I’ve decided to have a go at painting a castle on my refurbed Buckby Can. Never having attempted one before I had a look at a load of pictures of can castles first. I can’t say I liked too many of them and the ones I did like were beyond my level of ability, so I have made my mind up to paint them inspired by tradition rather than copied from tradition. Of course, most of the old traditional ones were designed to be painted quite quickly, hence their often child like simplicity. Well I have at least stuck to that! Having spent many many years learning about tradition, mostly in music and dance, I don’t have too much time for purists, especially those who haven’t done their homework and don’t understand what they are being “pure” about. (Here I could write a ten thousand word article, but suffice it to say that a good tradition is a living one.) That’s no excuse for my poor painting skills of course, rather for my designs.
Here are my first attempts on an old bit of MDF. from which I have learned a fair bit about what not to do! The actual size of each is about two credit cards, so quite small.
Number 1 top left. too distant, No2 top right castles should be bigger, No3 bottom left too rough (slow down), No 4 better, castle takes up more of the frame
The last one (below) is an attempt at an oval frame which brings out the castle more. very hard to paint a neat oval though.
I seem to have been inspired by the leaning tower of Pisa in some of them. I think I might end up doing one that is a cross between the bottom right one of the four, and the one in the oval. What do you think?
9 comments:
I like number 1!
For my money - I like number one (top-left) too!
Martin
Number 4 for me...
Far better than I could do. Have you looked at pictures of Trakai castle in Lithuania? I visited it once and was convinced it's the prototype for them all.
No mountains in the distance though.
I think there are a lot of windows ... (you did ask!) I think also that you'll have to cut out and mount each of your prototypes as miniatures for inside Herbie. The oval framing makes a huge difference - I like that one!
Thanks folks. interesting that number 1 gets some votes. Whilst it is a more complete scene, I've opted not to use it because in such a small frame a number of the features would be tiny and not visible from a few feet away, which is how most folks will see the can.
Nick, you're right, that Lithuanian castle dos look like the ones often seen on cans. I looked at a lot of pictures of castles before I started. The one I liked was Neuschwanstein castle in Germany -stunning - look it up, but much too hard for me to attempt.
I like them all, Neil, but the oval one at the bottom is my favourite as the castle feels much more dominant and easily visible. I also like the oval shape.
Gotta admit that I painted my 1st castle by numbers from a Phil Speight video, but having done a few now, I can do it from memory. However,I am still searching for different tree shapes and mountains. Met Dave Moore couple of yrs ago and he has been very encouraging. Apparently your roses will improve after the first 500!!
I did my first castle by numbers from a Phil Speight video, but can do them now from memory. However, I'm still looking for better trees & mountains. I met Dave Moore a couple of years ago & he has been extremely encouraging. He says that my roses will improve after the first 500!!!
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