Greg Manchess' 10 Things Series

I love reading Muddy Colors, and especially 10 things by Greg Manchess.
I'll just link them all here for easy reference because I like to visit the series often.

10 Things about Crumping
10 Things about Failure
10 Things about Sketching the Model
10 Things about Painting Priorities
10 Things about Edges
10 Things about the Business of Illustration
10 Things about Reps
10 Things about Evolving as an Artist
10 Things about What's in the Picture
10 Things about Using Black
10 Things about Finding your Audience
10 Things about Knowing when to Stop
10 Things about Painting like a Writer
10 Things about Value
10 Things about Painting Book Covers
10 Things about Painting in Oils
10 Things about Adventure Painting
10 Things about Competitions 
10 Things about Applying Paint
10 Things about Talent
10 Things about Generating Paintings 
10 Things about Planning Pictures
10 Things about Tracing
10 Things about Portfolios
10 Things about Procrastinating
10 Things about Planning Paintings
10 Things about Training

 Experimenting with like.. 'digital alla prima'. The second one was a total fail but it's so fun to paint this way. I'm working on portfolio stuff now,  so a big update soon.

The good, the bad and the ugly

I had my wisdom teeth out, and was out for a while thanks to minor complications and fell behind on my online class. Still having a ton of fun learning oils though.

First the colour on top of the week 1 painting (last post). I like the colours, but they highlight all the multitude of issues with the structure. Super easy technique though.

This is last week's painting. First stage of 2. Will do stage 2 tomorrow probably.

The ugly. This painting just didn't go well. There's still a stage 2 to be done, hopefully I can fix it then. This was one of the assignments I missed.

And the good! Tiny gouache painting in my sketchbook. This was so fun! The yellow specks were an experiment that I immediately regretted.

Digital. Trying to apply things I've learnt. One thing I've learnt is that colour on photoshop sucks. So much easier to physically just mix paint.

Also I just couldn't get Roman Reign's nose right.

And in other big news..... I CAN FINALLY DRAW HORSES. It only took FIFTEEN YEARS. The bane of my artistic life has been the horse. As many a young female preteen, my friends and I were obsessed with horses. Only problem for me was that everyone was better at drawing them than I was. I still remember the intense jealousy. Now all these years later, not only can I draw a horse better, but everything else.

April already!

Hit a bit of a slump because I couldn't see how I was going to get the art skills I want... Luckily so many awesome online art resources exist! At the moment I'm taking a head painting class with Mark Westermoe through Art Mentors and I'm having a blast.

I'm finally learning to paint!

Week one is doing an Imprimatura underpainting with Burnt Umber. Such an easy way to paint! It's almost like drawing really. This one is my class one, and the bottom is another one for practice. Will have to try incorporate the feedback I got into the next stage: colour! 

I used stretched canvas and Windsor & Newton for the second one (as opposed to canvas board and Winton). It looks so much better, but I can't afford all Windsor & Newton paint. I had to go out and get the colours I didn't have yesterday, and I had to get a mix of shit brands and good brands. Still cost over $100! Worth it? 

Just need to track down some walnut oil today so I can start the next stage. 

January Study Dump

Decided to gather all my January studies in one file... and was massively disappointed in myself. Still, you have to know where you're at to get where you want to go. Definitely motivated me to be more active with my studies in February, so we'll see at the end of the month if I've improved in volume. 

I also got my first logo job, which has re-sparked my interest in design. (That's why there's such a large amount of bison studies in my January dump). 

Meet the Artist

11-62/12-62

I fell behind. I need 2 or 3 to catch up. For various reasons, I just didn't want to do it anymore. I think when you're doing something outside your comfort zone your brain likes to trick you into thinking it's the worst thing ever. For today's study I just picked a picture and went for it, opaque brush so I couldn't noodle or mess around. It went smooth. Sure, it's not even great, but for a rudimentary tool, and trying to do it as quick as possible (while still trying to not 'rush' it) it came out alright. 

The values are okay too. Could've been better, they always can. I think it's also harder to push through when you're not seeing improvement. I'm back at it now, I might stick to an opaque brush. I think if it works with a hard brush, it'll work when you add texture/edges/etc. Of course it's good practice to do those things from the start, but this is a hard topic for me, so it's easier to just simplify it way down. 

Painting people is so much more fun for me, but it's probably just because I'm used to it. 

10-62

Another rushed one today :/
Learning how to do foliage through some tutorials and I wanted to try out what I learnt, but I knew I didn't have much time so I chose a simpler scene. At some point I'm going to have to do a long, detailed one to really get into the nitty gritty of it all. I also need to figure out my brushes better and I need to zoom in! I work way zoomed out, so then I'm not getting any detail in there.

08/09

Couldn't be bothered posting yesterday because I was over it. Still struggling hard.

So  I decided to watch some tutorials. First up was Approaching Studies by Kalen Chock. He set homework for his class so I figured I should do the homework as well.

Couldn't figure out how to do the texture on this one. 

This one's not finished yet. By far the funnest. I'm also working on another one.

 Then I watched the virtual Plein Air video by Timothy Rodriguez. Not gonna lie, I stopped paying attention (A.D.D) and so my study didn't go so well.  I thought it was later than it was, so I rushed... Could've gone for another 30-60mins :/

After my black and white studies, big shapes were a LOT easier, little shapes, not so much. I still haven't figured out a good way to indicate water. I need a focal point, I need more texture in the right areas (though I don't like using texture brushes.. I rationalise that painting on paper would have a lot of texture though, and digital pretty much has zilch). Probably my studies just need a lot of cleaning up, and some more bolder, confident shapes and decisions. I like the sky in the last one, it was really just a lot of indication. And foliage... still suck at foliage.. And rocks! :/ 

First week done

It really feels like I'm going backwards. I didn't get anything out of this one that I wanted to. Maybe I need to simplify further? I tried the process Ryan Lang describes on his blog. But then I deviated in order to blend things. 

Also, trying to record my process.

5-10 min doodle from imagination. Pretty shit, but I feel like I had a clearer picture in my mind of what I wanted than I usually do. So as shit as my studies are, I guess the practice is paying off. I'll finally be able to paint environments! 

Didn't do the other stuff I wanted to do today. Weekends always get in the way! 

Welcome to Sucksville, population: 01

At least failing means you can just let go and mess around. 

If someone could teach me how to paint environments.. 

In other news, I started on this:

Didn't work on the other study yet. Only started working late in the day. Weekend's aren't the best time to work for me.