part FOUR of my latest youtube demo, ‘painting a mermaid in acrylic on canvas’:
Category Archives: oil painting
new youtube videos…
I’ve just started working on a canvas here… We had a storm overhead for a while and I needed to do something that didn’t involve working on the computer so I painted this and recorded it as I went, I’ll add more as I go…
here’s part one:
And part two:
N.C. Wyeth
I was a lucky boy this Christmas… My wife asked me what I wanted so I thought I’d better be honest and gave her a list of books I’d been after for a while, I didn’t expect her to buy almost every book on the list (not complaining though…). Anyway, one of the books she bought (as a surprise, it wasn’t even on the list) was the brilliant NC Wyeth biography by David Michaelis. I’m ploughing through it at a rate of knots… the guy was a genius, pure and simple. I must admit though, as an Englishman, I didn’t know too much about this American treasure, only through people such as the Hildebrandts and Frank Frazetta citing him as an influence… I absolutely adore his work, very stylised but very powerful.
just thought I’d post an image or two of his work here- and I thoroughly recommend that biography…
Old Stuff…
As an illustrator using mostly digital mediums, I don’t get to indulge in traditional mediums such as oils, acrylics and watercolours as often as I’d like. I’m thinking of making the switch back eventually but right now, I’m a little too busy to do so. This painting (acrylics and oils) was painted around 5-6 years ago and currently sits above my desk in the studio, staring down at me and reminding me to get my old paints out and just let loose- and I will do soon…. honest.
Finished Oil Commission…
This job has been a lengthy one. After two false starts, the lady who commissioned me is finally going to receive her painting.
WIP…….
something I’m tinkering with in quiet moments….
The Old Ones…..
I played around with the oil painting I posted yesterday digitally, someone mentioned they saw faces in the rocks, I picked up on this and ran with it….
I’ve also been tinkering away with this:
and here’s a new one I finished a few days ago….
Waterfall….Oil.
I recently found this old painting from around nine years ago. It’s been sitting under a pile of my other art. I still rather like this one so thought I’d post it here so you’ll get an idea of the fine art side of my creative life that doesn’t make it’s way onto this blog too often….
With Child…
Around the time of the birth of my first son Niall, I painted this image of my wife in oils. It’s been sitting on our lounge wall ever since and I’ve felt it’s been in need of a little update:
Finished art….
I’ve been working on this one for a few days now and have reached a stage where I’ll call it finished (for now). I started it off in oils and couldn’t paint anything more as I had to wait for the paint to dry, so I took a photo and carried on working on it in Photoshop and Painter. I’ll be returning to the oil painting soon as I now have a pretty solid preliminary ‘sketch’ to work from.
The model was the lovely:
Flying…WIP
Sorry for not posting anything for a little while, I’ve got a few things on the go and am also currently working on a personal piece or two. I’ve attached a WIP of one here. Enjoying this immensely- very freeing!
Digital preliminary-The Clearing…
I’ve enjoyed the holiday season, but I’m absolutely nowhere near ready to get down to doing any of my illustrative work. I’ve been using the narrow time slots to instead, work on this unfinished painting that I’ve been looking at every day for months. I’ve decided to have a play with it in Photoshop and iron out any kinks and play around with colour/values etc. I rather like how it’s turned out, but there’ll be a lot more work on the oil version yet.
Oil/digital.
The model is the lovely:
[link]
The Clearing…. Updated.
I’ve been working on this image on and off for a very long time. Due to work commitments, I only get to splash a little oil paint onto this every now and again. I’ve been feeling a little out of sorts when I settle down to work (due to the Christmas break), so I thought I’d add a little paint and loosen up this afternoon.
Black Swan…
Here’s a painting of a black swan I did back in 2003-04…
busybusybusy….
One of the things I love the most about being an illustrator is that I get such a diversity of projects coming my way. The subject matter and the styles I need to create them are constantly changing and I don’t mind one bit. I love a challenge and I love to learn and to throw changes into the mix whenever I can.
One of my current projects involves the use of colouring up my line art. I’ve been working in photoshop and painter to create art that whilst being coloured, will still maintain the integrity of the inked drawing underneath, it’s rather like working in watercolour. Although it’s a very simplistic style, this gives an idea of what I’m talking about, and will hopefully set the tone for future work. I get a line drawing and a coloured piece of art for my money. I’ve been missing the luxury of having a piece of work to actually hold in my hand since turning to digital media for my illustration work. see samples: 
here’s the coloured version: 
This next one’s a WIP, a little more ‘painterly’ but still in keeping with the basic technique, I’ll post the finished version once it’s been completed:
Speaking of line art, here’s the original pen drawing for yesterday’s post:
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
more stuff from the new book….
