Oil paint hasn’t been used since 2011. Blank wooden boards were lying around the room. Not being used is a waste. The follow images were painted. Relaxing, and something different.
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Blogs been neglected somewhat. I’ve been busy with Python lately – creating stuff with pygame.
Here are paintings I did from life during my time in Napier.
Everyday I went for a walk when I was in Napier. Majority of these walks were into town – to the waterfront. It was very hot during the day so the evening was the best time for me to be outside – it didn’t get dark till late.
I painted the same landscape multiply times – the view was South. This was one of my first ones – where I’m still warming up
This was one of my first paintings I did in Napier. I did this outside a suburbs shops – so not directly in town. The paper only handles one layer of paint – I really should be using thicker paper.
My least favorite out of the lot.
Right side of the previous painting. Capturing the trees scaling into the foreground. A nice blue would help.
One of the major differences I notice with painting is the lack of detail I’m able to get – with drawing I can capture small drawings – painting tends to be more of a impression. I think I will always enjoy drawing more.
Another street view. Paints great with how quickly it spreads. Roger always said ‘painting is easier because it spreads quickly’ when comparing it to painting. Very true – I can cover more of a area with paint than draw and not get tired.
This was a favorite landscape. The reds in the sea helps.
That’s all for now folks.
This is the paintings I did with children on Thursday. The paint I was using was cheap poster paint – it was cheap but did the job. It’s the surface that totally makes a difference – I used thin white card for these works – certainly better than the brown paper but it doesn’t take the layer of say - wooden board.
Most of these works are painted by me but a couple were collaboration efforts between me and children. We can both learn from one another.
Gross. Not only do I find the composition boring – square ocean surrounding land that scales up to the bottom right. I created landmass in the center and bottom right of the ocean in order to help the composition - it’s still not enough. To help with the scale I painted a figure into the bottom left. Originally this was pure black – I added light highlights in order to help with scale and give more information to the left side of the piece. What could of I done better. More dark (especially on the left)
I like the blue ocean in this work. 
I focused on the right side of the page, and Sarah painted the left. I focused more so on grayscale well she went with more vibrant colors – purples and blues. There is some yellow which was my doing! I like the circular marks being made – they give layers to the work. 
This is an example of a painting gone bad. It’s gray, muddy, and generally disgusting. It lacks substance. 
This was a favorite I did – so much so that the kindy ended up keeping it for their wall.
There are more paintings – need to get photos from my Mum.
I’m going away tomorrow so not sure about updates to the site – I will take my laptop with me so may just write up blog posts about older works.
Check out my code blog here.
I’ve photographed both of my current journals I’m working on currently. The first – a A5 shaped, rip able, thick. It’s perfect for watercolor/gouache.
Here’s two paintings I’ve done in it so far:
This started as a life drawing in Christenas class on Wednesday. I was happy with it. There was nothing that annoyed me about the image – it was a life drawing that captured most of the body, it had tone, it worked.
I brought a red watercolor and white gouache in Wellington and had several colors of gouache
On Sunday night when I arrived home from Wellington I decided to have a go – I used my large flat watercolor brush. I quickly worked over the drawing – similar to how I work with my digital paintings.
Here’s a landscape I did with the goache and red watercolor. Again, this is a very quick work with just minimal thoughts.
Maybe more of these worked in the future – I’d like to transfer some of my street drawings into watercolor. It was a suggestion from Roger Key – though he would prefer me to use oil paint (which I should really do – I’ve had oil paints sitting here for over a year not being used.
Some recent pencil works in Visual Diary. These works were done well in Levin, mostly from watching television (yay Breaking Bad) and a select few from outings in Levin.
Here I sat in the carpark near the Cinema and drew the new community centre that’s being made. It opens towards the end of September. I’ll be interested in check it out when it’s done. Though I think too much money has been spent. Wasted local govt money. I read a article saying the place will be equipted with the latest ‘macs and pcs’. That statement along frustrates me. They should install Linux on all the computers rather have a mixture of ‘macs and pcs’.
I used my clutch pencil in this – keeping the lines clean and tidy.
I recieved a spiderman toy from Mums. It’s arms and legs move in 3 places, head rotates and waist. It makes good referce. I’ll like more toys like it for pratice. 
Portraits and character development. I’ll likely take these further in GIMP.
More ideas on exploring character constriction. The idea is to create more 3d character on paper. This will make it easier when taking the works into blender.
Escape the sandstorm EOW. It was a great theme and I wish I had digitalisted these works earier the week. I’ll see how I get on this weekend but may have time to work on a digital version for the theme.
Got the goache out. Goache in Visual Diary isn’t bad, though I can’t layer it. Praticing poses. 
More goache. The brush I’m using is my largee blight brush. It allows me to use the corner so I can create small mark as well as the whole brush to create a large stroke. Amazing large brushes.
The beach in Levin. I went out last weekend with Mum, Luke, and Roger. On the right is Rogers car, with the view of land in the distance. Water separates the sand in the foreground with the land in the distance. Again another work I’ll take into GIMP.
Breaking Bad sketches. I like watching tv shows and movies. Having the sketchbook in front of me when I’m watching is helpful – it’s great practice for multitasking and for quick sketches. Develop an idea of what a character looks like from a range of angles/zooms.
Stan Lee Portrait and Spiderman. I was going to post this on the Stan Lee AMA on Reddit when he does it.
I’ve been saying in the last few posts about posting my recent acrylic board paintings. Landscapes from when I returned from ChCh. I borrowed Joys camera and finally took some photos of them. I need to borrow this camera more often (or better yet – buy one!) and take more regular photos of my artwork – it builds up otherwise and it’s an overload of images to upload. There are still works from the South Island that I have yet to post.
This is 3 photos merged into one. This allowed me to create a extended view of the canvas - it’s rather long. The acrylic paint I’m using is just cheap poster paint. It seems to work alright. The reference for this painting was a drawing at Collingwood. 
Another drawing to acrylic paint. This is a view in Takaka. This painting has had almost nothing added to it, keeping it true to the drawing. As I layer up color this may change. 
Cardboard. My fathers wife has a bunch of this cardboard, I used some for painting on. I don’t really like the rough, grainy finish, but it holds the paint far better then brown paper. No reference for this, instead just making the shapes from imagination.
I’ve been cooking (curries, and a cake), and giving the place a tidy, and slight move! Moved all my gear from the lounge to my bedroom – which is now taking a more computer and art studio setup. Works for me though. I haven’t done any digital painting but have had a go with acrylic paint – on the walls.
I had no refernce or ideas – just going on the idea of an enviorment of some sort – maybe a landscape. Straight in with paint – drawing in lines – then covering in tone.
My palette, old plate. Primary colors – yellow and blue have been used. About to do a layer of red, helps the highlights and the balance of greens and reds.
Basic idea, building up the marks. Large flat brush is used. Exploring ideas that I started with oil painting. Leaving areas. Filling areas. 
Character in the foregound. Great to have the room to develop a character and the enviroment around him. This is certainly a painting style that works for me.
Character in the foregound. Great to have the room to develop a character and the enviroment around him. This is certainly a painting style that works for me.
Legs. Very important. How else can he walk? The red in the background is a pillar the two characters are standing on – the the foreground area. Below is the forest and water. Travel on the pillar? 
The corner. Lots of white space still. Needs reds and more blues.
Some red added over the green. Using opposites works well.
Far right, The other edge of the painting. An oddly shaped mirror rests againist the wall. Several characters have been painting. Reference was me – a self portait! Interesting how the colors change on the surface – darker blue to light.
It’s a jigsaw. I can take pieces out and apply new pieces. This is a acrylic painting I did when I first moved back to Levin. A new layer has been added. Blues and reds. Blends into the wall.
It’s a jigsaw. I can take pieces out and apply new pieces. This is a acrylic painting I did when I first moved back to Levin. A new layer has been added. Blues and reds. Blends into the wall.Part two of reflecting back at some older paintings. These paintings were done around the same time as the previous post. 
