painting fanatics locked in an attic

Blog Migration

2011-04-05T11:24:00.000-07:00

We've moved! Christie and I both have new blogs, please check them out when you get a chance!!

Here's Christie's beautiful work!

http://paintdump.blogspot.com/

And here's where you can find my latest

http://partnersinpaint.blogspot.com/

Thanks again!

-Ramon

previews

2010-09-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

More work on Zakiya's portrait and some 10 minute drawings from class. I still don't have a camera, so I'm posting phone pics for now. Better images soon!

In progress

2010-08-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

Some shots of work in progress

Progress on paintings

2010-06-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

Here's some further progress on the street painting and the portrait of Eric (2 sittings so far, 2 hours each, hopefully another one today). I also worked more on the painting of Zakiya, but after that session, I decided that I didn't like where things were going and needed an alternative way to handle the dress. Taking my inspiration from Gainsborough and many others I saw at the Huntington gallery here in LA, I decided to spend one 1.5 hr sitting just nailing down the form of the dress in a separate drawing, to serve as an absolute baseline. I intend to do a color study next time, and I will probably end up painting the dress without her present, just using her as reference for finishing.

What I like about this approach is that I can experiment with simplifying the folds to obtain broader masses, but if I screw up, i always have that to go back to. I also have no time constraints and next time she poses, she can move around a little when she's tired since the folds are established. Since I won't be constantly modifying the folds, I think this will lead to a better finish.

Also, I'm available for commissioned work, and a most of my paintings up here are for sale. Contact me for further details

finally a proper update

2010-05-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

Mexico

2010-05-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

So, as some of you may know, I've been wandering the streets in my native Tijuana, collecting stories, studies and looking for trouble. It's been a week and I'm about ready to head back to LA, but I learned a lot and met some great people (and dogs!). I'll post more soon, for now, here are some life studies from my sketchbook.

Hovenden

2010-04-08T01:42:00.000-07:00

Been working a lot lately. Here's a decent shot of a copy of Thomas Hovenden's The Favorite Falcon that I started recently. This is in preparation for some new things I'll be doing that involve satin. I've also got a copy of a Leopold Carl Muller painting in the works, and I need to finish my Ernst copy, along with some landscapes. At any rate, this is about 4-6 hours into it.

one of these days, we'll have us a real update

2010-03-17T12:28:00.001-07:00

Still no camera, so the phone must do for now.

1/2 update

2010-02-27T00:40:00.000-08:00

I swear I'll get around to an actual update soonish, with good pictures and all.

2010-02-22T21:08:00.000-08:00

some friends. portraits were 10-20 mins, second image is1.5 hrs

figure drawing

2010-02-10T00:57:00.000-08:00

some figure drawings from Glenn's class. First one right under 2.5 hours, second one about 3 hrs.

ttttteasers

2010-02-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

I don't really have access to a good camera right now, nor do I have much time to post decent pictures, so here are some phone shots of recent paintings, better pix soon.

New Fortuny study in progress

2010-01-04T22:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't secured a good camera, so here's a cell phone picture as a placeholder. This is a small copy of Fortuny's Arab Chief from 1874. Along with Regnault's Salome, it's one of my favorite paintings. EVER.

sketchbook pages

2009-12-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

My dad
Bored classmates

Studies from a portrait by Bastien Lepage

new work soon!

2009-12-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

My sister kindly agreed to pose. This took us about 5 hours or so. In retrospect some of the edges look a little hard, but I will tend to that more carefully in future efforts. I hope to do many more drawings like this in the coming months.

Spanish time

2009-12-01T23:26:00.001-08:00

I've developed a mild (or maybe not so mild) obsession with late 19th century Spanish painting. Of particular interest to me are Fortuny and those in his Roman circle. Here are two studies of the former's work, and one from Sorolla. Expect plenty more studies of this group.

Teasers

2009-11-29T02:52:00.000-08:00

So..I'm gonna be a jerk again and offer some very small, very crappy phone pictures of some stuff in the works :)

classwork and exploring LA

2009-11-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

Color study after Leblanc Stewart

Some 5 and 10 minute studies from class

Neglect of proportions leads to forehead-less disaster

Composition studies

Sketchbook

after Kroyer

costume design

Class still life WIP and an oldie

2009-11-11T13:09:00.001-08:00

And finally a decent image of this one, which I never actually finished

new stuff

2009-11-10T23:41:00.000-08:00

More work

2009-10-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here recent stuff. I'll probably edit this post and add the paintings and figure studies later. These are mostly wireframing/compositon assignments for Will and studies for a big studio landscape I'm working on.

