Anatomy studies

I want to focus on animal anatomy for a while, just to boost my understanding of comparative anatomy and be able to bang out wicked looking creatures. So I started with these two pages and there'll be more to come. I was just looking to understand the relationships of the forelimb muscles, and finding similarities and differences. Before I did these I use to draw a bicep in most of my animals/creatures, but looking at the tiger and bear, and even the dog, there is no fully developed biceps like primates have. And the deltoid is proportionately larger in humans than in animals. Just some of the things I noticed :) I did another animal oil study last night that I'll post when I get back from work. Sorry i haven't been posting as much. I will try and amend that.

Animal studies

Polar bear was done 3 1/2 hours on monday night. Tiger 3 1/2 hours tuesday night. Both of them are oil on prepared cardboard. I have a lot of free time at work in the evenings those two days, so I figured I'd start making good use of my time there by painting. In my studio I'm never motivated to do these kinds of things since I just want to work on the good, meaty stuff to get a career. Which is stupid of me. I should do more of this now so it makes my portfolio pieces that much better later on. We'll see what I end up doing. I might spend the rest of 2009 actually just practicing my painting technique. Not a bad game plan. Hmm....

Finished!! (almost)

Its done enough that I can post it online. But I want to tweak it some more traditionally so that its show worthy for the Spirit Gallery show. So I won't be doing a third painting as I need to finish this one, but I will put in a third piece that is a very nice, finished drawing. Huzzah!

Art Update

Here is a progress shot of my Princess of Mars painting. My goal is to block in all the figures to the same levels as the central thark by the end of saturday. If I can manage it by friday, even better. Then I'll have all of next week to finesse the details and fine tune things, even though next week will be hell at work. Also here is a sketchbook page of a head and hand study for a painting I want to try and get done for the show at the Spirit Gallery in September. I'm putting the martian painting as well as my phoenix painting for sure, but if I can manage to put in a third piece that would really be killer. Anywho, critiques and comments are welcome.

HOT SHIT

This is the image I really had wanted to work on at the Master Class but was too afraid. I really didn't enjoy working on the composition I had so I felt that for my mental health it would be better to scrap it and start this one. I'm going to transfer it to canvas today and begin painting tonight. I am so much happier with this and I have a reeeeeally good feeling about the turn out for this piece. I think it'll be my first true showcase portfolio piece since graduating art school. It will be done by the deadline on september 1 and for the show at Spirit Gallery in CT. I might even do a smaller painting too since I'm on an art high.

Princess of Mars

These are the sketches and final comp for my Master Class painting. I'm still working on it and I hope to have it along with another painting done by the end of July. I'll have sketches, ideas, studies, and other smaller things to post throughout the month as I'll be planning a lot of my summer art while I paint. Without further ado, here are the finished drawings of John Carter, Dejah Thoris, the Great White Ape, and a little bonus picture.

Phoenix Reborn

Better quality photo of the finished painting.

Pending finish

I was told last Wednesday I could submit art to the faculty show. Great! I thought. Then SHIT!!! I had nothing I felt proud of showing off, or that could display any skill in my working medium. So I started this painting. The drawing had been done for several weeks. Many milestones in this painting. First and foremost this is the first painting I am proud of working on since I graduated art school almost a year ago (tomorrow is one year, YIKES) And for those who know me, its also the first painting I actually finished since art school haha. Now, as far as "finish" is concerned, the image you see is not the actual finished painting. I'm going to work on a few of the small areas that are kind of glaringly off, and I'll work on them today. Also, the big bird in the back needs somein...its kind of blah. For the sake of the show though, I'm only going to touch up those few things. When I get it back I might go to town, I do want to have something nice to show for the master class coming up in June. The photo is also not the best, but anyway, I am very proud of what I accomplished in four days. I didn't paint friday, I felt the need to be a social person and went to a bar/club hehe.

Finished painting (gasp)

Yes, a finished painting. Albeit its only 5x7 inches, but a painting's a painting. Its the head study from the last post. Clayboard grows increasingly more forgivable the more one adds paint to the surface, but it still manages to dry fast. There's a little smudge mark that got on her near the corner of her lip, I'll paint over it so its presentable. But this is the finish. I'm really happy with the paint application and the fact that it remains smooth, but the paint strokes are there and visible. Enjoy :)

New

Just a small 5x7 head study i'm working on. I'm going to finish it tonight at work. Its on clayboard which is a pretty interesting surface to paint on. It sucks up all the moisture and oil from every brush stroke I put down, which is really annoying. But the upside of it all is that its pretty dry to the touch within a couple hours. I did almost all the color work last night from about 11 to 1 in the am and I was able to scan it without it leaving any marks or wet paint on the scanner. The reference is from stock photo courtesy of faestock.deviantart.com. I suggest checking her stuff out, she has a lot of cool photos for everyone to enjoy. Just an FYI- I'm not trying to follow the colors exactly, hence the really in your face purples. I'm working on another painting in the studio that I'll photograph maybe tonight or tomorrow. Time to go wash the obscene amount of pollen on my car, lest I die while I drive to work.