A couple more coloured images from the book I’m working on. See yesterday’s post for another image from the same book.
Here’s the drawing before the colour was added….
Here’ s the coloured version…
another line art drawing before colour was added…
Here’s the coloured version….
This has been a very refreshing job so far. It’s great to work on something so simplistic for a change. all images were drawn traditionally with pen and ink and coloured in Photoshop and PainterX
simplifying…..
One of the (many) projects I currently have on the go is a (quote) Spiritual (unquote) children’s book. The subject matter is quite heavy and rather a strtch for most people, so my take on this book involves stripping the art back to it’s bare bones and injecting as much humour as I can to make the ‘message’ sink in more easily. It’s great fun every now and again to draw in a style that doesn’t involve over-rendering, or little tiny details- the brain can only cope with so much at times eh?
here’re the pencils for one of the illustrations…
Here’s the inked drawing…
…Speaking of detailed artwork… when I first moved to Australia, I focused most of my creative attention on the drawing and painting of wildlife. It was a great time for me and I think I evolved artistically rather quickly. I immersed myself in the diversity Australia offers as far as it’s animal life is concerned. My wife and I travelled a lot to National parks and zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. Here’s a painting from that period, painted in watercolour, gouache and a scratch of coloured pencil here and there. Sorry for the crappy image, the photo was taken behind glass..
and here are a couple of graphite drawings from around that time….
Old work, recently inked…
Before I start my day at the drawing board, I generally do something to warm up. It may be drawing something completely new, reworking something I’ve done previously that I may not be entirely happy with or inking up old sketches. Here are a couple of older images from my sketchbooks that have been inked over the past few days….
‘Granny’s Magic Slippers’- originally drawn a couple of years ago….
‘Broom Cupboard’- a reworking of an old drawing from a couple of years ago…
‘Paint Like Arthur Rackham’- Commission for The Official Corel Painter Magazine. This image was discarded in favour of a simpler image. It was drawn on paper, scanned in, then inked and painted using Corel PainterX. I’ve already posted the line art for this in an earlier post…
Painting update and other things…
This painting is taking up a lot of my head space. When I can think of anything other than the jobs I have on the go, I’m thinking about actually finishing this one. It’s kind of a landmark piece as it’ll (hopefully) set the tone for the rest of the art I’ll be producing for the exhibition. Working in oils is very time-consuming and I won’t be producing all the other pieces in this media (thankfully). There’ll be some acrylic paintings, some watercolour stuff, mixed media, some pen and ink and some graphite stuff. I’m pretty comfortable with most of the mediums mentioned so that’s ok, but I’ll feel a whole lot better when this one is finished.
I’m also really enjoying the black and white art at the moment. For one thing, I’m terribly quick, and instant gratification is so important whilst I’m so busy. here’s a drawing or two I’ve worked on when I should be doing other things. (ahem.)
Nothing earth-shattering here. Just some playing around with cross-hatching. I like to vary my approach and learn as many different styles as I can to keep things fresh.
Here’s another crow. For no other reason than the fact that I love drawing crows.
Distilling all the pen work into a silhouette. Trying to say as much as I can without all the hatching, criss-crossing and other detail that can sometimes be unneccessary. This is a discipline in itself and one I thoroughly enjoy.
and here’s a typical ‘hand loosening’ page. I frequently go through the routine of warming up before I start working on paid gigs for the day otherwise my work can look very stiff and lifeless. I find even half an hour a day is a great way to:
1) do your own thing
2) play with other ideas you may wish to pursue but don’t have the time, and…
3) free your mind up before attempting a (sometimes) daunting, difficult or even boring job.
The Clearing (work in progress)…
I don’t get to paint in oils very often, but relish the opportunity when it presents itself. I have an exhibition in 2010 and have vowed to produce 25 (or so) pieces of art in traditional media, of which this is the first. The model is the very lovely:
elandria.deviantart.com
I’m just at the blocking in stage right now, getting the colours and the basic idea sorted out on the canvas. I’ll update more over time.