Cool stuff I found at Lacma

2009-09-28T01:30:00.001-07:00

Nothing fancy here, just some cool things I found at the ol' museum.

2009-09-20T15:16:00.001-07:00

Back to school

2009-09-14T12:26:00.001-07:00

Here's some new stuff! more to come.

New studies

2009-08-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Some new things. a 3-4 hour self portrait and one of the better 5 x 7" effect studies I did as the sun was setting.

Yard again

2009-07-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

Another day, another backyard sketch. I actually learned a lot about controlling the paint, and about maintaining the integrity of the big masses while doing this. I tried to work on edges as well. This one is unfinished like most of the old ones, I may or may not take it back outside.

Market sketch

2009-07-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today I was looking at a lot of great paintings by Tepper, Dunn and Cornwell and decided to undertake a small color sketch to work out a picture in a similar way. I've also feel like I've been learning about effective design while looking at these paintings, studying Will's notes and reading Stapleton Kearn's blog, and wanted to see if I could apply some of that into said sketch.

The idea is simple, I envisioned an old pottery seller intently looking at a young woman with her child as they pass by. This is closer to the kind of painting I want to do eventually, with a strong narrative aspect and carefully considered composition.

I painted this in acrylics first, but then doctored it considerably in Photoshop. I'm going to be studying pictorial composition/design and life drawing again with Will in the fall, and also costume design at my university, which should be really helpful for this kind of painting!

More work

2009-07-26T17:59:00.001-07:00

More work on this. those legs were a pain and I'm not quite satisfied yet. The head came much easier! Also, I painted my first hand in ages. Still really bad pictures, need to find better lighting setup. Also, need to fix the frame and chest, a some of the angles are off. Can't wait till I get to the easy parts, the patterns on the cushion and cloth :)

Damn you Alfred Stevens

2009-07-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

My sister and I started another portrait today. I've been really inspired by Regnault's Salome, and the portraits of Alfred Stevens and Raimundo Madrazo y Garreta. I think this represents an improvement over previous efforts, in terms of draftmanship (which I've been working on a lot lately) and paint application. I finally felt in control of the damn thing. These pictures aren't that great, I'll post more tomorrow after the 2nd session.

roadside workers and truck drivers

2009-07-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

So, walking back from the dentist's office, I spotted some roadside worker guys resting in the shade. I asked if I could draw them. The guys were totally cool and soon a whole crowd had gathered, some taking turns in posing, others making fun of the person being drawn. This attracted the attention of some truckers who also wanted me to draw them. These were all pretty quick but really fun. I actually didn't have time to draw everyone this time around, but they asked me to come back till I've drawn the whole crew haha.

les poissons et autres choses

2009-07-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

By popular demand, here's a shot of the fish still life. I didn't quite finish it last night, since the fish started to smell and I was exhausted...in all it was maybe 4 or 5 hours of work...maybe less. I'm not thrilled about the result because I sorta got myself into a mess towards the end....but painting fish is a one-shot deal and I actually did learn quite a bit from doing this. I think the color/value was ok in this one, though the drawing is not as good as I would have liked and the paint got wayy overworked in some areas. Better luck next time!! Anyway, will post a better picture of the painting itself later in the day.

Also, I finally finished that painting of the Pier Cafe at Seaport.

PS. This post title is about the last time I will ever use my high school french

crappy pastel self portrait

2009-07-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

So....figuring out pastels is going to be harder than I expected. For one thing...they don't feel the way i thought they would...they're chalkier. And not quite as rich and saturated as I had hoped. This was a 3 hour test drive....it feels small and thin and weak in the handling, but I think my shapes are a little more accurate so I'll post it anyway. Those pastels had better be aware that there will be a round 2 and I'm not going down that easy next time :)

workin' the streets

2009-07-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

some sketches from the streets in TJ

degas

2009-07-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

Study after a really cool portrait by Degas. I didn't like his work for the long time, but lately I've been seduced by his draftsmanship and superb tonal arrangements. I still don't like his work indiscriminately, but man, his best stuff is really really good :)

I feel like I learned a lot about maintaining soft edges while preserving solid structure and having only a few hard accents that don't disrupt the beauty of the main masses.

old master studies

2009-07-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

Haven't been doing too much of this lately, but I really need to improve all aspects of my drawing, so here we go :) Learned some cool stuff about modeling form in the shadows and making them transparent, and also about preserving lightness of touch.

