ArtCtrl

I have a new sketchbook. It’s likely the most expensive paper I’ve used. Slight texture, but nothing too major.

Here’s drawings from around Wellington:

The waterfront. In the distance on the left is containers being loaded onto the dock. Traveling across to the right is land. Lines above represent clouds. This was drawn in the morning. 

The right side of the page. I decided to mix up the scene by drawing the majority of this side in a different area than the previous drawing  This allows me to work on more detail and not get frustrated with lack or detail and information - especially on the second page when I often get tired.

Sat on Coutrney Place for this drawing. Looking up at the lights , buildings, and vegetation surrounds. 

Reading Cinemas sign. Another view from Coutrney Place.

Bucket fountain on Cuba Strett. The figure was drawn earier and I worked around the figure with the drawing of the water fountain. This included the grass on the ground. Focusing on a small area and getting it right is aften better than looking at a large area and getting it wrong. 

View looking out to the water.

Lights, sky, flag. 

A scanner Darkly. Book by Phillip Dick that I recently read. It’s great I’m reading more - I want to illustrate novels. 

Another quick city drawing.

I’ve been wanting to complete some digital paintings for days. I’ve been busy with other art related activities. I have so much work to sort though. Create a portfolio book and get it printed. So far it contains pencil portraits from 2008.

Here’s two paintings I did last night. Both in GIMP. The first - RedditGetsDrawn

Brother and Sister portrait. Close to being a full body shot. Cut off at the knees! I did two drawings of these two. The first is in the center - cropped down. It’s been awhile since I’ve used the Wacom Tablet (4 days I believe) so felt somewhat rusty. The facial area is especially messy. I could have been more gently. Oh well. Onto the tone. 

And tone added. Range of brushes used. Messed up with the layers and painted over a line layer. Didn’t realize this till later. 

Line layer. For this drawings I didn’t use RedditGetsDrawn instead a photo I had taken on Cuba Street.  The figure in this drawing was a child that was running. He jumped in front of the camera yelling, ‘Take a photo of me’. Tone added. Somewhat simple and minimal feel. Layered up the figure with a range of tones.

I’ve used my new Kobo for more drawings. I used my ipod touch to look at reference photos on RedditGetsDrawn and then sketch them on the Kobo. No color and such for the Kobo but at least this is a portable way to get the line layer done in my drawings.

Character in the foreground with a landscape

Drawing from life, a pillar 

Reference for this was a print by Dan Ross. I noticed it on his page and did a quick digital drawing of the work.

Two portraits from RedditGetsDrawn.

Another RedditGetsDrawn. Here a painter is painting the gnome. Doing the job he loves.  Sideways portrait. Sorry.

My plan for these is to take them into GIMP and work on them further - adding in grayscale and color

I now have a Kobo Mini. At 5 inchs it’s small, but it does the trick. I downloaded free epub files for it at first. But now I’ve uploaded a collection of epub files that I had sitting on my laptop. I now want to send wordpress/rss to epub and sync via calibre.

Drew the text/images from the milkshake container. Experienting with text. Larger brushes and the ability to change the opacity would be wonderful.  Character with a line behind him. Maybe the start of a landscape.

The format for this Kobo file is 600 x 682. At least this is larger than the ipod touch… just feel restricted by the lack of brush options.

After finishing that previous painting I had to start another. I choose to work from life (something I rarely do with digital) and paint the view in front of me. Here goes

Two woman chatting in the corner. Captured then quickly without worry for detail. Focus was taken for the perspective and scale of the scene. I like how I’ve worked my laptop into the painting and painted the painting.

Grayscale tone. Again like the previous painting I’ve been working with a range of tones scatted about the work. Sometime I pick the tone, but other times I’m just pick a random number on the slider. It’s important to have a range though.

Color. I never finished this color layer. For the color I looked at what colors were there and went with that. The walls were a red so I used my usual red. For the yellow around the edge I color picked a new yellow. There is something satasfiying about Starbuck View

Slow on the digital painting recently. I’ve been filling up my sketchbook with pencil drawings. This morning though I went to Lower Hutt Starbucks and finished a cityscape work and started a painting from life. Here’s the result. Great to get something uploaded since it’s been several days.

Here goes -

This is the reference I used. On the left is a sketch from Hastings, center is a building which is visible from parliament  and the right is a pencil line sketch of an area on Cuba Street. I started merging together my pencil drawings into digital paintings towards the end of last year and it’s been great to get back into it again, I’ve really only been working on RedditGetsDrawn works so fun to do some work that involved just the environment - no characters!

Line work. The center building was the first area to complete in line. I went and did the grayscale tone for the building as well before deciding it needed more detail and bringing in the reference on the left and right. Fills up the page.

I wanted to make sure that the three pieces worked together without feeling out of place, where they line up is important. Overlapping and such is not a problem.

And gray-scale tone. I used a range of brushes in this work in order to give a variety in texture. Make sure to balance those lights and dark throughout the piece. Looking back

Color. Wanted to keep with colors I was familiar with, but added in a brown to experiment with. This is working well with the reds. The right side of the page has evolved since color has been added, no longer is it a pillar but instead it’s a building structure. These things happen.

Some portrait painting during my time in Wainui. These were used as demos to show Michelle how I digitally painted.

Here we go: Since I only have the laptop currently I used one monitor for this. The reference was placed on the left side and I worked in the line on the right.

Regina Spektor.  I was explaining to Michele about how I don’t use the smudge tool. I decided to show her the tool and this is the result. We compared the smudged to the non-smudged. She liked the smudged version better. Personally I like the non smudge. Being about to see the brush strokes and use them as part of creating the form. 

Color. Showed how I use a limited amount of colors but a range of tones of each color. New color for the shirt. 

Reference for this were photos on the shelf. I drew the characters, the frame around them, and the mantel piece they sit on. Turned it into a landscape work with the clouds in the back and scaling of the photos. 

Black and white. Focused very little but instead just gave the impression. In the background I defined the land. The characters are lighter than usual. Black frame septrates them from the landscape scene. On the left is square tiles. I like these for the ground. Above this a character is erupting from the land. 

Color. I said in a recent post I wanted to use more browns in my work. Here I’ve done this with the land. Experimenting with the saturation levels of the brown - interesting grays appearing on the right hand center. For the water I used the green - exploring a range of brushes. I like the center area green - it has a flow to it that works. Building up those tones is helping.

That’s all for today.

careers@pikpok.com