Cup, scribbles and a pencil

Just warming up again. Trying to stay loose.
From life.

Vignette_01: Biblical Hands

All finished. Moving on to the head next.

Back to the drawing board. I think it's getting there..

Booo hoo. I can't get the composition right! :)

Sometimes you start painting and enjoy it so much that you're not sure when to stop. I think I may have made this one worse. I did learn a bit about placing colour and shapes even if it ended up worse...

Portrait vignette

Here's a work in progress. This is about 15 minutes.

Vignette Study: Sketchy

This one is focusing on mood and abstraction using the unfinished sketch vignette. I am still trying to pull the background into the figure and the figure into the background (tonally) and with my palette. I chose a composition that was a bit desperate but at the same time with some hope. I tried to make it a little biblical in the composition. I actually played around with it at the end to see if I could do better. I will post those next.

Thanks for leaving comments everyone (you know who you are)! I'd appreciate it if the rest of you leave some tips/encouragement now and then :)

Vignette Study: Cut Away

The idea here is to use as much of the background colour in the drawing. Normally it's a mid tone or white but in this case I used black.

TAD POSTER FINAL

Approved and celebrated on TAD. I'm almost famous!

I think I'm getting there with the layout

It reads a bit more professionally now I think. Maybe it's a a bit dull though?

Restarting TAD

Ok I'm about ready to restart TAD again and I'm months behind. Where did I leave off? More or less on that poster which is till causing me headaches. Anyone out there have some advice on typography composition for this?

I am struggling.

Thanks in advance.

Speedpaint - Upside down

Upside Down

I couldn't think of anything! Agh. This is supposed to be an upside down space ship thing fighting in the atmosphere of some planet with other space ships. I know it's hard to read but that's what happens when you can't think of anything. :) Still it was great fun and I was listening to Justice live while doing it. Total of 25 minutes since I came up with an idea.

Odosketch is awesome

A friend showed me this site earlier that lets you draw in a simple way and records your drawing. I like it! :)

Speedpaint - Dance

This was 45 minutes. Everybody dance now. Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom.

Speedpaint - Meditation

30 minutes of painitng. man it's been too long. Subject meditation. What I learnt? Maybe start painting some surfaces in order to learn about surface texture a bit better.

Best film music duel

From a film (Train de Vie) we can't get on DVD with english subtitles. Why???!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bQmT1EM0Eg

Toony portrait

Didn't take long and I'm too tired to finish (couldn't sleep so tried to draw instead)

Vignette Study

Here's a black and white figure study trying to focus on using vignette al Richard Schmid.

Balloon with text (large)

More update:

Balloon 1st pass

Another update. Having trouble composing the text and picking a palette for it. Probably I will just get a font tomorrow night and start laying it out more professionally.

Poster colour and brief vignette

Here's the latest colour work and a brief vignette study for TAD colour and composition:

Values of my poster as I add more detail

Here's a value study of my flying balloon boats. They will be rusty colourful metals with slightly transparent paddles or sails depending on what i think looks better at that point. :)

Hidden Truths

The news is travelling fast. For anyone who doesn't already know I've been promoted to a senior artist. This goes hand in hand with my recent increase in responsibilities as an art director's assistant for parts of the game we're working on. Anyway enough bragging, let's just say I'm really happy at work at the moment (except for some tech issues we're having this milestone ;)

Anyway here is the final painting I will be sending to Stephen Murphy this weekend as promised.
Tell me what you think. Streling Hudson over on VLP actually followed my composition completely without any coersion. That makes me proud. :)

So here you go. And Stephen, take care of this painting I've grown fond of it.

PS This photo sucks. Better one tomorrow. I'll probably swap it here in this post ;)

Poster Update

So I've been sick for a while. Sorry for anyone who is following me and looking for updates.

I've been out of action due to intense migraines. last week I managed to get rid of the headaches by doing nothing at home. While it was relaxing and I feel good it's time to get back to work. This weekend I finished Stephen Murphy's 40 inch abstract painting and I started ideation on another painting.

I'll post a good quality picture beefore I send it off in case something happens along the way.

Digitally I am very far behind in my course (2 weeks) but I hope to catch up on that soon. Here is the latest colour version of my painting. Once I get the ok from TAD I will go ahead and detail it out and make some nice text instead of the ugly placeholders I have here.

Thanks for following. I will post the updated Stephen Murphy picture tomorrow and some reference grabs for my next painting.

Migraine

No posts for a while. That's because I've had a migraine for one week and my vision is all blurry. Doctor said I need to calm down so I'm trying my best not to do anything. Once this passes I'll be back to work.

