Capitalism warm up sketch!

Lisbeth sketch

Quick sketch for something I may finish later on . . .

Cory Chisel: Sketch 3

Working on more sketches before I decide which sketch I'd like to turn into a painting.

Cory Chisel: Sketch 2

Cory Chisel: Warm Up Sketch

Quick sketch I did this morning of my friend Cory . . . more of a study really . . . will be working on more sketches and ideas for an acrylic painting.

Abe Lincoln (watercolor sketch 2)

After doing the Lincoln in my sketchbook, I was commissioned to do another Lincoln watercolor sketch . . . here's the result.
(size of Lincoln is 9")

Weekend gouache sketches.

Quick sketch done in my moleskine watercolor sketchbook. About a week ago I went sketching with my friend Andrew R. Wright, really cool guy, awesome artist. Anyways, we had fun, drinking coffee and tea, and sketching. I started a small watercolor sketch of a coffee mug on this page but never got to finish, so I decided to paint something else on top of it. If you look the the right side of Lincoln's face you can see the coffee cup.

I was searching for something or someone to sketch when I came across a picture of a Lincoln impersonator and I thought "Lincoln would be fun to sketch!" Lincoln is fun to sketch. He of course could be exaggerated a whole lot more, but that wasn't my purpose, I just wanted to paint for a little bit.

This is no where near being a finished drawing or painting . . . it is after all just a sketch. Still, there's something about these quick sketches that I really love . . .





I enjoy up close shots of sketches like this . . . it's cool how a few simple lines and a few washes of value create an image . . .





This was another one that I finished up this weekend. This is more of a study really. I was experimenting with brush work and layering, it was a lot of fun. I did this in about 45 minutes or so.

Punch & Judy Billboard for 2012 Olympics

This is my second painting for the 2012 Olympic ad campaign. This one was quite the challenge. Everything was rushed, sketches all the way up to a final product and as you can see with this piece, there was a whole lot to consider. This is for a billboard, so certain things that I may have normally done to a painting were left out for the sake of the committee's needs and wants. Besides the crowd of people, the puppet stand took the most time. I'm not very familiar with "Punch & Judy" so I had to do some research. They wanted Olympic characters in a "Punch & Judy" show and were specific to what they wanted. It was fun to paint but as you can see, there's quite a bit of detail just in the puppet stand.

The puppeteer is an actual puppeteer on Weymouth beach in the U.K. They wanted him to be popping out the side of the box as if he were controlling the puppet show, and in sunlight! I was given reference of the guy to work from but the reference was nothing like what they wanted in terms of expression, lighting and so on. Overcast/cloudy day . . . so that was another challenge, but I enjoyed it greatly!



An example of how one of the billboards will look. There will be a few different versions.



Here's a pic of a billboard, not the best pic, but it will due for now. I hope to get a few more pics.



Detail.


Detail.


Detail.


Detail.

Ad for 2012 Summer Olympics

This is one of two paintings that I was commissioned to paint for the 2012 Summer Olympics in England. The paintings that I did will be used as posters and billboards!

The idea of this one was "The games are coming to Weymouth", or something like that.



They wanted a realistic look to the illustrations, but I also felt it was important that they had a painted look to them. For my flag reference, I actually hand made little flags and then stuck them in Styrofoam. I then lit them how I wanted and from there I sketched and finally painted.



This painting is all about how it looks from a distance rather than up close. Which is how I prefer it anyways.




The flags were a lot more difficult to paint than I first thought and took a lot longer to paint too.

One of the most challenging aspects to this painting was the arrangement of the flags. There are certain flags that they wanted to showcase up front, but some flags don't look right next to other flags, so there was a little back and forth before everyone agreed on where each flag should be.

Meth-head gouache study

40 minute gouache study


A weird coincidence of sorts . . . . I did this quick gouache study a couple months ago. I googled "Meth Heads" as I thought that would be fun to paint. This girls image popped up that was perfect for what I wanted to paint. Turns out Jenny Saville has also done a painting based on this same exact picture. Weird. As I have mentioned, Jenny Saville is one of my favorite painters, but I had no idea she also painted this person. So, my little study is not a study of Saville's painting, but rather a study I did based of the same reference, not knowing Saville had also painted her. It's interesting to see the similarities. I caricatured mine more though. :)

New painting. "What year is it?"

This is my latest painting, done as a step by step tutorial for 3DTotal. I will let everyone know when the tutorial is available. My goal for this piece was to create a character within a scene, an image where the viewer only gets to see part of the story. I created a back story of sorts and an ending, but you will never know either of them, this is all you get.




I will go into detail about how I work in the tutorial so you will have to wait for that. For now, here are a couple close up shots of my painting. My goal especially when painting digitally is to create a painting. I have no interest in copying a photograph or trying to make my image smooth and slick like a photograph. I want you to see my brush work. The bricks for example look real from a distance, but look at them closer up and you will see that they are merely brush strokes laid down in a way that only suggests my impression of a brick wall . . . my hope is that your eyes will finish the story.



I prefer to paint my digital paintings similar to that of how I paint traditionally. When painting with oils or gouache, you can't zoom way in to paint little details. I painted the whole thing from a distance, not allowing myself to zoom in too close. I prefer to not abuse the computer, but think of it as another way to create a painting.