Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Long Path Process

That thing on the tracing paper is a Donato/Julie Bell original, from the critique section.

Apart from a lot of frustration over the armor, I have a first sketch! Right?

No, said Dan Dos Santos - I do that mostly-turned away face in pretty much every other painting.

Yes Dan, you are correct. The face turn is a gesture that touches on something inside my head, but if I do it ad nauseum then it looks like I'm trying to get away with something. Final drawing for real, with a face, plus bonus actual armor reference.

My board in the moment of silence before the plunge. (reference is also present, just on my computer.)

Please caption this for yourselves with the wild screaming happening in my head at the time.

Wild screaming continues. "OH GOD I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING, NO ONE LOOK."

Here I am seen desperately trying to regain some control in my life, by noodling with the foreground lay-in.

At this point the screaming stopped, because the environment first pass is done and the next step is the figure. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the identical first stage of pretty much every painting I do. 

Starting the face! "Oh thank god," I whisper.

It's a face first pass. I do routinely lose the drawing this badly on my first pass of the face, which is stupid and I should stop that.

My setup, filled with a lot pictures of me. I fit my entire setup and a cup of tea on this little tabaret without once spilling anything on my computer or dipping my brush into the wrong container.

So I got to this point when I realized that not only had I lost the drawing of the face, but the head was about 25% too small as well. I took a deep breath...

...and wiped it out entirely. (After doing that, I got up and walked around the studio for a bit. It's important to remember that nothing you do is sacred, but that doesn't make it easy, just doable.)

I came back and restarted the face. Before I could take a picture of the new progress, Dan sat down and showed how a pro paints a face. I was having a hard time applying the skill I do possess in lighting a face because the light itself was so intense and chromatic, and I was washing it out and making it chalky.

That started, it was time for armor. Fun fact: I had no idea how to paint armor.

That being said, the IMC has a way of making me better than I am. First pass on armor: achieved.

Horribly, horribly lit hands? Achieved.

Next day, and I got in some glazing for the light when Rebecca Guay came by and helped me with the foreground, which I was Not Panicking Over and ignoring as thoroughly as I could. Thank you Rebecca ;__;.

Then Dan came back! And told me that the glimpse of the sky was stupid, that the light I'd started to put in was good but I should stop! being! timid!

Pushing more in the face, and touches in the armor courtesy of Dan! Who kicked my ass back and forth this year, to my eternal gratitude.

Look! It's almost like a real painting is happening!

Glowey stuff! Thank you, Dan. You are best.

Working on the hands, starting on the chain mail.

This is a comforting stage of a painting to reach - rough, but all the bones are there, and I can see the finish line.

Glazing, and scumbling, are beautiful things. I have never used so much yellow in a painting.

Face! Chain mail! Oh my god it's like I know how to paint!

I finished the chain mail and fixed the hands and then tried not to lose it when Donato complimented them.

Thus, a finished pass - not polished, but a lot of work to have accomplished in just the week at the IMC.

Polishing pass on the armor! Painting in the sword! Working up the cloth! Edges!!

And this is what I finished with, on my easel at home, after a few more days of work after the IMC. The finished piece that I posted saw some after-work in Photoshop, but the original holds itself up.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Long Path

The Long Path, 11"x19.5"

Here is my finished piece for Light Grey Art Lab’s Rolemodels exhibition! I finished it early this summer, after getting a huge chunk of it laid in at the IMC, and I'm really, exceptionally proud of what I accomplished here.

You can buy a print of this piece here, a print of any other the other pieces made for this exhibition here, and the card deck here!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Drawings from Europe!

(Don't worry, I'm aware of the irony of the last post title. I plan on making a post about my current artmaking and general state of mine soon, but for now, have some things I drew on my trip to Amsterdam and Paris!)