFFWXXEhCnIaR-0BrDvkac1nA2H4tTuKzUGnh2CQ9i9tqqwEeTpxSP5vamVUEDXaiocHlvicDN18zynUh9YaxyDXHFR4f2_A5f-FP3K-uhLwI-uyeE82tIIDAcWqyBU/s320/Cosmic_Dancer2020_200px.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cosmic Dancer (colour) ©Brett Breckon 2020</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Stardust and Golden (colour) ©Brett Breckon 2020</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But for now I hope you like my Celestial Twins, 'Stardust and Golden' and 'Cosmic Dancer'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:-)</span>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-70932425899549989862019-12-22T12:10:00.002+00:002019-12-22T12:10:47.915+00:00Santa Lucia - bringer of light, lover of sparklers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAl5VyxIBgYv9fYyuxpp6zFM70Olu9NebPlVFK37W33mOnZJbCEFoE924qTDd5KLzdSZwLkAymsuPFD1XTlIw75uRiaSSYplEG36gatqLmXRjTCiDcI4XshK6dA_cySJgR1kpHApfxZwg/s1600/109e_bright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1274" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAl5VyxIBgYv9fYyuxpp6zFM70Olu9NebPlVFK37W33mOnZJbCEFoE924qTDd5KLzdSZwLkAymsuPFD1XTlIw75uRiaSSYplEG36gatqLmXRjTCiDcI4XshK6dA_cySJgR1kpHApfxZwg/s640/109e_bright.jpg" width="508" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Santa Lucia - bringer of light, lover of sparklers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">40 x 50cm, oil on canvas</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's wishing everyone a bright and cheerful, happy and joyful Christmas - and a sparkling new year 🎅🏻🎉🎂🏍🍸🍰🍾🎅🏻 X</span></div>
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<br />Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-52301478776219488972019-12-19T10:10:00.000+00:002019-12-19T10:10:48.891+00:00FEARLESS HEART<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWRf3m9GG5jtih5wtHvBdVOhytkGKBtZVSrz88va4FkEwoMXCz3YuR7GMDjCecTnWRBebxAqN1KiV1H-ti4dCT3AWx-MnVa2tRSuY0T4ovh4gxH5PPvhIH7gJqUVDO-XfYeFLQk8q6S4/s1600/final_rough_shot_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="1600" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWRf3m9GG5jtih5wtHvBdVOhytkGKBtZVSrz88va4FkEwoMXCz3YuR7GMDjCecTnWRBebxAqN1KiV1H-ti4dCT3AWx-MnVa2tRSuY0T4ovh4gxH5PPvhIH7gJqUVDO-XfYeFLQk8q6S4/s400/final_rough_shot_crop.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Fearless Heart' (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A picture that slipped through one of the many gaping holes in the net of my sporadic blogging attention is the painting I did in 2012, called 'Fearless Heart'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Due to recent new requests for prints in I have been taking a fresh look at the work in progress photos of it on screen and remembering enjoying the process of making the painting. Plus I see the original every day because it hangs here in my studio, and so I thought I might put a little combination of pictures out there to show the evolution of the work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although there is no direct motorcycle imagery in the picture this is very much in my motorbike portfolio, and in fact the first of three angels painted at the same size: 46cm x 30cm, all oil on board. The other two did get posts on here about themselves, which further makes me wonder why 'Fearless' slipped through, although looking at those posts they aren't very conclusive so I might have to revisit those in the new year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The title idea for this painting came from listening to Steve Earle, he did a track called 'Fearless Heart' on his Guitar Town album, although it's nothing about angels, tattoos or motorbikes - but in another of his songs ('The Other Kind') he does sing the line "...yeah but nowadays I got me two good wheels, I seek refuge in aluminium and steel" and that sewed a good motorcycle image into my mind at the time. But anyway, I thought I had to do a painting of an angel with a fearless heart, and this was what I came up with.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifS43tlmIoYwL-LVZMqLFbcVNidb-ncvd8Dv-2wSx_6x-MnA_5K9t1o-NIAtlO8ISlZYNDC954K0XJ9z0zIKMbpCcgRnb09GXBMahvzxn4JUXHd-IJWuCXeqvje33ihFsrymdU0fTSe3g/s1600/Day1_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifS43tlmIoYwL-LVZMqLFbcVNidb-ncvd8Dv-2wSx_6x-MnA_5K9t1o-NIAtlO8ISlZYNDC954K0XJ9z0zIKMbpCcgRnb09GXBMahvzxn4JUXHd-IJWuCXeqvje33ihFsrymdU0fTSe3g/s320/Day1_2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First day of underpainting</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdw1SyqDpixE3ax4KNSQunST90Rq8gFGXHUoXn83_pMXZSb1kgkKovVz6BER1Wdh-OKm9WaCe65sMtU_mnAGC_D1bB2NxQHoNOlm3PVijcQdTsZhbw5RsrP3EnKjdEYSrgbVGx90PQaDI/s1600/face.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdw1SyqDpixE3ax4KNSQunST90Rq8gFGXHUoXn83_pMXZSb1kgkKovVz6BER1Wdh-OKm9WaCe65sMtU_mnAGC_D1bB2NxQHoNOlm3PVijcQdTsZhbw5RsrP3EnKjdEYSrgbVGx90PQaDI/s320/face.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Detail of the face after working up the flesh tones a bit</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLttpro3Q1t1W1DpMLgGCTW88OvE83zl109dMjmmaNpYJfNRXThDSx6FVI62fIPjcDZm1tdp2Vtf-XV03Lc4U7fJzC67UzM2nuO-UlQrtUtCVoD1DdwjGEyYSpoWr7o2r5fiI6heNSMgQ/s1600/Wings%252C2nd+session%252C1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLttpro3Q1t1W1DpMLgGCTW88OvE83zl109dMjmmaNpYJfNRXThDSx6FVI62fIPjcDZm1tdp2Vtf-XV03Lc4U7fJzC67UzM2nuO-UlQrtUtCVoD1DdwjGEyYSpoWr7o2r5fiI6heNSMgQ/s320/Wings%252C2nd+session%252C1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Detailing the feathers</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVBAjFNuhJ_FpmoGynscT4OSsL3i1y9AbuM6OAIS_BYb1ftkr5mbqay-4R5TjqsLu5VdBCzfAwuZBjVEMHRzQaOyhSdisfpDsXhyphenhyphenbXYc8KBg1ID3zJfdTrpSP6JW96n1kTUpOCDuhiMY/s1600/Tattoo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVBAjFNuhJ_FpmoGynscT4OSsL3i1y9AbuM6OAIS_BYb1ftkr5mbqay-4R5TjqsLu5VdBCzfAwuZBjVEMHRzQaOyhSdisfpDsXhyphenhyphenbXYc8KBg1ID3zJfdTrpSP6JW96n1kTUpOCDuhiMY/s320/Tattoo1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Feathers done and the Fearless Heart tattoo drawn onto her back</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTt5XiPZ9v3gtBa9NatrZuPpQ3EThe_kkUVUeyDWl2PEN-fB6piF9Dhqs0-THYS8OfZ8P_c8IeHuUzflt7avH0KutO6CckNWkBgW-cji2IHZ19gxszJtiIA0AHO2ONI7cBCRixoIO992E/s1600/Tattoo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1051" data-original-width="1600" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTt5XiPZ9v3gtBa9NatrZuPpQ3EThe_kkUVUeyDWl2PEN-fB6piF9Dhqs0-THYS8OfZ8P_c8IeHuUzflt7avH0KutO6CckNWkBgW-cji2IHZ19gxszJtiIA0AHO2ONI7cBCRixoIO992E/s320/Tattoo2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First paint on the tattoo</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5A5EgtIT7JtbIHJ3BcGp8NasHla0Clwosg-fGm3eWa4ed-rfAHE6VQ_Uf09bb2zKsnC00-NSdw8xe1XQukJEa2Q0b-zVSZzGK2i7LjqYv_uSyvpd82oeIADsYp1sxRMU6ZmsvUa1jO8/s1600/Inking1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5A5EgtIT7JtbIHJ3BcGp8NasHla0Clwosg-fGm3eWa4ed-rfAHE6VQ_Uf09bb2zKsnC00-NSdw8xe1XQukJEa2Q0b-zVSZzGK2i7LjqYv_uSyvpd82oeIADsYp1sxRMU6ZmsvUa1jO8/s320/Inking1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bit of fine lining to that tattoo design and...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF4vX7RiIODByux3G6X2DRq8noRmrPo-BZPSJH86dTkyPpl3kRg385FkIFiTrTvKtuMmK9Pq81tSmapLPT9rgdLzPjI6Fg-k74lRclECYr9tAmjOm_qnfxrvIKS4kIZm4P0FZUnys7Kfo/s1600/Inking2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF4vX7RiIODByux3G6X2DRq8noRmrPo-BZPSJH86dTkyPpl3kRg385FkIFiTrTvKtuMmK9Pq81tSmapLPT9rgdLzPjI6Fg-k74lRclECYr9tAmjOm_qnfxrvIKS4kIZm4P0FZUnys7Kfo/s320/Inking2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">giving the line a softer look blending the edges into the flesh tone</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCC1vKZFqfQSpi5yAgkLx0iNKNvlqVT8Ny9LPliDTaESBSjiETWfOvSpqrDu1gF7beOnoqgofXcLTlsTU3l2J6KM6JfRSd47E5cUqeEVJ2LUPMnWWislqhfklAAtYgo8GEvnsPKYFt43E/s1600/On+the+easel2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCC1vKZFqfQSpi5yAgkLx0iNKNvlqVT8Ny9LPliDTaESBSjiETWfOvSpqrDu1gF7beOnoqgofXcLTlsTU3l2J6KM6JfRSd47E5cUqeEVJ2LUPMnWWislqhfklAAtYgo8GEvnsPKYFt43E/s320/On+the+easel2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The finished work on my easel</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1O28Y2rVb6Ikn2VE-k-UpCnok7c-HWzMA0iQvh0rWlWzcRiV-evQUcv_jp6pMkpVMw5J12RwsR-2NG-vsEOBkmR1X-PZ_lP3VCTvIgUmryTiKsmudmQSruSDuM5YShepkO_pSdMRQLc/s1600/Fearless_Heart_1500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1600" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1O28Y2rVb6Ikn2VE-k-UpCnok7c-HWzMA0iQvh0rWlWzcRiV-evQUcv_jp6pMkpVMw5J12RwsR-2NG-vsEOBkmR1X-PZ_lP3VCTvIgUmryTiKsmudmQSruSDuM5YShepkO_pSdMRQLc/s640/Fearless_Heart_1500.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fearless Heart ©Brett Breckon 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will definitely show more of the other two in the series soon because they are very special to me and it is great that there has been a little surge of new interest in this painting in recent weeks - always welcome. <a href="mailto:brett@brettbreckon.com" target="_blank">Contact me</a> if you are interested in a print and I will sort it out.</span></div>
