Color thumbs for the final piece. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
My Road To Mastery
NR43
#382
Hey Jason… wow!
You’re keeping busy I see 
I like that life drawing of your room-mate (?) reading on the bed.
From the 4 thumbs in your last post, I like the 2nd (top-right) the best. The background color isn’t too distracting in that one, while I feel in the others it is. Well the overall color balance is optimal in that one, for me anyway.
jpedro
#383
great ballpoint sketches and the charcoal work is very sweet as well. keep it up Jason, you’re taking off 
staticpen
#384
Johan - Yessir! Work work work. I’ve gotta get better and better in every way! hahaha. Gotta stay motivated and draw and paint all the time if I want to be a working artist. Thanks very much for your throughts on the color thumbs. I took them around and the two favorite choices were the top images. I initially liked the top left, and I still enjoy it, but in the end the color scheme in the top right better sets the mood I want to convey. I appreciate the thoughts!
Pedro - Kindest thanks. I hope so!
Another ball point drawing while my brother uses the laptop.
And some fun doing something from my head. This might be fun to paint once DWIV blows over.
Speaking of DWIV, I’ve started my final image, so… yessir, it’s coming along sooner or later.
staticpen
#385
I’ve been working on a few things. I’ve got an oil painting I need to finish up quickly, the DWIV final that’s due pretty soon, and another conceptual project I’m working on with a friend. I’m not posting images of the oil or concept project until they’re finished, and the DWIV final is going to stay on my hard drive until it’s finished… so all I have left to post here are sketches and any speed paintings I can sneak in from time to time. But be sure, once I wrap up these projects I’ll have process images and all kinds of stuff to post at once, so things will only be this slow for a little while longer.
Drawn during the basketball game tonight. I can’t forget my perspective practice!
staticpen
#387
Johan - Thanks man! In fact, I finished up one of those projects last night… One down, two to go!
Woo! That was a very rewarding experience. I finished my oil painting last night. It’s a mother’s day present of my grandmother’s house (where we are right now). I’ve got steps to post, so I’ll show and tell at the same time.
This is the charcoal drawing I started off with. I sprayed fixative on it but it still smudged. Does anyone know what process people typically go about when drawing with charcoal before painting?
After that I went into an acrylic underpainting in complementary colors. I tried it on a still life once and really liked how it looked, so I decided to give it another go.
After those prep stages earlier in the week I started putting down the oil. I’m pretty excited because I completed the entire oil portion of the piece in one day in an alla prima fashion. I didn’t use any medium accept for a little bit of turp here and there, but 90% of this is just straight from the tube.
Blocking in trees… I was pretty scared of them while getting ready for this whole thing, but they turned out to be a lot easier than I anticipated. Thanks, Bob Ross! XD
From there is was mostly detailing, which brings us to the final image. It was a lot of fun!
jpedro
#388
grats on that static! it came out really good, specially for a first try, love the trees!
staticpen
#389
Pedro - Thanks very much!
Concept sheet for DWIV. I forgot you had to put everything down on one sheet. I did most of these concepts on a white background, and the two last ones on a gray background, so I had to just paint bucket the white backgrounds really sloppily to keep this page form having four white squares on it. Eh, it’s alright. I really just want to finish this year!
staticpen
#390
Done! Phew! I’m so happy to be finished with this project, hahaha. Thanks for all the support and suggestions, guys.
staticpen
#391
NOTE: DWIV Final Submission is on the last post of the previous page~
Here is some life/study work I did today while I wasn’t able to work on the DWIV final.
NR43
#392
Hey great to see these life drawings with pen.
I tried it to last night. Unfortunately I got to just one sketch, but I think I might continue with it tonight!
Congratz on finishing your DW piece btw, looks awesome!
BlackBalinese
#393
wow, these are all yours? you have mastered everything man. love the first post though.
all of 'em are awesome!
staticpen
#394
Johan - Thanks man! I appreciate it. The figures aren’t from the life, though. Pretty soon I should be able to get myself into some classes, and then I can hopefully really start churning out the life drawings. 
BlackBalinese - Yessir! Kindest thanks.
After doing those pen drawings from Henry Yan charcoals to get my mind fresh on how and where to place shadows, I did a couple pages from photos on another angle that gives me trouble. I hate to send you from some decent drawings to more fumbling practice work, but I must tackle these things! 
And most of these are imagination, working on that previous angle.
I also did a copy of a McGregor Paxton painting with the intention of making some of my own brushes on the fly with dual brush settings and stuff. This is what I ended up with after a couple hours…
Then I decided I’ve gotta stop being one of those people who half asses studies in the interest of time… so I went back in a reworked everything really patiently.
This is much, much closer to the original painting.
staticpen
#395
Hitting the road again tomorrow morning at 5 AM. Driving up to Memphis. After that it’s a four day trip back to California. Thanks for the support, you guys! I’ll be back soon.
:D!
razz
#397
Hey, I hope the trip is going well.
About starting a painting with charcoal, you could try applying a tone with acrylics over the whole thing before using oils. This should keep it from smudging too much.
Great stuff all around, mate!
staticpen
#398
Johan - cheers.
Razz - I did put an acrylic wash over the charcoal before adding the oils, and it smudged around… I think I’m going to go in either the pen & ink direction or the acrylic linework method next time. See how it goes. Thanks for the kind words!
Hey guys! The trip went well. Not too many stories to tell, though. Some, but I’ve got too much to do to go on about that stuff right now. What matters is I made it safely and it’s fantastic to be back with my friends. Here’s a New Mexico sunrise for you. I’m there on the left, buddy Jon on the right. Five deer were actually grazing next to us when we woke up.
I’ve been super busy here in California, so most of the drawings I’ve done have either been in other people’s notebooks or on napkins or something. But I did get some sketch time in with a friend the other day. Here’s that.
staticpen
#399
Sorry I haven’t been posting, guys! I’ve just finished a marathon of friend visitations, and I think I’m all square with who I need to say hello to now that I’m back west. But part of being back west means I have a social life again + I can finally work on music again. A couple friends and I have been recording since I got back, and it’s going well. Not to mention I have access to video games again… I won’t lie. I’ve been spending some free time on Mario Galaxy. :teeth:
But to top it all off, I’ve contracted a cold, so I’m pretty miserable right now. Staring at a screen for any length of time hurts my head. I slept most of today. But I did take some time to upload what sketches I’ve been able to get out since last post.
Life drawings and a group sketch at a yogurt store:
I also decided a week or so ago that I wanted to develop a more consistent style. If I’m painting or drawing in a different style each time, I have to make discoveries and failures every time I pick up a pen. If I were to develop a way of drawing or painting that I knew inside and out, I could reduce the amount of hair pulling during conceptual painting/drawing. There’s also the fact that the drawings I was doing out of my head started to look ugly to me. All of the life drawing has changed my style, and I didn’t like how my imagination stuff was coming out (such as the dude in the top left, in the hat, and the blocky bald dude). So I thought it would be a good idea to start copying stuff from artists that employ a style I would like to be able to call on when drawing from my head. Two particular artists I’d like to blend together are Cellar FCP and Hiroaki Samura. So I started copying them and some other stuff that had the look I wanted.
And here’s a page of CellarFCP studies.
And this is a PS doodle from imagination. Just trying to cement some of the lines and contours I was learning.
