Aug/102
Daily… An environment study
I’ll be doing a lot more studies from now on to help me improve my painting and lighting. My time limit for these will be 30 mins to one hour. This particular one I did in just under 30 mins.
I’m definitely trying to keep it fast and loose, but I think more edge control would be helpful. Also approaching the leaves (even if only roughly indicating them) with more intention would benefit the piece. Quickly indicating leaves is not something I can really do yet (or clouds, and I think the technique will end up being similar for the both), so I’ll definitely do more of these.
Jun/100
Daily… Zen
I started with the Oil Pastel brush, dabbing in the dark tones, intending to build up a background to do a painting on. The dabs started to look like rocks in a void, or misty expanse, so I went with that. I wanted to add in a figure to set scale and give the piece another focus. I don’t really like what I came up with for the figure. I was roughing something in and it started to look like a person (of whatever sort) and then I kinda chickened out and played it safe rather than developing it in a direction I’d have liked. Well, next time!
May/100
Daily… Thumbnailing
I finished up the last week of the semester on Friday, feels nice to have a moment to breathe. I’ll be leaving my job soon to focus full time on school/portfolio building. I’ll be taking a summer course now that I’m working towards a degree. I’ll be taking Color and Design which is pretty much a learn how to paint class. You start with the basics of how to mix colors (and of course the whole what colors go together).
I took such a class at my previous college, but it didn’t transfer over. It’s one of the core classes for almost all the degrees here. I’m really excited at the prospect of taking it now though. I have a few years experience at the school and my drawing and (digital) painting skills have come quite a ways, I’m excited at applying all that to traditional paint.
Throughout the day today I painted out these quick thumbnail sketches. I probably spent around 10 mins on each one all using the Oil Pastel brush again.
Mar/100
Daily… The island
And now we’re moved! It was an intense process and we have so much unpacking to do! In the vein of dealing with difficulties of moving, I sketched out the worst place to move to! Well maybe not the worst, but I still think it would be an intense place to relocate to!
Jan/100
Daily… The bay bridge
I went across the bay to San Francisco today, it was nice to get out. I walked to the Embarcadero and was tripped out by all the fog, I couldn’t even see Treasure Island. Started this painting on one of the pedestrian piers with my lappy then noodled on it a bit at home.
I really need to practice painting from life more, it was a fun experience, but I have so much to learn!
Dec/090
Daily… A floating city island
Started as random blobs of tone and then it started looking like a floating island. I went with it!
Dec/090
Daily… A city sketch
A sketch of a city done in a light ink wash style.
I watched Let the Right One In tonight, it was an amazing movie. The locations and cinematography were gorgeous, quite a bit of it was shot outside in the snow, it was starkly beautiful.
Nov/090
Daily… Abstract sketching
I was playing with a sketching brush in photoshop and just built up tones until I saw a subject.
Aug/090
Daily… A ship on approach
I got a lot of sketching done in my sketchbook today, that felt quite nice.
Decided to do something different for my daily. This piece really lacks clarity, but I just don’t have the energy to put the time into it to refine it, I need to give my drawing hand a rest! I started with the tower and landscape and decided to add in a ship, it’s simple but I’m liking what it adds.
Jul/090
Watercolors
I bought some sennelier watercolors and a pentel watercolor brush some months back. I finally put them to use. I was a bit intimidated by my 6in x 8in blank pad of watercolor paper, so I cut it up into smaller pieces (about 2in x 3in). Somehow that made a difference. I did a little sketch with a blue pencil on each one, then went at it!
It’s an interesting medium to work with, I had some white paint to use, but I tried saving my lights (meaning using the white of the paper) as much as possible. I was successful in some instances, and not in others. One of the images was supposed to be of a chrome-like ship, I did a quick paintover in photoshop afterwards to show what I had intended it to look like. I’ve also included two works in progress, one is just the sketch and the other has the background painted in (the subject in that one will be a floating island).
Jul/090
Daily… An abstract environment
I just started sketching random shapes and a structure started to appear.
Jun/091
Daily… Cityscape thumbnail
It was really hot again today, but tomorrow starts a cool week. I noticed quite a difference between this evening and last night.
I’ve been watching some documentaries from netflix, featuring the wonderful David Attenborough. I’ve watched a number from the ocean series and have been inspired to paint a fish. I had hoped to do that tonight, but I’m just feeling too tired. Perhaps tomorrow.
Instead, here’s a quick (5 min) thumbnail of a cityscape. If you take a closer look, you can see all the brush textures. The original file is 1600 pixels wide, but I zoom way out and just work on the overall composition. Initially I was just blocking in colors to use as a backdrop for a sketch, but then the blue shapes started to look like buildings, so I shifted in that direction. Put in a strong light source so I could have some nice hilites/rim lights on the buildings.
Jun/090
Daily… Environment thumbnails
I gave myself a drawing exercise today, to draw out ten environment thumbnails in my sketchbook. Scanned them and then added tone to No. 5. It was a fun exercise, I’m going to try and do it more often.
Jun/092
Daily… A canyon
Listened to some music after work and sketched out this canyon. Threw in a little tone.
