We worked with watercolor in class and I had never really used watercolor at all before. This stuff is really tricky! I'm excited to practice with it because it seems well suited to doing quick paintings outside.
There are some unresolved issues but I am done with this one and hoping to do some things better next time?
A while back my teacher gave us each a sketchbook for drawing ONLY with ballpoint and said “Fill it.”
This is some anatomical stuff I did from a reference figurine.
Thanks!
The oil painting is still unfinished. We went on our break for school and then when I got back I wanted to develop it more with just the straight paint before using any medium. Now it's at the point where I'll finish it up using paint + medium, but I haven't done that yet.
Here's where he's at right now:
As far as that tonal drawing goes, it's a little messed up because the model has been really ill or something so we've been waiting to do our last 2 sessions on it for a looong time. I made the odd choice to pretty much completely redraw the fabric, so I'm working on that a little and crossing my fingers that she is able to come back and I can finish up my to-do list for the figure.
Here's where that's at:
I guess in the picture before you couldn't tell but the paper is green
I'm excited because this semester I get to paint this guy:
It will be cool to study out a cut/muscular dude instead of another gentle looking lady. And to paint something that's actually, you know... a living person!
Iruka/Projeck: So my school situation has changed some from last year. Last year I went to an atelier called SORA in Chicago, where we attended Tuesday-Friday. A model came for 3 hours in the mornings and then we spent the rest of the time working in our own space on a cast/still life/ whatever. Since we all had keys we could really come in and work whenever we wanted, so sometimes I would come in on an off day or stay until 10 or so if I didn't have work. There were four teachers. Over the summer, my favorite teacher left the school to start his own studio, and since everyone wanted to keep learning from him he decided to do class twice a week there. So this year I've been going to his place, on Wednesdays to draw the model (same pose all semester), and Fridays to work on my own thing. Some weeks I can make it on Thursday for more work time. Last semester I also took classes on Tues/Thurs from an art foundation called the Palette and Chisel, but this semester I can't because of $$. So... this is actually the first time in a long while that I get to have time where I'm not either at school or work or trying to catch a little sleep. It's nice!
But I really love going to school. Seriously, even though on some days it's so challenging that it gets frustrating, I feel like I learn every single time, and school is the only place where I never have those worrisome thoughts along the lines of "is this going to work/am I working hard enough/etc", because I just get to be there doing my thing and it is the best feeling. Even if progress is slow, it doesn't matter because all I want to be doing is working at this thing I love to do, so getting to do that is awesome.
That got a little rambly... woops.
Tam: The oil painting is from a model. It's a cast painting exercise, but instead of a classic statue I'm working from a plaster cartoon
I started a drawing of the pose this semester that I'm going to transfer for an oil painting.
I have been really concerned with the perspective of the head, because it's this odd little tilt that tends to vary. I still look back at that drawing of the girl's torso that @rts critiqued and get frustrated that I never saw how out of perspective her features were, so lesson learned-and I'm tying to avoid that problem now.
So I started on the painting of the guy. Here is the wash, what I have so far:
The odd little tilt didn't stay, so I ended up completely redrawing the head a couple of times. I swear half the time we put into these pictures is spent on drawing/painting things that are completely redrawn/absent from the final picture! So maybe one incentive for getting better then is just that messing up takes up a lot less time, haha.
I had never done a wash for a painting yet, so it was a little confusing, but it feels like it will help A LOT going forward. It seems like every time at school, I learn something about how to paint that is so fundamental that I'm not sure what I was doing before understanding it (whatever it is).
Also this is 18" x 32", which I think is the biggest painting I've done so far.
@Ninjai- This is an oil painting. There seem to be a bunch of different ways to work with oil paint, but I've only ever used it at school so I'll explain how we use it there. First, we cover the entire canvas with a little paint that's diluted in turpentine to give it a flat tone, because looking at a white canvas sucks for values. For this painting, I then transferred the basic drawing I did of the light and dark shapes in charcoal onto the canvas. Next was the wash,a step I hadn't done before, which is using paint diluted with a little turpentine to quickly get a basis down for the different values, and fix problems with the drawing as I go. Each step really includes fixing the drawing as you go :P. After this point, we use just straight oil paint with nothing added to it, and do this for the vast majority of the painting process. Once the only changes/developments left to do are too subtle to manage with the straight-up thick chunky paint, we use a little medium (which is stand oil+demar varnish+turpentine) with the paint to finish it off, because the medium makes it a little more smooth and translucent.
