Lab Book #14, Part 3: The Magician

At this point I was really on a roll with the Lab Book #14 series. The concept of a surrealistic circus had begun to wane a little, in this edition the actual Magician is barely recognizable (he is the character on the right with the egg-shaped head), however it still stays true to the overall feel of the series. The signature red-brown colour appears throughout the work, the design is flowing and organic, and the colour scheme is pure psychedelic. On that note, I was listening to the Beatles Abbey Road album and was particularly inspired by John Lenon's Walrus song...the lyric 'egg man' appears next to the egg shaped head. How have I been taking these digital pictures of my artwork? The type of camera does not really matter for these small on line images, for the initial pictures I was using the old power shot A20 model from ten years ago. The key factor really is the type of light. Indoor light (even under a regular 100 watt light bulb) is really the worst, the result comes out all orangy-brown. If the flash goes off, then the colours get all washed out. By far the cheapest strategy is to wait for a a really sunny day, and go outside....put the painting on the ground and stand over the picture (careful not to put your shadow or foot in the way). More expensive is to get some real studio lights with strong bulbs, which I do not have (although 'image of brain repair' was done in this way by professionals). The nice thing about having the indoor lights is that you can use them in the winter. I am only now posting the Lab Book 14 paintings done in January because I had to wait over a month for the sun to come out! 

Lab Book #14, Part 3: the Magician, watercolour 12 x 16" hot press, 2008 (No. 1802)