Reference photo

After many requests to see my reference photos, decided to post a few to share. These were all shot within the last few months.

Out sketching again...

Went sketching at the Anthropologie museum yesterday. Of course, it just happened to be the day it started snowing...

A piece of the totem pole that broke off.
Not sure what it is for. Some sort of ceremonial mask.

Piece in progress 2

Added some soldiers near the creature for scale. Hopefully the ground plane reads a little better. Still need to seperate the soilder on the left more from the dark fence behind him. Probably need to push distance between planes more ... Anyway, time to expose it to the sun and rip it apart.

Piece in progress

Just another digital piece in progress. Thought I should post the progression for a change.

Work in progress

Work in progress. Trying to establish the basic approach and the overall posture and lighting. Still a long way to go I guess.

Quick Sketch

A quick story sketch. Just messing around with the color scheme.

Merry Christmas 2007

A little better lighting...

Well, the famous weed lady have not shown up in the workshop for 3 weeks in a row now. So, I don't have to worry about someone moving the whole model stand half way into the painting.(She had to do some thing to justify her job I guess.) Still have the challenge of painting under 20+ lights under an hour, but at least it is consistent.

What? why am I updating blog 5am in the morning? It is just common sense.

This is some mix media stuff I have been playing with lately. Doesn't really improve the quality, just made the process faster. Took about half of the time, and doubles my usual working size.

Same mix media stuff with a different brush.

This one took the same amount of time as well. No mix media, just limited palette.

Cheap fillers

What the heck, I will just post something to fill the empty space...

Got to get with the program. Basic "Academy syle" sketches.

Just some dudes on the train.

A hot shot abstract expressionist expressing his big ideas to some young girls with low cut dress. He talked long enough for me to finish the sketch.

Just another brush and ink practice. Need to use up my old ink some how.

Color test

Just a quick color test to decide on the palette.

Loose watercolor

Just happened to notice my watercolor seems looser than I remembered. A quick sketch today on the side of the river before dark.

Going mad

If I am going mad, might as well go all the way. Found some crazy set of paper with ugly colors, along with the usual 20+ light setting and cheap watercolor and chalk. Keep rubbing the chalk while the dude next to me splashed red acrylic on my paper. Man... I am really going mad...

Not so Feng

Not so Feng attempt at Feng style. Still got a few mechanical issues to work out. Back to drawing my circles and lines...

Pencil test

Just a sketch to try out the look of the main character's face and the visual qualities of the approach.

Fall

It was just too pretty not to paint it.

Rejected designs

Finally, one of the concepts has gone far enough for me to start working on presentation pieces. Still a lot more to go but finally getting close. To start off, here are some of the rejected sketches.(The one I haven't burned anyway. *smile*)

Recent studies...

No sure what the hell I am painting these days . I am slowly convincing some of the seniors to read the Craig Nelson painting book while finding techniques to deal with the 20 light situation. To my amazement, there is no copy of Craig's book in town at the moment.(with the library on strike) Hopefully I will convince enough people to do something about the lighting before I ran out of interest in this challenge.

The model was a good looking muscular young guy. While the old ladies were busy getting high, I decided to give him some leather armor. No sure why I am attracted to the cheap watercolor. Guess that's the bi-product of hanging around Mr. Sanchez.

An attempt on painting a white women with plenty of hair.

With the high price of paper due to the strong Canadian dollar, I end up using the brown crappy paper from Office Depot. Amazingly, the price only break even with the Sketch paper from Utrecht, considering paper were made in Canada. Anyway, the big down side is the paper does not take dry mediums well. Time to bring out the brush and ink.

Quick horse study

A racer riding his horse... not sure where they are going to. Hopefully some place where they can draw all day. *smile*

Another quick study

Another quick study of a bird from photo. Not something I got to do a whole lot, since they usually have their wings tucked in when I visit the zoo. Still can't quite get it right though. Took a little longer since I haven't got much practice with it. 30~40 minutes with cheap black paint on cool grey cardboard.(I think it was a box for cotton balls or something like that.)

Quick studies

Still not sure what to do with my colors. Thought I might as well ignore it just to see what happens. Did these two studies while listening to Ray Charles perform on an old interview. Part of the purpose is to see how I can reduce the cost of practice due to the high cost of art supplies locally. Done using some old cardboard box from Costco and my trusty paint from ToyRus, about 15~20 minutes each.