Here is what it looks like right now. I've moved on from the wash to the block-in, so areas on the figure that I've worked on since the wash are just straight paint.
It sure is challenging!
Also, this is something that I put in the enrichment thread. It's a drawing that my dad wanted me to do of him and my mom from an old photo. It was tough but I think it turned out okay. It's about 6"x 8", charcoal and chalk on blue paper.
I went out to do a landscape with my school people again today, and by surprise I ended up using color! So this was the first time I painted outside, and the first time I used color oil paints ever, and it was SUPER fun! Before I have only drawn outside, but now I want to do plein air as much as possible, because it's awesome
I was expecting using color to be scary and frustrating, but instead it was just really fun.
Colors were ultramarine blue, lemon yellow, cad red medium, burnt umber, and white.
What an awesome coincidence that @angel_of_bacon made a color study enrichment! I don't know if this painting fits the thread challenges specifically, but all the same, what a perfect time for me to try some of those things.
So I started making the comic that I had panned out when @Iruka made the 30 pages/30 days thread. I've never really made a comic before so any advice to make the subsequent pages better would be appreciated!
So I finished that cast painting from school, which is cool because I was getting pretty tired of looking at it!
Also I have another page of the comic. Using the tablet is feeling really awkward. I feel like I could draw it a lot better just on paper, but I want to get better at using the tablet, so I'll keep sticking it out for now.
More anatomy stuff
Aaand some more progress on that figure painting. We have three more sessions left, any suggestions on things to fix or work on? (I know the legs are way behind)
Its lovely to see all your new technical skills applied to illustration. Its rewarding to watch all those studies have real,, tangible results. Do more!
I really love this; I'm reminded more of the Weaver from Perdido Street Station, but he wasn't a caterpillar. That illustration is so intricate and surreal; I love it! (If I can't awesome it more than once I'm going to say it over and over again I guess.)
Thanks so much for the encouragement! I think this is finished for the moment; I really enjoyed doing it and am very excited to keep doing more! This one is actually going to be the first in a pair of illustrations, so the next one up will go with this.
So since I last posted I had wanted to work on the value composition a little. It looked better having the closer part of the monster being darker and then getting gradually lighter toward the head. I also added contrast to the head and forward limbs, so they wouldn't be overtaken by the spots. It was a weird balance between wanting it to stay relatively flat and graphic, but also give a little more info about the form. I wanted the lavender stalks to stay flat, more like a pattern, or a screen.
We've been away from the pose for a bit so looking at it again today I saw all sorts of crazy things to fix. First things first though was to try catching up the gams a little.
Soooo I finished that figure painting, but I haven't gotten a picture of it yet. Hopefully I remember to do that on Friday.
In the mean time, today at school we did 6 hours of gestures. Which is like woah (in a good way). The poses were anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, and we did a few 25 minute drawings at the end. My teacher said to pick two to do skeletal and muscular studies of, so these are the two that I picked:
7-10 minutes, can't remember exactly
25 minutes
Anatomy studies of these guys coming soon! I definitely feel more confident about doing gestures now than when I walked in to school today
Thanks, @Wakkawa! Yeah, doing gestures for that long can make your head spin, but we learned a lot. And the model kept up like a champ!
Anyway, now I have a picture of my first figure painting! There are things about it that I would like to improve upon next time, and I think I could have improved some of those things with a little more time, but overall I feel good.
Posts
We worked with watercolor in class and I had never really used watercolor at all before. This stuff is really tricky! I'm excited to practice with it because it seems well suited to doing quick paintings outside.
There are some unresolved issues but I am done with this one and hoping to do some things better next time?
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
This is some anatomical stuff I did from a reference figurine.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
How did that oil painting turn out?
The oil painting is still unfinished. We went on our break for school and then when I got back I wanted to develop it more with just the straight paint before using any medium. Now it's at the point where I'll finish it up using paint + medium, but I haven't done that yet.
Here's where he's at right now:
As far as that tonal drawing goes, it's a little messed up because the model has been really ill or something so we've been waiting to do our last 2 sessions on it for a looong time. I made the odd choice to pretty much completely redraw the fabric, so I'm working on that a little and crossing my fingers that she is able to come back and I can finish up my to-do list for the figure.
Here's where that's at:
I guess in the picture before you couldn't tell but the paper is green
I'm excited because this semester I get to paint this guy:
It will be cool to study out a cut/muscular dude instead of another gentle looking lady. And to paint something that's actually, you know... a living person!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I wish I had more to say, but I dont really have any crits for you.