I've been dissecting my Cornwell book as well, and did a number of composition studies and one color copy in oil, which I'll post soon. I also bought a pastel set, which should arrive in the next week or so. I'm really excited about it, because it's less messy and (to me) feels more informal than oil painting. I figure I'll have more time to work on values, edges, color and drawing without some of the extra baggage. Will post more soon.

new outdoor study

2009-07-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here's another sketch I started today. The handling is inspired by all the Cornwells I was studying today. I'm trying to get a greater feeling of light in here. Hopefully I'll finish this one tomorrow.

From lens distortion land

2009-06-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

This picture is pretty bad (the building for instance, is not nearly this crooked)...but my camera is being unbelievably uncooperative. In any case, another four hours on this.

Father's day

2009-06-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

So today is father's day...been hanging out with my dad, fixing stuff around the house, eating good food, joking around, etc. At one point during the day, he joked that I should paint him while reading the paper outside. So i took him up on it :)

I have to finish a lot of the landscape around him, so I'll probably do that tomorrow. I'll see if I can get him to sit briefly again, since I made his forearm extremely long....if not, I might be able to correct it from memory.

same old same old

2009-06-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

Another backyard oil sketch. I like the no-pressure approach I'm taking to these. Very liberating :) In fact, I really like doing these quickies while also working on a larger "picture", it all prevents me from getting bored. I think in the future I'll be doing a lot more of these little "notes" (as Sorolla used to call them). They'll be nice to have around when I start doing more compositions under Will.

Backyard oil sketch

2009-06-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

Watched parts of the Morgan Weistling DVD today, good refresher and good too see a fine painter at work. Unlike San Diego, Tijuana is actually having summer weather, so I decided to go outside today and work a little.

I think I'm finally getting my paint consistency where I want it for a fast sketch (it's like mayo). Not too thin, not too thick, works like a charm. I also know how to properly hold a brush now, and have yet to revert to the stupid pen grip I was using when I started. Only problem is that my turp got a little dirty and muddied up some of my darker notes.

It was also a nice change of pace, since I've been doing more involved, larger paintings where I have time to think it all out. This was under 3 hours, and very much inspired by Carlos de Haes

I might work on this more tomorrow.....

Plein air by the sea pt.2

2009-06-17T19:01:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally got around to working on the Pier Cafe painting. It's been about 8 hours so far, I managed to kinda mangle up the water, but I'll fix it next time around. Mainly worked on the rocks and straightening the damn building out. Also, some shots of my setup out there :)

EDIT:

I was looking through my sketchbook and found the original drawing that sparked my interest in this scene and my composition sketches

self portrait study

2009-06-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

A relatively quick study in front of the mirror.

Plein air by the sea

2009-06-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

So, last night I spent an ungodly amount of time patiently cleaning my palette, brushes, and other painting paraphernalia, and today I ventured out into the unknown, looking for something to paint....

Ok, so my journey was actually a lot less mysterious than that, the Pier Cafe had already caught my eye since last week. In any case, I set up today at 7 am, 24 x 36 canvas in hand, hoping for the best. Below is what I had by 11 am. What I'm trying to do with this painting, is really come up with a "picture", not just a study. I'm trying to come up with a good composition, good shape design, etc. In sum, something that is beautiful and well designed....at least....that's the goal. For this I'm trying to apply all the stuff that Will exposed me to, but that I've been too hardheaded to actually get.

For inspiration, I'm looking to Levitan and Cornwell, two of my artistic gods. This should be done within two more sessions....maybe even one if the overcast weather continues....need to actually work on the lopsided building, since I mostly worked on the water today.

I'm on to you Theodore Lukits!

2009-06-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

Ol' Theo was basically all the things I would like to be, but never will be. He was a crazy prodigy and could whip up a crazy good academic figure at 16..

http://www.theodorelukits.org/images/prelomcompdrwing400.jpg

...a much better one than I could do now :)

Also, he served as assistant to Dean Cornwell. Some people have all the luck!

