Thursday, February 18, 2010

Vantage Point...of View


Hey guys! So after some great advice and direction, I decided to work back into this pretty heavily. I really felt like the previous iteration had non-cohesive elements that just kind of bounced you around rather than guide you. While this piece is still about 7 hrs from being done, I still wanted to toss it out here for review. Being a stay at home dad in the South, I don't get very much feedback at all on my work. My thanks to all of you guys who are already pushing me to do better and giving me forum for discussion.

Oh, and this week's study is about half done and will be up in the next few days. I have been delayed because the girls brought a head cold home from day-school and the whole family has been down with it. There is nothing more pathetic than snotty, coughing, tired 19mos old twins.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

A poorly done Poorly Casanova


So here is this week's Master Study. Poorly Casanova as promised. I had soooo much fun with this one. This really is the direction I want to take my personal work while developing more commercial fantasy styles. Artists like Hale, Foster and even Fortune have such an emotional energy to their work that I can't get enough. The study took 20 minutes of drawing, and 1.5 hours of painting on 8x10 canvas. Again, rather than striving for exact detail, I wanted to capture the color resonance of the work. A good call as the original is a whopping 38x70!!! I call this one a success.

Vantage Point


Hey guys! I finally scanned this bad boy in, to moderate success, and thought I would post up a pic. This is my first piece to actually spend real time on the details. I know that sounds asinine, and it is, but for the most part I tend to just focus on what I want to and be damned with the rest. This really shows in the full body of my work, but I am really pleased with how this one turned out. There are still areas that could be worked further, but then again, there always are. I could really use some criticism and tips here, so don't hold back please. I am all too aware of its strengths and weaknesses. Thanks!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Master Studies



So after Adopting Dave Rapoza's (Crimson Daggers) weekly schedule concept, I decided to finally start cranking out my Master Studies. I am choosing specific areas of works that are either influential to me or have an art lesson I wish to learn embedded within them. Then I divide that quantity by a couple thousand and do one a week. The first one is Michael Whelan's Cover for Changeling Sea. I don't really want to put more than 2-4 hours in each of these ( I think this one came in at around 3.5), but I am sure I will break that rule as I go along. For the time being these will all be 8x10 and intended to capture specific elements of the painting. For Changeling, I really wanted to work on the drastic contrast of rimmed highlights. I was less concerned about the accuracy of clothing and hair, but going more for a deeper understanding of the light.

Next week's image will be Phil Hale's Poorly Casanova.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Rust


So it has been a few days now. I finished this several days ago, but had to wait for it to dry. I am trying to slow down with my work output and increase the level of detail per piece. My next work, "Vantage Point", has about 10-12 hours clocked already with only 25% completed. All of this time has been on rocks and fabric. I'll post a pic soon in progress.

This piece is for the latest ArtOrder Challenge:

"A sword, a spade, and a thought should never be allowed to rust"
~ James Stephens
Irish poet and storyteller, 1882-1950
http://artorder.blogspot.com/2010/01/catching-up-and-new-challenge.html