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<br />Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-20387170162411728192019-12-17T18:27:00.000+00:002019-12-17T18:27:13.630+00:00Mari Lwyd<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTe2NAYkjah80yl33huwDGGkOR4DAbGZuw6gvLNseyKvWMARoAL6j_pBSqCR0x1Cn0NNu9VDvij5wAhlcpZYeh3dZQUbgGqV5bznXQCfKv3c7pfNeXK2f_vZeOe9hamz3DJ3uSrE9i02s/s1600/Mari_Lwyd_A4_300Flat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1136" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTe2NAYkjah80yl33huwDGGkOR4DAbGZuw6gvLNseyKvWMARoAL6j_pBSqCR0x1Cn0NNu9VDvij5wAhlcpZYeh3dZQUbgGqV5bznXQCfKv3c7pfNeXK2f_vZeOe9hamz3DJ3uSrE9i02s/s640/Mari_Lwyd_A4_300Flat.jpg" width="452" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A quick post for a recent digital image I really should have given a more in depth write-up about a week or two ago, but unfortunately the madness of the season with it's extortionate demands on time is draining me of the energy to think about anything but ribbons and tinsel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The long and the short of this one is that a few months ago I was asked by John Exton if I would like to contribute an image to an exhibition he was curating to be held at Chepstow Museum and Art Gallery over Christmas and into the spring of 2020. The show is entitled 'A Horse's Head in the Frost' and is a celebration of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Lwyd" target="_blank">Mari Lwyd</a> wassailing tradition in South Wales. I was immediately keen because over the many years of illustrating books for the Welsh publishing market, many of which covered Welsh myths, legends, customs and traditions I had never been commissioned or asked to illustrate to this striking theme.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All I will say about the image I created is that it was fun to do and I was keen <i>not</i> to merely create an facsimile illustration of the iconic horse skull in the guise that it is paraded, but instead wanted to delve into mood, colour and reference through the use of pattern the age when the tradition first evolved and bring it up to date with a clean digital look.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am making a limited run of 20 A2 size giclée prints available - number 1 of 20 being the piece that is now on display at the exhibition. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-62518004688835489032019-10-18T12:53:00.002+01:002019-10-18T12:53:10.000+01:00Revenge of the Fifty Foot Hippy - new digital image<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV3xtmWXDoGW4AtSIcEBWdLnrheW-ME1LLsGf7-5aV_9fwcul_Z2yFtpLqWyXlXWfLOmvEA-kgzFdBUkavRnCyUaeym7SKmDpkm7ECJIBGyr1tvDSvSTcvBeTjtrzTb5B2E-yp6FSSoHU/s1600/Revenge_crop2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1186" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV3xtmWXDoGW4AtSIcEBWdLnrheW-ME1LLsGf7-5aV_9fwcul_Z2yFtpLqWyXlXWfLOmvEA-kgzFdBUkavRnCyUaeym7SKmDpkm7ECJIBGyr1tvDSvSTcvBeTjtrzTb5B2E-yp6FSSoHU/s400/Revenge_crop2.jpg" width="296" /></a></div>
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Revenge of the Fifty Foot Hippy (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2019</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">slightly belated </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">post about one of my main summer mages - 'Revenge of the Fifty Foot Hippy'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was one of those ideas that came to me in a flash and then took ages and ages to complete - as usual I got bogged down in details, and there were other projects on the go at the same time which didn't help. And while working on this I realised that my old mac, working on it's old version of Photoshop - CS4, wasn't up to handling a great big image at a high resolution - it was <i>SO</i> slow!! (And kept crashing - not helped by the fact that I foolishly upgraded the MacOS to the latest High Sierra version just before I started work on this piece. I had forgotten why I hadn't done the upgrade sooner, but as soon as the ages-long task of installing had finished I remembered why I had previously held back......CS4 is a 34 bit programme and High Sierra works at 64 bit and the two aren't in themselves compatible. After an initial panic I did find a work-around using some sort of interface that allows the two to talk....sorry I have exhausted my knowledge of the subject now. But the point is right from the start I wanted this to be reproducible in a large format as I thought it would be a real impact piece and I was aiming at the large scale of some of my Pop Art heroes.</span></div>
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Revenge of the Fifty Foot Hippy (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2019</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So - what is it all about? Hopefully the whys and wherefores don't really matter - it is just a big colourful piece of fun that is good to look at and come back to. But of course I had my many reasons behind it all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Firstly the awesomely wacky B-movie from the year of my birth - Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman. I haven't seen the film in decades, but it is more the idea of it, vague memories of it's brilliant badness and the genre in general. I really like this poster from it too:</span></div>
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Poster art by William Reynold Brown</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who wouldn't have wanted to go and see that in 1958??? 😁</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing I took from that image - and the film itself too - is that the Fifty Foot Woman is clearly more than fifty feet tall. As my hippy woman developed in my drawings I realised that she too must be more than fifty feet tall, and I wondered if this should be properly reflected in the title, and why hadn't the film been correctly named, then I realised that it is the only size reference wording that works in the title - 75ft or 100ft just doesn't scan as well even though in theory the bigger the Gulliver-esque protagonist is deemed to be the more awesome she should be? Anyway, I stuck with 50ft. (FYI a B-29 Superfortress is 99ft long....)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was another film reference squirming around in my head too - that iconic scene, with it's phallic connotations, from the brilliant film Dr Strangelove where Slim Pickens as 'Kong' rides atop the atom bomb as it is dropped out of the bomber. I'll let you figure out how those connotations need to be re-interpretted in my image.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, I had my theme and direction in my head. I researched the plane - especially pleased because this meant delving back into the works of a couple more of my artistic heroes - Roy Cross whose artwork on the box tops of many Airfix kits back in my youth helped make me want to be an artist (he indeed painted the fabulous art for the 1/72nd scale <a href="https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-781-b-29-superfortress--163341" target="_blank">B-29 Superfortress by Airfix</a>) and <a href="https://spi3.itvnet.lv/upload/articles/44/44721/images/Phillip-Castle-19.jpg" target="_blank">Philip Castle</a> the airbrush genius who inspired my art college years and the first era of my career in art as a jobbing airbrush freelancer. Then I created my hippy sat astride the plane, and then the fun began. Colour, tone, details, hours and hours of all of them. Loved the realisation after doing the rivets to find that deleting or obscuring the other aircraft details the B-29 was perfectly described by the patterns of rivet dots:</span></div>
