Turtle Study

Was late at night and wanted to do any animal without fur so I did a turtle. Lots of lovely textures and colours.

I was using the new layering process and it worked a charm, especially when blurring out the areas that weren't in focus.

2.5 Hours Photoshop CS5.5

Arm Study

Made an attempt to draw the arm while pronated today and forgot what how the brachialis was to fit between the bicep and tricep. So this is a study to make up for that.

Finally getting it!

Just realised tonight what drawing and painting have in common. With drawing you layer up your lights and then into your darks (on white paper). You have to build up your values with pencil so its like you have to envision what the end value will be. You then work to that point. If its too dark, then you rub out the led and work lighter.

With painting, you have to build up from a base layer and continue to build up. Painting a bright value over a dark area will cripple the illusion of an object shape if not placed properly. Even a value that is only half a step above your base value will change the form. Continuously building upon each subsequent layer is how painting relates to drawing. It is continuously building and mixing colour. Your lights and darks only come right at the end to top off the piece. The mid tone is so important. Though its more particular with this piece because of the particles in the water bringing the lights and darks to a middle tone.

It feels like I've always known this information for so long but its like I never appreciated building up values as much before until now. Painting this hippo was such a pleasure to do and everything felt so intuitive once things finally clicked.

I'll keep it as a loose study since its time for bed.

Could be a lot lighter though, but didn't want to apply layer effects since I don't want to patch up mistakes with photoshop shortcuts. At least not for now anyway ;)

2 hours - Photoshop CS5.5

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/2_sbiyM7UIQ/maxresdefault.jpg

Recent quick painting and sketch

Recent works

The first is of a water dragong. I tried applying new found value skills to the painting but I lost patience with my painting technique and have gone back to practising layering. I think I should leave self expression for a while and grind a bit more on layering.

The second are of pen studies of faces. For one of my classes I have to draw purely in ink so that I learn to control my lines more. I think its working out pretty well. Though I find it hard to get a sense of planes if their faces aren't tilted up or down.

Anyway, good fun.