On our 2017 holiday, I started doing some sketches in a little sketchpad. They are hit-and-miss for sure. Here's my favourite one, of us:
I also did this waterfall scene late one night, with coloured pencils:
Monday, 28 August 2017
Sketches
On our 2017 holiday, I started doing some sketches in a little sketchpad. They are hit-and-miss for sure. Here's my favourite one, of us:
I also did this waterfall scene late one night, with coloured pencils:
Monday, 21 August 2017
Paint Night Painting
Acrylic on canvas
Alicia went to paint night with some of her friends. Unlike the original painting, however, Alicia added a much better perspective, and an interesting twist of leaves.
Alicia: the colours are also completely different than the “sample” one. It’s background was pink and much lighter but I went with a more fall toned scheme.
Alicia went to paint night with some of her friends. Unlike the original painting, however, Alicia added a much better perspective, and an interesting twist of leaves.
Alicia: the colours are also completely different than the “sample” one. It’s background was pink and much lighter but I went with a more fall toned scheme.
Saturday, 8 October 2016
First Paintings Together
So the blog has not been updated recently as my painting slowed down
precisely when I met the amazing Alicia. I'm now going back through the
past two years and uploading what we've done together, including our
work from our painting sessions together.
For one of the first painting sessions I did with Alicia, she painted this beautiful road in the summertime.
Alicia: the perspective is a bit dodgy .... had trouble figuring out how to blend the colours well. This picture seems weird now because it looks like summer but there’s no leaves on the trees.
For one of the first painting sessions I did with Alicia, she painted this beautiful road in the summertime.
Alicia: the perspective is a bit dodgy .... had trouble figuring out how to blend the colours well. This picture seems weird now because it looks like summer but there’s no leaves on the trees.
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Forward Together!
Oils on canvas. Based on a poster.
Ah, this painting has a bit of a story.
I saw this article on Soviet space posters on the BBC. It's short, so take a look. The bottom-line is that as the Soviets wanted to keep their space technology secret, but also demonstrate their accomplishments, they decided that these posters would be their propaganda. I really like the majesty of the posters. They look so good with their clean lines and solid colours, and as I do love space, I couldn't resist creating my own version of these posters to have. I might do another one of these in a bit, maybe the first poster at that link ('In the Name of Peace').
The poster I ended up deciding to copy was this one, awesomely titled: 'Glory of the Space-Heroes, Glory to the Soviet People', from 1963. In particular, it strikes me as so uplifting to have all these people of different walks of life represented on the poster and facing the future together. This is probably not too surprising given the whole Communism thing, but it struck a chord with me.
Interesting historical note: the presence of the female cosmonaut is
due to the Soviets having a female group of astronauts. The first woman
to fly in space (Valentina Tereshkova) did so in 1963. But it would then be until 1982 before the second woman flew (another cosmonaut). The USA then sent up the first female American astronaut in 1983.
My idea for my version of the poster was to update it a bit for today's collaborative world. Instead of the red/orange theme, I wanted something a bit more soothing. To replace the image of the USSR, I imagined the entire globe. And instead of Sputnik orbiting the planet, I put in the International Space Station. Now instead of propaganda for the USSR, it has a collaborative spirit of humanity working together and moving forward together.
This painting took a very long time, and I learned a huge amount from it. This was the first painting where I figured out that I would get a higher quality result from working in layers. While this extends the time taken to finish, (oil paints take FOREVER to dry), it enabled me to do actual layers and get crisp borders.
I think the biggest lesson I learned from the painting was to use linseed oil more (In fact, the subtitle of this painting could be 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Linseed Oil'). For example, I originally did the globe in an undiluted white. But A) this uses way more paint B) it doesn't spread as nicely into the canvas (which is very rough), and C) the thicker paint takes much longer to dry. I learned that if I used a little bit of linseed oil, all these problems would be solved. And you only need a little bit, like 1/3 of the cap of the bottle may be too much. Linseed oil is also absolutely required if you are going to do any precision work, such as on the figures, the outline of the continents, the text, or the orbit lines. It makes the paint more like ink, or watercolours, so you can effectively use the brush like a pen.
The first version of the orbit lines in particular were terrible, as I didn't use any linseed oil. I had to recover the globe and do it again. In fact, I think I redid most sections of this painting two or three times before it looked decent. Which is hard when each time you have to wait the better part of a week for the old stuff to dry.
The other huge lesson from this work is that time planning and sketching will save you time down the road and increase the quality. Taking shortcuts will really hurt the final result. If I did this again, I might do each figure one-at-a-time and use a high-quality version of the continent outline.
This painting is dedicated to Ryan P. He's probably the only person I know who would be super pumped to have a Soviet space propaganda poster.
Ah, this painting has a bit of a story.