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Revenge of the Rivets ©Brett Breckon 2019</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Make Love not War - I think what it is all saying is that absolutely I am a pacifist, but heck I do think there are some pretty spectacular bits of kit built to do a nasty job and I keep getting drawn back to them. It just means I have to find a suitable pictorial way to balance those two things, and I guess I'm not alone in thinking like that.</span></div>
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Revenge - Make Love not War! ©Brett Breckon 2019</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prints have been made and are available, and I was delighted that the guys at <a href="https://caffeineandmachine.com/" target="_blank">Caffeine & Machine</a> stepped up first and ordered a nice big A0 size copy for the walls at their fine Warwickshire establishment. There are details of print sizes and prices on my <a href="https://www.brettbreckon.com/prints?lightbox=dataItem-k1w2kf67" target="_blank">website</a>.</span></div>
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A0 print at Caffeine & Machine photo ©Becci Arbuckle</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always I shall leave you with a picture of the whole image. Let me know what you think 😊</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_7lkGMl5X-10gxO_mICpYdqneDGPK9e_PilmE9Ii8oM-6vg_cNviLY_oP48-uDoDyL6uzgnWn9EU9E2by2AhvYoBvll7l54IAbVU48K3dBZf54MSosFPjO1qjMlbowCenT0BkMRVF6w/s1600/Revenge_of_the_50ft_Hippy_100_flat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1133" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_7lkGMl5X-10gxO_mICpYdqneDGPK9e_PilmE9Ii8oM-6vg_cNviLY_oP48-uDoDyL6uzgnWn9EU9E2by2AhvYoBvll7l54IAbVU48K3dBZf54MSosFPjO1qjMlbowCenT0BkMRVF6w/s640/Revenge_of_the_50ft_Hippy_100_flat.jpg" width="452" /></a></div>
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Revenge of the Fifty Foot Hippy ©Brett Breckon 2019</div>
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<br />Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-61956661831532491652019-05-17T16:14:00.000+01:002019-05-17T16:14:14.056+01:00One Life - giclée print macro photos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
Detail shots of the 500 x 500mm giclée prints. For purchase details contact me through my <a href="https://www.brettbreckon.com/digital?lightbox=dataItem-jumiaohp" target="_blank">website</a>Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-21055761689019663302019-04-23T15:57:00.000+01:002019-04-23T15:57:08.818+01:00One Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN72QjQwT3sZR2Gs7LfIlmyDg5nVGJsoq-SQWYeWDpU7xyX2bNwgUYt0JBHVB6tHGd-ap2AVEzB-vQawPcIMUwP_7G6_KXGs7CL07P0l5J2GSFSwmOV67OPx20WP_JRA4peDHVEVVVYf0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-17+at+17.59.32.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1242" data-original-width="1240" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN72QjQwT3sZR2Gs7LfIlmyDg5nVGJsoq-SQWYeWDpU7xyX2bNwgUYt0JBHVB6tHGd-ap2AVEzB-vQawPcIMUwP_7G6_KXGs7CL07P0l5J2GSFSwmOV67OPx20WP_JRA4peDHVEVVVYf0/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-04-17+at+17.59.32.png" width="398" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One Life (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today I am bringing you the latest piece from my digital portfolio - 'One Life'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For a while I wasn't sure if this was a new portrait of <a href="https://www.brettbreckon.com/digital?lightbox=image1281" target="_blank">Little Queenie</a> as they have a lot in common with each other, but in the end I think this tattooed biker girl came out with her own personality and so she is very much her own woman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I currently have a folder in my computer called Girl Gang, which is the working title of a drawing/artwork </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">depicting three biker girls astride their bikes, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">which is slowly coming along. Because I can't decide what bikes they should be on, and endless other details about the picture, and because it will be a large and complicated one to do, the folder has spawned a couple of sub-folders of which 'One Life' is one of these - I like this situation where one image feeds into another or more, and by getting one finished it will inspire me to proceed with the others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Originally this biker girl portrait was to include more of a sleeve tattoo, and the full motto on the ribbon in it would read 'One life - live it'....this was an early pencil sketch:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOS3SaCoCnQB75m9SwfD4X-rHPCrayI-VBdNzJE0SxpWZTHxtBWDl9oK2VIrl4bQeKgBFQ-iSdRA-AkYu1HVJI99BbhyphenhyphenzUJmzxsZuTrXKIZNr5Uv8H_hE5axd_0Q29ofwr84AtI3aVv-M/s1600/livesketch_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1429" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOS3SaCoCnQB75m9SwfD4X-rHPCrayI-VBdNzJE0SxpWZTHxtBWDl9oK2VIrl4bQeKgBFQ-iSdRA-AkYu1HVJI99BbhyphenhyphenzUJmzxsZuTrXKIZNr5Uv8H_hE5axd_0Q29ofwr84AtI3aVv-M/s400/livesketch_1.jpg" width="356" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One Life - early sketch ©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But once I had that scanned in I played around with crops and I liked how we could really see eye to eye with the girl with a much tighter frame around her face, and anyway, I think the 'live it' part speaks for itself because this is what this motolady is all about. So, crop decided, I then ran out a very quick colour rough so that I knew I was happy to proceed and play with a final artwork.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZQDG-k-sg2JGvsfBnlOjbSqukSS8ySAFulIxuwGEaM2E-i8GIe4n185ZMBC3jQsff8a5de2GRzpLLjth8IDlvsrZuEffGh_GVcfseS-cRTEHyS_XGuaLjLfURrrDg59lj9tY_h03Qm4/s1600/livesketch_col_try.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1441" data-original-width="1282" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZQDG-k-sg2JGvsfBnlOjbSqukSS8ySAFulIxuwGEaM2E-i8GIe4n185ZMBC3jQsff8a5de2GRzpLLjth8IDlvsrZuEffGh_GVcfseS-cRTEHyS_XGuaLjLfURrrDg59lj9tY_h03Qm4/s320/livesketch_col_try.jpg" width="284" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One Life - basic colour rough ©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next was to create the line drawing with ink on paper, and a second ink drawing for the tattoo outline. These were scanned and edited until I was happy with them, and then I was free to play with the colours. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWIKLLy0UeOEX_yZjtJTkOCfVGubHpMFXR4N0l3OuhAX-_f6WoOrQooCqlu3aVZguCQGNrScptFhiOXugdIVnNmSPDLhEJsIP9KclMWGlADlDt8ZrVCwNJK371vcIq120v_RVQJGQjO4/s1600/One_Life_crop2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1600" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWIKLLy0UeOEX_yZjtJTkOCfVGubHpMFXR4N0l3OuhAX-_f6WoOrQooCqlu3aVZguCQGNrScptFhiOXugdIVnNmSPDLhEJsIP9KclMWGlADlDt8ZrVCwNJK371vcIq120v_RVQJGQjO4/s640/One_Life_crop2.