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MARTIN HOUSE
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Résumé - Martin House is an exceptionally gifted self-taught Portrait Artist who gave up a successful career in property development to follow his passion for creating traditional and contemporary portraits and other fine arts.
His preferred mediums are Pencil, Acrylic and Oils. Preferably Oils. When he is working in Acrylics he will tend to use vibrant colours and make an impact with colour. Martin uses oils mainly for portraits. He likes to practice skin tones, fusing the oil colour together on the canvas or paper rather than on the palete. Martin finds this works better than mixing a colour on the palete.
When working in pencil Martin likes to apply as much detail as possible. He has been painting since 2007 and had not picked up a brush or pencil before that. He wishes he had. Martin has been published and has exhibited at major galleries including:
We found Martin's pencil drawings to be mesmerizing. Impressed with his perspective, we (Max Energy Ltd) commissioned Martin to produce a short sequence of graphic story boards for Blueplanet Productions. The brief was to illustrate a chapter of the book 'Kulo Luna,' where a grief stricken humpback whale avenges the death of a small companion, committed by pirate whalers. We asked him to do this work in comic format, providing only a few Hitchcock style pencil sketches by way of direction.
One small portion of a frame was used for the book cover seen below and please note that Martin was not responsible for the typeface. The illustration was tagged by a popular fan site earlier in 2012 - as you can see from the picture. This one book cover (there are other versions) on this website receives around 4,000 hits a month (@ 11-2012) - thankyou Martin and thank you readers. Shortly after providing our sample, Martin completed the Iron Man painting below in oils. He will be producing other graphic arts in connection with the Jameson Hunter series of books.
Martin is generally interested in illustration work, for storyboards, book covers and advertisements. He is presently preparing a number of his artworks for presentation and displays. The Gallery below is under construction. We hope that you will enjoy the varied styles as we publish these original works, many of which are offered for sale.
We are particularly excited in the prospect of covering the development of a fine art portrait of a well know personality. You can follow these development on Martin's website. We hope that you will enjoy watching this portrait come to life as much as we will.
MARTIN'S VIRTUAL GALLERY
(Click on the thumbnails to see a high quality image of the above)
If you are interested in any of the paintings (or Prints) on this web site and would like more information and a guide price (if not shown) please follow the links on the appropriate page to get in contact with the artist's agent.
MARTIN'S MASTERCLASS
OIL PAINTING
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint consisting of small pigment particles suspended in any light carrier other than water. Oil paints have been used in England as early as the 13th century for simple decoration, but were not widely adopted for artisic purposes until the 15th century. The most common modern application of oil paint is domestic, where its hard-wearing properties and luminous colours make it desirable for both interior and exterior use.
History
The slow-drying properties of organic oils were commonly known to early painters. However, the difficulty in acquiring and working the materials meant that they were rarely used. As public preference for realism increased, however, the quick-drying tempera paints became insufficient. Flemish artists combined tempera and oil painting during the 1400s, but by the 1600s easel painting in pure oils was common, using much the same techniques and materials found today.
Carrier
When exposed to air, vegetable oils do not undergo the same evaporative process that water does. Instead, they oxidize into a dry solid. Depending upon the source, this process can be very slow, and it is this property which gives oil paints their unique characteristics.
This earliest and still most commonly used vehicle is linseed oil, made from the seed of the flax plant. The seeds are crushed and the oil extracted. Modern processes use heat or steam in order to produce a larger volume of oil, but cold-pressed oils are generally considered superior for artistic use. Other sources of carrier oils exist. Poppies, walnuts, and soy beans, are often used as a substitute for the relatively expensive linseed.
Once the oil is extracted additives are sometimes used improve its chemical properties. In this manner the paint can be made to dry more quickly if that is desired, or to have varying levels of gloss. Modern oils paints can, therefore, have complex chemical structures; for example, affecting resistance to UV or giving a suede like appearance.
Pigment
The colour of oil paint derives from the small particles mixed with the carrier. Common pigment types include mineral salts such as white oxides: lead, zinc and titanium, and the red to yellow cadmium pigments. Another class consists of earth types, e.g sienna or umber. Synthetic pigments are also now available. Natural pigments have the advantage of being well understood through centuries of use but synthetics have a greatly increased the spectrum available, and many are tested well for their light-fastness.
Usage
The main disadvantage of oils paints is the relative complexity of use when compared to acrylic paint or tempera. The carrier is usually highly resistant to water and requires some sort of solvent such as turpentine or benzene to clean up. These are toxic and must be handled with care. The pigments may also be dangerous. Lead is toxic, which is an important reason why it has mainly been replaced with zinc and titanium. Cadmium can cause cancer with prolonged inhalation. Both the carriers and the materials used to clean them are also highly flammable. Paper or rags soaked in pure linseed oil are known to ignite spontaneously. References
WILLIEM [sold] LEWIS HAMILTON [sold]
External linksLINKS
A heartwarming adventure: Pirate whalers V Conservationists, with an environmental message. For release as an e-book in 2013 with hopes for a film in 2015 TBA (graphic design: Martin House)
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This website is Copyright © 1999 & 2013 Max Energy Limited an educational charity working hard for world peace. The bird logos and names Solar Navigator, Blueplanet Ecostar and Utopia Tristar are trademarks. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged.
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