What are your semesters like? How are the classes treating you? Are you enjoying it?
have you said that
I might be dumb
But I really love going to school. Seriously, even though on some days it's so challenging that it gets frustrating, I feel like I learn every single time, and school is the only place where I never have those worrisome thoughts along the lines of "is this going to work/am I working hard enough/etc", because I just get to be there doing my thing and it is the best feeling. Even if progress is slow, it doesn't matter because all I want to be doing is working at this thing I love to do, so getting to do that is awesome.
That got a little rambly... woops.
Tam: The oil painting is from a model. It's a cast painting exercise, but instead of a classic statue I'm working from a plaster cartoon
I started a drawing of the pose this semester that I'm going to transfer for an oil painting.
I have been really concerned with the perspective of the head, because it's this odd little tilt that tends to vary. I still look back at that drawing of the girl's torso that @rts critiqued and get frustrated that I never saw how out of perspective her features were, so lesson learned-and I'm tying to avoid that problem now.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
spoiled for bigger
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
So I started on the painting of the guy. Here is the wash, what I have so far:
The odd little tilt didn't stay, so I ended up completely redrawing the head a couple of times. I swear half the time we put into these pictures is spent on drawing/painting things that are completely redrawn/absent from the final picture! So maybe one incentive for getting better then is just that messing up takes up a lot less time, haha.
I had never done a wash for a painting yet, so it was a little confusing, but it feels like it will help A LOT going forward. It seems like every time at school, I learn something about how to paint that is so fundamental that I'm not sure what I was doing before understanding it (whatever it is).
Also this is 18" x 32", which I think is the biggest painting I've done so far.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Can't wait to see the progress on this!
Here is what it looks like right now. I've moved on from the wash to the block-in, so areas on the figure that I've worked on since the wash are just straight paint.
It sure is challenging!
Also, this is something that I put in the enrichment thread. It's a drawing that my dad wanted me to do of him and my mom from an old photo. It was tough but I think it turned out okay. It's about 6"x 8", charcoal and chalk on blue paper.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I need to post right now because I am just SO excited to have a working scanner again!
Wee!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I was expecting using color to be scary and frustrating, but instead it was just really fun.
Colors were ultramarine blue, lemon yellow, cad red medium, burnt umber, and white.
What an awesome coincidence that @angel_of_bacon made a color study enrichment! I don't know if this painting fits the thread challenges specifically, but all the same, what a perfect time for me to try some of those things.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I feel like it's been a long time since I've done anything with bright colors!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Also some more anatomy stuff.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Also I have another page of the comic. Using the tablet is feeling really awkward. I feel like I could draw it a lot better just on paper, but I want to get better at using the tablet, so I'll keep sticking it out for now.
More anatomy stuff
Aaand some more progress on that figure painting. We have three more sessions left, any suggestions on things to fix or work on? (I know the legs are way behind)
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
So hey guys, I'm trying to start drawing my illustrative ideas. I finished the pencils for this one yesterday, and I'm going to color it today.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Got the basic color idea down:
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I really love this; I'm reminded more of the Weaver from Perdido Street Station, but he wasn't a caterpillar. That illustration is so intricate and surreal; I love it! (If I can't awesome it more than once I'm going to say it over and over again I guess.)
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
perhaps even
radical
So since I last posted I had wanted to work on the value composition a little. It looked better having the closer part of the monster being darker and then getting gradually lighter toward the head. I also added contrast to the head and forward limbs, so they wouldn't be overtaken by the spots. It was a weird balance between wanting it to stay relatively flat and graphic, but also give a little more info about the form. I wanted the lavender stalks to stay flat, more like a pattern, or a screen.
bigger in the spoiler
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
We've been away from the pose for a bit so looking at it again today I saw all sorts of crazy things to fix. First things first though was to try catching up the gams a little.
2 more sessions left.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
In the mean time, today at school we did 6 hours of gestures. Which is like woah (in a good way). The poses were anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, and we did a few 25 minute drawings at the end. My teacher said to pick two to do skeletal and muscular studies of, so these are the two that I picked:
7-10 minutes, can't remember exactly
25 minutes
Anatomy studies of these guys coming soon! I definitely feel more confident about doing gestures now than when I walked in to school today
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
But that figure painting up there and the cast painting have awesome lighting.
I disagree. Gesture is my favorite thing in the world ever.
Anyway, now I have a picture of my first figure painting! There are things about it that I would like to improve upon next time, and I think I could have improved some of those things with a little more time, but overall I feel good.
closer:
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt