ArtCtrl

Woke up early this morning and got straight into painting. Finished off one I started last night. I’ve been happy with the direction that my paintings have taken recently.

Here’s the painting: For the reference images I used two sketches merged together - both were drawn on Cuba Street, Wellington. I’m happy with both of these drawings and together they offer plenty of detail.

Line. I traced over the reference material and added extra areas. Most notable is the water in the background - water has been a big in several of my recent paintings - something I’ll like to keep developing.

Grayscale tone added. I started with the three figures on the middle right and filled them in with black before moving onto other areas in the painting - the ferret, vegetation and tree trunks. The lightest gray was used for the sky and water, with a mid and dark gray used for the dark areas of the water. A mix of light and medium grays for the building and objects in the foreground.

Color.  I liked the minimal color I used in yesterdays piece . Today I managed to also color objects with a yellow - and a darker version of the yellow. These two colors work together well - I’ll keep developing it. No reds, often I find the red to be over dominating.

I’ve been spent the majority of my time in Unity working on a game. It’s been fun, but I still believe it’s important that I paint regularly. So I started this painting this morning, got interrupted  and had to take a break. I got back to it this afternoon and finished it. I want to take more of my paintings into Blender and model out 3d assets from the paintings. I need to get back into making 3d posts on this site - it’s very dominated by my digital work.

Ok reference. I just grabbed some random drawings off the computer that I haven’t done alot with. Both of the pencil drawings are from Wellington, the best and most developed the waterfront. I really enjoy painting water so want to include it in more of my paintings. The third reference is a line drawing I did over a photograph. I want to include more characters in my work - normally I don’t use reference for figures. Hopefully this figure helps.  Th[e black certainly makes t[hat red stand out. When I was drawing this I had the reference in the background, so technically I should of used a white background. The line in this is surprisingly minimal, once I get into tone I flesh it out further and add details. The line doesn’t have to be much - it’s just a starting point.  Black and white tone. I had fun with this. Started with the figures first and got those darks into them, before moving onto the water and background. The final area to cover was the foreground. As you can see I added lots that wasn’t there in the reference or line drawing - including land in the distance. This technique adds information and detail to the piece. I’m happy with the figure. Those eyes sure are scary…

Color is minimal. I started with the sky first, covering it in blue, then the water. I used 2 greens for the ground - the same greens that I worked with previously as Wellington water. Normally I work with  just the light green but want to mix in the darker. Having a light and dark of each color is helpful.

Awake nice and early this morning. I decided to get a painting out of the wait straight away. I spent yesterday working with Unity - taking both my 3d and 2d artwork into the engine. It made me want to build something in a day - maybe for game jam where I make make everything from scratch - pencil sketch - digital painting - 3d blender - then finally unity. I think it will be a good challenge  Often I just recycle my old art assets. This will be especially helpful for the 3d.

Here’s the painting -

The photo reference. I took this photo several days ago in Levin. It’s a alleyway I often walk down. I’m happy with the photo, and photos I’m happy with are more likely to be turned into art. Here’s the art:

Line was minimal on this. Perhaps too minimal. I get better line if I mix reference together. Working with one reference isn’t enough. I added in a couple of characters to give the scene something more, and to show some scale.

Tone to flesh the piece out. Usual techniques applied - started with the figures in dark and worked off there giving a range of tone to the piece. The vegetation looks strange. I didn’t use proper reference for it. Maybe I should of refereed back to some sketch book works?

Color. I had fun mixing the blue, red and yellow together. This was mainly on the vegataion areas - they parts that I felt were weak.

Yet another painting. I’ve been doing a few. I want to do a painting marathon - maybe stay up all night and produce one painting every 20 mins. It might work better to make it a monthly goal. In one month complete how many paintings.

I know Feng Zhu suggests working on five paintings at the same time - spending 20 mins on each for an hour. In one day I need to paint 30 paintings. If each painting took me 20 mins I would need 6 hours. I use to life draw for 6 hours no problem so digital painting in that time is even easier. I think the problem I have is moving onto the new piece. Of course breaks and upload/export/blogging time has to be added. I may also want to spend more than 20 mins on some of the paintings - and that’s great if I can develop them further.

Once I have started a painting I generally don’t want to stop till I’ve finished it.

Let’s get into this painting -

I worked differently with this. Not a large amount of changes - but instead of starting with a white background I went with this gradient. It’s several gradients layered - all the colors I am going to use. I guess this gives me a base to work from. From here I can just build up the scene. I need to do this same idea with Alchemy paintings.

I went with the water and ship idea again - this fits with The New World sub-theme  I sketches in lines in random directions in order to create a scene.. For the people I used thicker blobs. They look like they are traveling to the land on a ship. The background has long skinny structure’s - they could be poles or telephone lines.

I went with the telephone line idea for the structures in the background.I like the loose, rough nature that I’ve got - especially with that black. So what’s in the scene?

Color added. I decided to balance the color - especially that red that can be dominated in areas.

I’ve been following the Environment of the Week for years over on Conceptart.org, but rarely brave enough to enter. This morning though I warmed up with that birthday card for Erik then afterwards got straight into creating a concept art painting for the EOW. The reference I used for it was of the Auckland waterfront, but I used the reference very little. These are certainly not finals - but it’s a great start.

Here goes -

The reference used:

Reference thanks to my stock images over on FreshFigure

I started this with using my first reference and creating a small thumbnail on the left. This extended and I build the scene from that. Though I started this as an exterior work it developed into Cavern of Creation. The idea was to have these figures travel on a escalation - being created. This is why there is a guzabio in the middle. I guess that character could be the queen.

Tone added. I wasn’t happy with this. Maybe it needs more darks in areas? Anyway, it’s unfinished and I moved on to the next one. I’m just treating these like thumbnails.

I used the second reference for this. I stuck with the reference but added extras to it. I especially wanted to add vegetation as I believe a new world would have plenty of beautiful vegetation  It’s common for me to draw it on the street - so why not include it in this!

I also created a large character in the water (right side). This character represents God watching over the smaller characters as they walk down the path to their new home. He could be there also to build as well - not everything can be completed in a day.

Tone helped flesh out this piece and give it a sense of direction. Overall I’m happy with the left side but have concern over the right and the lack of information. This is true for the background. The best option for this will be to treat it like a thumbnail and develop the scene further - with my own reference photos. I’ll work on this idea tomorrow, but for now here’s a color layer added -

Colors are what I’ve been using regularly. Though looking at this now I should of used more yellow - especially mixing it into the red areas. The red tends to dominant the work. I used the green for the water but it’s hard to notice - maybe needs more colors mixed in.

Oh and here’s the video:

During my time in Auckland I met Erik, he’s a independent game developer based in Auckland. Go check his website out. I notice it’s his birthday today so made this painting for him, similar to what I use to do with my Facebook friends before deleting Facebook earlier last year.

Anyway, I’ll format this post like any other - first up line:  For the reference I used Eriks twitter picture. I had a quick look around his site for any higher res images I could use but no such luck. It doesn’t matter though - still looks like him! Around the portrait I included balloons and cake plus the type: Happy Birthday Erik. Of course this was hand rendered. Tone added. I choose to cover his skin first with black before later bringing lights over it. I’ve been thinking lately about working from a darker background rather than white. I’ve done this in the past and been happy with the result - it makes it feel less scary than a blank white canvas.  And finally color. I kept with just three color - yellow for skin, red for objects and blue for the background. I decided not to color the hat because I think black hats are rather rand.

Happy Birthday Erik - Hope you have a great day!

More digital painting. I had a rest this afternoon and felt much better afterwards. Here’s another digital painting I’ve been working on. I especially had fun with the color layer.

I worked differently with this - working from photography reference, my own stock images. For this I used Auckland Waterfront images. The same proces has been used with the painting though - starting with the red line. Working from the photo gave me more control over where the lines go - sometimes I feel restricted with a trace over - not always, but it’s great practice to do some photo reference work.

Next up, tone:

I’m especially happy with the ship and water. All this practice and I finally believe I’m starting to get somewhere. I like the rough and quick feel it has - but still understanding what exactly is there.

And finally, color. I used red for the ship and object to the far right. The water - green. Background vegatation is yellow, and sky - blue. Strips of yellow and red along the planks on the ground.

I’ve been playing The Walking Dead. Good news is that it’s a game that allows me to paint at the same time. So during the game I painted this following scene, it took me a bit longer to paint than usual as I was semi engaged with The Walking Dead.

Anyway, here’s the painting:

The reference is common - both pencil sketches drawn in Wellington - the left waterfront, and right the railway. I painted the railway just yesterday so I think tomorrow I’ll have to paint something different. It is a fun scene to paint though. I want more drawings with figure sculptures in.Ok line. I currently have a bad headache so not really sure. I guess this line is what I expected. Nothing special or different to what I usually do. I’m just going to move onto tone which is far more exciting.

Gayscale tone. Now this is getting there. I spent awhile on this building up the tones. I’m  happy with the water areas and the interesting large pole on the right side (left of the figure sculpture). I’m not happy with the car, I had to go over it several times but it still feels wrong and out of place.

Color. As always I had plenty of fun applying the color. I kept with my usual colors, but was brave and mixed them in areas.. such as the green/blue and yellow/red for the water. The opacity is set to 30% for the color so layering of colors greatly helps the depth.

Alright, that will do for now. No video for this one.