A new painting. I hope the black and white isn't getting too tedious, I have some color paintings on the way. I really like how this one turned out, but I don't think it will ever translate into the digital format though.It is oil on board, 16" x 20". I usually go one basic pass to put down all of the basic drawing work, it has very soft edges and not much detail.
Then it takes 3 or 4 passes to slowly tighten up all of the edges and details. I would like to do looser work, I plan on going that direction, but a lot of times I just get stuck trying to make it as perfect and beautiful as possible.Oh well, It's nice enough that I'll make it my new website welcome picture.
Impressive details once again Dave, and I'm surprised, I thought you were painting on larger board, such details on a board of that size and everything is perfect, hairs, skin, values...
ReplyDeleteexcellent work Dave!
and I'm curious to see how looser you can do your next work!
Dave your hair painting skills are radical. I love your hard/soft edge use. Its a really nice piece.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work. Black and white never gets old when it is this nice.
ReplyDeleteI can't take pictures that look this realistic. Coming to your blog reminds me that I'm not an artist. This one's great, Dave.
ReplyDeleteAnother amazing portrait, Dave. Beautiful work.
ReplyDeleteI really like this piece, Dave. Good job! I'm curious to see what your "looser" works will look like.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who did nothing but black and white work for the first half of a 40+ year career, I think it can only help your color work to concentrate on value, texture and contrast like you're doing here. It's truly lovely work. Quite a stunning portrait.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work, truly inspiring!
ReplyDeleteAmazing work,really astounding,I thought it was a photo at first !!
ReplyDeleteanother brilliant work!!!
ReplyDeleteAmazing
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work, Mr. Malan!
ReplyDeletehaven't been here in a while WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! simply amazing- =) I LOVE YOUR LOOSE AND CONFIDENT CROSS HATCHING combined with the simple contours - very elegant - and marvelously subtle rendering- very eye candy INDEED! thank you!!!
ReplyDeleteG-
Hi, great work! im really glad I found your blog, you have some great stuff on here. It never occured to me to try n paint in black n white but im going to give it a go!
ReplyDeleteNice, Dave. If you were to paint in color someday, would you still paint it all in grays first? I know some people who love that method.
ReplyDeleteThanks all,
ReplyDeleteShane-try focussing?
Black and white work is a great method to learn about brush strokes and values(like Carl said). Each of these black and whites were intended to be turned into colors. But they turned out too nice to paint over.
I have now tried this method though, and it was a terrible experience. I got the facial colors how I wanted them then I painted the rest and found the face was way too gray. So I ended up painting another couple of layers. Basically the black and white underpainting was a disadvantage, suprisingly. I'll show the work and write more on it soon.
It's beautiful!
ReplyDeleteman...I miss long form painting. very envious of your "time" you have to even do this much. what kind of art do you do you do at work? Does it look like this?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
ReplyDeleteRee-I work for Disney video games, I do 3d models and concept and production work. This is very different from my work. I work a full day then come home and spend the evening working on this kind of painting, because I like it.
beaucoup d'émotion dans cette réalisation...ça donne envie de la prendre dans ses bras.
ReplyDeleteque de talent mon ami!!!
Very nice work. I'd love to see you bring some of the looseness of your quicker work into parts of it too. I sympathize with your noodle reflex. He's like a tapeworm: Never satisfied. I think a lot of us have this guy on our shoulder. He's hard to shake.
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