In any case, I saw some of his early tonal drawings of heads and was very impressed. So, today my mom kindly agreed to let me draw her. This is basically an effort to reveal form primarily through tone. As finished as I could make it in the say...3 or so hours that we worked on it. It's been awhile since I've worked with a graphite pencil, and carrying a drawing this far is definitely very difficult. Even small errors register. As I look at this now, I think the nostrils are lightly misaligned, the eyes however, are generally correct, one of her eyes is rounder than the other. Hopefully I'll do more of these soon...what I'm going for is revealing form through value, but also getting the character of the forms.

PS. the drawing is on white paper, which i had to darken slightly since my scanner is blowing out the highlights :/

oh and here's the link to the Lukits drawings
http://www.theodorelukits.org/studentworks.html

Mah pops

2009-05-31T14:02:00.000-07:00

Here are two studies of my dad, while he was watching TV. The 2nd image is actually the first study I did, which I don't particularly like. I neglected to sharpen and properly hold my pencils, as a result the drawing is kind of heavy-handed, because the tools were in the way. I think the other one (1st image) is more successful, as I tried to address these issues.

time for something different...

2009-05-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been feeling kind of restless in my studies, and lacking some motivation. I did some thinking about the cause for this, since it happens to me periodically. I think it just means I need a change of pace.

Apart from the regular, optimistic side of me, with a penchant for contemplating beauty and light, there's a side of me that's really interested in ancient mythology, conspiracy theories and watching monsterquest on the history channel.

I'm a skeptic through and through, but I find that stuff fascinating. I've also read a lot of HP Lovecraft and watched a lot of horror movies in my day (I just watched Hellraiser 2 and loved it). In fact, most of the drawing I did before turning 15 had to do with the strange products of my imagination. So, today, I sat down and decided to just...let things happen, no foresight to speak of....I just started abstractly and let shapes suggest themselves. The result is...weird....probably a cliche 10-13 year old boy type drawing...but I don't have much to say about that :)

Plein air

2009-05-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Some more work on this, 12 hours so far, about 11 x 14". I should finish in the next session. Leaves are hard!!!

Tomorrow I start a 24 x 36 plein air in the park. I want this to be a huge challenge, and it very well might take me a few weeks of steady work to complete, since I'll likely pick something with intricate architecture at the park. I'm going to seek a broader effect in the larger painting though, because the current one is a bit busy all over. That's ok for a smaller painting, but not for a large one. Off to studying Sargent and Guy Rose again!

more plein-airing

2009-05-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

New gouache from my yard, and update on the last one. I'm learning a lot from the oil one, I think I'm like 10 hours into it...and I've been enjoying the process of evaluating spots of color and using a broken, impressionist treatment to achieve a greater sense of light. I'm also loading certain areas with pure color... maybe a dab or two where it's consistent with what I see, but it still adds to the color vibration. I'm conceiving the oil as a long term study in light, seeing how much information I can add without marring the big impression. C & C welcome

Landscape Update

2009-05-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

here's some more work on the plein air painting of my yard. I think my color values are more accurate than in previous studies, and I'm trying to push my observation as far as the painters I admire, Guy Rose in this case...and maybe Caillebotte and early Monet to a lesser extent.

Still life WIP

2009-05-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the still life in progress...I think I need to add something red to add some more color contrast. In any case, nothing's finished by a long shot, but I think it might turn out ok.

Jordaens study

2009-05-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

After one of my favorite painters....man that guy could get character into a head!! I'm working on trying to get that fleshy feel into my own work. The baroque painters have it in abundance, although it's largely missing from a lot of contemporary impressionist/optical type draftsmanship. It's all in the feel of the form!

summer painting

2009-05-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the first paintings of the summer. Unfortunately, my camera at home refuses to take decent pictures of paintings. I tried to fix them in photoshop, and at least they're....err...viewable....sort of.

The 2nd one is in progress. I'm including a detail shot of the bottom portion, which is basically done. The top shows the broad rubbing of approximate local color that I used to start (frottis).

hands and feet!

2009-05-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

This summer, I'm determined to study hands and feet and really understand the structure, since it's not something I've devoted much time to in the past. So, here are some studies of my (barbaric looking) hands and feet, inspired by some of Durer's drawings.

I'll be doing more of these soon, and hope I'll screw up less (viz. the cramped thumb space in the left hand of the 2nd image).

feet!