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One Life (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As with <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.com/2016/11/brett-breckon-2016-one-of-my-favourite.html" target="_blank">British Rocker</a> I utilised the fine red outline to the main keylines - I love the effect of a neon glow it gives and how it intensifies the graphic qualities of the drawings, especially around the eyes, which are the main focus of the piece:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6SCV29vK8rhpF4GQ2UG26L6SJdrls-8LQrQ65gJhfhxMUWHsdhu2Ymk543tFYVvF6SjEIG6itkeftZpM16aP9hTZfsj9Pf_JYQPTqDMjSh0veEcjFNcG01HtcL_pMvg2XXyOvXxEI-U/s1600/One_Life_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="1600" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6SCV29vK8rhpF4GQ2UG26L6SJdrls-8LQrQ65gJhfhxMUWHsdhu2Ymk543tFYVvF6SjEIG6itkeftZpM16aP9hTZfsj9Pf_JYQPTqDMjSh0veEcjFNcG01HtcL_pMvg2XXyOvXxEI-U/s640/One_Life_crop.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One Life (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The background had a few different treatments along the way - some spattered, some scabbily, some paintbrush lines, but in the send the halftone dot gave it the pop art feel I wanted, all I had to do then was settle on a colour behind it, and the blue won!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEn_-60987Q-cF6xpiHyX810SimA51U5gIqcWhOzTVaDXD6oz_o92KExQKmKwEYXu8uGchv2w7zG8rCO94KcX-w9ZpWoScgyghyphenhyphenSPREea6D8FCQrpj6TxHPK3kJ7glZQ7_Q_6kFp2F9nE/s1600/One_Life_20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEn_-60987Q-cF6xpiHyX810SimA51U5gIqcWhOzTVaDXD6oz_o92KExQKmKwEYXu8uGchv2w7zG8rCO94KcX-w9ZpWoScgyghyphenhyphenSPREea6D8FCQrpj6TxHPK3kJ7glZQ7_Q_6kFp2F9nE/s640/One_Life_20.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One Life <span style="text-align: center;">©Brett Breckon 2019</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, it isn't Little Queenie, but it might be her sister, and she might have borrowed her helmet, and she is off to ride, because you only have <a href="https://www.brettbreckon.com/digital?lightbox=dataItem-jumiaohp" target="_blank">One Life</a>!!</span></span></div>
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<br />Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-49415110915365087842019-04-17T11:48:00.001+01:002019-04-17T12:05:58.890+01:00Car 20<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPVCmgeRQO_Nw-AbWPP31R60gRBamCJpj-RVszBUS_xOpwlOsrGruy3Xt04RD5PRQQP4vcHFx0y-oeFy4Qcg4W4hfhW85-FsT2W9WsHRQwOy48z065JUpGe_vi1sjlIyQ1kPbj_m2lsgo/s1600/Car_20_detail1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1447" data-original-width="1600" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPVCmgeRQO_Nw-AbWPP31R60gRBamCJpj-RVszBUS_xOpwlOsrGruy3Xt04RD5PRQQP4vcHFx0y-oeFy4Qcg4W4hfhW85-FsT2W9WsHRQwOy48z065JUpGe_vi1sjlIyQ1kPbj_m2lsgo/s400/Car_20_detail1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Car 20 (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thought I would tell you about 'Car 20'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I haven't done a car image off my own back for ages and ages, and certainly not a digital one. Actually thinking about it the last one I did was a gouache and watercolour painting of a detail of my wonderful 1966 Vauxhall Cresta Deluxe, with a surfboard on top. Wow, that is going back some. I will have to write about that one day. Hey, no, hold that thought - I did a scraperboard of a detail of a black Pontiac GTO with a crow on it for a Christmas card (edgy, I know!) in about 2008.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway, as you know it has been motorbikes since then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But, a few months ago my eldest son introduced my art to the amazing venue <a href="https://caffeineandmachine.com/" target="_blank">Caffeine & Machine</a> who were keen to add some of my digital work to their walls there in Ettington, Warwickshire, and that has been a happy alliance as the pieces have been popular, look the part, and have sold well. But while bikes are as welcome there as any other kind of vehicle, and I do mean ANY kind of vehicle!!, it is definitely cars that dominate the space, and that got me thinking maybe I could do a car in my digital style to see how much I like it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It didn't take me more than a minute to decide on the Porsche 917K as my subject, as it had been a car that really sparked my automotive emotions back in the early 1970's. At that time as a young teenager I went to the Clifton cinema in Wellington to watch the film 'LeMans', and, wow, it blew my mind. Steve McQueen was the coolest man on earth, and the Porsche 917 spread across that cinema screen made my jaw drop. I went the whole 70's kid route then, bought the Airfix kit of the car, built it and adapted it to a Scalextric chassis and had endless hours of fun with it. Also remember trying to copy the box art of the car, but couldn't get the air of excitement of that illustration, or the jut of the car's jaw right in the 3/4 pose.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, back to a couple of months ago, great excuse to get the dvd of 'LeMans', and also the documentary 'Steve McQueen: The Man and LeMans'. Happy to say the film is still the best racing car film ever, the race sequences are legendary, both visually and acoustically, and the documentary explained why they are so good and a lot of details I would never have known about. And it was the idea of the car coming at you, about to burst out from a cinema screen, too wide to be completely in shot, that I decided would be my viewpoint for the image I wanted to make. I started researching pictures and did this first rough, which I was happy with:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggcOje49zHPnWX7cdjJ6TdKFKuP6-zcCYbOS0JH_hdEEhQhx-NyUVhoHzhhjB3zBWXrPhxISk5bC5-AGrt40oYuuH296wRMuKqBq8eRy01ov2fLzjltxRZEWBzlnDDZYNsLXGHCLeVxM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-02-13+at+12.24.25.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="1600" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggcOje49zHPnWX7cdjJ6TdKFKuP6-zcCYbOS0JH_hdEEhQhx-NyUVhoHzhhjB3zBWXrPhxISk5bC5-AGrt40oYuuH296wRMuKqBq8eRy01ov2fLzjltxRZEWBzlnDDZYNsLXGHCLeVxM/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-02-13+at+12.24.25.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Car 20 - rough ©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Car 20 is one of three Gulf sponsored Porsche 917K's in the film, and also in the actual LeMans race of 1970. It is the car that, for the most part, McQueen drives in the movie. It didn't finish the actual race, and so couldn't finish in the film either (watch the documentary, it explains it all so well).