A Song of Autism

As mentioned in my previous post my Son Adam has been found to be Autistic.  Even though we sort of knew there was something wrong with him, it was still a shock to the system to realise we had an Autistic child.  As part of the process of getting used to the Idea I wrote a very short poem about him.  This poem is meant to show the beautiful side of autism - most people only see the behavioural problems, not the behaviours that are endearing.  The illustration by the way is Adam in one of his favourite dressing up costumes.

A song of Autism

On tippytoes he comes
In a world apart
Beware of loud noises
For they'll give him a start

He's living in a bubble
Watching rainbows dance
And feeling the water
As it runs through his hands

A child within a child
Who knows why he cries
Yet this magical boy
Has a smile in his eyes

A part of our world
He struggles to be
But wonder is there
For those who can see

So hush now friend
Don't scare him away
Just give him your time
And he could make your day

For Adam 

(Image and words Copyright graham Hanks 2011)

Writing or painting

Kaldar, an illustration for Tenara.

Lot of things happening here but not on my blog.  I've hardly posted at all for some time now and then only briefly.  Part of this is because we have discovered that our son is Autistic and I have been putting most of my time and energy into trying to get him the help he needs.  Anyone who has had children with significant needs will understand what I mean when I say it takes up a huge amount of your time.  Both getting help in place for the child, and actually implementing a structured enviornment for that child (Autistic children especially need a very structured world tailored just for them).

The second reason I've not been posting much is that I've not been painting much so have not had a lot to post!  This is partially because of the time spent trying to help my son, but is also because what spare time I've had has been spent more on writing than painting.  I was approached by a new publisher who is producing an online fantasy writing magazine, and they wanted to publish my short story tenara in their first issue.  Which is fantastic news given that i wasn't even trying to get published yet!  However it did mean that I had to re-write a lot of the story to expand on it, and to tidy up some sections.  As there is a big difference between writing a short story for the fun of it and writing a story for publication, you have to be a lot more professional as it were.  It didn't bother me having to re-write the story as it gave me the chance to develop the characters more solidly, and to add more tension to the tale.

Souleater, illustration for Tenara

Then of course me being me I had to produce some illustrations for the story, which of course took up even more of my spare time.  But it did mean experimenting with some interesting multimedia techniques so that was ok.

I havn't neglected painting completely, in fact I'm experimenting with some new paintings at the moment.  Though it may be a while before I'm ready to post any of this new work as I'm still developing the idea.  At the moment however I'm really not sure what direction I'm going to be taking over the next year.  Part of me is very tempted to switch priorities and make writing my primary activity and painting my secondary one.  Certainly at the moment I seem to get more satisfaction from writing - maybe as a painter I'm getting a bit jaded, or maybe its just the challenge of something new.

Tenara, illustration for the short story

Short Story

A bit of a Departure for me here, I've recently started to write stories, Fantasy stories to be precise.  It started while I was on holiday a few weeks back, I got this idea into my head for a Novel and it just wouldn't go away, so I started to write!

Its been a strange experience for me, because apart from writing articles and tutorials I've never actually been a writer.  Learning how to punctuate Dialogue for example has been an eye-opener, its just not something I've had to do before (well not since I left school 30+ years ago)

The novel is still very much a work in progress, but in the meantime I have just written a short story, based on another concept that I came up with (I just seem to keep getting Ideas these days lol)

Graham Hanks.

Painting update

 

Just realised I've not posted any updates on this painting despite making progress, theres still a lot of work to do yet (especially the hands and trousers) but I'm happy with the overall progress so far.

 

I think I still need to make some alterations to the glass as ite still a bit tilted to one side, but I'm really happy with how the actual glass looks :)

Some progress at last

 

Unfortunately I've not been too well just lately, I've been having dizzy spells and difficulty concentrating, which of course has impacted on my ability to get any work done.

So its quite a relief that I'm finally starting to get to the stage that I can do some painting again, and the first project I've returned to is La Fee Verte, which I'm quite happy with so far.

 

I'm particularly happy with how the Glass & bottle are going, glasses are always a difficult subject to tackle (theres still a few minor adjustments needed to the symmetry of the glass) 

I've also added a greenish glow to the side of wes's face which kinda works well too I think, I'm after creating an effect of the Absinthe giving off a slight glow to add a little bit of mystery to the painting.

I just hope that my recover continues enough for me to get more work done soon!

More progress on La Fee Verte

After a brief conversation with my good friend Enzie Shamiri on Facebook I realised I havn't posted up any progress pics for this painting - so here is the current state of progress on 'La Fee Verte'

Theres still a long way to go but the face is a good likeness I think :)

Basilica in Pastels

Another one of the series of Pictures I'm doing of Venice, This time the Basilica in  Unison Pastels on Pastelmat Paper.

I went for a slightly different approach with this one in that I've deliberately left parts of the picture foggy and unfinished and used colours in a non realist manner to give a more dreamlike appearance to the painting.

I started to do some paintings in venice last year that were meant to be dreamlike in their appearance but struggled because I was using Acrylics on paper - not exactly an ideal combination (but thats what we were asked to use on the painting course I was on at the time)

Venice Windows

Venice Windows  Unison Pastels on Pastelmat

I've just finished this Pastel painting of some windows I photographed in Venice last year.  I just fell in love with the bold patterns cast by the balconies in the beautiful Venetian light and had to capture them!

If everything goes according to plan I should be rteturning to Venice in October with a group of students to do more sketching and to take more photographs to work from.

  At the moment I'm still in the organising stages of this trip, but if anyone is interested in spending 5 nights (4 whole days) Staying on the Venice Lido, exploring and Sketching Venice then contact me soon so I can get an idea of the sort of numbers I'm organising for.

Dates will most likely be: 7th - 12th October 2011 at an approximate price of £300 pp (including flights, hotel, Breakfast & Tuition services)
if you want to bring a non drawing friend with you (or just don't require the services of a tutor) then the price will be approx £250pp without tuition fees.

These are just my initial pricings at the moment, but I can't really see them being too far out.

By the way, Venice has a reputation for being very expensive, but if you know where to go it can actually be very cheap, I've found it possible to get by on less than £10 per day quite easily!

Edit : Having worked out the costs more thoroughly the price for 5 nights will be £350 pp, £275 for non artists, also payment would be required in full by 25th april 2011 in order to allow me to book hotels ect,

La Fee Verte

 

I just got started on this painting last night, its a portrait of a nice young man by the name of Wesley Perriman pouring a Glass of Absinthe (his favourite drink, which is also known as 'La Fee Verte' - The Green fairy) 

I've only done about 3 hours on this so far but I'm pleased with how its coming along already although looking at this photo I think I need to redraw the glass and the glass jug next to it, they are looking a bit lopsided!

The jacket and waistcoat are not going to be these colours - this is just an undercoat, I find that blacks look better with a purple/blue underpainting to give depth to the blacks, and the waiscoat was deliberately given a different under colour so that it will look subtly different to the coat (they are both very dark grey/black)

Having said that though, I'm very tempted to keep the waistcoat in that nice burgundy colour as I kinda like the way it looks :)

Sentinels

 

 

Sentinels, a portrait of Ida & Lyra Larsen

Finally finished this painting last night (well at about 2am in the morning so I guess you could say it was finished today really!)

Again, though its a 'portrait' I've taken some liberties with it - especially with the clothing, I'm finding its more fun to let my imagination run loose than to create a straight representation of what I see, and i like the sugestion of a story that the image implies.

Time to get started on a new batch of paintings now - I already have one in the pipeline involving a Steampunk and a bottle of Absinthe :)