Dawn Chorus

Dawn Chorus .avi

Dawn Chorus

I had previously tried some basic animation in Photoshop.  With this image I did create a simpler animation but I did want to try it in Flash. Yip I have some old software.  This was the first time I had tried to use it for this.  I got some basic animation and then dropped some sound in as well so there is a still image and this animated version.  The biggest thing with the animation is to plan ahead and have the right elements separated out - still lots to learn. 

Stalking

Stalking 

This was a piece done for the Unreal Bjornament .  I went with a different approach for this in part because I was short on time.  Everything was built on greyscale and then coloured.  When I was working on it I thought the read was good but I failed to push it in the colouring phase in the foreground -so still work to do.  I might have another attempt at finishing this.  

Simpler landscapes

Seaside

Desert

Trialed simplifying some landscapes for practice.  These were based off photographs.  Trying to refine my process for producing these.  I will try and push the stylisation when I get more confident with it.  

Glowing tree

Glowing Tree

Back to the oil painting.  This is a 12 x 16 inch on canvas based on a photograph.  I did a drawing in pencil followed by sealing it with an acrylic wash putting in the basic values.  

After that layer was a dead layer in oils.  

When it was dry I went back in with oils.  The initial plan was to use glazes but I ran out of time so ended up using more opaque paint followed by one glazing layer and then a final touch up.  

I ended up working on 3 paintings at the same time cycling through the process with each in turn. More on them next week.

Walking and Talking

Walking and Talking

This was an oil painting commission.  Actual size was 76 cm x 61 cm which is the largest canvas I have painted.
As it was such a large canvas I wanted to plan everything out so started with thumbnails.

With a thumbnail selected I went ahead and did a more detailed study with some pose options.  

With all the elements locked down the last thing was to select a pallet.

After that it was out of the forgiving digital world and into traditional media.  A line drawing was made on a gridded canvas 

After that I did a very rough application of value using acrylic paint.  

After that I moved into oils further defining the values with a dead layer .  It was developed beyond this to a full value render - just forgot to take a photo. 

After that I moved into applying colour.  This was done over 2 layers of paint followed up with washes. 

The weasel was mostly white at this point.  

I had to go in and change it to brown - very carefully - total size of figure was about 1 inch.

Magical Powers

Magical Powers

Yeah managed to finish something at last.  This was completed just before the deadline for Unreal Bjornament.  I spent most of the time doing the value work and then had to drop some colour on really quickly so I used alot of filters and adjustment layers to speed things along.  I don't think it harmed the final outcome.  I streamed some of the work on Twitch . 
I did not spend a lot of time on this as I had a lot of painting to get through.  More on that next week. 

Lots of WIPS

Unreal Bjornament WIP

Unreal Bjornament 2 is underway and I decided to take part again.  First topic Magical Powers.  
This is my WIP.  One of many WIPs in progress.