Portrait Tips

Came across this video a short while back.  It talks about taking good photographic portraiture but the principles hold true for any portrait work. The critiques are great.  Joe McNallys site is here.

Sketches 26

Sketches 26

 

  Trying to pick this activity back up again - installment 26 with a little gesture time thrown in. 

Portrait Study 9

 

Portrait Study 9

Have not done any portrait practice for a while.  This one was happened by chance as I just chose  a random file  option on  Wikimedia. 

Baroque Sofa Study

Baroque Sofa Study

Thought I had got the last of these posted but no -one was still lurking.  A study from the speedpaint study group on DA.   Reference from two-ladies-stocks.   

I am fortunate to have 2 monitors to work from.  I usually put ref on 1 and work from the other.   A continuing issue that I kind of ignored was that they were not matched for colour and brightness.  I started Livestreaming and the default monitor for their software is the second monitor.  This has forced me to eventually try and balance them both as best I can.  The reason I mention this is that this was started on Livestream and was a much darker image when I compared to the ref.  I spent some time trying to correct it so this did go over the 2 hours. 

Sligo Courthouse Study

Sligo Courthouse

Sligo Courthouse

A study of a Sligo courthouse  photograph taken probably in the 1900s.  The building remains as a courthouse and the police station remains across the road as it seems was the case back then judging by the figure in the foreground.  More information about the building is here. 

Interior 2

Interior 2

As promised did a longer attempt at an interior. These are hard but I am sure they are good practice. 

A Fall

A Fall

After all those interior studies felt the need to break out some curves and unruly lines.
  
This is loosely based on the myth of  Tír na nÓg.  The hero Oisin meets a mysterious woman Niamh of the Golden Hair,  falls in love and returns with her to Tír na nÓg (land of the young).  After a time he gets homesick and Niamh lets him return but warns he must remain on the horse he travels back to Ireland on. When home he learns that 300 years have passed and all those he knew are gone.   He stops to aid some men moving a stone.  While doing this he falls from the horse and instantly ages and dies.  The horse returns to Tír na nÓg.  

Sketches 25

Cant believe the last set of these was back in April.  Definitely out of practice. 

Landscape -Mountain

Landscape -Mountain

I recently moved to a new job and with that move I moved to a different part of the country.  This is a view outside my window.  Plein air  - kind of,  cos I was still inside.  Took about 90 minutes.  We have had a run of really great weather so there was great visibility.  I am sure I will attempt this many more times so there it is a kind of benchmark.  By the way if anyone is kind of jealous I cropped the view to leave out the two lorry containers that are abandoned - left over from the Celtic Tiger. 

Applied Interior - sketch

Interior Sketch 

Just a quick sketch - Trying some stuff out.  Hope to put in a more serious effort soon. 

Abandoned place - Speedpaint 4

Abandoned place - Speedpaint 4

Another speedpaint from the DA speedpaint group. The reference was from decay-stock on DA.  This wraps up the interior studies for now.   I started this series without much of a strategy to get any sort of result.  I have tried a few things but for me the most important thing has been to plan the approach - putting in major shapes building up from the background to the foreground.  So with imaginative stuff it will be even more important to have a good idea of where the image is going. Will try and incorporate more interiors to get some practice.  

 

Abandoned hospital-Interior 3

Abandoned hospital-Interior 3

Though still part of the series of interiors this one was not a speedpaint.  I took some time and tried a couple of approaches to getting the lines.  
The reference was from CyrnicUrbex on DA but he seems to be posting more regularly on facebook. 

Old world Interior -speedpaint 3

Old world Interior -speedpaint 3

Keeping the interior studies going  here is another one for the DA speedpaint sketch group.  The reference is from Nickistock.  

I should also add that I have started dipping my toe into Livestreaming. This was one of the first broadcasts (might have suffered for that).   The channel is here and i am listed on Wolkenfels great App.  Come by and say hello. 

Modern Interior - Speedpaint 2

Modern Interior - Speedpaint 2

 Followed up the last speedpaint of an interior with this 2 hours work.  The reference is courtesy of XLCowBoy and interior design by DRG Design. Sorry DRG Design for mangling it - hopefully folks will check out the reference before judging your fine work. Lost it on the lights.  

