225 -Miles -(Revolution Series1)

Another digital painting using Painter 2015 demo and probably my last as I've only got a couple of days left on it and I'm back to work tomorrow after a lovely week off :(
So am I tempted to upgrade? Absolutely. To be fair, I only brushed the surface (pardon the pun) and rarely ventured out of the Charcoal brushes doing these two paintings but it just feels like you're drawing traditionally. Still the upgrade price at £159 is nothing to be sniffed at and I'm planning on doing some more paintings using software that I already own to see if I really do NEED it as opposed to just wanting it cos it's the latest version.

224- Norah Clayton (Revolution series 1)

Currently trying out a demo version of Corel Painter 2015 as I'm just not prepared to pay Adobe prices for an upgrade to CS6 or pay a ridiculously priced monthly subscription  - bally pirates!

The good news about this update is that you can now get the upgrade price if you have any version from 7 upwards, well done Corel! 

217-223 Rules of Engagement

I love the characters in this show, very funny. Initially drawn separately as an exercise to capture a likeness, I then arranged them into this group picture.

213-216 Random sketches

It's good to be drawing again.

210-212 Doc Martin W.I.P

I must admit after starting to watch the new Doc Martin series I've become a bit of a fan, in fact I've been so inspired by the great characters in the show that I've decided to do my own bit of fan art. The idea is to do some studies of the characters and produce a finished piece using the best of the sketches.

209 - Daniel Lieske Tutorial

Well the family photo project has turned into a full blown ancestor search now and as a result I've not spent a great deal of time on drawing or painting over the last month. This sketch in Photoshop was done following a tutorial by Daniel Lieske on Lynda.com.

208 - Old Family Photos Project

207 - Old Family Photos Project

I watched a fascinating documentary recently on the BBC about Jack Vettriano and it gave me an idea of doing a picture in a similar style using old family photos as reference. I'm not quite sure how this is going to work out or even where to start or more importantly if it will ever get completed. Anyhow this pencil sketch is the first in what will hopefully be a series of studies which will eventually inform the finished painting.

204 - W.I.P Update

This still needs some finishing touches but other than that, I think I've taken it as far as I can at my current skill level.

206 - A Farm near Leadgate in Monochrome

An attempt to paint the previous setting in monochrome using only Burnt Sienna. Brian Keeler has a great saying which he repeats in all his videos, he says "tone does all the work whilst colour takes all the credit". I'm currently reading about an artist from Yorkshire called Ashley Jackson who paints wonderfully emotive watercolours particularly of the Yorkshire moors. Mr. Jackson says that one of the easiest ways to learn about tone is to paint monochromes, so I've took his advice and had a go.

205 - A Farm near Leadgate

 A pencil sketch of a farm near Leadgate early morning. It was drawn using a photo I took as reference, I'm trying to build my confidence up to going out in the field to paint.

204 - W.I.P

I've been sitting on this painting, metaphorically speaking, for the last 2 weeks. I painted it over a couple of days and then went back to work and sort of lost momentum, so I'm posting it as a work in progress in the hope that it will motivate me to finish it off. I think it's just the fear of going back into the painting and not messing it up that has put me off. I just need to dive back in! Alas it isn't my own design, but a copy of a painting by the artist Brian Keeler. He has several tutorials on the Artist's Network and I just loved the colours in this picture and decided to give it a go, following along with his video.

203 - Stormtrooper Patrol

This picture started off as a pencil sketch of Al Williamson's Stormtrooper Patrol from the book, 'Star Wars Illustration'. I changed things around mainly to accommodate the widescreen format sketchbook that I used. In the book, the original is a pen and ink drawing but once I got my sketch inked and scanned into the computer, I couldn't resist the temptation to colour it. The book is brilliant, full of inspirational artwork, I love it.

202 - Sky, trees and mountains

This started off as a single exercise in painting clouds in acrylic following one of Jerry Yarnell's videos. I continued with further tutorials on trees and mountains using the same board and ended up with this painting. 

I photographed the painting and took the colour out using the computer. This was interesting because as you can see in the picture below, what I've managed to create is a painting largely in the mid-tone range.

In this final picture I've tried to add more of a tonal range by changing the values using software. Whilst the painting is just a series of exercises, seeing it in black and white is a great way to highlight the values and see where you are going wrong. 

On a personal note, I can't believe it's been nearly 4 months since my last post, it's so easy to get out of the habit. In my defence, I have been working on a couple of projects including learning modelling techniques in Maya and putting together a book or some might say, a glorified photo album for our 25th wedding anniversary which was in April. And did I mention I had a cold for a whole month! Any-who, I definitely have the painting bug at the minute and the sun is shining so it's time to 'make hay'.

201 - Seashore Tutorial

Another video tutorial from the Artist's Network this time by Grant Fuller. The bottom version is my original attempt and the top version has some extra white added digitally using Photoshop. I also added some darker values to the reflections of the trees and got rid of some of the glare from the camera flash.

200 - Terry Harrison Tutorial

Working along with one of the tutorials on Terry Harrison's video, 'Improve Your Trees in Watercolor'. What took him about 20 minutes to do has taken me half a day of pausing and rewinding and pausing.... and rewinding. My effort doesn't look half bad once photographed and reduced to the size of a large stamp but the original is a bit ropey, still it's all part of the learning process and hopefully in 6 months or a years time I will be able to look back and see a big improvement.

Of-course the downside is that I now 'must have' a set of Terry Harrison's special brushes.

199 - Sterling Edwards Tutorial

A quick watercolor exercise following along with another Sterling Edwards video.

198 - Sterling Edwards Tutorial

A watercolour painting following along with Sterling Edwards in his 'Spring Landscape' tutorial.

 Artists Network.tv 

197 - Clumps of Grass & pebbles

Another Jerry Yarnell exercise.

196 - Fencepost revisited

Decided to go back and add the flowers as well as trying to improve on the grass.