Currently in Porirua and don’t have my drawings tablet with me.
Here’s a portrait I painted a couple of days ago of someone on RedditGetsDrawn:
Tagfemale
Today has been much better than yesterday. I woke up feeling good. Even after a long walk yesterday I felt crap. Anyway, I slept in today which helped, waking up at 10am. Bruce was heading into the center at Noon so I got ready and headed in with him. I had my tablet and laptop with me. Finding material was hard, so I decided to paint a musician I hadn’t painted before – Lana Del Ray. Much the same process as my previous color digital painting – line, black and white tonal, and finally color. It’s great that I’m setup at the center with the digital painting! Cheers – 
On a roll today with the digital drawings. No grayscale or color – just line. Pumping them out quickly.
I also opened the images with a Python script I have been working on and created some interesting changes.
Enjoy –
Hi. I’ve been busy with unity3d but get in a pencil drawing now and then. I think I’ve lost my pen for my tablet. Its likely somewhere in my room. Looking on mightyape I see they have baboon tablets for 100 dollars – might be worth picking one up.
Anyway. Here’s a pencil drawing I did recently:
Line
The reference for this was a portrait photo on redditgetsdrawn.
Tone
Here tone has been added. No color sorry
This is my friend Janelle. She uploaded a nice picture with a sweet haircut that I had to paint. Normally I paint strangers on r/redditgetsdrawn but I haven’t even been getting ‘thanks’ for my work on there so would rather paint people I know in real life as they may appreciate it. Reddit is horrible.
I took awhile on this – checked the video recording at 1000mb and got distracted by the time. Once I had finished the painting the file size was sitting on 2.8gig – corrupted. This is the first time in months that I’ve had the file size go over 2gig, I guess I was really enjoying the painting.
As always, focus was more on the background than the figure. I used two different reference images for the figure – the first for the portrait and 2nd for the figure. Background was completely imagination.
It’s another RedditGetsDrawn.
Reference photo.
Reference photo. Decent lighting – enough shadow for two or three tones in the face. The background is lacking somewhat, but it doesn’t matter as it’s going to be made.
Line
Here’s a critic:
The left eye should be below the right eye. The nose is much shorter than it should be. Bottom lip is too fat.
Good points. I need to be careful with my observation skills to capture what’s really in the image. Comparing the two I’ve mirrored the image – not only are the eyes opposite but the hair line as-well.
A new shape has been used recently in my background – squares. I use these square shapes in both the sky and land.
Tonal Gray-scale
Fixed the mirror problem in the face. The line layer is my first chance to get it right, and often don’t get it right on my first chance. That’s why I get a second with the gray-scale tone layer. Isn’t life wonderful with all these chances?
Custom made flat brush has been used for this whole piece. The opposite to this is the circle chalk brush that I often use. To be honest I prefer the sharp, flat look over a round. Mixing the two together works wonders.
Everyone I’ve painting on Reddit recently have been turned into redheads. I don’t think that’s a bad thing because redheads are pretty damn amazing.
Color is the layer I struggle with the most. Maybe using more tones of a color will help. I use two, maybe three tones if I’m lucky of each color. Increasing this number would help with detail and depth of painting deeply.
It’s been a long time since I’ve uploaded pencil drawings. Everything has been digital. During my time in Wellington I got a new clutch pencil and did a bunch of pencil drawings. I’ve photographed the works and here they are. These ar drawings from photos on Reddit Gets Drawn.
Enjoy.
RedditGetsDrawn
I got myself a new visual diary from Gordan Harris - A5 landscape style. I haven’t got a new journal since my birthday day, and I lost that during my time in Auckland.
Married couple. Classical pose. Multi figures are easier to draw than a single figure due to the ability of lining up points of interest. I like the flower in her hand. 
Viking child. Majority of these pencil works are of children. They are good subjects, and I don’t draw them enough. Slayer!
And the result. I’ve been treating my drawings similar to digital works – with building up the line first, then tone, then color. Since I have a new clutch pencil I plan on drawing more. Every night before I sleep there is no reason why I can’t get a character drawing done!
I had to draw this outfit. It’s amazing.
Sadly I haven’t got the line version of of this, which i was super happy with. But still, the tone version is alright. Nice to be able to draw the full body. I need to practice those legs/feet.
And color. I used my Derwent colored pencils that I’ve had forever. They rarely get used as I don’t like the lack of detail they give. 
These are some of my best photos of artwork I’ve done. Taking the photo in direct sunlight seems the best. I convert to black and white, and change the levels. I like how you can see the texture of the paper. I like how the girl is wearing an animal hat – similar to mine!
Another sword based reference. This time a teenager in his room weilding a sword. Full battle armor would be great – but the swords a fantastic accessory.
For the drawing I zoomed in and cut off the bottom of his legs. The drawing pad I’ve been working with is only a5 size (landscape stype) so it forces me to work smaller than usual. It’s important to work in a range of sizes – and I have been working the long landscape format for a long time so great to try something different.
Portrait in the mirror. Wedding practice time. I’m impressed by the hair style and makeup so had to draw it.
There was a request to remove the cellphone, so I did. This one is very simple, nothing happening in the background.
