Quick Environment Speedpaint

I was in Switzerland a few weeks ago, so I figured an imaginary mountain scene was worth doing.

Portrait Charcoal

Charcoal sketch done at Lavender Hill.  About 1.5 hours.

Cast Drawing

It has been a while since I posted on this blog.  I decided to dedicate a lot more time improving my ability to draw and paint with traditional media.  I'm now spending two days a week at Lavender Hill Studios and one day a week at Lara (London Atelier for Representation Art).  It consumes most of my free time, but I have learned a lot over the past 6 months.

Francis Oneil's May 30th

I needed to post this and move on because I am overworking this image.  It was 1.5 hours in class, then 3 hours cleanup, at which point Alan pointed out that I had destroyed my edges and made it look less painterly.  I went back to the work from class, and the started again trying to preserve the original feel while fixing drawing mistakes and avoiding the soft round brush in photoshop.  So it is 3 hours in total with a 3 hour detour.

Francis Oneil's May 24th

I tried something a bit different on this one, starting directly in colour after my block in.  This technique exactly mirrors how I handle oil paint instead of digital paint.

I think it largely worked out. 1.5 hours + 3 hours cleanup

Francis Oneil's May 16th

I thought I would try a profile this time.  The background made this a bit more challenging.  1.5 hours in class plus about 2 - 3 hours clean up.  The cloth is main from imagination because I didn't have the folds down during class.

Francis Oneil's May 9th

1.5 hours in class and then about 3 hours of cleanup.  This is more from memory because the early stages weren't going that well.

Famous Artists Course

I just found an online collection of an old illustration book. Like most illustration books from the 1950s it seems to be full of good advice.


http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2008/10/03/download-famous-artists-course/

This is a landscape done from the combination of two trees I saw yesterday at the Harcourt Arboritum (http://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/Harcourt/obg-harcourt-intro.html).  The pink tree is based on the following photo I took on my iPhone.  I didn't actually consult this photo too often since it was on my phone and hard to see.  The leaves were made with a custom brush that I created manually.  The tree in the background is based on a pencil sketch I did yesterday.  

10 art books to read

http://www.noahbradley.com/blog/2011/10-books-every-artist-must-read/ This list seems great - Seeing as how I have already own Alla Prima, Colour and Light, Figure Drawing for What its Worth, and Imaginative Realism the list seems pretty accurate. I will pick up the rest of the books he recommends.

Cool online comic

http://www.delilahdirk.com/

Drawing Folds

Naomi from work just sent me a few cool links about drawing folds that I need to read later:

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2008/02/famous-artists-course-folds-part-one.html

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2008/03/famous-artists-course-folds-part-2.html

John William Waterhouse

This image is famous but for some reason I never knew the name of the artist.

Gustave Doré

Another artist worth knowing

Lawrence Alma-Tadema

I just learned about an artist called Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Alma-Tadema

Howard McWilliam

http://www.mcbill.plus.com/

Luke mentioned an excellent illustrator who transitioned into art while doing a full time job.

Francis Oneil's Feb 15th 2012

3 speed paintings

I'm trying to learn how to paint environments. These aren't great, but they are fairly quick (the longest is maybe 1.5 hours). The desert scene took the longest despite being a weaker composition than the other two. I guess you can't improve a bad idea with time.

Hungover Reflections

I did this comic with Emily Watson last year (start of 2011). It was published in 9th art magazine and brings back a lot of good memories.

A few sketchbook images