Red Riding Hood thumbs

The Eye revisited.

I've been thinkng of making this thumbnail into a large painting to see how far I can go with what I know in painting. A little more research and sketches... and hopefully I might pluck up the courage to get on with it!

Framed and Finished

I've finally finished my study portrait of Olga and she now hangs on our wall. All in all I was pleased how it turned out, and from this exercise I'm confident to start my next one shortly. For those that have followed along, I hope you enjoyed the process of this W.I.P as much as I have.

Fridged Exodus

The top right image was the first of this batch and I dec ided to keep with the theme.

Feast of the Unicorn!

My wife happened to pass by while I was doodling and saw this one of the unicorn. I happened to explain that it was about to be goblin food..."Nooooooo, you can't do that!" she said,"They're beautiful and peacful creatures!"
I replied, "But goblins gotta eat too!" Wife walks off muttering something about it not being right :D

Olga study #8

After finishing the ear and neck I let it dry for a couple of days before I started the hair...just in case I needed to make adjustments. For the hair I used a mix of English red, Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber(I made about four value strings from that mix).










The ear and neck is completed.

Five Thumbs

Farewell Mr. Squiggle

Norman Frederick Hetherington a.k.a Mr. Squiggle has passed on to his reward at the age of 89.
Mr. Squiggle was a major part of my childhood and I can remember the squiggles my mother did for me to draw from...and now I do it for my kids.

Farewell to the man from the moon!

Olga study #7

I premixed my paint colours in seperate strings with a total of five values. It took me a couple of hours just to do from the jawline to the forehead but I'm happy with the results. I used several brushes of the same type, my main brush used here is a 1/8th Neef 988Taklon oval. For the lips and eyes and slight blending I used a 000 Neef 225 finest sable round. And for the major blending on her cheek and jaw I used a 4 Fracheville 200 Talkon. I'll add some pics of them at a later date.




Here's a closer look.

Olga study #6

Here's the first lay-in of colour. I used a mix of yellow ocher, vermillion red and flake white for the base or local colour. I used translucent cyan for the cooler areas around the eyes, nose, neck and around the lips. The lips and ears I used some english red. It's still at a rather rough state but as I add layers of colours in over time, it should(hopefuly) start to look a lot better.


Here's a closer look.

Olga study #5

The painting is dry enough for me to at it with a razor and give this girl a shave ;) This is the razor I use to scrape down my paintings. One thing that you have to do with a razor for this kind of job is to make sure that you round the corners of the blade.. or you'll risk giving your work more than just a shave.















You don't have to press hard to get the lumps and bumps off, just use some common sense(practical wisdom folks!) and keep the blade flat against the surface and you should have no problems.

Olga study #4

At this piont I've added the background and started on the t-shirt. In hindsight I should have used 100% titainium white instead of flake white and a touch of titianium white for the brighter areas but I'll work the t-shirt more later. The background colour is a mix of old different coloured paints that I scraped from my pallet into one blob I call slops. While wet I used a touch yellow ochre deep to fleck through it to add a bit of pizazz!

Olga study #3

Here is the final underpainting. I'll let this dry for a day or two and then I'll scrap it back with a razor to take off any small lumps of paint so that the surface is once again smooth..

Olga study #2

Here I've started adding my values in flake white and burnt sienna. I'm just adding paint rather loosly and not overly concerned with it looking smooth...that's for later on. I'm just concentrating on the face at the moment and I'm not worried about the rest of the painting just yet.

Olga study #1 WIP

Here is the begining of a head study of Olga Kurylenko that I'm about to attempt. I put up some grids in pencil and painted the head in Burnt Sienna with a small fillbert. I used turps to take away any unwanted paint. this is the first time I've use this method before...so I'll see how it all goes.

Four Thumbs

"Siren"

This is just a personal piece I did recently.

The Big Thumbs

Ok, I thought I'd post a few of my older sketches that are a little bigger than my usual smaller thumbs I do. Some of these are my favourites to date.


"Unauthorized Personal"

















This is by far my favourite of all. One day I'd like to turn this into a painting.


"Temple of the Dogs"
















"Ring City"

















Did this on a piece of foolscap paper while on my smoko break...of course!


"Resolving Hostilities"




















"Leda and the Goose"


















"Wurmblade"

Thunmbnails

I get a lot of enjoyment out of doing thumbnail sketches. I start off with just a small size of about 2.5"x 3.5", I then just lightly make some abstract lines and curves here and there until I see an image develop, even turning the page around helps the process. I don't plan any of the images and they all basically form themselves over time. You could almost say that it's like laying on the ground looking at the clouds in the sky and picking out shapes to make an images of a cat, cow, or three headed dog etc.

Trials, Errors and Crossed Fingers!

"Northern Breeze" 9"x 11" Oil on Canson paper.
















It's been a long while since I've gotten out my oil paints, so I feel a little rusty. Anyway, I thought I might post a few photos(poorly taken) of the process for this one below.

Preliminary Sketch.














First Wash.

















The Underlay.

















The Background.

















The Midground.

















The Character.
















And Finished!