Here’s my third attempt with acrylics.
I’m still using a monochromatic approach but this time using burnt umber paint (brown).
Acrylic Painting 3: Rabbit Sitting Up
My First Acrylic Painting: Rabbit In The Grass
I’ve been meaning to try my hand at painting using a traditional medium such as acrylic paint for some time now.
I finally took the plunge and whilst I’m not completely happy with the result, I did really enjoy myself!
I started with a medium grey background and then did an initial colour block-in.
I then decided that my colours were completely wrong and did another colour block-in over the top. I tried to use an impasto (thick paint) technique as this seemed like fun, and it was!
Here I added a little more detail over the blocks of paint.
I struggled to get the right tonal variation whilst working with variation in colour as well here but I am calling this done and moving on. It’s so much easier working digitally since you can just set the value slider to get the right tones for the selected colour. Here I will have to learn how to mix paint physically!
Project JKF-1: Rabbit Pencil Sketches on 2nd Feb 2017
I’ve been doing some more rabbit studies for my project with John Fulton.
I had a quick look at the skeletal structure – I didn’t realise that a rabbit’s scapulae came so far round the side and forward to the front! Every day’s a school day!
Project JKF-1: Kettle Design Using 3D Modelling In Blender
After reading about how James Gurney uses miniature models to help him work out lighting, I thought I would try something similar in the digital realm.
Here is a kettle design for a project with my author friend John Fulton.
It was done as a 3D model in Blender using it’s ray tracing render engine (Cycles) which calculates how light rays behave in the real world.
Submission to CHOW Down #1: Princess Tronica Vin
I’m taking part in another challenge on the Crimson Daggers Art Forum called CHOW Down (CHOW stands for Character Of The Week).
I managed to get it finished just before Christmas as I will be out of action busy eating and being merry over the next few days!
“On the broken world of Dustryon, Princess Tronica Vin is heir to the throne of Vangaia and is a technological genius but she is easily bored. To get her kicks she takes to the streets of her crime ridden kingdom and indulges in a bit of vigilantism. Armed with a chainsword of her own design she has taken down some heavy duty baddies already. What will she do next?”
Here are some work in progress shots:
Process For Painting The Human Figure 3
I’m still messing about with my figure painting process.
This time I tried combining the gesture and silhouette steps. I think that worked well.
Step 3 was a bit of a dog’s dinner this time though. I tried adding in the darkest darks at this point but perhaps what I should have done is gone for adding big shadow shapes at this point. The darkest darks could then have been added within the boundaries of the big shadows.
Process For Painting The Human Figure 2
After some tips on silhouettes from a friend on Crimson Daggers, I’m trying to include silhouettes in my workflow for painting the human figure.
My current process is this:
1. Gesture.
2. Silhouette with 100% opacity brush.
3. Shadow shapes with 100% opacity bursh.
4. Full light shapes with 100% opacity brush.
5. Blending with pressure opacity brush (added some highlights and reflected light here for fun).
Project JKF-1: A Candle-Lit Shack
Here’s another study for my project with my friend and published author John Fulton winner of the Great War Dundee Children’s Book prize.
The inside of a candle lit shack.
For this I really tried to focus on the process of working from big shapes to small.
Project JKF-1: Dog Painting Study
Another study for my project with my author friend John Fulton.
For me studies like this are useful because you notice little things that can make all the difference – like the subtle tone variation in the white fur, the white hairs on the eye brows etc.
Project JKF-1: Kettle Studies
The more I learn about, art the more I see the importance of using reference images and doing studies of them.
For my first illustration in Project JKF-1, I need to paint a kettle so here are a few studies.
I also took the opportunity to develop my painting process a bit further by using a hard brush to achieve a more painterly style.