A lot of WIP

Aerial Attack - WIP

Aerial Attack-colour  WIP

This week I am in the middle of a few projects.  The plan for the aerial attack is to complete it in oils on a 30 cm x 40 cm panel.  I did the roughs in Photoshop but this will be transferred to the panel.  When doing this I came across a really good visual development series CG World entry.JP by Ishiko Ito.  Its in Japanese but is readable with google translate if you have no Japanese.  It is the most comprehensive and well explained resource I have seen on building an image.  

The other challenge I have set my self is to design more characters - I will try to finish as many as I can and try a few different approaches.  These are 30 minute sketches.  So lots to complete.

small orc - sketch

brawler - sketch

druid -sketch

Remington Study

After Frederic Remington with the 10th cavalry

Another bad week for me with regard to work as I am still recovering.  Above is a study I completed of a Frederic Remington work With the 10th Cavalry.  I choose just to do the main figure.  I enjoyed the looseness of this.  It was serving as a study for another piece I did get to start.

More Lines

Resting 

 Was sick this week so reduced output.  I did keep working with pen and ink trying some things out.  An eclectic mix.  

Portrait study 35 

Portrait study 35

People in chaos

Lines

Apple blossom 1 

Apple blossom 2 

After Henriëtte_Ronner-Knip_

Lab

Lots of lines this week. It started out in photoshop where I just wanted to practice lines (Lab).  I then went back to pen and ink and played around with some hatching work.  They were studies from photos of apple blossoms.  Finished up practicing with washes from a painting after Henriëtte Ronner-Knip.  Will see where all these lines lead. 

Masters studies -oils

After Rosa Bonheur The Wounded Eagle

After Rosa Bonheur Bull

These are the two copies in oils I started last week.  I think I have one more pass at each until they are finished.  I painted directly and then used some glazing.  I plan to do some streaming so I will be able to capture the process abit better than the stills. The eagle was a real challenge the best way to approach it was to layer the colours so I had at least to detail sessions after blocking in. There is no way I would have been able to approach a subject like that successfully without doing these kinds of studies.
Still doing the digital studies -  

Portrait study 33

After Ernest_Meissonier-A Game of Piquet

I also did some photo manipulation for a fun for a contest - came third but got a  write up  here. 

Stormy landscapes

Stormy landscape

Spent the week doing some oil studies and some landscapes.  The one above started out with some photobashing then working to set mood.  The images below are some mapping of various paintings compositions and some studies in oil.  The images link out to the original images.   

After Rembrandt Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee

After Ivan Shishkin, In the Wild North

After Turner  The Fifth Plague of Egypt

After Peder Monsted Woodland_Landscape_1907

After _Ruisdael

The Windmill at Wijk bij  

After Rosa Bonheur Bull

After Rosa Bonheur The Wounded Eagle

Bringing it home

Bringing it home

A landscape just to practice some processes.  Used some lighting ideas from  The Windmill at Wijk by  Jacob Van Ruisdael.  Other than that I have been working on some oils but they are in different stages of completion.   

Roboworg - Hearthstone Fanart

Roboworg

Roboworg - howl

Roboworg-process

Created a worgen character for Anton Zemskovs  Hearthstone challenge .  This was a reimagining of the unpowered steambot.  Amazingly managed to get this one submitted in time and had a bit of fun because everything was layered.  Need to get into After effects to do a better job.  Spent the rest of the time cleaning up all the other recent work with an eye to updating my portfolio.  Plans are now to work on some landscapes and  master studies. 

Stream

Stream 

Sheep

Went back to oil painting this week.  Had some mixed results.  I plan to continue and try a few different approaches rather than the direct mostly wet in wet method.  The sheep is a mixture of watercolour and gouache.  

Clew Bay - Landscape Studies 15

Clew bay 

Forest walk 

Snowy mountain 

Changed gear and returned to landscape studies.  These were from photos.  I used one brush and tried to use the same approach if I were doing them in oil.  Just to practice planning and process - big shapes and values. I am working in oils this week. 

I did finish off the characters for the Wild West Challenge. I will try and put some more work into presentation.  

Barman

Judge

Gunslinger grandma

Gunslinger

Sheriff

Native American and bear

Wild West Characters

Wild West Challenge Line up 

The Artstation challenge finished yesterday.  Managed to work all 10 characters to some sort of finish.  I was in the process of building this image and my computer gave up under the strain.  It was quite a big file.  In hind sight I should have built it by flattening layers as I went along.  Anyway by the time I had realised what was wrong, shutdown and rebooted it was too late to meet deadline.  I was disappointed after all the work but the aim was to do alot of characters for a deadline and refine my process so I did achieve that.  I will polish the ones that need a little more love and post them on Artstation just to finish things out.   

Outlaw 1 safe cracker

Outlaw 2 -robber

Townsfolk 1 dancer 

Native American eagleer

Wild West Line-up

Wild West Line -up

Last week was all about the Artstation Wild West Challenge.  I played around with a few different approaches to this but opted for a more straight forward interpretation.  Part of the reason was I wanted to try a line based design process.  With 10 characters required I will have an opportunity to fine tune it.  This is the first outlaw - a safe cracker.  I plan to add flat colour and shadows to each.  The second is townsfolk no 1 - dancer.  This has the value work plus lines over the top.    Lots of work to meet deadline.  

Safe cracker -lines

Dancer 

Boros

Boros -Gwent 

I finished a version of this last week to enter in the Gwent Witcher card game competition.  I don't think I entered in time.  In any case the image was not finished so I spent this week polishing as much as I could.  It is of Boros a dwarf that got drunk and drowned trying to retrieve his ring. 
 The other competition that is running is the Artstation Wild West Challenge.  They require 10 characters and I spent some of this week working on those.  These are some playing around with watercolour and acrylics. 
After this I am going back to studies. 

Gunfighter 

Native