2009-05-14T20:39:00.001-07:00

from the getty

Dean Cornwell copy

2009-05-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

Anyone who's read this blog for 5 minutes already knows that I'm a BIG Cornwell fan....I mean, really big. Anyway, For my Drawing and Rendering for Theater class I was allowed to choose any assignment as a final, so I decided I would finally copy a Cornwell. In the past, I had been intimidated by the sheer brilliance and spontaneity of his work, but I decided to go for it.

The copy was really instructive, Cornwell was not only an amazing painter, he was a hell of a designer. I hope that someday my pictures will have the same carrying power and broadness of vision that his have, not to mention all the character he injects into...well..... everything!

cart

2009-05-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

study of one of those little carts you see in colleges and golf courses :) gouache, ink and prismacolor

More figures

2009-05-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

So, here are some more figures from the week. I feel like my figure drawings are finally starting to look the way I want them to, like the figure exercises of 18th century students. I've been experimenting with drawing my lay-in more intuitively and loosely, and drawing with a very light, controlled touch. I've also been trying to achieve very clear transitions between areas and delineating the planes to the best of my ability. To balance this all out though, I've been trying to be really loose and have been playing around with ink in my sketchbook, so I'm including one of those drawings as well.

During class, Will gave me a really good critique (see above) about adding accents to nail down forms and gaining increased three-dimensionality. It was pretty impressive to see the drawing start to "pop" more just with a few swift strokes. It actually made the drawing look very "Tiepolo-y", and I really like Tiepolo! With that in mind, I tried to apply his advice to my drawings of Brandt the next day in Glenn's class.

Also, a portrait of my "Drawing and Rendering for Theater" teacher, Don Llewellyn.

Better drawings finally?

2009-04-29T22:25:00.001-07:00

Here are some from tonight. I actually think it went well for once! All 20s

EDIT: Better pictures

18th century....the good old days!

2009-04-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

a study from Glenn's class, which i'm showing as grayscale, because the white china marker mixed with a little of the prismacolor and created a really distracting cool tone on the warm toned paper, and the form is hard to judge. However, the problem goes away when it's value only in b & w.

Also, I'm studying 18th century french academic figures, because I think that, as a school, they reached the highest level of understanding of form. As i've probably said before, this tactile understanding of form was sacrificed right around the 1830s as the focus shifted towards the depiction of literal "optical" truth, etc. Some things gained, some lost.

EDIT: the 2nd study is after Louis Cheron

Crit

2009-04-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

Really nice work Christie! You've been mighty productive lately (even more so than usual!). Your environments are coming along so well! Really impressive stuff :)

This is sort of an unorthodox post, but honestly, I feel really clumsy when offering a written crit about technical drawing stuff. In any case, I took what I felt was one of your most successful drawings from the last post, and tried to make a few suggestions using PS....and a mouse (sigh).

What struck me about this drawing is how elegant it is, and the fine construction of the head. However, I did notice things for improvement in the body. The main thing I would say is to really build up the figure, and conceive of every form three-dimensionally in its entirety, even if partially obscured, etc. Moreover, the drawings could benefit from more modeling in the light. Even if it's hard to see, decide which planes within the light are facing away from you and drop them a bit in tone to push them back, or to roll the edges over. Also, watch for subtle plane changes where different muscles meet.

Also, when dealing with tone, it would be beneficial to really slow down and start light, then go over it again in passes, gradually strengthening the values until achieving the desired contrast.

hope this helps!

Gestures!

2009-04-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry, broke it up into two posts because it's a little long

Studies and fig draw stuff

2009-04-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

I have a weakness with drawing large bellies!

enviro last class

2009-04-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Woah! last class!
There are repeats since this post is to pretty much sum up my journey through the ten week course, and I do believe I improved and learned much! So happy, CDA is just the best place to be. Will totally go back again.

Holbein

2009-04-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

So, recently I attempted to draw a friend's portrait. I'll keep my recollection of the event short, but suffice it to say it did not go well....at all. I haven't drawn portraits in awhile and I guess I had forgotten just how exacting the drawing for such a thing is. Moreover...My taste has been evolving and gaining greater sophistication, even if my skill has not...so we have a problem :)

I'm trying to study 2d shapes more carefully (while keeping form in mind as well) in order to bring these new portraits to a higher level. To this end, I have begun to study the work of Hans Holbein the Younger. The guy was a genius.

