I recently visited the gloriously Gothic church of St. Mary Redcliffe. The walk to the church was one of those 'out in the sunshine, glad to be alive' walks. A good place to stop, sketch the scene and try and capture some of the sunshine. Firstly I sketched out the design over a plain blue acrylic wash on canvas. I wanted to draw a real line of vision up through the centre of the picture to the church itself. I didn't want to paint a photo realistic version of the scene but rather a quick representation of the warmth. Perspective was important to lead the eye but I didn't want it to be ' straight line' perfect. So I sketched in the basic shapes before starting to block out the colour.
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Every year we try and get to the Dorset coast. Burton Bradstock has been a particular favourite for a couple of years. The walks from the village to the beach are stunning and the Hive Beach Cafe does a great breakfast. This was on the coastal path before we dropped down onto the beach. This is one of those 'Are we there yet?' moments. Below are a few of the stages this oil on board piece went through. I first sketched the rough onto the board adding the tone in acrylic I finished the detail in oils. Any form of paid work is obviously a pleasure, especially if you're getting paid to do one of the things you love doing. But I do enjoy painting to no ones brief but my own. Digital paintings fine a blank canvas and a palette of oils always seems a bit more 'basic'. These are a few snaps to show how this particular piece evolved. At this stage I've sketched the layout, put down an acrylic wash and started to block out the basic shapes. I'm probably up to four hours worth of work at this stage, not rushing but still blocking in. The colors aren't final and the details missing but at least I'm getting a feel for the basics. It's all a bit stark at this stage but once I've blocked all of the elements then I'll go back over to refine. The paint is being applied very thinly at this stage so it can take another layer or two. Amanda, can you tell what it is yet? x Two hours work later. Still blocking in the basics whilst adding a bit of detail so that I can see what's working and what's not. I've worked up some of the detail on the wall and chair but will try and leave it alone for a day or two now and come back to it with slightly fresher eyes. It's was far too neat for the effect I was after so I've started to add in the detail of the clothing as well as the floor. It'll need probably another few hours once this layer of oils has dried out a little. It's my own fault for having three or four pieces going at once. I want to work on them all but end up losing a bit of momentum. An hour later and I'm happy with the outcome. The good news is I've got in a new illustration commission. The bad news (challenge!) is I've a day to turn this one around and the style examples I've been given are a slight deviation from my normal approach. This is a page of quick ideas I've sketched out. The next step is to get the image from inside my head onto the page as quickly as I can. I'll post the next step as soon as it's done. OK, after a couple of variations this is the pencil outline that I'm most happiest with. There's still a lot of refinement to go but now time to crack on and start adding the detail Taking longer than I had hoped so time for tea then another evenings work. Done! Quite pleased with the outcome having changed the layout slightly. The point of this peice is the girl is initially the focus of attention. On closer look the story is more about the balloons. The cat knows somethings going on. Job done. OK, it's not brilliant but just found this little gem clearing out some old work. This is the very first rough animation test I sent to a client using Anime Studio Pro. The project was for a series of films teaching kids about recycling. It seemed the best idea was to turn their garden compost bin into a little kingdom. The occupants needed the kids help in feeding everyone. This is a little earwig test that formed part of the presentation together with part of the initial storyboard Following on from the last blog. Here' a very quick speed painting outline to show a little of the process taking this piece from pencil sketch through to finished artwork using Sketchbook pro I was looking forward to catching up with a couple of mates, grabbing a beer and heading off to watch rugby on Sunday. Wrong! Waterlogged pitch. I took advantage of the free afternoon remembering summer weeks on the Dorset coast. I'd had the idea for this piece for some time but it always seemed to look better in my head than I thought it might on paper. Still, I persevered and started sketching it out. I liked the initial rough but by the time I started colouring it up I thought I'd wasted the last hour. Oh well, with nothing to lose, I carried on. I think I meet this 'wall' quite a lot when I'm painting. I see it in my head but get to a point where I don't feel confident enough to finish it. I've come to the conclusion this is always an evolving process. The reality being that the image in my head is the starting point and the concept evolves and hardly ever to the exact initial idea. However, on this occasion the final design is pretty much exactly as I imagined it. Maybe it's time to go back to some of those half finished sketches. This is a sneaky snippet for a new client. I'll have to wait until I get the go ahead to show more but working with a new client is always a slightly nervous process. Not this time though. They're a great specialist agency based here in Bristol, have a superb profile and best of all..... are really nice people to work with. In addition, this was an opportunity to do things the old fashioned way without any technology. Just paper and pencils. Here in Bristol we've a wide range of centers for visual arts. One of those I've been involved with in the past is the Royal West of England Academy (RWA). Between 24 Nov 2013 - 26 Jan 2014 they'll be holding their 161st Annual Open Exhibition. I submitted this piece and although didn't make final selection was over the moon to have made it through pre-selection. This is a very personal work in oil of my son contemplating what to draw next (thankfully one of his favourite past times. This is such a high profile exhibition and the standards are so high that's enough for me (until next year). Details of the RWA can be found here and they can be found on twitter at @RWABristol I wanted to convey a sense of fun and movement. This is the first quick sketch in which I outline my characters and the composition. I was happy enough with this as a starting point and the rest of the detail and the overall style would come later. Here is the final piece. I changed the palette a little during the final stage as I wanted to add a little bit of muted colour. This was a project pitch piece so hopefully it will do the job and I can explore these characters in more detail at a later date. |
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