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One area of detail I fretted over was the tape around the headlights. In the early stages of the race many of the cars have plastic taped over the headlights, to keep them clean I guess, and they are gaffer taped on it seems around the perspex headlight covers. Now, if you look at the crisp clear photos of the shiny restored cars or the replicas as they are today they don't have this thick black tape on them, just the elegant lights as they should be, but for me this had to be as if a frame from the movie, and after much debate I decided to accurately draw in the tape. For filming sequences done after the actual 1970 race footage was completed (oh, and apparently they made nearly one million feet of actual race film footage!) the film crew did three more months of filming in the LeMans area and elsewhere, and a dummy car was often used for car 20 and the headlight covers are less well done than on the actual race car, also the typeface of the number 20 in the white racing disc was different. Clips of this car are interspersed with actual race footage throughout the film. I chose to use the more open typeface used on the actual race car. It is a small detail, but detail has been one of the hallmarks of my illustrations through the years and I have to fret over all of them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Car 20 (detail) ©Brett Breckon 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One detail I was sure of from the start was that the car would be dirty. I think this is a thing of mine - I prefer dirty, used, imperfect to the impossibly shiny almost certainly never used. I didn't go the whole hog, but we have a few race hours of spatter, road dirt, brake dust, oil on the image. In my computer there is the clean version, but only a select few have seen that </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Below is the finished item, and I am really pleased with it. I am making a very limited edition of just 20 (guess why!) A1 sized prints (840mm x 594mm) available, and number 1 of 20 is in the hands of Caffeine & Machine at the moment, so go see it there, if it hasn't sold already!! <a href="mailto:brett@brettbreckon.com" target="_blank">Get in touch</a> if you are interested in a print</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Car 20 ©Brett Breckon</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PS - I really enjoyed doing this one, so there will be more cars in the future!</span></div>
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<br />Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-55185901473128429602018-02-05T14:45:00.001+00:002018-02-05T17:08:00.588+00:00Favourite Colour Scheme<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Favourite Colour Scheme - detail ©Brett Breckon 2018</div>
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So here as promised is news of my new scraperboard image which I am delighted to be presenting in two formats as very limited edition high quality giclée prints. First of all, exactly echoing the original artwork, is a strikingly graphic black and white version - the way the nature of the medium intended. In a second version, colour has been added, bringing another dimension to the intricate details finely and lovingly scratched out of the jet black ink. There will be just 50 copies of each print made, printed on heavyweight Hahnemuhle photo rag paper. Size of the paper is A3 (297 x 420mm), with the image area within that measuring approximately 266 x 376mm.<br />
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I have called the picture 'Favourite Colour Scheme' - and no doubt a lot of you will have guessed why. It is in reference to the red hair and black leather Red Molly is wearing in the dark folk tale that is the amazing song '1952 Vincent Black Lightning', by Richard Thompson. The title is therefore a little ironic perhaps for the black and white version....but then again, black and white is a favourite colour scheme too - certainly for me.<br />
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Surprisingly, even to myself, this is the first scraperboard I have done with a motorcycle in it. As a glance at my <a href="http://www.brettbreckon.com/" target="_blank">website</a> will show, I have created many images of bikes in my other two working methods, but up until recently I have mainly kept the scraperboard work for illustration commissions, primarily in the book publishing market and no jobs for bikes came through from there. As it happens I am currently working with an amazing author to maybe partially change that situation too - but news of that collaboration will really have to wait a while yet.<br />
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Meanwhile, I started working on the sketches for this piece soon after finishing my Christmas card image <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/to-colour-in-or-not-to-colour-in.html" target="_blank">'Wish'</a> and I really liked the starscape in that piece so went for a similar background here. The 'girl on a motorcycle' theme is already very well catered for artistically, and I did hesitate to approach it again so readily, but I couldn't get the song out of my head and had to do something about it. Playing out like a miniature film noir, the song is a visual feast of a dark love story, with bank robber James falling for Molly and pledging her his motorcycle should he lose his life in pursuit of ill-gotten gains. I settled quite early on the idea that my preferred picture would be of Molly and the bike after James succumbs to the shot gun blast and goes off with the 'Angels on Ariels' - making the stars seemed quite relevant. As soon as I started sketching, Molly's hair took on a life of it's own. I really like this sort of work in scraperboard - figuring out the complex entwining and entanglements of hair blowing in the breeze. In fact it became the focus of the piece, and I took inspiration for it from old cycle adverts, particularly the <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6e/e3/29/6ee329d0af9123da5f33dc7b6c879798.jpg" target="_blank">Cycles Gladiator</a> ad, and also it harked back to the <a href="https://content.ngv.vic.gov.au/col-images/api/EPUB001501/1280" target="_blank">Pre-Raphaelites</a> who I always cite as an influence on my work, and probably a bit of <a href="http://uk.arken.dk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/alphonse-mucha_-the-arts-dance_-1898-_detail_..jpg" target="_blank">Alphonse Mucha</a> thrown in too. In this early sketch below I have sorted out how I wanted the bike to emerge from the blackness, but also, while the pose eventually changed, the hair was already growing and growing!<br />
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Sketch © Brett Breckon 2018</div>
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Considering it is the title of the song, and of course wonderfully evocative at that, I did have doubts about whether James would have actually chosen or managed to get his hands on a Black Lightning as so few were made (only 31), and being a race bike it is devoid of such things as lights as it's heavier stablemate the Black Shadow would have had. I just thought for his lifestyle he would have needed lights! (Also, technically there wouldn't have been any keys for James to slip into Molly's hand....) But, no, I resisted the desire to retro-fit a headlight and kept it to Black Lightning spec.</div>
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Below are three work in progress shots - as you can see the hair was the bulk of the work, and I let it just flow as I worked rather than having the design of it completely worked out at tracing stage. It not only becomes a decorative element in the image but it also works to define the outline of Molly's body where it slips behind her arm and torso.</div>
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Works in progress © Brett Breckon 2018</div>
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Below are the final artworks - black and white, and colour. If you read my previous <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/to-colour-in-or-not-to-colour-in.html" target="_blank">post</a> you will know I do wonder about the making of colour versions of my scraperboard images, but I just had to try out some red in those twisted locks of hair, and that led to colouring up the whole image. I think it works and is relevant in the case of this image, and on the strength of early opinions expressed by others the colour version might prove to be the more popular, however for me I love the crisp simplicity of the black line on white paper. For this reason both prints are offered for sale at the same price of £35 each, plus postage, as I see no artistic betterment between one or the other. They will be ready to ship from monday 12th February, and as I mentioned, there will only be 50 of each version made.</div>
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The copyright information shown on the images below does not appear on the giclée prints.</div>
