Till The End - gestures

I collected all kinds of photos of individuals walking with drapery and canes as reference for a painting I'm working on ('Till The End'). I looked at all the photos and did some quick gestures to figure out where the weight and major fabric folds are. It was a also a great warm up before I started the drawing the central character in the image. Each drawing above was completed in about 30 - 60 seconds. 

Till The End - thumbnails

Some thumbnail studies of a new painting in the works called 'Till The End' drawn on my animation disc. I pretty much know the composition I want now. The next step is to scale it up and start refining it. 

Sketchbook drawing - Viggo Mortensen

Many people are often surprised when they look through my sketchbook. It's actually filled with life drawing, anatomy studies and studies of people from photos - there's not a lot of cartoons in it. I like picking up the free mag from the movie theater (Cineplex, here in Canada) and drawing from it. It's often filled with multiple photos of the same actors/actresses to draw studies from.

Drawing is of actor Viggo Mortensen from the movie 'Captian Fantastic'. Ink and marker on kraft paper. ‪

using a sandpaper pencil sharpener

I've had a sand paper pencil sharpener taped to the top right corner of my drawing table for many years now. They can greatly extend the life out of your pencils and nearly all art stores carry them. When a layer gets full, you can just remove it and there is a clean layer underneath. They do produce lots of dust though. I figured out over time, if you put a bag over the sharpener, it will keep your area clean.

Nightmare Sauce

My latest painting 'Nightmare Sauce'. It will be available at the upcoming Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition next month July 8-10! You coming? 'Nightmare Sauce'
acrylic on wood panel
12"x12"

new painitng for TOAE - progress

Some progress on a new ‪‎painting‬ I'm working on for the upcoming Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition coming up soon -July 8-10 (just over a month away)!

Drawing for new painting for TOAE

Here is the rough ‪drawing‬ to a new ‪#‎painting‬ I'm working on for the upcoming Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition coming up July 8-10. I haven't decided on a title for the painting yet, I'm open to suggestions if you have any. (The painting is about seeing shapes in spilled ink.)

Confection - tonal

Here is a tonal study I made for a new painting called 'Confection' I'm working on for the upcoming Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. I completed it with these great water soluble lead pencils that Derwent Pencils makes. (Honestly, I hadn't used them in years - but had a lot of fun with them again.)

Countdown - the process

Just for fun, here is the whole process from my recent painting 'Countdown'. 

 Thumbnail studies (bottom right was the chosen one to develop)

 first rough

 rough with text and numbers added. (Getting the text how I want digitally and then tracing it later saves a lot of time.)

 final rough

 cleanup

 tonal study

 color studies done at a small scale digitally to save time. I like to see many varieties on one page. (Bottom right was chosen to expand upon.)

 Premixing the color palette for the painting.

 underpainting (blocking in the darks and lights)

 painting in process

 final painting!

Countdown - tonal

I decided to do a tonal study (in pencil) for the ‪#‎painting‬ I'm working on called 'Countdown'. Here's part of it:

Countdown - drawing preview

Sneak peek of a drawing for a new ‪#‎painting‬ I'm working on called 'Countdown'.

Timing Charts - tonal block-in

Here is the tonal block-in for my latest painting 'Timing Charts'. Another new painting I'm creating for The Artist Project in Toronto, February 18-21.

Creating A Monster - all done!

Happy New Year, everyone! 'Creating A Monster' - the last painting I completed in 2015 shortly before the end of the year - is all done! the original will be for sale at the upcoming The Artist Project Toronto from February 18-21.

Creating A Monster - block-in

The block-in for the new painting 'Creating A Monster'. One of the new pieces being created for The Artist Project happening in Toronto, Feb. 18-21, 2016.

Timing Charts - drawings

Here is the final rough and line drawing for the painting 'Timing Charts'. One of the new paintings to be exhibited in The Artist Project Toronto February 2016. ‪

Tight rough drawing.

Clean drawing. This is what I will scan and blow up the size of the painting surface I will work on, and then print out. The purpose of the cleanup is so the lines are decisive - I don't have to guess which is the lines I want to keep.

Creating a monster...

This is the drawing for the painting on the round wood panel I'm creating for The Artist Project Toronto called 'Creating a Monster'. It was inspired by Gumby, playing with Play-Doh as a child, monsters, special effects animation, and the movie 'The Thing' (even though I've never seen the movie).

The Artist Project 2016 - listing of artists

 A listing of all the artists exhibiting in the upcoming The Artist Project Toronto in Feb. 2016 can now be seen on the official website here: http://www.theartistproject.com/artist-gallery/
Feel rather privileged to be exhibiting along so much talent!

A word about Aspect Ratio

Knowing what size you are going to make your paintings before you begin is tremendously helpful. By knowing this, you can now be exact with your composition. 

There is something called Aspect Ratio most commonly used to determine screen dimensions in broadcast media (TV, cinema films, YouTube...).  Aspect Ratio is that notice you used to see on VHS tapes stating 'this film has been formatted to fit your screen'.

The aspect ratio of the drawing for the painting above (inside the grey rectangle) is 20:16 = 20"x16" (Examples of aspect ratios of different dimensions, but the same proportions would be 5:4, 10:8, and 1:0.8)

 

By knowing this, you can create a shape in those dimensions and account for all the space used in your composition. The advantage is: when you blow up the drawing (via photocopier to transfer it to your painting surface) you won't have negative space in your painting surface that you did not account for. (see below)

I like scanning the drawing, bringing it into a digital coloring program and placing a shape over it in the dimensions of the final painting. You can always move around that shape and angle it so the drawing fits in the most interesting way. 

Then, print out that image at a manageable size to tighten up the drawing (above). Although the shape is less than the final dimensions, you know that when you scale it up, it will be EXACTLY the size you want.  There are many  print places where you can do large format printing (anything beyond 12"x18"). You can get your image printed out at the scale you want (in this case, 20"x16").