Restarted Life drawing classes for the new year. This is the first painting. same as always. Oils on canvas over two hours. This week I tried using the pallet knife to make the light areas as bold as possible, using the brush to blend the edges.
Tag Archives: Oil
Terminator – Time Laps
Currently working on the second painting in a series that started with behind the scenes C3P0. I found a great photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the makeup chair for the film Terminator 2. I knew I had to do this as well. Its going well and i’m at the final stage now but it has been a really long process. Such an iconic person and image that it absolutely had to be right and good. A few times along the way I felt i had nailed the likeness but then lost it again. Its definitely not perfect but i am really pleased with how its coming along. Probably up to about 8 hours on and off to get it to here. Ill post the final image soon when i’m happy with it. The question now is can i find another behind the scenes photo of an 80’s robot/cyborg to complete the set?
Oil Paint Practice
Fantastic lesson yesterday. Still sticking with the box layout technique Jon showed me last week. The image really came together in the first hour. This is really great as I seem to be getting quicker at blocking out and getting to the point I would normally get to after 2. This is giving me more time to work on tone and colour. The end likeness isn’t to bad. I spent most of the second hour working on the face. Hopefully this speed up in the layout will continue and ill be able to get deeper into the tone and colour in future paintings.
Oil Paint Practice
From last weeks Life drawing lesson. 2 hours with oils on canvas from a life model. Jon started the session by showing me how to lay out the posture using boxes rather can spheres. Up to now I have had allot of trouble getting the initial posture/composition right in these sessions using the sphere technique. Jon wanted me to try boxes now. And it worked. This is the first session that i can remember where Jon has not had to come in and make changes to scale/composition. Jon said that he does not teach box layout earl as with painting it is important to learn to paint curves initially as in particular with portraiture the body is mostly curves not hard angles. Once painting curves has been practiced the painter can move over to boxes for layout making scale easier to manage and also allowing curves to be added in (over the boxes) once the painting begins. very happy with this one. No Lesson next week but maybe ill try to practice this technique at home.
Oil Paint Practice
Catching up with the now. This is the painting from the life drawing lesson last Thursday. Using the flip side of the cardboard from the week before (still no canvas). I tore of the finish layer creating a very fluffy layer underneath. Bad idea. It became even more absorbent than with the finish. Never mind. Pay day on Friday so I can get some new canvases. Still using Oils with a Life model over 2 hours. A focus on colour mixing. The image itself is maybe not so great but I am pleased with the colour choices. The dark green/brawns add a real depth that I haven’t always achieved with my other paintings. The face is terrible again, not a good likeness. You may note the eyes on the far right of the board and my utter failure to recreate the effect in the actual image. Next week I may go bigger with the face so that i can focus on these details. I have a habit of trying to fit the hands and the head into the one image. I need to stop doing this and focus on more specific areas and make them bigger on the canvas. Or ask the model to put the hands nearer the head 😉
Oil Paint Practice
Ok catching up with the now this is from a week ago. Life mode with oil paint. Not on canvas this time as Ive run out! I have been re-using a few of them but they are getting pretty thick with paint now which doesn’t make for a great texture to paint on. Back to this image. Instead of using canvas I used piece of colored card. If canvases with paint already on them are a bad texture to paint on the the card is terrible. The paint just absorbs in and goes nowhere. There was a silver lining to this though as it forced me to get allot thicker with the paint. Its not the best image but again lots of focus on colour mixing and getting correct tones.
Oil Paint Practice
A great life drawing lesson from two weeks ago. Life model on canvas with oils. Although as always there is allot I didn’t get right I was very pleased with this effort. In particular the colours and tones which just came together without much effort.
I was also using medium to thicken the paint from an early stage so, although the image doesn’t really show it. The final painting has some really nice texture variations.
Oil Paint Practice
The first Painting after the first life drawing class of the year. A familiar model on canvas with Oils. Im pretty happy with how it came out. After a 4 week break from painting. A slow start it all came together nicely at the end of the two hours.
Oil Paint Practice
A good session this week. Oil paint on canvas from a life model.
A really push this week to pull out the light areas and push back the dark. Overall I’m really happy with the result, even though the face came out allot more masculine than intended.
Oil Paint Practive
So refreshing not to have a face as the main focus. Oil on canvas with a life model She chose the pose and I was very happy as A. No face (well not really) and B. I don’t think Ive ever painted a back/behind before. I am very happy with how it came out. It didn’t really look that great until I rendered the couch and pillows around her.
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