PS. this study sucks, but i intend to do many more like it until I get a LOT better

Adventures in the natural history museum pt.1

2009-04-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a 2 hour study from the natural history museum. Will suggested that I do a series of these and that's exactly what I intend to do :)

This is my first one and I think it went OK. The main problem is that the museum is not particularly well lit, so when I was modeling the lights, my values seemed fine, but when I stepped outside, the lights were too high in value. Oh well, lesson learned!

More stuff!

2009-04-12T12:31:00.001-07:00

From Life

From the masters

a wip

2009-04-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

I've been painting a lot, but more in a "dabble in this or that for 5 minutes and then jump on" kind of ADD painting. Anyway, here's the latest wip.

edit: oh yeah why not! some doodly stuff

Edit again: ... ... bah, why not? lolol

skulls again!

2009-04-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

,
I'm going to start studying the skull again, this time from at least 10 angles, etc. I'm also trying to explore the form as carefully and methodically as possible, as per Glenn's advice. Also, taking a page out of the Russians' book, I'm doing diagrams on the side of my main drawing when I get stuck, or need to further analyze the planes of a particular area.

figure drawings

2009-03-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, better pictures. These are in the order I did them in class. The first one was before I talked to Glenn. The other two were after he gave me a critique.

PS. Glenn was sitting next to me during the last pose, and his drawing was amazing!

Ribera copy done!

2009-03-26T20:28:00.001-07:00

Done! :) I was doing some thinking last night and came to the conclusion that my favorite artists are Ribera, Sargent and Cornwell, hopefully this can help me clarify my goals later on!

And Christie, hot damn you're becoming some kind of concept art juggernaut! keep it up!

update

2009-03-25T01:48:00.000-07:00

he got promoted.. from faceless guys to mop man!

edit: heres the pic that wouldnt work on photobucket

Sneaky!

2009-03-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

Dang Ramon! You just keep them chugging along

So I have to post some stuff now... gotta couple WIPs, made four yesterday... but I'm hoping to get to a few of them tonight, so don't look at these for too long.

Running out of time (going to Texas, Thursday morning!!), but I'll get to them... eventually...!

still truckin' along

2009-03-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

New figure study, slightly under 3 hours, done at an uninstructed workshop at barnsdall park.

Ribera copy in progress

2009-03-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

This is fun, haven't had time to do a serious master study in awhile. Here it is after one pass at it. Plenty to fix here, I gave him a skinny right leg, a wimpy soleus, and the biggest brachioradialis ever seen on a saint! :)

figures!

2009-03-09T22:57:00.001-07:00

Here are some drawings from the past week, first two are a series of 5 minute drawings from the same model that we had to arrange into a composition as we went. Will says it's a kind of improvisational composition exercise, and is trying to get me to learn to arrange multiple figures well. He also assigned me to draw 30 heads, 15 male, 15 female, and have each with a different hairstyle, so I have those in my head when I do these figure exercises. So the assignment is 1/2 drawing from life, 1/2 from imagination.

For balance, I went to an uninstructed workshop today and did a 3 hour drawing. I lost my glasses, so I've been having some trouble drawing this week. For instance, I couldn't see what was going on with the model's right clavicle, and abdomen. I still learned a lot from the parts I could see, and I'm looking forward to doing more of these longer drawings to balance the shorter poses

More enviros

2009-03-09T19:41:00.001-07:00

More updates!

I'm supposed to choose one of the concepts to be developed into more full on pieces so I guess these are WIPs. I'm going with the seaside picture first.

The second pic as a painting is pretty busy to me with all the light specks and textures, so I want to fix that up too. Also wanted to add more tree houses (a city coulda been neat) but I ran out of time and just didn't do the idea any justice. So I will be working more on this pic/concept later for fun ~

More study stuff

2009-03-05T21:17:00.000-08:00

Did the figure drawings at Gallery Nucleus. So glad they did 2 mins and short poses-- the class I'm taking at city college just does one pose per class... really missed the shorter poses.
As for the drawing process itself, right now I'm in figure drawing confusion! There's the Vilppu approach I've been doing for the past however-long, and then there's the Kevin style that I'm trying to learn now, and the beginning approaches are very different and very hard for someone as sloppy as me... so I have no idea what these pics here are. Anyway. All that aside though: man, I need to work on proportion more! :( I have a bad habit of elongating the torso and putting the head too high.

