Guard

Guard

This one started out as some photobashing for an environment.  I like the complicated nonsense thats in this.  

There be dragons

GOT screencap study

This is a study of a still from Game of Thrones - about 2 hours.  The limited offering is because I was away last week in France so only got to do some sketchbook work.   I did get a chance to take some photos, among them was this little fellow, part of a bridges guard rail.  

There be dragons 

Different Ends

Different Ends 

So I was working on the lower image and it was taking forever.  At the end of a session I sketched out over the background and it went in a completely different direction.  The lower image is still not worked to a finish but this is as far as I will go. Will take what I have learned and put it in the next piece. 

Work in progress- After Peder Monsted

Work in progress After Peder Monsted 

Didn't manage to close this out this week. Still a bit to go and I am really behind because this is Spring.  Most of the work on this lies in the detailing which is yet to come. Spurring me on to go and do some plein air.  Weather has been good of late so there may be opportunities.  

Sketches -Big Suit

Big Suit

Surprise

Baby Sumo

Buff Dude

Sword Dude

ugly 

Some sketch book pages.  This book I fill up during lunchtime using a biro.  I am making my way through Hogarths dynamic anatomy and these doodles are interspersed.  Lots of guys - mostly big and ugly  - probably because all the anatomy is male. I have some other sketches which I will upload later. 

Are you lost Boy?

Lost Boy?

Wanted to do something a little less demanding so had some fun with this.  

Doing some more serious studies alongside.  This is a study I did while Grigoriy Peppo  on twitch streamed  a study.  Sorry I did not write down who the original artist is but the original is exquisite.  While doing it I thought it could have been done yesterday - has a timeless feeling. 

Stray

Stray

I wanted to make this cinematic -staged lighting feel.  I think I kind of stumbled into it eventually.  I worked on it in greyscale first.  I was happy enough with that then wrestled with the palette a lot. I also played with Stanley Artgerm Laus method of adding colour which offers a lot of control.  Will use this approach again. 

Sketches 35-Hmmph

Hmmph

This week some sketches.  Bank holiday here and a day off.  Caught Johnderekmurphy on Twitch today doing some practice work and followed along.  The first three are from that session.I got some ink so I have been doing a bit of traditional sketch work.  I have a another book where I am sketching and studying anatomy for a while now.  I find it easier to do those studies in ink.  

Barn

Barn

Did an interior which I started as a photobash but ended up painting something completely different.  The limited pallet kept things simple.  Didn't want to render it beyond this.

This is prompted by a writing exercise from John Gardners book  “The Art of Fiction”.   It has the following brief - 

“Consider the following as a possible exercise in description.  Describe a barn as seen by a man whose son has just been killed in a war.  Do not mention the son, or war, or death.

I thought it was a good challenge for an environment. In essence it is what an environment should do - communicate the mood without the aid of the narrative.

Spring has arrived

Spring has arrived

Easter here so some themed work.  Still struggling with the practicing environments but managed to get something in this one.  Yes  I know thats a weak excuse. 
The sheep are Valais blacknose sheep.  Youtube video here. Brace yourself for cuteness. 

Straw Warrior

Straw Warrior 

Supposed to be landscapes this week. I did start one but I took a break to doodle and this is what I came up with. It was much easier to work on so I kept going with it. 

Trying Trees

Trying Trees 

Some trees from imagination.  
It looked better about half way through.  
Think I fussed too much over it. 
Moving along....

Landscape studies 13

Landscape studies 13

Went back to landscapes.  These were all from photos I took.  The plan was to try a few different approaches to get the structures down with the least amount of fussy brush strokes and pay attention to edges.  The aim is to get better at planning things out and moving on to more imaginative stuff.  I am also hoping to do some gouache and oil studies and imagination work.  

Bigger Boat

Bigger Boat

Started out as something completely different but this is where it ended up.  If I had designed earlier I would have grouped the waves but it is what it is. 
See there are some new blogger themes maybe time for a site facelift.  

Unsung hero -Still Life

Unsung hero  -Still Life 

Its celeriac.  Bought it just to do a still life study of it.  (May make some chips from it also.)  Had not done a still life in a while and I thought yip I want to do one of this. A couple of hours of effort and a nice change of pace.   

On holidays

On holidays

Poke

Rebel

This week just did some studies and tried a few different approaches to rendering. Just trying to get a more finished look more efficiently.

After Charles Leickert -Dutch village scene with figures on a frozen canal

 After Charles Leickert -Dutch village scene with figures on a frozen canal

Finally got around to finishing this copy. Working on this scale (25 cm  x 20) is hard but by the end I had a system for working the details but I could have been neater from the start.  This was an interesting palette and had to work hard to get varying hues.  Looking at the original I could have pushed the darks more.

Lunch Break

Lunch Break

Celebrating those times when you think everything is under control you decide to take a short break and everything goes to. .  .  A lot of repainting on this and still not happy but on we go. 

Part of the way

Part of the way

Worked on this for one evening and for the last two weeks no progress.  I also have a digital piece that I have not yet finished.  The advantage of the digital is that it lends itself to working on it for short amounts of time over a long period which is great because I have not been able to get the extended periods of time that the oils really need. 

More mountains

More mountains

Another ink sketch.  Practicing landscapes from photos. 

Big Bugs

Big Bugs 

This is a reworking of an earlier piece -thinking about a book cover.  The challenge was to push it as far as I could. So I think it is one of the more polished pieces I have completed. Having got near the end there are things I would change but for this one it is enough. Next one will be more dynamic.  

Dinosaur sketch

I had planned to post another image but have not finished it as much as I would like so some more sketchbook stuff.   The  first image is a copy from a movie poster for Valley of Gwangi by Frank McCarthy. On the reverse of it I did another dinosaur using a different approach.  Didn't mange to hold onto the balanced proportions of the first.  

Anatomy of a band

Anatomy of a band

Noodling around with some old anatomy illustrations.

After Charles Leickert Winter Landscape with Skating Figures

After Charles Leickert Winter Landscape with Skating Figures

 Happy New Year to all.  Took advantage of the Christmas holidays to resurrect the oils.  Did a small copy (25 cm x 20 cm )of this painting image from sothebys.  Getting the detail in on such a small scale was a challenge.  It was nice to get back to oils. 

Portrait Study 30

On holidays over the Christmas.  Doing some studying.  Trying to be as economical as possible with strokes. 

First post of 2017.  Happy New Year folks. Lets see what this year brings!