Wednesday, July 01, 2009

landscrape


I feel dirty painting waterfalls. Like a lens flare.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

tradigital


Started as a an oil over pencil. Painted over it and added more color in PS. I haven't done that in a long time.

Monday, June 08, 2009

'nother


Another, same light conditions. Working through some of the things I learned from the last experiment.

Monday, June 01, 2009

To top it all off


Bernard's breath was bad too.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

wipeout




Another Nightwork interior. Alkyd over fixed prismacolor. For those not familiar with the idea this was done entirely transparently. A loose value drawing, then a quick wash of black and burnt sienna, then lights wiped, scrubbed and/or picked out with a dry cloth, dry q-tip, or brush with turps. I used to love the luminous quality, textured feel and raw speed of this over-done technique.
See Bernie Fuchs, C.M.Dudash and David Grove

Bad white point, first 2 steps.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Face Study


Waiting for a meeting this morning.
Every once in a while I'll do a few sketches just to find out what I'm missing. What muscle insert have I been faking? What would the light really do? For this one I just tried to keep the light position fixed relative to their face directions. The temptation to reference photos was pretty bad. Then I goback and check against photos/mirror with similar light. These are pretty off, but (and always) it's worth every minute I spent on it - just to take away a couple things I learned.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Nostalgic


I sometimes miss the little patch of woods next to where I lived in Northern California - on a huge bluff above the ocean. It didn't really look like this but it had a similar personality to it.
The place could be breathtakingly beautiful and scary at the same time. My favorite times were the crazy red light it often had about it at sunset and the absolute darkness and roar of the ocean at night.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

TrollGeeks



For Drawergeeks this week. PS.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Exercise


Painter. More quickie palette knife randomness.
I'm aggravated by the lack of decent angle control.
Tilt is useless to me. Bearing is confusing. Direction doesn't work (spins).
Rotation with my 6d is more or less random (only seems so w pknife) and only seems to want to read the pen's angle when it chooses to.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

palette knives


Painter. Loaded palette knife and a soft airbrush.
Love that knife for blocking.

sketch


A late night 42 minutes. PainterX. Here's the image.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Emerald City Con 2009


OK, who here has stalked a campfire?....Hello? This started from the same abstract goo the last one did. I feel it might have a dozen other compositions locked in there somewhere.

I won't be at the Emerald City Con in Seattle this weekend (April 4 & 5) but my co-worker Wade Schin (site)(book) and BrandStudio Press will both be there and my Nightworks book will be available at one of those booths. Stop by both and say hi!

Monday, March 30, 2009

old wreck

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Nap


Photoshop over pencil sketch.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Another shot: Golden Opens


On the advice of Erik I decided to give Golden Opens another go but without water. I used only a gloss medium I had, only enough water to barely wet the brush to start.
I have to say that it was better - no ugly 2 stage drying that turned me off last time- but still very stiff. I think I need to find a more fluid (and thinner) medium for them. Maybe that would do the trick.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Yarg. Pan Pastel


2 days before the con I was in the art store and found these panPastel things. They are little trays of pastel that have so little binder in them that they don't hold together in a stick. You apply them with what look like makeup sponges on sticks. This is my first shot, done during Wondercon. Extremely fun stuff. I'm not a pastel guy, but I can see why painters are drawn to the medium. This stuff in particular is as much paint as any wet medium I've tried.
There's a quick guache wash for a base and prismacolor under, over, etc. It's all done on this great Wallis pastel paper which is really expensive sandpaper.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

reset


When I'm stuck on something it often helps me to take an hour or so out and step away from things. Do something different. Brain reset.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Wondercon!



I will be at Wondercon this year! It's this coming weekend in SF. Feb 27-March 1.
The gracious and talented Pascal Campion is sharing his booth with me. I'll be pawning Nightworks and collecting commissions. See you there?