Anyway, the bird watercolors may be familiar but I also threw in some other fish and peoples in a new remix of the old stuff I neglected to scan in previously!

the rest! (and higher res images of older stuff)

2009-03-04T16:53:00.000-08:00

DOONNNEE!!!!

2009-03-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

i. am. EXHAUSTED

DS stuff

2009-03-01T18:37:00.000-08:00

Also, some sketches I did on my friends NintendO DS! Another buddy let me borrow his DS so there is more to come ~! (Thanks Ron! you da man)

More~

2009-03-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

Stuffs

2009-02-28T18:43:00.001-08:00

The sketch thing done for this weekly theme over at Sketch n Sniff http://snsdrawingchallenge.blogspot.com/

The watercolor of the girl- stumbled a photo of a cute little asian kid while looking for landscape, and decided it'd make a nice watercolor

Gestures and comp studies from class today, quite straightforward

the closeups...finally....

2009-02-26T20:38:00.001-08:00

so, I finally got around to taking better pictures...these are some of the high res pics I'm using for my portfolio

ahhh painting time!!!!

2009-02-25T22:26:00.000-08:00

So....I'm racing against time and my own ability, to finish this damn thing before the Art Center scholarship deadline...which is Sunday.... Thankfully Laguna has a more flexible deadline, so I don't have to worry as much :)

Anyway, here are some teaser WIP shots. I'm not completely happy with how this is turning out, particularly because I've been looking at some amazing Dean Cornwell paintings and this does not compare. But, I'll fix as much as I can!

PS. Sorry I haven't been leaving crits Christie, I'll get on it when this portfolio business is over!

Random dude

2009-02-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

Random, wanted to play with colors!
And Ramon, I'm going to do my best to match each of your updates with one of my own! yay =D

Still more!!!

2009-02-23T23:18:00.000-08:00

Environment week 2

2009-02-21T23:55:00.000-08:00

Just finished these just now... still got at least one more to go so I gotta stop doing these. I see some whacky and guesstimated perspective, hopefully will still be alive long enough after i finish the last thumb and fix these up... yep

Anyway, I love CDA. Really motivates me. I never tried these before but knowing that a teacher and class I admire will be looking at these, makes me push myself!

Hope the values turned out ok after exporting

edit 2 hours later... finished last one!!

I think I'll go sleep now...... haha

still more studies!

2009-02-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

I'll get to the actual painting of the thing eventually I swear!!!

we now have color!

2009-02-19T22:47:00.001-08:00

Stuff

2009-02-18T22:21:00.000-08:00

I'll get up the studies from animal drawing and stuff soon! >_>
And I hope to improve on the thumbnails.. I have no excuse haha

composition...truckin' along

2009-02-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

So, I've got most of my studies done, but instead of doing a big cartoon, laboriously drawing everything over, I decided to do a mockup in photoshop, using my individual studies and my composition thumbnails. It also gave me the chance to improve/simplify the composition on the fly, not to mention that putting a grid over the whole thing is going to be super easy :)

the first image is the mockup proper, the second one is a simplified version just showing the tone plan

more studies

2009-02-16T14:43:00.001-08:00

more stuff for my big painting..and the finished sp....hopefully i'll have a better pic soon

actual new post

2009-02-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

Drawings from life, imagination, masters, etc....also my first 3 hour figure drawing (2nd one down)

placeholder

2009-02-02T22:32:00.000-08:00

I've been insanely busy these past few weeks, and hopefully some of it is paying off :) Here's a placeholder/taste of things to come...one portrait study from Karl Gnass' class, a self portrait in progress and a drawing from Glenn's

EDIT: studies and comp

backyard oil again

2009-01-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

one more, same spot as this one
http://highonturpentine.blogspot.com/2008/05/backyard-adventures.html

some more

2009-01-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

More paintings: some good, some bad :)

update

2008-12-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

still life update

Assorted paintings

2008-12-27T20:20:00.000-08:00

Just some paintings I've been doing lately....WIP of the still life, the kitchen scene is unfinished....the 2nd one is of our cat Yeti

picnic

2008-12-24T12:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a new still life I'm working on, hopefully as a future portfolio piece. This is just the start, I'm trying to keep Will's advice in mind regarding composition, organizing elements in a triangle, not having things evenly spaced, using overlaps to create space, having rhythms to guide the eye. When I get around to the actual solid painting, my focus will be on understanding edges better.

Another SP

2008-12-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

now with messy hair and scarf....focusing more on planes!