Heracles and Telephus WIP, Part 1

My next work is a pencil drawing of Heracles and Telephus.  Heracles (or Hercules) is obviously the well-known Greek hero, while Telephus is his son by Auge, daughter of King Aleus of Tegea.  This is based off a statue that stands in the Huntington Gardens in Los Angeles, California.

This is drawn on smooth Bristol paper.  I outlined the statue with light lines with a 4B pencil, and defined the shapes with very light shading.  After fixing any mistakes I had made, I darkened the outer lines further and filled out the shading with an HB pencil.  This was all done with a light and careful hand, so that mistake could be easily erased.  It's one of the big advantages of smooth Bristol.  Another plus is that you can get nice and detailed in the final stages of the drawing, which I will cover in my next update.

Reference photo of the statue.

Seraphim WIP, Part 3 - Finished!

The Seraphim painting is done and finished!

After Part 2 of the painting, I had about half the feathers laid in on the wings, and the foreground and background partly blocked in.  A few yellow outlines were still showing through as yellow-green.

I filled in the wings first and defined most of the feathers.  While I was doing that, I used some of the blue to tidy up and hide the remaining outlines.  Then I put one or two touches on the man, and put a medium tan down for the ground, and defined the fiery hole further.  The spit of land the man was lying on was at an odd angle, I bulked it up and added the man's shadow.  I touched up the feathers that looked out of place and added white to the Seraphim's blinding face.  Finally I filled in the sky, being careful not to make it too saturated or colorful.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well the painting turned out.  It's a common occurrence with me; I beat myself up about the early stages of a painting, and then it turns out not so bad.

There was not a specific theme or message to this painting.  I wanted to show a man in awe at being shown even a sliver of the power of a Seraphim, a creature beyond human comprehension in its entire and true form.  This would be the angel showing its most simple facet, a part of its being that a merely mortal mind could digest.  I do want to have specific themes for this kind of paintings; they will come in the future.

Seraphim WIP, Part 2

So I've got the main colors blocked out in the Seraphim painting.  Now what?

I have to slowly focus in from the large blocks of color, to local shapes (wings, the man on the ground, the surround ground, etc), to the final details.  This is the hardest part of a painting for me.  The novelty of starting a new painting has worn off, there's 70-80% of the painting to finish, and I have to just sit down and paint.  Sit down and paint.  I feel demoralized, I think it looks like crap, but I have to keep painting and keep the momentum going.

With this particular painting, I am regretting the bold yellow outlines around everything.  They're too saturated, too yellow, I'm having to tone them down and block them out.  I wish I had done a more detailed underdrawing as well.  This was a "sketch it and begin" painting, where you get the idea out quick, and then realize you really should've put in an hour of preparatory work, including and up to a tiny test painting for testing the colors.

I brought the man into focus, and wished I hadn't.  He looks like a blob.  I had more success with the wings of the Seraphim; I outlined the outermost edges of the wings with a mix of blue and gray so their edges didn't pop out too much, and sculpted the underlit feathers with a middle-value blue and  light blue.

I do like how the painting looks much better than its very first stages, though.  Maintain the pace, push through to the end.

Seraphim WIP, Part 1

For a while now I have wanted to do a painting or a series of paintings on angels, angels with the proper gravitas, awe, and terror that a supernatural being would inspire.  There are angels described as appearing human-like; this is not my primary intention here.  It is the mystery and unease of facing an utterly unearthly being I want to bring to the viewer's mind.

This painting is a trial run for this angel idea.  It is 12x16 inches, the largest gouache painting I've worked on so far.  The scene is not anyone specific in particular, an angel appearing to someone, maybe a shepherd, maybe Joseph.  The angel itself is a seraphim, the highest order of angels, described as appearing with six wings and many eyes.

I sketched a very simple underdrawing (mostly to get going so I didn't chicken out and quit), and started with a semi-transparent layer to get a feel for the colors.  I adjusted my colors and put the second layer down, which covers most of the painting except for the yellow light.  I'm going to rework that as well and make it less glaring and saturated.

Spectacled Eider Finished

That's the Eider painting finished.  I touched up the brown ducks and defined their stripes a little more, added a few highlights to the water, and put in the slightest bit of shadow between where the ducks meet the water.

Spectacled Eider WIP

The Spectacled Eider is a relatively lesser-known eider that lives in and around the Bering Sea, near the Arctic.  It also has its unique goggle-eyed patterning that makes it stand out in the waterfowl crowd.  This is an in-progress shot of my current gouache painting; the two birds in the foreground are mostly done, I only need to detail the bird in the background and touch up the water a little.

Blooming Crocosmia & Update

This is the flower of the Crocosmia "Lucifer", which I mistook for a Bird of Paradise at first.  (A botanist, I am not.)  The painting is watercolor, what I believe are the anthers are picked out in white gouache.

I am going to be updating this blog every other Monday from here on.  I haven't been satisfied with the quality of my art recently, or my blog posts; both the art and the posts are too rushed for my taste.  I want to put a little more time into these paintings and make them better, and also put more time into these posts.  Regardless of what comes up, I hope you have enjoyed my art so far.  I intend to keep making good and worthy art that other people can appreciate.

Goliath Beetle

Needed a change of pace from gouache.  I went back to my love of insects and drew the goliath beetle, the most well-known largest and heaviest beetle in the world.

Eyjafjallajökull Eruption

This is done from a photo of Iceland's volcano Eyjafjallajökull (I know, it's a mouthful) erupting.

Sketch 2/15/16: Weekend Evening

I have a shot of semidark evening clouds against the underlit front of a grocery store.  I wanted to try something different, something new, so I sketched an ink drawing and painted over it in gouache.

I'm tired.  Not sure what I want to draw, what to paint, scared of failing, but more scared of not doing anything for fear of failing.  Looking forward to tomorrow and another day, another chance.