Last year I watched 5 seasons of the television show ‘The Wire’. I never finished it off, maybe I should go back and finish it. Season one was the best. This is a portrait of two of the main cop characters from the show.
More oil paint. This started with referece of a much younger me, my nana and another photo of nana. It morphed and changed though the layers, turning into something ghostly.
Acrylic painting on a Friday. These were some great exercises and I regret not spending more life drawing classes with paint. Working within a time limit for painting taught me a lot. I didn’t have the time to think and ponder, or layer up a work. Working on brown paper was somewhat limited but it didn’t stop me. Most of the time I worked with thin acrylic paint as it allowed it move quickly and create cool dripping effects. 
This was a longer pose – perhaps up to 30 mins. The model is clearly James – a model I had often when coming onsite to TLC. In this painting there are areas where I have drawn in with ink – I can see this with the blue lines that I used to create the shape. I filled it with paint to create the tone. This is how I worked often with colored pencil as well.
And a sitting pose. Plenty of grays are used in this with minimal color. I havn’t started using my regular yellow for lights, reds for darks, and blue for negative color scheme in this – instead still exploring colors.
And finally a oil painting. This was a study of figures. I left this painting at my last flat in Wellington. To the left you can see part of the painting I did of my sisiter – from the previous blog post.
I’m currently filling up a sketchbook but won’t post images from it till I’m back in Levin where I can scan in the works.
For now I’ll like to post some older paintings and reflect back on them.
This was a quick landscape that I gave to my brother, Luke for Christmas. Looking at the now makes me want to take the colored pencil landscape sketches from my journal into paint. I still have several large boards of wood in Levin that I need to do something with. I think landscapes will be best but certainly need to focus on more detail and concepts with the new paintings.
A oil painting that I painted one year ago. My Nana and Grandad on their wedding day. Last time I tried painting portraits it didn’t go so well and I ended up painting over with a landscape. When I’m back in Levin everything will be fresh and I’ll like to perhaps work on a portrait. 
Oil painting of my sisiter. Sadly I lost this painting – it just disapeared from my home. I have no idea where it ended up. I hope it is hanging in someones bedroom or lounge as I was quite proud of it and would hate for it to be chucked out. 
This was a large portait I worked on of my Nana, explored transparency with building up layers of paint. Currently this painting is sitting in my Mums room as I gave it to her for xmas. I seem to give away all my paintings. 
Getting towards the end of the portait. My pallette and brush that I painted the majority of the painting with is to the right.
More paintings later in the week…
Since my move I’ve had room to paint. I never painted in my last flat, except for a little in my journal. I don’t really consider this painting though – painting is working large on a board.
Since I have the space I’ve setup of paintings next to my computer
I started with gouache. Then moved onto acrylic. Once I’m happy with the acrylic layer I’ll lay down oils.
All of these paintings have been recorded – I’ve only uploaded one to youtube…
I’ll do a voice over and upload the others at some point.
I wasn’t happy with this as a gouache but once I turned it to this:
Extremely happy with this. I felt I was able to give it real depth to areas with tone. The brush `I used was resemble small. I brought it last year when I got my oil paints. The hair on it is thick so it can hold a decent amount of paint. Helps to mix multi tones onto the brush and flip the brush in order to get a different tone. Bit like the technique that Roger tea
I was happier with the gouache painting then the previous. Maybe because it had stronger perspective.
Acrylic paint added. I wasn’t on the same flow as the first acrylic… had lost my wind. I wouldn’t say this ones bad… I just feel it isn;’t as strong as the previous. With some more time I can get it up to scratch.
This was a bunch of portraits but I didn’t like it so decided to turn it into a landscape. I’ve already started the landscape with the goache. It’s a bit of a mess since its a mix of landscape and portraits…. the perspective isn’t in there. I was hoping that acrylic would hellp…
And the acrylic applied. It needs more areas defined. Currently there is too much empty areas. More layers to add depth would help. I’m using a larger brush then the other acrylic – helpful to cover areas quicklly. Working with a slightly smaller brush and adding more contrast to areas will help.
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