niggle – Graeme Skinner

Rider in the storm

Graeme Skinner — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:52:37 +0000

I’ve intended for some time to paint Niggle as he rides through the storm to find a doctor for his neighbour, it has always been a large oil painting in my head, but before I start I thought I should try and get my ideas together on the computer

For those that are yet to read the book, shame on you it’s worth a read…

Niggle would approve.

Graeme Skinner — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 05:39:48 +0000

I started sketching a tree for the theme of the month over on John Howe’s website, it was supposed to be a quick simple sketch, then I got too the branches. The good intentions of a quick doodle to get in the right frame of mind went out the window and I started to become a little obsessive over the branches, I ended up doodling away at each little branch ignoring pretty much everything else. However, I get the feeling I need to obsess over the branches of the next tree just a little more maybe I’ll hide in a corner, turn off my phone, and just release that inner Niggle that resides somewhere in all of us – or maybe he just exists in my confused little brain

Oh, if you don’t know who Niggle is I’m shocked and horrified but it can easily be remedied …

I’m almost positive…

Graeme Skinner — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 17:16:05 +0000

….that I painted a scene like this once, I know Niggle would have been involved somewhere along the line

From Mist to Niggle

Graeme Skinner — Fri, 16 May 2014 19:45:23 +0000

The morning started with mist in the valley which I thought worth snapping a photo of…

But really my eyes were drawn to the greens on this tree….

Perhaps it’s the inner Niggle in me clamouring to get out

παράφρασις

Graeme Skinner — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:36:28 +0000

Last month I started on a painting of Niggle working away, it was for the theme of the month over at John Howe’s website. The theme was ‘The Bestest Book Ever – Imagine this is your dream commission, the book you’ve ALWAYS wanted to do a cover for.‘ So an illustration of Niggle was an obvious one for me to attempt. Sadly it was overtaken by real life events and I could not fit in any spare time to splash paint around, the month was gone all to quickly and the new theme was ‘The Real You – Self-portrait month. this is your chance to paint the inner you, or the outer you, as the case may be. Or to assume the psersona of your dreams.‘ The Niggle illustration seemed to fit the new theme perfectly, after all according to Tolkien “Niggle was a painter. Not a very successful one, partly because he had many other things to do. Most of these things he thought were a nuisance; but he did them fairly well, when he could not get out of them: which (in his opinion) was far too often.” I’d already posed up the ladder as Niggle, and the board was roughly marked up, so I just had to slap a little paint around

Painting Niggle

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:02:31 +0000

Trying to think of painting leaves without thinking about Niggle (as in Niggle from Tree & Leaf by J. R. R. Tolkien) and his tree is almost impossible for me, and so when I saw the theme of the month was Into the Green over at John Howe’s website my mind turned to Niggle and what he would paint. For some reason I did not want to paint his tree, or a segment of it, but illustrate him painting part of the tree. I probably spent more time on the leaves than I should have done, but it was quite a fun painting to do so I’m not complaining

A3 Watercolour.

Morning Mist, Leaves & General Distractions

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:58:06 +0000

This morning I went for a wander with the dog and the camera fully intending to take some reference photographs of horses. As I wandered along the lane I became more and more distracted with the mist and the leaves and the way the moisture clung to everything. I did take a horse photograph but it was in the end a distraction to the magic that mist can create.

WC #10

Graeme Skinner — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:29:27 +0000

Week ten of the weekly challenge

Mish Mash

I had good intentions of sketching early this week and having everything ready, which is why I am again uploading last minute sketches. Okay the first ones are fairly obvious given the new arrivals to the garden –

For some reason though, my mind has been turning more to Niggle this week than anything else, which is why I had a quick Niggle scribble (though it’s really not a Niggle leaf) –

and finally a bit more Tolkien

Niggle 1

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 08:21:02 +0000

Right I have read “Leaf by Niggle” again, and I’ve come up with a rough list of pieces to try and illustrate. However, I’ll probably change my mind and illustrate some completely different pieces. So here is the rough list…..

Cover – Niggle painting a leaf (shock horror), or number 16 – burnt leaf, I could likely spend more time on design ideas than illustration.

1. Niggle and Parish’s Houses in the country.

2. Niggle in his shed.

3. Parish & Niggle talking – prior to bike ride (sketch)

4. Niggle on bike

5. The inspector and driver

6. On the train. (sketch)

7. In the ward

8. Breaking Rocks (sketch)

9. Niggle lying listening to ‘the voices’

10. Niggle and Guard

11. Niggle’s bike with label (sketch)

12. Seeing the tree

13. Niggle and Parish working by the tree

14. Walking together (sketch)

15. Niggle goes on

16. Burnt piece of canvas

17. Final sketch of the sign (Niggle’s Parish).

Okay, so there are probably more than is needed for such a short story but hey, I’m an amateur

Now all I have to do is get together some reference pics then start sketching – working out what Niggle looks like is proving to be a problem, but something will come along…..

That Niggle Moment

Graeme Skinner — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:35:07 +0000

I started a new painting which is not unusual for me; anyway as with Niggle and his Tree this is perhaps a bit too large for me and just a bit beyond my current skill level. Yesterday I mounted the canvases on the easel (using my patented canvas holding easel attachment) and then started on the sky which went fairly fast – which is not normal for me, painting a sky in oils can be a trial which I normally have to build myself up to but this time it went without incident.

So this morning I went back to the easel to start on the background hills, I had one small reference photograph with me but it was not doing much for me if that makes sense. Put it this way, I have quite a large stock of images which should cover quite a few varieties of landscape but nothing felt right for this painting. The answer of course was to squirt out some paint and just wing it, the first colour on looked dark and rather foreboding – perhaps I should have planned something first, but anyway I decided to see what happened (it’s only a couple of huge canvases after all). As I started adding the second colour something started to click in my head, for what felt like the briefest of moments I was lost in the painting and when I stopped it was done…. well the background at least is done. The foreground will at least need some more thought before I step up to the easel again.