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Below is an image of actual prints side by side</div>
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Please <a href="mailto:brett@brettbreckon.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">contact me</a> if you are interested in purchasing one of the prints and I will reply with information about delivery times and postage costs.</div>
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Thank you for looking :-)</div>
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Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-35908982365002246422018-01-31T15:22:00.000+00:002018-01-31T15:22:18.189+00:00To colour in or not to colour in?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next week I will be unveiling a new pair of prints based on my latest scraperboard image. This follows on from the image I created for my Christmas card this last December. I am sorry I did not get around to posting that image then - if you read any of my outpourings on here you will know I am nothing if not erratic in my posting, something I keep wanting to improve on, but hey ho, you know how it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can try to make amends here by talking about the Christmas card image, which thankfully isn't all jingle bells and snowballs, making it palatable even now as we are already well into the new year... A Very Happy One to You All, by the way ;-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When You Wish Upon a Star was the theme of the image this year, and the basic format of the design related back to my card from 2013 - <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/an-angelic-christmas.html" target="_blank">'Eis Quos Amo'</a> But this time a Christmas Fairy was the subject rather than an angel, and I resisted all temptation to add any motorcycle references. Instead I kept the flowing dress sweeping onto the reverse of the image (the cards always tend to be A4 landscape folded down to A5 portrait, and I like the back of the card to be as much a part of the composition as the front), but </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">following a strong urge and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">having decided to make it a</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">black and white</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> scraperboard image, that dress was this time going to be composed of bold but fairly simple patterns, with no attempt at tone with hatchings through the black ink - no I just wanted strong graphic geometry to suggest lavish and festive fabric - this was, after all, going to be a statement BLACK AND WHITE Christmas card. Initial sketches had the fairy holding a taper candle rather than a wand with a star on it, but the latter became an obvious choice when I decided on a stellar background.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was a moment when I thought maybe the background could be mostly black with front and centre of the card white space beyond a gothic arch with which to frame the torso of the fairy figure, this taken from the way I illustrated <a href="http://www.thedevilsviolin.co.uk/about-us/our-team/daniel-morden/" target="_blank">Daniel Morden</a>'s fabulous story <a href="https://www.brettbreckon.com/line?lightbox=dataItem-j2t40060" target="_blank">'How Jack Found a Bride'</a> in his sublime book <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/coming-soonsecret-tales-from-wales.html" target="_blank">'Secret Tales from Wales'</a> but on this occasion the cosmos won - a decision I sometimes regretted as it took ages and ages to scratch out all those stars!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, anyway, the work got done and I scanned the resulting artwork and edited the scans to lose any stray bits of black and white dust from the scraping process which had clung to the board in the wrong places. I was pleased with the result on screen, and decided on a simple but lush inside of the card in bright red with just the word 'wish' in the centre of the right hand side.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But then I realised I was a little bit ahead of schedule for the print run and found myself with some time on my hands and I started to play with the Fairy image by adding colour to it in Photoshop. And I really liked what came out, and was very close to sending off the coloured files to print as the finished card. But then, luckily, I took a breather over a weekend and came back to both versions refreshed on the monday morning. The first image I looked at was the colour version as I remembered the sense of excitement as it changed from the monochromatic piece I had worked on/wrestled with for a couple of weeks to a seemingly more sumptuous polychromatic vision within only a few extra hours of work on the computer. And I still liked it, very much. Ahh - but then I opened up the black and white 'original', and it just jumped out at me from the screen and I knew I had to stick with the original concept of a black and white Christmas card, and I am so glad I did as, for me, it really stood out amongst all the red, green, and gold glitz and glamour of the season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will let you make up your own mind by showing both versions here, and if you are so moved, giclée prints of both versions are available to order, just drop me an <a href="mailto:brett@brettbreckon.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">email</a> and I will let you know the details. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ending where I started with the new print I will be unveiling next week - that was always intended to be available in both black and white, and colour versions.....but for me, when it comes to scraperboard, black and white is what it is all about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please look in again next week to see the new image</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers :-)</span></div>
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<br />Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-62834018090984043612017-06-30T16:07:00.000+01:002017-06-30T16:08:39.999+01:00Paintings for sale<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After doing this job of artist and freelance illustrator for 37 years now, I have understandably built up quite a pile of work around me....and it is getting hard to move here in the studio!!! So I have decided I should be less clinging to the original artworks and to start letting go of a few pieces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have started by putting a few paintings onto <a href="https://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/BrettBreckon" target="_blank">my new page</a> on the Artists & Illustrators website, and will probably add more there as time goes on, but I am also looking at other places to offer pieces for sale to see which is the most successful shop window for the work. So why not here I thought??</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So today I am going to bring to your attention three such pieces and tell you a little about them. They are all painted in my preferred detailed style which is quite time consuming but ultimately, for me at least!, very rewarding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First up is the very whimsical piece 'Mistar Medra'</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKKxIZDtT2XI6al9L3Ma_gZZHNQp2leZwJ678FEaqvITdf8c3ZjQDU1kKTHDNsFoEIPCt_ezwKYoKHAk95zVVDxb3gLdoWnLCFuSTfbuSBXYQplVmpiOa3fGy0e5h7nGaMXnoujZPQoVQ/s1600/Mistar_Medra_%2528framed%25292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKKxIZDtT2XI6al9L3Ma_gZZHNQp2leZwJ678FEaqvITdf8c3ZjQDU1kKTHDNsFoEIPCt_ezwKYoKHAk95zVVDxb3gLdoWnLCFuSTfbuSBXYQplVmpiOa3fGy0e5h7nGaMXnoujZPQoVQ/s320/Mistar_Medra_%2528framed%25292.