Second class

TAD poster design thumbs

First class

Here's some composition work. I don't have much time to talk about it but see what you think. It's emotional response with just two values in abstraction.

Speedpaint: Claws

I can't draw today which is weird becasue last night I did a lovely drawing of a hand of my Fede. I guess things other than enthusiasm effect your drawing skills. I wonder how sports people remain so consistent..

Spedpaint: Camouflage

Vrooom! Getting grittier and grittier. :) But I kind of like it I think. Give me some time to brood on it..

STV3 and the future

Here's a sneak preview of a commission piece I'm doing for a prominent news journalist for the independent TV station TV3 in Ireland. I still need to glaze it to add depth and figure out the complications of transportation without costing too much.

I'll also take this time to iron out a rough schedule for the next few weeks:

Colour and composition Study:

• Monday and Wednesday nights I have classes on-line for 2 hours and I'll need to get about 6 hours home work done between Tuesday evenings and the weekends.

Brush work, Graphic Design and texture Study:

• Speed painting and composition studies at lunch.

Character Designs, Robot Designs, Environments, Props, Weapons and Creatures:

• Spare weekend time I'm going to do more character studies as that is where I really want to be when I'm at the top of my game. I'll be focusing on Ulysses and the wild west for now but will move onto different genres when I feel I'm repeating myself.

Studio Space:

• I'll need to get an application in by the end of the month so probably the first few weekends I'll be exploring the canvas. Focusing mainly on the corruption of memory and using the human figure as a form of expression.

Work process and the artist as a business model for the 21st century:

• I'll be using this space to show how the roll and perception of art has changed incredibly over the past 5 years and how we as a subculture can change to give our audience the art they want in the form they want it. Is there a new business model besides the following outdated 1000 year old struggle?

1. Get good at art
2. Sell art sometimes to the rich (low price giving half your money to galleries)
3. Starve a bit, sell more art (if you're lucky and famous) at higher prices to the even richer
4. Die and let other people get rich from your work

Again keep watching and I'll fill you in on any success stories I dig up on the way.

Studio Space and Composition Class

Another weekend and no more updates on Ulysses. I swear I'm going to pull my hair out soon if I don't get back into my schedule. In an effort to remain in the blogsphere I'll just note down a few exciting developments in my artistic life.

Firstly: A possibility of an addition of responsibilities in my job role has presented itself. It's early days so let's see how things pan out. Watch this space for details.

Secondly: I am starting a Colour and Composition course tomorrow night at The Art Department which is being taught by Jason Manley and Terry Brown. I thought it started on the 17th so I'm in a bit of a fluster. My objective for this course is to consolidate what I already know, learn something new and most of all learn how to apply this knowledge in my own works.

Thirdly: I am seeking a new studio space because this little corner of my room is not big enough for all my mediums. Marko Djurdjevic swears that for him it was the biggest and most positive change he made for his art work. Having a space just for art and separating private life from art life is fundamental to your work as a professional.



So I've been looking around and I've found Cambridge Artworks which is perfect for me for a few reasons:

• It's close by my home
• It's close by Fede's work
• It offers studio spaces that fit my needs and has a lot of talented people I can learn from and maybe share a secret or two of my own with.

Bad news is they have a waiting list and a large application form which I need to fill out and submit with examples of my art work. This isn't a problem of quality from my point of view but of deciding which pieces will work together in a an application that best describe me as an artist and what I am trying to explore and achieve.

Speed Paint: Falling

More texture and brush experiments. happy with overall image, not happy with only photo collage I used in bottom left corner (flags). probably will take them out and paint something instead.

Speed Paint: Scarecrow. 40 minutes

Another one. I'm not happy with this as a whole image but I do like some of the brush work and design elements.

Another Speed Paint

Topic: Voices. 45 minutes, no reference.

To get rid of my block I did a lunch time speed paint

It's hard getting back in to the drawing again. I have so many excuses: Sickness, Milestone delivery and travel. But none of them are valid. I have been drawing every day for the last 3 days though which is good. Today was the first time I've touched photo shop for 3 weeks. I feel bad just at the thought. Oh well.

I'll post later my MADE review and maybe a plan of where to go from now.

Ulysses update

Another update, still lots of details I want to put in but not sure I'll have time before MADE. Also the light on the arm holding the gun is wrong.

A side question: Does anyone have a good portfolio layout that they like that I can steal for laying out mine? I was thinking of just looking at the Massive Black books and trying to layout the stuff like they do..

And is it ok to just bring a digital version of my portfolio?