figure #7

A recent figure drawing that, I feel, has some nice things going. Unfortunately time was short after I missed on the first try, this was my second attempt.

carpool

I carpool with this guy.
He scares me, but with gas prices like they are, what are you going to do?

Centered

This is the drawing from a new oil painting I am just starting. I am really excited for it because I like the composition(not shown here) a lot. I don't produce oil paintings as much as I would like, primarily because it is difficult to get quality compositions and reference.

Also, I have a new addition to my favorite contemporary artists list. I went to Doug Fryer's show this past weekend, it was inspiring work. His strong traditional art skills make his loose landscape painting work. In my opinion, loose work is much harder to pull off then tight realistic work.

Underdrawing

For lack of anything better, I thought I would post an underdrawing for a in-progress painting. I did this yesterday in about 30 minutes. Through practice I am able to really leave out all the unnecessary lines and really focus just on the important lines and shapes that will give me the information I need for the painting.

Stay tuned for the progression.

step 2

Here is the second step in the progression of my painting(see first step here). Basically the drawing has been set to it's own layer and the general colors are built underneath. At this point I drop the drawing and start into it, you can see where I've started under the eyes. I don't really use layers until the end as a tool to adjust saturation and darks and lights, similar to a wash layer in oil painting. The colors are pretty grey but I work that out as I go.

I thought I would go with a bright yellow background to see if I could make it work. I've always wanted to use yellow like this beautiful N.C. Wyeth pirate painting.

step 3

The third step is on a flattened image, I just start to flesh the thing out trying to introduce as much color variation as possible. Most of it is just done by picking a color and putting it down, but a little of it is blending and reestablish lines that have been lost. With the foundation I have from step 2 I can push the colors and and shapes to add interest.
I work in Corel Painter, this step probably took a little less than a couple of hours.

finish

Here is the final step with it's finish piece. I guess it loses the impact seeing all of the steps leading up to this finish, but I like the background texture. This was finished with just a few layers set to different opacity's to add color and atmosphere. It feel like it needs some text in the negative space(don't worry I wont add any).
I almost forgot, props to Joe Olsen for his brilliant drawings used subliminally as background noise.

figure #6

A recent figure drawing, Nupastel on white 18"x24" drawing paper. I can't figure out how to get a good digital representation of the drawings yet.
I sat next to the great Adam Ford, you can see his superior version here. Adam is a master of shadow and lost edges. And this one has some beautiful form work, and his mid-tone shadows are unbelievable.