Still more of these to come. 

Abandoned-Tavern speedpaint

Abandoned-Tavern speedpaint

A speedpaint done for the speedpaint group on DA.  As ever I took the full 2 hours.  The reference was courtesy of neverFading stock here.  
I don't like doing interiors because of the requirement for all that precision but in an effort to become more comfortable with this I decided to do a series of interiors.  

Snowy Wreck

Snowy Wreck

Trying to apply some of the things learned for the previous study.  Did not change too much and it was still a struggle. 

Alexei Savrasov Winter Landscape Master Study

After Alexei Savrasov,  Winter Landscape

A master study of Alexei Savrasov s Winter Landscape.  Did not know too much about this Russian landscape painter.  This one was a lot about the subtle shifts in value.  Did not spend too long on this maybe 3 hours. 

 

Tower Valley Landscape

Tower Valley Landscape

Application of the pond study here.  Need a lot more practice on these.  More to come.   

Landscape Study -pond

Landscape Study -pond

A landscape study of the pond in Belleek Wood, Ballina.
Below is the reference.  The application to follow.

Rhino Guy

Rhino Guy

Rhino guy is an application of the previous rhino study . 

Rhino Study

Rhino Study

Rhino study the reference was from Drezdany on DA.  This guy was lots of fun a real texture fest. Now to apply it. 

Drop In

Drop in

Application of the bug study from here . 

Bug Study

Study of a photo taken by the brilliant Vadim Trunov. I also did a few silhouettes of bugs. A bug from imagination to follow.

On the move

On the move

Started out as a study. Started with the background then went off script.  Might get back to the study again.  

I have finished moving and am now surrounded with lots of boxes which I might or might not unpack. My Internet connection is a bit dodgy here so will just have to see how things go.  All that has had an impact on how much time I can spend practicing.  I start my new job next week so I will have to get used to a different routine.  I have lost my lunchtime study time and will spend more time commuting but on the plus side I am hoping that i wont be so tired in the evenings.  We shall see ..

Digger Concept

Tried to apply the study done here.  First serious go at doing one of these. 

Mechanical studies 2

Digger Study

Another mechanical study.  Heading towards applying these studies.  Hold onto those nuts and blots!

Portrait 8

Portrait 8

Doing some more portrait practice.

Mechanical Studies 1

Train Study

Armoured Car Study

My linework is really poor in Photoshop.  To try and get some practice I started to do some studies of mechanical type things.  Started with linework then rendered.  These can only improve with practice right?

White Witch

White Witch

The CHOW on Conceptart.org was the  White Witch.  As I am in between jobs I for once had some time to give it a go and post WIPs.  Unfortunately the website has been down for the last while but  I kept working on the character. Turned out to be quite a lot of work.  At the end of it my fav bit are the mice. 

 

Bird Watch

Bird Watch

 This started out as doodle and kept on working on it.  Probably influenced by the nestcams that are active right now.  There are some great ones out there examples from Warsaw and Ireland.

Interior 3 -abandoned room

Another practice interior study.  
The reference was from here.  The photographer is David Tribby. 

Minotour

Minotaur

A while ago I did an image for bloodsports.  I had very little time and rushed it.  I wanted to go and visit that again but just as a straight forward concept.   It is a very literal take on the Minotaur and an exercise in rendering.


By the way this is my 300th blogpost since I started in December 2010.  
Thanks for dropping in and keeping me company!

A Touch of Evil - Bloodsports 16 Final

A Touch of Evil - Bloodsports 16 Final

 This is the final image for Bloodsports 16- The Big Rig.  The Judas Priest track was 'A Touch of Evil'.  Did not really stick with the brief as it was to convey a mood-Not really a big part of this image.  I was not super happy with the alien design.  You can see the fiddle farting that went on with that bad boy in the gif.  I thought about going back and redesigning something a bit more reminiscent of Alien.  In the end I didn't and it ended up looking more like a homage to 1950s movie creature design. Kind of went with the image. Not quite what was required but I had some fun.