I saw this article on Soviet space posters on the BBC. It's short, so take a look. The bottom-line is that as the Soviets wanted to keep their space technology secret, but also demonstrate their accomplishments, they decided that these posters would be their propaganda. I really like the majesty of the posters. They look so good with their clean lines and solid colours, and as I do love space, I couldn't resist creating my own version of these posters to have. I might do another one of these in a bit, maybe the first poster at that link ('In the Name of Peace').
The poster I ended up deciding to copy was this one, awesomely titled: 'Glory of the Space-Heroes, Glory to the Soviet People', from 1963. In particular, it strikes me as so uplifting to have all these people of different walks of life represented on the poster and facing the future together. This is probably not too surprising given the whole Communism thing, but it struck a chord with me.
 |
| Glory of the Space-Heroes, Glory to the Soviet People |
My idea for my version of the poster was to update it a bit for today's collaborative world. Instead of the red/orange theme, I wanted something a bit more soothing. To replace the image of the USSR, I imagined the entire globe. And instead of Sputnik orbiting the planet, I put in the International Space Station. Now instead of propaganda for the USSR, it has a collaborative spirit of humanity working together and moving forward together.
 |
| Forward Together! |
This painting took a very long time, and I learned a huge amount from it. This was the first painting where I figured out that I would get a higher quality result from working in layers. While this extends the time taken to finish, (oil paints take FOREVER to dry), it enabled me to do actual layers and get crisp borders.
I think the biggest lesson I learned from the painting was to use linseed oil more (In fact, the subtitle of this painting could be 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Linseed Oil'). For example, I originally did the globe in an undiluted white. But A) this uses way more paint B) it doesn't spread as nicely into the canvas (which is very rough), and C) the thicker paint takes much longer to dry. I learned that if I used a little bit of linseed oil, all these problems would be solved. And you only need a little bit, like 1/3 of the cap of the bottle may be too much. Linseed oil is also absolutely required if you are going to do any precision work, such as on the figures, the outline of the continents, the text, or the orbit lines. It makes the paint more like ink, or watercolours, so you can effectively use the brush like a pen.
The first version of the orbit lines in particular were terrible, as I didn't use any linseed oil. I had to recover the globe and do it again. In fact, I think I redid most sections of this painting two or three times before it looked decent. Which is hard when each time you have to wait the better part of a week for the old stuff to dry.
The other huge lesson from this work is that time planning and sketching will save you time down the road and increase the quality. Taking shortcuts will really hurt the final result. If I did this again, I might do each figure one-at-a-time and use a high-quality version of the continent outline.
This painting is dedicated to Ryan P. He's probably the only person I know who would be super pumped to have a Soviet space propaganda poster.
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
Surplus Island
Oils on canvas. Original composition.
My idea for this painting is to revisit it with the extra paint left over from doing other paintings, and to be a bit more free with regards to composition and techniques. I'm also looking for a better name than 'Surplus Island'...
This was originally just a quick sketch using just different shades of blue paint. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo at that stage (I bet future art historians will curse me for that...). It's okay, it wasn't that good. But there is quite a difference between the all blue version and this new one with colour.
As a technique I was trying out, the ground is actually black paint that was very heavily diluted with linseed oil. This makes more of a transparent glaze, more like a watercolour paint than an oil paint.
My idea for this painting is to revisit it with the extra paint left over from doing other paintings, and to be a bit more free with regards to composition and techniques. I'm also looking for a better name than 'Surplus Island'...
This was originally just a quick sketch using just different shades of blue paint. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo at that stage (I bet future art historians will curse me for that...). It's okay, it wasn't that good. But there is quite a difference between the all blue version and this new one with colour.
As a technique I was trying out, the ground is actually black paint that was very heavily diluted with linseed oil. This makes more of a transparent glaze, more like a watercolour paint than an oil paint.
 |
| The second version |
Tuesday, 23 February 2016
Above the Clouds (Revisited)
Oils on canvas. Original composition.
I wasn't very happy with the mountains/ground in the original painting (below), so I've redone it a bit. Note that the original paints were very poor quality, so this serves as a good example of why cheap paints aren't worth it. For example, the muddy browns and watery black are now much richer, which improves the contrast of the work.
I wasn't very happy with the mountains/ground in the original painting (below), so I've redone it a bit. Note that the original paints were very poor quality, so this serves as a good example of why cheap paints aren't worth it. For example, the muddy browns and watery black are now much richer, which improves the contrast of the work.
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| The revisited painting |
 |
| The original work |
Monday, 15 February 2016
Barbados Beach
Oils on canvas. Gifted to a private collection.
Painted quite a while ago, sometime before November 2015. I tried to focus on creating the texture for the clouds, water, and ground, and I'm very happy with the result! The subject is the sunset of Barbados from February 2015.
Painted quite a while ago, sometime before November 2015. I tried to focus on creating the texture for the clouds, water, and ground, and I'm very happy with the result! The subject is the sunset of Barbados from February 2015.
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| Barbados Beach |
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| The original photo |
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