MARCH 2021 (8)

Has anyone heard of Hashim Akib?  I became intrigued about his technique with acrylic paints because I was tired of trying to obtain smooth transitions of light and shade to depict roundness. His answer, he doesn't try to use an oil painting technique but mixes colours on his brush to obtain the values he is looking for without smoothing at all.  It is a little more complicated than that, but if you are interested here is a link to his website  https://www.hashimakib.co.uk

I managed to obtain his first book and although I thought at first "this is definitely not for me" I eventually thought I should at least give it a try.  I will say I find it extremely difficult to do it as he does, but after all I haven't had 15 years of experience; not to mention his obvious drawing skills (which I think talented artists sometimes forget they have - and some of us lesser mortals definitely don't have) and they think it is as easy for the rest of us to know exactly where to place the highlight and at what angle, let alone solve the problems with perspective! 

Anyway enough of my whinging, I decided to try a simple one, a rose for my flower subject of the month.  It was not a great success, here is mine 

16

16x 28cm

and here is his

and I was definitely tempted to give up.  I was clearly too tentative with my brushstrokes and my use of colour and, as I said before, my lack of drawing skills, but I thought "Do I want to clone Hashim?" and the answer was "No, I don't, I just want to get more fun out of painting" so I found one of my own photos and without looking at the book again tried that using what I remembered of his technique.

17

19 x 26cm

I liked this better and decided that I would try and use some of what I had learned in my next painting which was for the other subject of the month "building" or in my case "Buildings" as it is from an old photo I took of Bridgnorth in March 2003

18

42 x 59cm

Obviously the road in the photo wasn't pink, and in fact the buildings on the left were all white(ish) but I pushed the colours as far as I dare and really enjoyed the painting process which, after all, is what this is all about.  

Also, as  Bob Ross would have said, this painting is my world and I can have in it whatever I want. So there!!!!!