Here is the first one, inspired by (but not a copy of) a picture from National Geographic.
June 27, 2007
100 Worlds #1
To go along with my “1000 Heads” project, I’m starting a sister project called “100 worlds.” The goal is to paint 100 unique environments.
Here is the first one, inspired by (but not a copy of) a picture from National Geographic.
Here is the first one, inspired by (but not a copy of) a picture from National Geographic.
June 25, 2007
Oils: Meet Gouache, Watercolor, Chromacolour, and Fluid Acrylic
The guys at Sarnoff Art and Writing think I'm a little crazy...
For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to expand into water-based paints. I love oils and will continue using them, but there are times when I just don’t feel like dealing with solvents, linseed oil, three coats of primer, and six months of drying.
So I did a lot of research online to try to figure out which water based media might best fit my needs. There are a multitude of water-based paints:
Watercolor: Watercolor paint is simply pigment suspended in a colorless binder, usually gum Arabic. You use it in a transparent style, working from light washes to dark, heavily pigmented color. Watercolor is, of course, very popular. But it forces one to work in a style that I’ve found doesn’t always suit my needs—I prefer painting dark to light.
Gouache: Gouache is watercolor with an inert white pigment, like chalk, added to the mix. The chalk makes the paint opaque, so you can work from dark to light in layers. Gouache is popular with designers, but not quite as much with fine artists, because the paint is somewhat fragile.
Chromacolour: Chromacolour makes paints for the animation industry, and their line of acrylic paints is derived from their line of background paints. It behaves much like a normal acrylic, but dries to a matte finish and allows for more dilution with water.
Fluid Acrylic: Fluid acrylics are the same as tube acrylics, but with lower viscosity. This allows for more fluid brush strokes and easier dilution. Like all acrylics, they dry completely waterproof. I was interested in fluid acrylics because I tend to paint in thin layers, but tube acrylics are hard to dissolve in water and lose their vibrancy.
So, clearly, all these paints have different characteristics, but nothing I read totally sold me on one kind over another. So I decided to try them all.
I went to the art store, and bought a full complementary palette for every kind of water-based paint they had.
Check it out:
The biggest tubes are my oils, the black tubes are Chromacolour, the bottles are fluid acrylic, the medium sized tubes are gouache, and the tiny tubes are watercolor.
I had expected this to be a fairly expensive endeavor. But that’s because I’m used to horrifically expensive oil paints, where a single small tube can cost $50. I was happy when the price of all four kinds of water based paint only cost me $160. A full complementary set of oils usually runs me about $250.
The specific reason I bought all this paint is for my new “100 Worlds” project, which I’ll talk about next time.
For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to expand into water-based paints. I love oils and will continue using them, but there are times when I just don’t feel like dealing with solvents, linseed oil, three coats of primer, and six months of drying.
So I did a lot of research online to try to figure out which water based media might best fit my needs. There are a multitude of water-based paints:
Watercolor: Watercolor paint is simply pigment suspended in a colorless binder, usually gum Arabic. You use it in a transparent style, working from light washes to dark, heavily pigmented color. Watercolor is, of course, very popular. But it forces one to work in a style that I’ve found doesn’t always suit my needs—I prefer painting dark to light.
Gouache: Gouache is watercolor with an inert white pigment, like chalk, added to the mix. The chalk makes the paint opaque, so you can work from dark to light in layers. Gouache is popular with designers, but not quite as much with fine artists, because the paint is somewhat fragile.
Chromacolour: Chromacolour makes paints for the animation industry, and their line of acrylic paints is derived from their line of background paints. It behaves much like a normal acrylic, but dries to a matte finish and allows for more dilution with water.
Fluid Acrylic: Fluid acrylics are the same as tube acrylics, but with lower viscosity. This allows for more fluid brush strokes and easier dilution. Like all acrylics, they dry completely waterproof. I was interested in fluid acrylics because I tend to paint in thin layers, but tube acrylics are hard to dissolve in water and lose their vibrancy.
So, clearly, all these paints have different characteristics, but nothing I read totally sold me on one kind over another. So I decided to try them all.
I went to the art store, and bought a full complementary palette for every kind of water-based paint they had.