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mistar Medra © Brett Breckon 2014</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is an illustration for the book Hosan Nadolig, published by Gomer. It is painted using oil paints on a panel measuring 290mm x 230mm. It is signed on the back, and dated 2014, and comes presented float mounted in a simple frame. This original painting is for sale for £400, plus shipping, and can be sent anywhere in the world. If you are interested please email me for details using the link at the bottom of this post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The story which it illustrates is by Mair Wynn Hughes, and it concerns the gentle man that is Mistar Medra, who lives alone with Betsan, his black and white cat in a small cottage in the countryside. Realising suddenly that the next day would be Christmas Day we read how he leaps into action looking for an old family cook book and finds Auntie Medra's <i>Invitation Pudding</i> recipe......not knowing quite what that means! He follows the recipe and behold it makes a huge pudding which he has to cook all day outside, wrapped in a table cloth. The smell of the <i>Invitation</i> pudding cooking makes the other people who live nearby come to his house following their noses, but they don't come empty handed and bring crackers and lemonade and all the things to make a brilliant and memorable Christmas together!!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGd8bmUir6qwz1CyMCVEMyWgB4Il3DkMmhFxPyLKwbNdD_rWYw2Y8MaZQLey6zJvB73vOTQd3S6iLY-IOq8TX-nHhETouUDttEy69pOEJ2AAlN0Ik1ttEpBFdqnvF1_xFiSIlG-oXpjQ/s1600/Mistar_Medra_%2528unframed%25292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1600" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGd8bmUir6qwz1CyMCVEMyWgB4Il3DkMmhFxPyLKwbNdD_rWYw2Y8MaZQLey6zJvB73vOTQd3S6iLY-IOq8TX-nHhETouUDttEy69pOEJ2AAlN0Ik1ttEpBFdqnvF1_xFiSIlG-oXpjQ/s320/Mistar_Medra_%2528unframed%25292.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mistar Medra © Brett Breckon 2014</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Next, from the same book, is 'The Christmas Mouse'</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfg1GQ62s3xr683KIhWFCEHyWRcDW6Kvwr7Qgw1AHBXVDSwKRggp1qQjxISX_S_TwKqt7nEpSBjx4SV6OZTdCxANKlajFFKlSPwK-hCIKCo4hVYfoz22GbHGfkPxmWQb2i60AYh3CwcfQ/s1600/The_Christmas_Mouse_%2528framed%25291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1302" data-original-width="1600" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfg1GQ62s3xr683KIhWFCEHyWRcDW6Kvwr7Qgw1AHBXVDSwKRggp1qQjxISX_S_TwKqt7nEpSBjx4SV6OZTdCxANKlajFFKlSPwK-hCIKCo4hVYfoz22GbHGfkPxmWQb2i60AYh3CwcfQ/s320/The_Christmas_Mouse_%2528framed%25291.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Christmas Mouse © Brett Breckon 2014</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again this is completed in oil paint on a panel measuring 290mm x 230mm, signed and dated on the back and framed as previously described. This original artwork is for sale at £600, plus shipping.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have written a <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/hosan-nadolig-christmas-stocking.html" target="_blank">post</a> including this image before when the book was being published, so please read the linked page for more information on the story and author. Here is a view of the painting without the frame:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJi4LWqg1Q9mp66-WEbUfkxt5vzPqh7M9DMI58S_T1Buj_G-xcPspKukPidgu9-QKk15Mqmi-FHe6VZJvEkw1n4cu_zZhg-b5u1NSYhZ8ZhpUJBnfdyIMlcPI_Lw4_3LfkbxF-NamVF-A/s1600/The_Christmas_Mouse_%2528unframed%25291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1267" data-original-width="1600" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJi4LWqg1Q9mp66-WEbUfkxt5vzPqh7M9DMI58S_T1Buj_G-xcPspKukPidgu9-QKk15Mqmi-FHe6VZJvEkw1n4cu_zZhg-b5u1NSYhZ8ZhpUJBnfdyIMlcPI_Lw4_3LfkbxF-NamVF-A/s320/The_Christmas_Mouse_%2528unframed%25291.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Christmas Mouse © Brett Breckon 2014</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally for this little show here is the original work I painted for my Christmas card in 2014 (can you see a theme here??) This painting is entitled 'Peace Angel' </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3EjtD2xToOqwgu-CZ-aECWh11rNML3EUpypymhPo-CQzOP5DTZB0FkfnlAoUtrv1dBOsca6WpxPnb6K7cwYmxyjK8ctzgdpSpk4s4bZiZO8pDGUjZ9_jcD2k2G3XYuDpquVecvEfYbIk/s1600/Peace_Angel_%2528framed%25291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1600" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3EjtD2xToOqwgu-CZ-aECWh11rNML3EUpypymhPo-CQzOP5DTZB0FkfnlAoUtrv1dBOsca6WpxPnb6K7cwYmxyjK8ctzgdpSpk4s4bZiZO8pDGUjZ9_jcD2k2G3XYuDpquVecvEfYbIk/s320/Peace_Angel_%2528framed%25291.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Peace Angel © Brett Breckon 2014</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This painting is again oil on a panel measuring 440mm x 316mm, signed and dated on the back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This original painting is for sale at £1200.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I chose a simple and limited palette for this very detailed painting in which an angel carefully wraps a ribbon of peace around a fragile and delicate world. This <a href="http://brettbreckon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/merry-christmas-and-peaceful-new-year.html" target="_blank">post</a> from the time gives a little more information about the process and another close up detail of the paint surface. And here is the image without the frame:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqB7j-nyYSq_9eVdu1uOB1XM0mV7Ta6ei4kfa_TJCDD-m0TpNSpYinr3FinLos9di2vpYEPefphq_6HYt18qDvwZEClH6VVCkqN1jMKSYA3VyGDTvgqJGrYyX276r2VSq2cp2JC-hIun8/s1600/Peace_Angel_%2528unframed%25291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1148" data-original-width="1600" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqB7j-nyYSq_9eVdu1uOB1XM0mV7Ta6ei4kfa_TJCDD-m0TpNSpYinr3FinLos9di2vpYEPefphq_6HYt18qDvwZEClH6VVCkqN1jMKSYA3VyGDTvgqJGrYyX276r2VSq2cp2JC-hIun8/s320/Peace_Angel_%2528unframed%25291.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Peace Angel © Brett Breckon 2014</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you are interested in any of the pieces please do get in touch with me via email <a href="mailto:brett@brettbreckon.com">brett@brettbreckon.com</a> </span></div>
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Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9800963331817725.post-30307362650990794552017-06-08T17:19:00.000+01:002017-06-08T17:30:30.601+01:00The Siren<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTyMmqMtR7P0oKGPTXeeHNny7WOyTZWm24U-19zmc1eE9OMCETSi9BxoGEoCYdwiI4E-fwgP3zzoc7TL98XnAi7kARSFkc9hYI1UGKHhRS-KnM_UHF3ODHYbRFSZBqyhuGjdWYX9taTa4/s1600/The+Siren_150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTyMmqMtR7P0oKGPTXeeHNny7WOyTZWm24U-19zmc1eE9OMCETSi9BxoGEoCYdwiI4E-fwgP3zzoc7TL98XnAi7kARSFkc9hYI1UGKHhRS-KnM_UHF3ODHYbRFSZBqyhuGjdWYX9taTa4/s640/The+Siren_150.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Siren ©Brett Breckon 2017</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Up until now all of my scraperboard illustrations have been undertaken on 9" x 12" (229mm x 305mm) EssDee boards. This is a handy size as I can fit an A4 image on there easily and that is usually bigger than any illustration ends up in a book, certainly that is the case with the three Daniel Morden authored volumes I have illustrated for Gomer Publishers. But while I was working on the most recent of those I started getting the urge to try a larger format to allow me to add more detail, but also to allow for larger reproductions, either in larger books or in fine art prints. Anyway, I decided to take the plunge and ordered up a box of 12" x 19 3/4" (305mm x 502mm) boards.....and I was a bit awed by how big they looked when I took them out of the box (and they </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">actually do</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">make even larger ones again!!