After Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier-Gouache

This was a study to practice using gouache.  Meissonier was known for his detail work so this was a good one to practice with.  I drew the image out in pencil then went in with the paint. It was painted over a sessions.

Character sketches 7

Still a few of these to go but I will start mixing it up with some environments. Have no written much the past few posts.  That was down to my keyboard- the space bar stopped working and I was using the on screen keyboard to drop in the spaces.  Brand new shiny rig now.  Anyway I stuck with this exercise because it forces me to work in lines and figure out details before painting.  Something I would not have usually chosen to do but I can see the advantages and it definitely speeds things up. 

Character Sketches 6 -In the garden

Yip still a few of these to  go.  

Character sketches 5- Duelists

A few more sketches. Still playing around with workflows. 

Character Sketches 4

Another couple of sketches. A bit of contrast between them and more to follow.

Character Sketches 3

Fencer

Before Sat nav

A few more sketches. 

Character Sketch 2

Hunter

Apothecary

A continuation of the character sketch exercise.  Trying out some more techniques. 

Character Sketches 1

Thief

Started doing a series of character sketches.  These were done changing the process as I went.  Trying  out different approaches moving more to line sketches. These are the first of a series. 

Ink Sketch 1

Ink Sketch 1

Did not feel right to let inktober pass without making an effort. The dogs were done with a  pen.  The sketch of the boy is a study of at  school doors by Nikolay Bogdanov Belsky and was done with a brush pen.  More to follow.  

Porttrait study 29

 Some more portrait practice

Rendezvous

Rendezvous

Worked on this for a while trying to work out textures and lighting in between other studies. Glad I didn't abandon about half way through. It started out from this  which I  like because of the lighting.

Sketches 33

Sketches 33

Another round of sketches from pixellovely.  Class format so they range from 30 seconds to 1 hour attempts.  Did these while testing out the Twitch service for streaming here.  Trying to sort out my internet service so I will be able to do this more regularly.  

Character Sketches -Gouache

Character Sketches -Gouache

After the portrait practice tried out some characters from imagination in gouache.  On the whole an ugly bunch. 

Oak Grove after Shishkin

Oak Grove in a Grey Day after Shishkin

A landscape study after Shishkin. Lots of different temperature greens.  

Zebeck After Haag- Gouache Study

Zebeck After Haag- Gouache Study

 Tried another gouache study copying Carl Haag again.  Like the ease of establishing edges and unlike acrylic can go over dried areas and rework.  

City Hall -Gouache Study

City Hall -Gouache Study

 Another gouache study from a photo.  Did something architectural.  The photo is of San Francisco city hall after the 1906 earthquake.
 Looks like they rebuilt keeping some of the major features.

Mountain Top

Mountain Top 

A practice piece to try and get some atmospheric perspective going.  

Portrait study 28

Portrait study 28

Some more practice.  Did these a while ago.  The reference was from pixellovely.  I did them just before the site went down -  a result  of an attack.  Glad to see site is back up.  I think these were from a 2 hour class. 

Archer -Gouache study

Archer -Gouache study

Another gouache study. This one done from photo reference.  

Study Gouache After Carl Hagg

Study Gouache After Carl Hagg 

Trying something different.  
James Gurney has been running a series of articles on his blog about gouache. As part of that series he launched a competition to paint a gas station using black and white gouache.  I bought the paint but missed that deadline.  I haven't used gouache before or watercolour so I thought I might study first before trying something more challenging.  

Servant and Master

Servant and Master

Another character study.  
When I started trying to practice more seriously resources to help were numerous - folks had started livesteaming, Conceptart.org was a buzzing place.  Seemed like there were lots of people learning together. Over the past few years it has got a lot more fractured and harder to get that constant nag to work and get better.  There are still lots of resources - free and to pay for but it feels like you have to pick your was through things to find whats useful at the right time.   
Someone who was active getting better backwhen I started and has reappeared streaming is John Silva- you can catch him streaming on  twitch. 
I was listening to his stream when I started noodling with this.  He gave some advice to someone he was critiquing - keep your values close.  That was what I tried to do here. Thanks John.
 

Falls

Falls

Not happy with this one but time to move on. 

Retreat

Retreat

Built this up from a photo base. Nothing much left of the photos except the colour scheme and some texture.  

Roar

Roar

Got back to some portrait sketches. Have some practice work to show later.  This one is of Andy Murray who is playing in a Wimbledon semi final today.   

Swamper

Swamper

An illustration where I tried to keep the colour palette in check.

Park

Park

Some lasso and textures put to work. 

Stopping

Stopping

Tried a different kind of character study this time.  

Duel

Duel

Playing around with some different techniques. 

Fishing Outpost

Fishing outpost 

A piece to cement some of the stuff learned during the last bout of landscape studies.