Thursday, February 12, 2009

gnarled viking


This is pretty much how I used to paint everything albeit spending more time.
Value drawing.
Transparent underpainting. Acrylic and then Alkyd here.
Opaque, thicker paint for painting light. Alkyd in this case.
I think I'll do more like this. I'll tape at least one of them.
This one's yours, Jack.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

I still like oil better



I don't know why that disappoints me.
This was alkyds but I consider it oil.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Golden Open Acrylics. First shot.


The jury is still out on these in this house. I do like that they stay wet for so long and that I can dry them w a hairdryer when I'm ready. I do like that when they are dry, they are tough, like regular acrylics without sealing them.

But there is a lot I really didn't like. Keep in mind this is after one session of play.

They stay wet for a while, but "set" to a strange consistency right away - after the water evaporates. Once they are in this stage they have a really odd "pull" to them that I didn't like at all. Not tacky, exactly, but gooey. Glycerin-like.

They are exceptionally translucent and you need to use a LOT of paint to get any real covering power. More than other acrylics I've tried. I only used Titanium white and burnt umber on this. Other colors to come next.

Right now, I'm leaning toward the Atelier Interactives, I can let them dry right away, or keep them open with water (or slow drying medium) or open them later with water. They aren't the most potent pigments in the world, but much stronger than the Golden Opens of the same color. I suspect it has to do with the whatever vehicle they are using to keep them open.

More play is needed.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

oil sketch videos up







Had to split it up into 3, 10 minute sections. It was very late when I did the overdub so you'll have to forgive me. I should have written an outline to talk to.
Edit: The blog I mention on color is http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Alkyd roughneck


I will have a video of it up in the next few days. Seems it's 30 minutes total. I will keep it real-time and do a shoddy voice-over. Hopefully it will address some FAQ. So if you've asked a question (or do in the next day) I'll try to get to it.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Narrow escape



Painter.
Something is wrong with my painter at work. Every 10th stroke or so, I get a horizontal streak going off to the left and fading out. Like an old Bob Peak painting! It worked fine a few months back. This happen to anybody else? I even got Corel's service pack. No good.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

nails


Quick, aimless thumbnails inspired by Marco Bucci's recent posts. Brain reset.

Sorry it's been so long! I paint all day now, so I must be getting it out of my system! At least a little.

More posts on the way.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Atelier interactive demo


Tried to get the palette in there. The only thing of note is that I'm occasionally spraying the thing with water. This somehow re-hydrates the already dry (but not cured) acrylic. Making it workable again.
I also only used a big flat brush. Even with fast work, there's little reason to go smaller. It makes you think in planes and directionality and helps prevent excessive noodling.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

oil speedpaint 4


I added raw sienna this time and it took me way longer to do. 35 minutes. Why raw sienna? Why? Maybe it was because I had little idea where I was going when I started.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Oil Speedpaint 03



13 minutes for this one down to 7 something. I will eventually post the finals. Enough of this for now. Tried to get the palette visible, as limited as it was. All of these were done with
  • Ivory Black
  • Burnt Sienna
  • Titanium White
Just to get a warm cool mix.
I think the hardest thing about these was the fact that I was doing them flat on a table and I couldn't get around to the left side because the camera & light were in the way! All my brush strokes kinda went from left to right. Unexpectedly frustrating.

And another oil



19 minutes compressed to 7. Better white balance this time.

Alkyd & Oil



10 min, down to 7.5 min. Should have a few more like this soon.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Don't even look at his sister


Wasn't til the end till I saw the Earth Worm Jim'ness. Ah well.
Also I did an interview with SideBar that was just posted. At the very least, go look at the list of previous podcast interviews they've done. Tons of very cool stuff.

Monday, November 03, 2008

interior quickies


sloppy oil wipe-out over prismacolor

sloppy acrylic

Friday, October 31, 2008

thumbnail


Sorry for the stretches between posts. I have more to put up soon. These were just PS doodles.