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I bought the white boards which have to be inked up by the artist as those are the ones I have used the most for previous work, although I often do also use the black, pre-inked ones - it just requires a slightly different approach but the results are very much the same. In my previous post I included a <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbjKCXhDJ777vWw_pIfgLJmu7nebj3iG8Y4pn0F80Uk9U8iIy9Xu_ApbS5rfZb6wWLbQsO4ZGh17SU75tKyWa0nvP9tj5GOJ-F4LKMGMcFlOmlWIyeYfPFN4pdjCd0pumHCaisP99lXbM/s1600/WIP3.jpg" target="_blank">picture of me</a> using a pre-coated board, but below will be some of the work in progress shots of me using the white board this time around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The image I decided to try the boards out on had evolved in my mind while I was working on that last book - it started just as a woman in a big dress that was in fact the sea. But then I started in my mind to weave an unresolved story in to it and hence the sea monster and an ill-fated ship emerged.......</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These were my very first lines on paper for the figure of the siren:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTSyrrEU7mxcbohIh4m4LCX02JEF4hDSIG_dy0829rY-beeUR9UvgF1RXT-gij2CTvvMiAWj2vhIPc6fdYdkBt2KfMynxANon3kKXeHSHw6zU68KdX5F-U81dgOplbI6UK4ixVYWzwEs4/s1600/IMG_0187.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTSyrrEU7mxcbohIh4m4LCX02JEF4hDSIG_dy0829rY-beeUR9UvgF1RXT-gij2CTvvMiAWj2vhIPc6fdYdkBt2KfMynxANon3kKXeHSHw6zU68KdX5F-U81dgOplbI6UK4ixVYWzwEs4/s320/IMG_0187.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Brett Breckon 2017</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As this drawing evolved it all got a bit messy so I transferred it to the computer and did a very rough rough with tonal values:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZfbh4nnMfPmD1xVgvGgSEktuBGv66S6svkK-nDU7mOciGEB87HbGtVg3_j-HtK7TlesQ8uS8uKpGqP8Rpx-xfFtlN22p-03cGZz_9PWfqpeJX67qkmi1dQ6loHcRmgrPcJe5ZYOJUT4/s1600/Rough1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZfbh4nnMfPmD1xVgvGgSEktuBGv66S6svkK-nDU7mOciGEB87HbGtVg3_j-HtK7TlesQ8uS8uKpGqP8Rpx-xfFtlN22p-03cGZz_9PWfqpeJX67qkmi1dQ6loHcRmgrPcJe5ZYOJUT4/s400/Rough1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This version was close to the final structure but I added and changed tentacles a bit more before I was happy. After which I made a detailed trace and transferred it to the board, then inking up sections at a time and referring to my tonal rough I scratched back to achieve the effect I was after:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVCkQESS2JxFLQq2l0LxYsmButn_-dIpaZlXA4VRBOOFSWfmkVhufh_h5dN4ZDju_wAz7j6c78BnPoVkdlhnU2DrRkUAhWEwL1pZA4nDYiFWtyE5JQa1VvxYt6vJnW9WHG-RhX1zXaUk8/s1600/IMG_0311.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVCkQESS2JxFLQq2l0LxYsmButn_-dIpaZlXA4VRBOOFSWfmkVhufh_h5dN4ZDju_wAz7j6c78BnPoVkdlhnU2DrRkUAhWEwL1pZA4nDYiFWtyE5JQa1VvxYt6vJnW9WHG-RhX1zXaUk8/s320/IMG_0311.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It took a lot of time and the board seemed bigger than ever at some times, but slowly I worked one area after another and it gradually came together. In the past I would just use fine technical pens for the detailed outlining of areas and then paint in the solid black with India ink and paintbrush, but this gave a variable thickness of ink which sometimes proved annoying to scratch through consistently, so now I don't use brush at all but instead use pigment ink markers for the large areas:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjepOaEZBteOCXopijInu-38GU2_QjyB8q2ZJg6HiXg2EYGOwsqsvecG8df2xRVpBgeuNMFxTGME7GnT4AhupunOOeF8RQDCGuNZx1nMHiL6sBhBT9LiPzVjKQOYub8vCdogpPfPmEgSY/s1600/IMG_0320.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjepOaEZBteOCXopijInu-38GU2_QjyB8q2ZJg6HiXg2EYGOwsqsvecG8df2xRVpBgeuNMFxTGME7GnT4AhupunOOeF8RQDCGuNZx1nMHiL6sBhBT9LiPzVjKQOYub8vCdogpPfPmEgSY/s400/IMG_0320.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpOC7VX6PN9nxh6PW5vopsnD6MEzsP9SdeYRrXT1yvRvE8jOTibSdZWAlrKBZyyZkp_0WQLEd9p6aqtuzrbwZYlgS8-XtyQcqQXPBnUT1Xtux7frBIUtMEjzURpKV43atzkhgW7AMmB-Q/s1600/IMG_0308.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpOC7VX6PN9nxh6PW5vopsnD6MEzsP9SdeYRrXT1yvRvE8jOTibSdZWAlrKBZyyZkp_0WQLEd9p6aqtuzrbwZYlgS8-XtyQcqQXPBnUT1Xtux7frBIUtMEjzURpKV43atzkhgW7AMmB-Q/s400/IMG_0308.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncW3SFl8Ow9n4Nj96FE1DmkWmg4AIIrxaORa4VKpcPcTrGgPICDBTy1GC01SFCReSa_P2q7GzEtC2y8PKt5U6L7wjejkS33R7RrJfrpPmO_LgANFVOhDADdU-RsbOni8t87YZ6wgw9ds/s1600/IMG_0321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncW3SFl8Ow9n4Nj96FE1DmkWmg4AIIrxaORa4VKpcPcTrGgPICDBTy1GC01SFCReSa_P2q7GzEtC2y8PKt5U6L7wjejkS33R7RrJfrpPmO_LgANFVOhDADdU-RsbOni8t87YZ6wgw9ds/s400/IMG_0321.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the hardest jobs is keeping up with cleaning away all the little scrapings, which are a mix of white chalk and black ink - typically the white dots of chalk seem to stick to the inked surface even after it is dry and I have worked it, while the black dots of ink attach themselves to the clean white areas. I try to have routine of getting a fine vacuum cleaner nozzle into play regularly, but inevitably I then have a good long session of inking and scraping and before I know it there is a sea of scraping dust all over the drawing board again. And because I rest my hand on clean paper while I'm working on the board to avoid getting grease from my skin onto the chalk (which would then be difficult to ink up properly as a consequence), if the bits of dust are under the sheet of paper I am then physically pressing them onto the picture. Some end up as part of the image for sure, while others can be edited away after scanning if they refuse to leave the finished artwork with gentle persuasion of blowing or brushing with a soft brush, but I must do better to clean up as I go along in future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eventually I achieved what you see in the picture at the head of this post, but below are a couple of details which I hope you like.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNYo5T-ekKSzlPPq7jc_cVankMPwj5AdCXTgpiZnAJqixpJhgTLy-aEoB5l9kUVia-7hlNZ4OX1X4ZK-EOsyEqWdy1z79Cx0Nj1MUIgfkpKgS36PKSqo_ELBXLfaIBSofGKQ1mqV-CYQ/s1600/The+Siren_detail2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNYo5T-ekKSzlPPq7jc_cVankMPwj5AdCXTgpiZnAJqixpJhgTLy-aEoB5l9kUVia-7hlNZ4OX1X4ZK-EOsyEqWdy1z79Cx0Nj1MUIgfkpKgS36PKSqo_ELBXLfaIBSofGKQ1mqV-CYQ/s400/The+Siren_detail2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXfTF3Lvi5FSyhpSIqiKBY14ls3fDj6PdBII9dIMeMsM_ji6qAJdaOtr2jNygsvvqIeYw6vgv7Qzsr-EfXTs2U6xPlTD_EIFRWLL5vr9DWSHuqwkDd_8gSqbNgD3qArd6Z6jHO_OCk-8Y/s1600/The+Siren_detail3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXfTF3Lvi5FSyhpSIqiKBY14ls3fDj6PdBII9dIMeMsM_ji6qAJdaOtr2jNygsvvqIeYw6vgv7Qzsr-EfXTs2U6xPlTD_EIFRWLL5vr9DWSHuqwkDd_8gSqbNgD3qArd6Z6jHO_OCk-8Y/s400/The+Siren_detail3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaCA7V8Wq0cWgnMe52WkrISv5PeG22YlGQonHUaDJh5kd5uOp-N0iECx9umlTXz7qlqkiU28ZsfZLbTjDcO99BtOzdRIWp2JuyaR3Esw0B5YxpayG3LDwIfcrrrZDaDh6iNp7NaJrY9C4/s1600/The+Siren_detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaCA7V8Wq0cWgnMe52WkrISv5PeG22YlGQonHUaDJh5kd5uOp-N0iECx9umlTXz7qlqkiU28ZsfZLbTjDcO99BtOzdRIWp2JuyaR3Esw0B5YxpayG3LDwIfcrrrZDaDh6iNp7NaJrY9C4/s400/The+Siren_detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And so that is my first big scraperboard. I am hoping a project will be forthcoming in the very near future for which I will be doing a series of images at this size. But for now I will see about making giclée prints available of this image and also I am going to play with subtly colouring the image up in Photoshop too - I'll let you know if I get anywhere with either of those things :-)</span></div>
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Brett Breckonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926593754268934739noreply@blogger.com0