Landscape after Konstantin Kryzhitsky- pt1

Landscape after Konstantin Kryzhitsky- pt1

 As  have had the luxury of some time off work I wanted to do some traditional work.  I decided to do a master copy in oils.  This is a landscape by Konstantin Kryzhitsky. I chose this as it looks like a serious technical challenge. I will figure it out as I go along I hope.  I have no idea how the original painting was put together.  I started out transferring the major features to canvas in pencil with the help of a grid.  It was recorded on Livestream.  

Hunter Gatherer Character

Hunter Gatherer Character

A random character concept just for practice- trying out some textures.  Enjoying the holiday break.    

Happy Christmas 2013

Happy Christmas 2013

 Happy Christmas!  Better late than never.  Started this too late not really giving myself enough time to get it finished.  I could have refined it a bit more with more time.

 Now with twinkle courtesy of google+.

Tiger Parachute Spitpaint

Tiger -Parachute?

It is what it is. 

Invulnerability Spitpaint

Invulnerability Spitpaint

A spitpaint on the theme invulnerability. 

Still Life Vegetables

Still Life Vegetables

A humble still life of a number of peppers.  Bought these to paint and I think I got them painted before they went past their prime.  Simple subject but hard to execute.  Haven't worked from life in months and I definitely felt it.  Orange pepper voted the worst.

Calling Home

Calling Home

It seems I have been working on this for ever.  I have worked on it for 1-2 hour sessions for the last 2 weeks or so.  Don't know if that helped or not.  I kept on returning to it with fresh eyes but ended up radically reworking stuff so it felt stalled for a long time.  I suppose it forced me to work through the problems- not saying I managed to fix everything.

Umbrellas spitpaint

Umbrellas spitpaint

Another spitpaint. Used a custom shape brush for this - cant remember which one.  I am working on something a bit  more involved than this at the moment just want to get it finished a bit more before posting. 

God of winter -Spitpaint

God of winter -Spitpaint

You come all this way and all I got for you is one lousy spitpaint.  Other demands on my time has seriously hit my productivity.  sorry for the slim pickings these days.  I am hopeful things will get back to routine in the New Year but for now I give you the God of Winter. A whole 30 minutes of effort. 

After Corrodi A storm in the Egyptian desert

After Corrodi  A storm in the Egyptian desert

I did another masters study in part because I am so busy and don't have enough time and energy to do much else.  Speedpaint for 2 hours and the livestream is here.  These are fun to do and I think lessons sink in.  I am trying to use some of what here here for a personal work. 

After John Singer Sargent Portrait of Sarah Choate Sears

After John Singer Sargent Portrait of Sarah Choate Sears

Did another masters study as part of the DA speed paint group.  This one I went a little over the 2 hour mark on partly because it was so much fun.  It was the first time I have had time to do any serious painting this week and I really missed it.  What is noticeable about this one was the detail was all in the face and hands all else was built from large bold brushwork and changing hue and value to suggest the form.  Great portrait. 

My effort things that jump out are - went astray with the proportions and did not reproduce the tones in the face.  May return to this to finish.  The painting process is on livestream. 

Sketches 31

Sketches 31

Some more Avatar sketches. About 40 minutes in.

Spitpaints- fishing- red thunder - librarian

Fishing

Red thunder

Librarian

Some more spitpaints.  That red thunder -dear o dear. 

Making Stuff

Making Stuff

After doing the Vermeer masters study I went about applying it.  Maybe a bit literal, but its done now.  Didn't want to spend too long on it.  Hopefully  some lessons have stuck.

After Vermeer The Milkmaid

After Vermeer The Milkmaid

Master studies are the theme for the speedpaint group on DA.  This one is Vermeers.  Composition was great and lighting.  Surprised how much work was possible in the 2 hours I spent on this.    As ever master copies on the Web means that copies will shift in colour and light.    Concerns about this painting on the web are discussed here.   The copy I worked from was on the dark side when compared with this one.  On the plus side it meant a lot of detail was hidden which stopped me going in early to detail.  
Livestream is here.

Spitpaints -seige - wildboar

Seige

Wildboar

Two more spitpaints from last week. 

Landing -landscapes

Landing

Had a go at some landscapes.   The top one I spent some time on- most of that revisiting portions of it again and again.  The ones below were more sketchy in approach. 

 The one above I knocked out in about 15 -30 minutes  and it remains  my favorite of the bunch.  What does that say?

Trex spitpaint

Trex spitpaint

I succumbed to the current fad of spitpainting and had a few goes. This one is from yesterday trex.  I guess it might be a good way of getting used to coming up with ideas quickly under pressure and putting things down and developing them quickly to see how they work. To be honest for me I think I would need a lot more experience for it to be of benefit.  But. They are  fun. These have been a good way of tinkering for a short time and producing something. I have been really time poor these past few weeks and this is set to be the case until Christmas.   My PC packed in so I am back on a windows Vista laptop.  Good times.  Cant wait until Christmas when I can make up for this lack of progress.

Sketches 30

Sketches 30

Keeping this going for better or worse. Really saturated pallet.

Beamish Steam Speedpaint

Beamish Steam Speedpaint

Another speedpaint from the DA group.  The reference is courtesy of Random Acts Stock.  Wheels are still killing me on these.  Need to get a strategy.  Observe and conquer. 

Strategy Agreed

Strategy Agreed

This took quite a while to finish. Lots of stuff to think about and solve.  Not all of it so successfully but I figure if it was hard I must have been learning something.  So on to the next one.

Self Portrait Day 2013

Self Portrait 2013

November 1st rolled around International self portrait day and I had a go again.  I completed a version on the day and posted it on conceptart.org.  Truth be told I did it at the end of the day and was exhausted so not my best effort.  I spent a little more time at the weekend to bring it to a more satisfactory state.    Self portraits are tough.

Rembrandt did a number of self portraits through his life.  They have been put together in this video.  The power of his work is in evidence as for me I get a sense of the man who painted each one of these as he experienced a rise and wane in fortunes.  

Gestures 1

Gestures 1

Getting some figure studies in. The references were from  the Croquis Cafe (NSFW).  Takes a while to loosen up and get into these after a long break.

Moonlight Climb

Moonlight Climb

Messing around with shapes and colours. 

Motorcycle speedpaint

A motorcycle speedpaint of about  2 hours.  The reference is from Speed-Stock on DA.  
The action is captured on Livestream. Wheels are hard to get right.

In Control

In Control

Did this a while back and did not post.  This random doodling phase is throwing up all kinds of stuff or maybe just encouraging some throwing up.

Mountain Man

 Had another go at a character.  A crack fighter pilot...nah a mountain man.  Just by coincidence I stumbled across a site Creation Nation that sells little dolls of historical figures.  The resemblance to Davey Crockett is striking. 

Rocks speedpaint

Rocks speedpaint

 Under two hours speedpaint.  Some of it was on Livestream.  The reference can be found here Joanielynn

Sketches 29

Feels like a while since I posted some of these. 

Desert Mine

Desert Mine

Like a lot of the stuff I have been doing of late this was not exactly planned.  Developed from some messing around it kind of grew.  It is kind of a pity because I should have stopped and changed angle to make it more dynamic but hey ho.

Cave speedpaint

Cave speedpaint

Another speedpaint on this months topic of caves and rocks.  The reference is once again belonging to Charfade .  Under 2 hours and this one was done on Livestream.

A short break

A short break

A quick sketch.  Definitely a change of pace on this. Wanted to try something else.