Lobster Dinner

Lobster Dinner

I went back to oils to complete this still life.  This guy I got frozen. I thawed it and put it on top of some freezer blocks to keep him cold while I worked.  It felt odd painting this guy cos this is the first time I had painted something with an eye in a still life.  This took about 2 hours and yes on completion he went back in the fridge and the next day was dinner.  I took some pics so when I get a chance I will do some Photoshop studies.

Past and present

Found this really interesting merging of past and present photographs.  Turns out the building bubble in Ireland did not obliterate all the character of our towns.  Kudos to the artist  Colm Williamson. 

After Jean Jaques de Boissieu A Male Saint

After Jean Jaques de Boissieu  A Male Saint 

This is a master study of a work attributed to Jean Jaques de Boissieus  A Male Saint (1781).  I saw this painting on the Sothebys auction site.    What really struck me about this painting was the execution.  I didnt know much about the Boissieus.  Turns out he was best known as an engraver. 

A search of internet could did not reveal any other paintings.   Estimate for auction is only $8000 to $12000.   

Olympic Diver Oil Painting

Olympic Diver Oil Painting

Last Olympics I had a tv card in my computer.  I recorded a whole set of sports that arent usually televised.  At the time I had the intention of using them at some point.  The ones that were really stricking were the divers.  The filming of these was really high end stuff.  Along with the slowmo it was possible to isolate the diver from the background.  It was from one of these sequences that I grabbed this image. 

Olympic diver

Monk Character

Monk character

I was messing around with some doodles when this guy showed up. Dont know where he is going. 

Trappers Return

Trappers Return

This started off as a random doodle exercise but with the idea it would be some environmental piece.  It continued form that to the final piece.  About two thirds way through I tried to move to a more finely rendered piece but it just didn't work so I scrubbed the layer and kept the roughness.  It was a good exercise and a different way of working for me.  

portrait practice 4

Portrait 4

Another episode of Awesome Horse last weekend.  It was a painting demo with a live model.  I didn't have the courage to reach for my paints so I retreated to Photoshop for this.  Original image and submitted results are on Facebook. 

On the Road

On the road

Add caption

This was an image that started out as a straight forward study but after about an hour I changed it up.  It was a good exercise.  I got the clouds and God rays from another photo I had. 

Dog sketch

Dog Sketch

I do some dog sitting from time to time.  This dog likes to climb up on the table where the computer keyboard and monitor and sleep while I work.  She has been doing this since she was a puppy.  This is a quick sketch of her taking a nap.   

After NC Wyeth Awesome horse

After NC Wyeth

Awesome Horse did another episode last Saturday.  It was based on the drawing on the right side of the brain approach to drawing.  There were two studies.  The second was this NC Wyeth that I painted upside down during the episode.  It was an interesting exercise and is a recommended way of learning to draw what you see not what you think you see. 

Kagan Krall Bloodsports 10 final

Kagan Krall Bloodsports 10 final

This was my final submitted image for Bloodsports 10.  Went in a different direction for this image.  First off it is deliberately brighter.  Moved out of the shadows that I worked in for the previous entries.  This was a move to try and push the rendering and drawing - there was no where to hide.  The second thing is that I changed the character from a man as mentioned in the brief to a woman.  This was because I had not had a chance to design many female characters in these challenges. I worked with a number of characters this was a leap for me.   Oh yeah,  threw in a pet for good measure.  I wanted to depict a strong female character but offset that somewhat with the inclusion of the shopping bag .  This was a last minute decision and included it but kept it a deliberately low contrast so it would not be a focus point. 

Kagan Krall thumbs-Bloodsports 10

Tried out a number of compositions - scenarios.  A lot of them were humorous in tone just because of the necessity to display the juxtaposition of barbarian in 1986.  I suppose the more challenging thing would have been to find a different tone but I knew going with one of these would be more fun.  I did eventually go with the Frazetta type composition but subverting it.  Went with a mall environment and an escalator. 

After Frazetta

After Frazetta

Frazetta set a marker for fantasy illustration with this in 1966.  It was for its time special.  Gender politics and depictions in other media have moved so far in the intervening times. This was the subject of a post by Jon Schindehette quite recently.  Definitely go and read.  The central question is 'Where do you stand on the depictions of characters in fantasy?'

 I used this as a jumping off point for the bloodsports challenge.  Keep an eye out for how this influenced what I ended up depicting. 

Interior study 2 -mall

Interior study 2

Mall Amman

I knew the Kagan Krall image was going to require an interior so I did this study.  it is pretty miserable but I did figure out that these kinds of images need to be planned.  For me it would have been easier to work from the background forward.  Anyway I definitely need to do more of these to get some sort of work flow.  

If you want to see an example of mastery check out Isras work .  All done in Photoshop. 

13th Warrior - Photoshop Study

Having committed to Kagen Krall for the Bloodsports I knew I would need some woolly warrior vibe.  This is a still from the 13th warrior.  

13th Warrior film still - Photoshop study

Bloodsports 10

Well I will try and ace the perseverance element of the Bloodsports cos its  Bloodsports 10 and yes I am going to participate.  Of the 3 options I am going to go with  --

KAGAN KRALL- IN THE YEAR 1986!

This option is an exercise in CHARACTER JUXTAPOSITION. Popularized by many movies in the 80s, a character from a set time period is transported to a strange future world not his own. Many movies dealt with this by sending characters to the past, but for this challenge wed like you to bring some kind of barbaric warrior into the world of the late 1980s. everything in his surroundings should feel like 1986, offsetting his rugged and ancient look. you can also take any other approach to this you can come up with that works in the set guidelines. Maybe hes trying to fit in, like the trench-coated dude from highlander, or maybe hes just a shitty version of HE-MAN walking around a video game arcade. You decide!

 KEY ELEMENTS - Barbarian look or feel to the character, 1980s looking environment. clear that he DOES NOT BELONG HERE.

After Bierstadt -Awesome Horse

After Bierstadt

Awesome horse  have started another season of fun and info.  To kick it of there was a speedpainting demo by Noah Bradley.  The master study was of an Albert Bierstadt work.  It was just under 2 hours.  Above is my effort as I painted along. Noah is really fast and got a good level of finish insanely quickly.   



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