Tag: illustration

LiveStream Analysis – May 30th, 2017

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Like night, I made this live stream:
I consider it a failure   But, like all failures, we have an opportunity to learn something.  When something doesn’t work out, it’s always best to take a step back and reason out its shortcomings.  Otherwise, you’re doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
So, let’s commence the flagellation!
  • Composition was not solved.
    • Very early on in this painting, I arrived at a composition that I liked, but I settled too quickly.  The buildings on the hill were not solved early on, the sense of scale could be pushed further.
  • No Reference.
    • Civilization does not start abruptly.  A town does not just begin all of a sudden, there’s a progression of buildings on the outskirts of any town, which lead into a denser packed city.  If I used reference, I would have figured this out sooner.
  • No Reference!
    • The desert sort of looks like a desert, the town sort of looks like a town.  The lighting kind of looks correct.  Not good enough.
  • Did not solve color or light.
    • Before I jumped into painting finer details, lighting and color were not solved.  I fought with it in the beginning, but never quite figured it out before I moved into painting if further.  This led to a backwards approach, where I’m trying to fix my mistakes as I move forward   This is a bad workflow, because it does not allow for what Bob Ross calls “Happy Accidents.”
I could go on, but this is a sufficient scolding of my efforts.  Looking at the painting now, I should have stopped 20 minutes in; that at least could have served as a decent sketch.
It’s the Backwards Approach that always gets me, and we all encounter it in our work.  We push too far ahead and leave a mess in our wake, only to have to back track and clean up after ourselves.  I’m quickly considering this to be the death knell of a painting in progress.  If you’re detailing a painting but it feels more like a punishment that meditative pleasure, maybe you should set it aside and work on something else.

Tuesday Afternoon Live Stream

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I present the aftermath of yesterday’s 2 hour event – A Giant Leaping Through the Clouds.

 

Always reflect on what you’ve done, and try to look at it with a fresh pair of eyes.  Sometimes that means coming back to it in a day, or looking it at backwards, upside-down, etc.  If you don’t like what you’ve done, don’t beat yourself up about it.  Whenever we draw, we’re improving.  If you want to improve, then draw.

 

leapingGiant.jpg

Livestream – Feb 28th, 2016

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I’ll be painting in Photoshop, live, starting at 12 PM EST.  I live in Spain, so that explains the time.

I’ve been inspired by the mountains and wide open landscapes of Spain.  I have an idea of a giant leaping through the mountains, which I’ll try to execute this afternoon.  I’ll post a link when the time comes.

Show up if you can, and tell your friends!

 

mountainLandscape.jpg