Most recent stuff

Yesterday I decided to dive into a gouache painting because I think that's a great way how to train for a bigger paintings in oils (Because you can paint opaquely as oppose to classic watercolours). Setup is pretty quick since it's a water soluble medium. I found a beautiful photograph of Christopher Waltz from Inglorious Basterds on the web.

On the following pictures You can see the actual process from initial sketch (drawing is the most difficult part when it comes to capture likeness of a portrait - it took a while - it's not perfect but I think that Christopher "feel" is portrayed - maybe he looks little bit younger :-) ) to the finished study (first picture). I've tried to emphasise many hues in the shadow but not overcome it in spite of the lights areas because that's mainly what the picture is about.

"Christopher Waltz Study" (gouache on watercolour paper A4)

few steps from the process of creating the study

"Recent stuff"

Back in September this year when I arrived from my holidays I strived to give a shot to my new purchased acrylics paints so I went to the Kirkgate market here in Leeds to seek out some reference (and buy some goodies - squashes, tomatoes, prawns etc.). I found there's big butchery so I made a quick unseen shots on my phone (picture 1) -  lacking quality and professionally but as a reference for my first attempt with acrylics good enough.

picture 1 - reference shot

Then I took some of the old boards that I was given by one school whom I make deliveries for (did I tell you that I work as a delivery driver - yea fruit and veg for primary schools here in Leeds - but that's a different story)

I put a drawing in with pencil (picture 2) and put some colours afterwards (picture 3). To put more interest I added my favourite cut of meat -  lamb leg on the foreground table. As it turned out board made acrylics more dark that I'd been expecting. I put a gloss varnish on the painting to seal it up (Still not sure If I like gloss varnish or not - sometimes there's to much reflexion agains light)

Initial sketch mapping areas with values

final painting - Yorkshire butcher (acrylic on board, 12x14,5 inch)

First thing first - Welcome

First thing of many first things is that I would like to emphasise that English's not my native language but in spite of that I've decided to use it in order to get in touch with more people and since I've been living in England for year or so I found that convenient. So I hope that my friends back in Czech republic will understand that and the experts on the language from this realm would stay calm If they see some big issues in my expressions/writting/order of words etc. because in the end of the day this blog isn't about linguistics but about art - especially drawing/painting. So point No.1 is:

It's not gonna be perfect (language) by any means but there's gonna be pictures instead!

Second thing of many first things is that I would like to share with you my story (hopefully briefly): 

I grew up in beautiful town in Czech republic by the name Zdar and Sazavou which is in the center of beautiful Highlands of Bohemia (really - search "Zdar and Sazavou" in google and you'll see how gorgeous it is). When I was a little child I would drew up animals, nature and everything around me till my pre high school age. Than caused by my bad grades and the treat of being on the low profile school, I refocused - As society and family and government and everything else tells us - we must focus on career in order to make a living and as a result of that I had been studying boring civil engineering since than till I was 26.

After my graduation I'd spent 3 terrible years under pressure of a construction sites as a construction manager (still in Czech republic). I was thinking back than - that it's not my nature, that's not me, do you want to live like this for 40 years or so? So after a especially hard period in summer 2014 I finally burned out and quit my job. After that I spent a whole year finding myself (nutrition adviser courses, fitness trainer courses) and I had also desire to get better in English (Don't get me wrong - I still have that desire), which brought me to United Kingdom (City of Leeds) in fall 2015. So point No.2:

I'm currently in Leeds (UK) and it's freakin cold here... 

but unfortunately as a result of my extreme shyness I've started to avoid people because I was so terrified of imperfection of language. Than I found my lost treasure (see above) - making pictures (You can be hidden in the safety of your room and just dive in into your "world"). So as a matter of fact I've drew all my family members because I missed them and though that would be a nice present for them to give them these pictures on Christmas (not mentioning that this saved me pretty big chunk of money for presents) And that was my starting point for creating art: and thats point No.3: 

Let's see some pictures!
Yea that's it - these are my first pictures after my abortion from Engineering when I arrived to United Kingdom: My whole family: father Jan, Younger brother Vaclav, Older brother Jan, myself and my mother.  I'll post in the near future the most interesting work that I've done in past year plus maybe some failures and I'm gonna keep you updated about my recent endeavours as well...

Hope you like the introduction to my art journey which is at its very beginning. I'll be please to inform you about my endeavours throughout the time. I wish you all the best and stay tuned...