Check it out:
The biggest tubes are my oils, the black tubes are Chromacolour, the bottles are fluid acrylic, the medium sized tubes are gouache, and the tiny tubes are watercolor.
I had expected this to be a fairly expensive endeavor. But that’s because I’m used to horrifically expensive oil paints, where a single small tube can cost $50. I was happy when the price of all four kinds of water based paint only cost me $160. A full complementary set of oils usually runs me about $250.
The specific reason I bought all this paint is for my new “100 Worlds” project, which I’ll talk about next time.
June 20, 2007
1,000 Heads (#1-24)
Any representational artist should be able to draw a decent head. I’m fine when I’m drawing a head from a model. But, being a video game artist, it’s important that I’m able to *invent* characters and heads for which there is no model available. I should be able to draw them at any angle with any expression and any lighting. I don’t feel like I’m good at that. Yet.
So my new project is to master this through repetition. I’m going to draw 1,000 heads. Every single head will be constructed entirely from my imagination. No models, pictures, or props are allowed. They will start out as basic geometric/anatomical forms and hopefully advance to unique characters.
Here are some selections from the first 2.4%.
So my new project is to master this through repetition. I’m going to draw 1,000 heads. Every single head will be constructed entirely from my imagination. No models, pictures, or props are allowed. They will start out as basic geometric/anatomical forms and hopefully advance to unique characters.
Here are some selections from the first 2.4%.
June 19, 2007
Poor Tiger
I have absolutely no interest in golf, but I do find Tiger Woods’ permanently distressed face hilarious. Whether he’s winning, losing, posing for a Nike ad, or just eating a sandwich, he always looks like he’s about to cry.
This picture is made with some old watercolor pencils I found. You draw with them like normal colored pencils, and then can blend them together with a wet brush. They're kinda fun.
Poor Tiger
Watercolor pencil on paper
This picture is made with some old watercolor pencils I found. You draw with them like normal colored pencils, and then can blend them together with a wet brush. They're kinda fun.
Poor Tiger
Watercolor pencil on paper
June 9, 2007
"Dangerous" Work in Progress #1
I was getting frustrated with a painting this weekend, so I scrubbed it out and started this. Not particularly original subject matter for a 24 year old male, I'm sure, but for me it's unique in that it's my first oil painting that I'll be doing completely from my head.
This picture shows step 1: A brown background (which is the old painting scrubbed out with a paper towel) and a sketch of the girl in dark brown and white.
Next I'll start adding color and shading, layer by layer.
This picture shows step 1: A brown background (which is the old painting scrubbed out with a paper towel) and a sketch of the girl in dark brown and white.
Next I'll start adding color and shading, layer by layer.
June 4, 2007
Marker Sketching
The art store at my house had a 40% off sale on Prismacolor art markers this weekend. I’d never really used them before, but concept artists like Doug Chiang and Feng Zhu love them for doing sketches, so I thought I’d try them out.
I used 10%, 30%, 50%, and 70% cool gray markers, plus a black Micron pen. First I roughed in the form with the 10% marker, and then added more and more darks as I dialed in the shading and proportions.
These aren’t exactly my best drawings ever or anything, but I did have a lot of fun experimenting and will probably continue to use them for sketching. They seem to combine the control and portability of a pencil with the solidity and coverage speed of paint.
One tip: It’s best to use paper specifically designed for markers. Marker paper doesn’t absorb the ink, it sits on the surface. That keeps the tone more even, and doesn’t pull as much ink from the marker. Canson makes marker paper that you can find most places.
I used 10%, 30%, 50%, and 70% cool gray markers, plus a black Micron pen. First I roughed in the form with the 10% marker, and then added more and more darks as I dialed in the shading and proportions.
These aren’t exactly my best drawings ever or anything, but I did have a lot of fun experimenting and will probably continue to use them for sketching. They seem to combine the control and portability of a pencil with the solidity and coverage speed of paint.
One tip: It’s best to use paper specifically designed for markers. Marker paper doesn’t absorb the ink, it sits on the surface. That keeps the tone more even, and doesn’t pull as much ink from the marker. Canson makes marker paper that you can find most places.
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