Another awesome hat related reference. The rain in the background also helps to make it an interesting photograph.
Problems with drawing her chest- – just couldn’t get it work. It really is a challenge without the nipple.Struggled with the arm as well — as you can see the line has been repeated several times.
I believe this person is Indian. He requested to get drawn with his son. Both look not very unhappy. Again sorry that I only have the color version of this work – I did have a line and grayscale tone version but sadly my SD card in my camera corrupted and I lost the works
Today has been a bad day. I have an awful headache and feeling sick. I’ve managed to half finish a painting (just have the color to do). I am broke if anyone would care to donate. Web-hosting renew is happening at the start of March so somewhat worried. The ads on the sites aren’t making me anything, sites barely get any traffic, but I stopped worrying about low traffic years ago, I make the site, art, and write for myself.
If anyone wants art let me know, I’ll do it for cheap. I like working from photographs.
Another color painting from Tuesday. This one was for RedditGetsDrawn:
Lovely photo, clear, and crisp. I would of preferred a full figure (don’t get to practice legs often). At least I get the waist and part of the arms. I took notice of the flower painting in the background. Bookshelf was ignored. 
Line. I developed the flower painting multiply times and spread it around the work – in the background I also made the usual spiky pillars of land. For the figure I worked off the reference mostly but had to make up the elbow, It took several lines to make it right. 
Tone. For her dress I used a dot effect for the white highlights.Painting the figure is alright, but the area I enjoyed the most is the environment. It’s all imagination I really should be using reference photos for it. I used a reference photo for another work I did yesterday – a cityscape. I’ll upload this work later.
Alright, onto the color layer now -
Color. I used a new red for her dress and the land in the paintings on the wall. It is similar to the red in the reference photo dress. For the sky and water (in the painting on the wall) I used the blue I often use. The floor has a new blue - turquoise even. Something different to work with. Often when I start using new colors they develop into my other paintings. I need more color though, and to not fear introducing new ones into the paintings. I’ve done it here though! New color! For the land in the distance I used the usual green that I use in the paintings – this is usually used for the floor – I use it to create a water.
Mix of the tone and color layer. As I said in the previous post – It feels finished.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. I aim to keep bringing you regular artwork.
Continued with more digital painting today. I’ve been on such a roll it’s just worth getting plenty done. Recently I uploaded portrait and figure drawings I had done several years ago. I decided to take one of these into GIMP and digitize. Since I need more figure works to use in my environment works I decided against a portrait – though I may come back to some of the portraits later.
Here’s the painting - 
Line. Overall I’m happy with the line – especially from the elbows down, the level of detail is working. The arms are a bit strange – even on the reference not alot was happening with them and seems to be dark to hide features.
Grayscale tone added. The portrait looks great, I attempted to fix the arms somewhat by adding in a range of tone to them… I’m still not sure about them though. The chest and below has quite a steam punk feel to it.
Color added. With the color layer I did something I had never done before in GIMP – used masks. With the mask I hid everything and then revealed it by painting. This allowed me to easily change the colors and have more control over the painting. I used this feature before in Photoshop… but that would of been a long time ago. I need to get into the practice of using layer masks for all my layer – line, gray scale, and color.
So it’s been sometime since I’ve done digital painting. I did plenty of it last year and felt I improved greatly. This year it’s my goal to produce even more paintings. With already almost a week into the new year I thought I’d better get onto it.
Sorted though my sketch book drawings I took them into GIMP and began a paint over process. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
This was one of my favorite drawings I did during my time in Napier. I had attempted to digital it in the past but was not in the mood. Having a holiday from the digital painting felt good, I felt refreshed.
Sadly I wasn’t able to use my favorite custom brushes in GIMP as they are only on my desktop, and I only have my laptop with me in Auckland. Once I’m home I’ll transfer the brushes onto the desktop.
My favorite area of this painting is the right side, with the large tree trunk I managed to create a interested texture (working 80% opacity). And the pole to the right of it worked out well. I created textures by using a range of difference marks – for example to create the hedge I used a dot action. This is something I want to explore further this year. 
I received a new camera for Xmas. Decided to upload the photos I take to FreshFigure.com/art: Stock Photography. These photos are licences under creative commons so feel free to do what you like with them, but I’d love to hear about it.
I used a several of the photos I had taken to do some figure and portrait studies. It had been sometime since I had worked like this and I think it’s always important to keep up with studies of people. The process is the same as always – red line, followed by gray scale tone. 
Here I added the figure and portrait to the Napier painted scene. I played around somewhat with scale and composition I’l keep working on it. I also did a quick color paint over – red for the skin, yellow clothes, and blue for the background. For my Mums portrait I worked different – adding the yellow into the mouth area. Adds somewhat of a horror effect – something out of Hannibal maybe?
That’s all for now. I now have no excuse to work on a digital painting everyday and upload it – I have plenty of reference photos and drawings to work from.
Almost forgot – I’ve recorded these paintings but have problems with Movie Maker on my laptop so unable to upload to youtube. Once I’m home (later this week) I’ll get them uploaded. I think it’s better that I just get paintings done even if I don’t get everything recorded than not paint.
Stay cool honey bun.
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