Belleek Forest Sunlight in Autumn Oil Painting

Belleek Forest Sunlight in Autumn

As I mentioned earlier I was working on a painting and finished it at the weekend. I was on holidays a few weeks ago and was walking my sisters dog in the local woods. I brought my camera to get some photos with some good brown leafyness. I did take a lot of those kinds of pics but just as I was leaving I turned and took just 2 shots of this scene. I thought it might end up being blown out - facing the sun but this was the one I selected to do some painting practice with. 

The canvas I had was a 20 x 20 cm canvas. Faced the same issue I had with my last painting. A landscape image on a square canvas.  On this one I dropped the detail at the sides.  

I drew the image on the  canvas  using a hard pencil then went to work blocking in the major shapes then left to dry overnight.  

Followed on by working on the foreground then left to dry overnight. 

The next day another few hours on the canopy.  

Then a couple of evenings pushing and pulling areas all over the canvas until I called it done.  All together maybe 10-12 h work.  
It was fun.  Most disappointing element were the tree trunks.  Should have worked on them earlier.  Next time...

Mikado biscuit study in Photoshop

Mikado Biscuit

Another Photoshop study.  Another biscuit.  This one was definitely less successful than the red pepper 2.  The colour is not so good and I wanted to get better texture. Took about 2 hours.   By the way this is a Mikado biscuit - pink marshmallow, jam in the center and covered with coconut sprinkles.  Anyway onwards and upwards. 

ART FOR ALEXANDRA

An artist  Alexandra Trotsenko suffered a horrific attack and recently the attacker was sentenced.  The  the injuries sustained have meant that Alexandra can, for the moment, not practice her talent.  This was reported by a program on the national radio station RTE Radio 1. In response to this, the community has contributed artistic works to an auction with the hope of raising funds to aid Alexandra to regain her ability to create and to support her on her journey.  The auction will take place tomorrow the 27th November.  Adams are hosting the auction and have an online catalog where you can view the pieces submitted. It is a really good snapshot of the work being produced by contemporary Irish artists.  Have a look and you may  be in a position to support. 

Irish setter dog vector

Irish setter

Well not really a vector.  I did this in Photoshop just for some practice with line discipline during my lunchtime at work.  The dog is a red or Irish setter.   

Update- This proved so popular I have dropped this image into a Cafepress shop. 

Kingdom of Heaven still in Photoshop

Kingdom of Heaven still in Photoshop

This is the last of a series of  longer studies in Photoshop.  It concludes this group of  exercises which represent the most finished work I have managed in Photoshop.  This took between 10 and 11 hours.   The plan now is to try and put a personal piece  together and try and finish it to this level.  Simple right?

I currently working on a landscape oil painting - if I tip away at it every night this week it should be done by the weekend.

Pepper number. two Photoshop study

Pepper 2

This is a still life study in Photoshop.  Took about 2 hours.  It turned out OK but I should probably do a few more of these lower light studies.  The green work in this is definitely poorer.  I used some subdued lighting as all the speed painting work had been in a direct strong light. The good news is that my trusty pepper plants have kept producing.  I will have at least two more larger peppers this year before the plant rests. 

Troy Still Photoshop study

 

Troy Still Photoshop study

Thought I would take advantage of some free time to do another detailed study so in keeping with the theme already established, I copied a still from Troy. This took about 8 hours in total. The rendering on the armour was tough and still had to take a few shortcuts with it.

Roman Helmet Photoshop Study

I completed a study in photoshop of a brass roman officer helmet.  The reference image on the right was obtained from the website Wulflund.    There site had some really great high resolution images of their products.  They offer a range of items from ancient and medieval times. If your into re-enactment they have got a lot of really good looking kit. 

This was a study to practice rendering materials.  This was the first time I had tried to make an image approaching photo realism. This image took between 10-12 hours over a few days.  It seems edge control was the key to creating the illusion. It is 29 X 29 cm but only at 72 dpi.  The 72 dpi was a rooky mistake.  It should have probably been 300 dpi. 

The lower resolution made representing the small details to a high finish not possible.

I guess I learned something which was the whole point of the exercise.

Last in speed oil painting series- a camera

Camera

This is the last from the series of fast oil painting studies I did. This one really got away from me as I struggled to get the perspective.  It ended up going beyond the canvas.  I had planned to go back and work it further the next day but I didn't.  I will go back and do another series of these but since then I concentrated on Photoshop stuff and the more finished oil painting.  I am a bit behind in the posting so I will be putting up more recent stuff and talking about where I am with this work. 

Autumn oil hedgerows oil painting

Autumn Hedgerows

Had some holidays and choose to send some time working on some images.  This one is oil on canvas about 20 X 20 cm.  I decided not to fill it and I think it worked out OK.  This is the view from the back of my house but I used a photo I took during a rain shower for colours in an attempt to mute them.