ten minute paintings
Right, so, that drunken painting session? We were in the kitchen, I was adding spirals to the mermaid's tail, cyrus-ii was doing something arcane with a coin and an electric file (actaully it might have been a mini angle-grinder, I couldn't quite tell) and romauld was smoking. I stopped working on the mermaid but wanted to keep painting, so romauld asked if he could suggest an image for me to paint. I said sure. He started to describe a scene, but I was slightly too tired and slightly too drunk to follow what he was saying and remember it well enough to reproduce it, so I got him to slow the description down, and I painted what he described at high speed, as he described it. I haven't done ten-minute paintings since the last time I went to a life drawing class. Here's what we came up with between us:
Brief: A rolling landscape in the foreground, green and summery. Midsummer sunrise on the horizon. On the crest of a hill on the right, an oak tree in full leaf. A lowing stag silhouetted against the dawn.
romauld's comment: The tree was meant to be much smaller, and also silhouetted. The stag is good though.
My comment: OH GOD NEVER LET ME DO LETTERING. EVER. Especially when cyrus_ii is around and could have done it instead. ESPECIALLY WHEN I AM DRUNK.
Brief: A river or estuary, flowing into the foreground from the left. On the right headland, three standing stones. On the left headland, Cernunnos, looming. He should seem to be coming towards you out of the painting.
romauld's comment: As a whole, this painting is very elemental.
My comment: The obelisks look like splodges and Cernunnos is too close to the left hand side of the painting. He also looks like he's thigh deep in water. And very pissed off about it.
Brief: A starry sky. On the right, a rocky tor in the shape of a cup - the archetypal Holy Grail. A stream flowing down from the brim of the cup. Two wolves howling at the moon. A dragon flying above the tor.
romauld's comment: Ah. Hmm. Okay.
My comment: The wolf on the right isn't a wolf. It's a bear.
cyrus_ii's comment: It's not a bear, it's a sea lion.
Brief: A forest, during the day. In the foreground, a man standing, holding a staff. He is wearing the typical Celtic trousers - tartan, cross-bound with thongs. Beside him, a woman kneels on one knee, holding a bow. A wolf sits next to her. (This is apparently from a story about Adaon and Rhiannon).
My comment: ARGH I'm rubbish at figures from imagination. Twitch, you take over! I'm going to have some more wine.
cyrus_ii's comment: I'm going to try and to cover up your attempt at figures by giving them other echoes, to make it clear that Something Mythic is occuring.
romauld's comment: Er. Could you do this one properly for me some time?
Brief: Salisbury plain. Stonehenge visible on the horizon to the left. The centaur Epona is galloping towards us in the centre of the frame
My comment: ARGH RUBBISH TWITCH MORE WINE.
cyrus_ii's comment: (stabbing the paper repeatedly with his inkpen) DYNAMIC MOTION INDICATORS!!
romauld's comment: I don't think Salisbury Plain has trees.