Finishing Old Paintings Part II

This one is older, started in 2006 and only now finished. I ended up repainting almost all of it.

Man Lego

This one started as a test for a later oil painting, I ended up finishing it digitally. Still planning to paint it on canvas later!

Quick Draw

or sketch

More

I will get better at these, promise!

Inkish

Going to try doing more of these:

Finishing Old Paintings Part I

This one began in 2007 but I never finished it. Tough but fun challenge trying to finish it the way I painted back then and try not to break it:

Warm-up Practice

Copy of a painting as a warm-up exercise before getting down to work. I can barely make out the artist's name as an "F. C. Cowfer" in 1907. Nothing to be found online. Pity, I would love to see more of their work.

UPDATE: I've just discovered it's F. C. Cowper! Mystery solved.

 

Doodley

Had the Beastie Boys playing in the background.

Eraser Marks

Trying out softening edges with an eraser like Photoshop's smudge tool. Not very evident, more extreme next time:

Ref-Nonref Exercise

Trying to make it a habit of doing these exercises. Left side reffed, right side imagined. Worthwhile to do, on the ref side for practicing accuracy and technique, then trying to apply lessons immediately with imagined subjects on the right:

Bioshock 2 Concepts

Here's 2 concept illustrations I did for Bioshock 2, not sure if they made it into the final product:

Audrey Fanart

Was compelled to. Reffed from page 199 of Audrey Style (original photo credit: Bob Willoughby/MPTV). 

A Bit Wonky

Even though it's reffed (study of a Matthew Williamson fashion photo). The purpose of the exercise was to play with loose areas and detail where the eye goes:

More Lego

Some sketches for an oil painting, Man Lego holding a Lego Man:

People Lego

Just messing around:

Sketchperiment Break!

Took a short break to experiment. Usually I draw features too large on a face, so I thought OK... I'll intentionally draw them small. Interesting results:

No Time to Draw!

Hardly any hours to doodle this month. Been playing around with line quality and stuff. Girl on the middle of the left page was from ref.

August Anatomy Studies

Some reffed, some improvised:

Drawing Flaws

Here are some sketches that show a tendency to compress stuff towards the right (most evident when drawing faces head-on). Now that I can spot this trend easily, I hope to find a conscious way to remedy it.

2006 vs 2010 - Facemask Redux

I thought I would try reworking an old piece from 2006, to see how much my sensibilities in painting and design have changed. I only got as far as realizing I need to do some serious redrawing, but I do plan to finish the 2010 version.

More Illustration Tests

Thumbs and Doodles

Some thumbnail sketches for some illustrations with random doodles included:

 

Lazy Sunday Sketches

World Cup Month

It's bad for productivity. But here's a thunderstorm attempt... time to concentrate a little more on composition and environments instead of characters.

 

Studying Justin Sweet

Breaking in a new sketchbook with some studies of Justin Sweet's drawings as an exercise in learning composition.

 

June Already!

I've been reading more than drawing lately, but here's a recent page.

Left side, study of photo reference from characterdesigns.com. Right side, random character sketches.

Oil Study

Been teaching myself how to paint in oils. Here's a study using the "Zorn Palette" (cadmium red, yellow ochre, ivory black and titanium white). Study based on this photograph.

More Imaginationy Stuff

Here's a page from over the week. Wish I had more time to just draw carefree.

Drawing Break

I've been drawing a lot for work, so I took a break to just draw for fun. No ref:

Warmups, practice and study

Trying to keep in shape:

3 Men and a Zombie

Sketching practice:

Landscape Sketch

Quick color test, trying out heavy blues in the shadows:

Study study study

More neck practice, hit and miss:

Slow start to April

I just discovered charcoal pencils. I love how dark they go! I overused it, but I think I'll try reserve using it for just the darkest darks.



Some neck practice doodles:


And a quick Photoshop. Gotta get back into the habit, been awhile since the last:

Face Practice

Practicing faces from different angles. Also trying to be stingy with my accents (still too generous, but the lowest right face is a good benchmark).

March 15th Page

Recent page from my pocket sketchbook, and also a sketch colored in Photoshop.

Nonref vs characterdesign.com Photoset:

Pencil sketch colored in Photoshop:

More Nonref Doodles

The middle sketch turned out ok, dissatisfied with the rest. Need to do more ref studies for male portraits.

Dead Space 2 Magazine Illustration

Here's an illustration I did for EA's Dead Space 2 (through Opus Artz), appearing in the UK editions of Playstation Magazine (Issue 44) and XBOX World 360 (Issue 87):

Nonref Pencils

Hit and miss, but improving on nonrefs:

Photoshop Doodles

2 from February:

New year, new blog

It's time I started one of these to keep family & friends updated on what I'm up to.

I recently bought a scanner and now get to share the ups and downs of my sketchbook pages.

I've been trying to practice with using ref more, just anything I find in front of me - dvd covers, newspapers, magazines, the interweb etc. Lately, I've been drawing reffed on one page, and non-reffed on the facing page... hopefully the quality between them will begin to converge. It's got a long way to go.

Nonref vs 500 Days of Summer:

Nonref vs characterdesign.com photoset & Steve McCurry:

Nonref vs Hellboy II: