War Paint
Today’s piece began with a rough sketch of my wife. I then tweaked it significantly to get the final concept.
It is a mixture of cadmium red light and burnt sienna with a touch of viridian.
Not to mention a bit of Japanese-inspired sci-fi goodness. :)
Onwards to the day’s craziness.
I believe we are recording episode 71 of the Ninja Mountain Podcast today.
It should be fun!
Forest Fire 2
It turns out that I have a buyer for the piece entitled, “Forest Fire”.
This is very exciting for me, let me tell you.
When my wife learned of this, however, she demanded that I do another of a similar theme for her as she will miss the first iteration.
I let her pick two colors to start–cadmium orange and cadmium red light.
I then handed her the brush with a load of paint and let her make the first marks.
She handed the brush back to me and I went to town on it.
This is becoming a bit of a series I think which is something I rather enjoy actually.
One reader of my blog, kindly wrote to me with a few questions today.
I thought it would be fun to answer them in today’s post.
The reader asks,
“I am curious: how long do you give yourself for a daily warmup? “
I tend to keep to keep them between one and two hours long.
However, if I have nothing on the books in terms of contract work, I will nibble at them for a bit longer. Today’s offering is a case in point. I started noodling with it yesterday evening while my wife and I were relaxing in front of the television.
Today we went to a local state park for a small gathering of my wife’s friends. Seeing as how they all were speaking in Portuguese and I would have little to offer the conversation, I took out today’s daily warm-up and worked on it for a couple of hours more.
All told, I only spent about 3 to 4 hours noodling away at it ( off and on).
Of course there have been pieces that just refuse to be put away. I just set them aside and get to work on the day’s contract stuff in those instances and return to it later.
“How long have you been doing it?”
I began doing these in late October of 2009 and have been going pretty steadily ever since.
As of today, I’ve done 126 warm-up pieces. I maintain a separate gallery of them here on the site for those who don’t want to slog through a ton of archived posts.
My schedule sometimes keeps me out of the studio and so my Daily warm-ups are seldom as daily as I would like. The day on which we record and edit the Ninja Mountain Podcast often takes up all of my spare time so I have to forego personal projects such as these.
I’ve actually started to experience GUILT when I’ve not had time to post a new piece.
How crazy is that?!
“How has it impacted or changed you/your approach to art?”
Well, I began doing these digitally as my work was previously all digital. I’d recently switched to traditional work and felt I needed to do my daily pieces in similar fashion so I could continue to learn in between contract jobs.
These self-generated assignments are great learning tools for me. The techniques I’ve stumbled upon are finding their way into my professional work and are pushing me towards being a better illustrator and painter.
I’ve determined that it is important to paint most every day in order to improve one’s work and these pieces are serving that need.
Thank you for your questions!
I hope readers found the Q&A interesting. I like getting questions from folks as it forces me to examine what it is I am doing here in the studio in a more direct way.
I can’t simply say ” Just Becuz’….” :)
Lion Tamer
What a week!
I was barely in the studio at all.
Still, it was very eventful as I got out of the house with my lovely wife who celebrated a birthday.
I also met with my local print shop to get some ideas in place for GenCon.
I want to offer a fair variety of things to con-goers. Even some promotional swag items, if I can swing it!
I also want to print up a few sketchbooks this year and get them bound nicely ( comb-binding,perfect binding, saddle stitch…hmmm).
Now I’m trying to figure out how much matte board I will need to properly present my work and what range of colors would be best to invest in. It is going to be a mighty task matting all of the recent work I’ve been doing and now want to offer for sale.
I will be sure to use acid-free archival materials at all stages of production. I want my stuff to look good for a long time as it hangs on someone’s wall. I am already very mindful of the quality pigments I use so it is best to carry that thoughtfulness through to the final presentation so as not to waste my efforts.
This week’s Ninja Mountain Podcast features an interview with Mitchell Bentley, the current president of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.
They organize the Chesley Awards each year along with a number of educational programs. The organization is re-vamping and revitalizing right now and I am planning to become a member myself.
Check them out at their website to learn more about them.
Onwards and with much to do!
Handlebar greyscale underpainting
Today, I thought I would share the continuing work on “Handlebar”.
In this installment I’ve merely refined the the underpainting by adding more washes of gray and chinese white.
I’ve sealed the surface with spray fixative and will shortly begin adding glazes and washes of acrylic over my underpainting.
So far so good!
Onwards…
Handlebar
Today’s daily warm-up is stage one of an experiment in process.
I will tighten it up some more with watercolor and any other medium I think will suit the picture and then glaze my final acrylics over the top. I wanted to ,once again, explore the use of a gray under-painting in my finished work.
This is a fairly simple assignment I’ve handed myself, but hey, nothing wrong with baby steps, eh? :)
I worked hard to get the Ninja Mountain Podcast out early this week since we missed last week’s episode.
Mercifully, the editing wasn’t too complicated. We talked about the passing of the late, great Al Williamson. We then went on to discuss the perceived value of various art mediums, and wrapped up the show with discussion of some of the costs of freelancing and how cash flow can help or hurt one’s efforts in the studio.
It proved an interesting show!
Yesterday, I had company here in the studio as recent art school graduate, Joe Acone, joined me to get some work done!
It was good fun and I hope he’ll be a regular visitor. I get tired of talking to myself and it is starting to scare the neighbors…
Onwards to the day’s labors!
Shady
Today’s warm-up is a bit late in coming, but that’s only because we had to record this week’s episode of the Ninja Mountain Podcast! I’ll be editing it later today, in fact.
Should be a fun episode.
I’d best get to it then! :)
Skullcrown
Another daily warm-up to share.
Cadmium orange, burnt sienna, cerulean blue, burnt umber, and a dash of ultramarine blue.
Add a little chinese white…you get the above watercolor doodle.
Onwards to the day’s work!
Fire Daemon
The latest dark silliness to escape the confines of a diseased imagination….
Thio violet ,cadmium orange, and ultramarine blue along with a bit of chinese white.
I used no pencil underdrawing this time, preferring to “invent in the paint” as it were.
I am getting some nice response to my new and growing body of work I am happy to report, though I am still awaiting my next contract assignment.
Not a problem as I proceed with some personal projects in the meantime.
I am revisiting a theme from my earliest portfolio and having a blast in the process.
Here’s the original drawing I did years ago as I was preparing to pursue my first freelance work….
I am currently re-visiting the topic, but with an entirely different approach ( and hopefully better execution).
This drawing was done back in the late 90′s. Ahh those tender years…
You will note the lack of a background and little in the way of subtle pencil rendering.
There was also very little narrative subtext here. It is essentially “Chick on Mantis”.
Mantis Rider
I anticipate the next iteration of this concept to be MUCH better….I hope….
I’ll be sure to take process shots as I go.
Medusa
This pieces was done yesterday, but I was unable to linger in the studio long enough to post it here. It is a mixture of viridian and thio violet which creates this rather interesting neutral purple hue. Additional washes of viridian were later added and some touch-ups with chinese white.
We were all too busy to record the Ninja Mountain Podcast this week, sadly.
Still, better to do it right than try to make do with too small a group at the mic I think. :)
I think we’ll be back on track next week though. I’m looking forward to it.
In the meantime, Art Order is having an interesting challenge, and, if I can manage the time to take part, I think I will be joining in the fun.
The name of this new challenge is “Gotta Have a Hook”.
Check it out! The challenge is structured to follow the schedule of a typical illustration assignment for Wizards of the Coast’s Dragon Magazine.
Should be very educational for folks. Kudos to Jon for putting it together.
Art Order is proving to be required reading for aspiring professional illustrators.
I’ve found the articles very interesting and informative and I’ve been in the studio since 2001.
Onwards to the day’s efforts!
Forest Fire
Today, I had my wife select two colors. In this case, it was cadmium yellow light and cadmium orange hue. I then had her make a couple of random strokes. This bit of introduced randomness provided the springboard that became today’s daily warm-up.
I then added a bit of thio violet ( a Grumbacher color) and cadmium red. Finally I mixed a bit of cerulean blue with the cadmium orange hue to get the grayish green you see.
I handed the brush to my wife again and she threw down a blob of deep red that I then sculpted into the dragon.
Good fun over coffee with the wife. Who can ask for more?
The 22nd Annual New Hampshire Creative Club Juried Art Show was a success.
I presented the awards to this year’s winners in the categories of Graphic Design, Photography, Illustration, Interactive Design, Video production, and finally the student category.
It was a great time though I was kept fairly busy throughout the evening.
The show will remain hanging at the McIninch Gallery at Southern NH University into late July. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, you might enjoy checking it out!
Onwards to the day’s work…
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