a-painting-a-day in oils

[Seedling]

Sorry. . . it's October, and Octobers always make me cranky, so I put down the brush for a few days. I'll be back soon. . .

[Seedling]

Okay. . . I must not allow myself to fall back out of the habit, even if that means painting itty bitty simple subjects. . .

I’m four days behind right now.

[Seedling]

Morningbloom – I’ll have to take another crack at that nut sometime. I didn’t do it justice.

Beonarri – LOL. You dirty thread-stopper you.

Chaos – thanks, good catch on the asymmetrical jar.

Coen – thanks. :-) I do intend to do more faces at some point. Perhaps when I am feeling a bit more energized.

Tigermilk – thanks! It was strange; the longer I stared at those glass objects, the more colors I saw. I wasn’t sure if I’d captured them well, though.

Bojee – Thanks for your observations! The formulaicness is somewhat deliberate – I’m varying my subjects to explore different materials and colors and shapes in a somewhat controlled way, so that when I’m fresh out of bed with a brush in hand there’s only so much newness confronting me. But you are right, I do need to make sure I’m not repeating myself pointlessly. Writing the industry stuff has been a lot of fun, and I’m delighted so many folks have found it to be useful!

[morningbloom915]

So good to see you back in the paint again. Both of your latest look very good. Especially the shadow on the red ring. :)

[bradley]

that wee nut is great, have you considered trying out some mechanical stuff like engine parts, could get some great texture and shapes happening. great work

[Beonarri]

Glad to be a service as a menace to the general welfare of the community!

I think it's the ol' Imp of the Perverse sitting on my shoulder making me post things, distracting things.

I think you should crack out those spider pictures and paint them. I know, I know, it's not from life directly, but I could be fun practice in painting interesting things. Plus, it will throw something different into the mix.

[Bojee]

I think the ring is really well seen. Sorry if I through you off for a bit. It was just an observation and you know what your looking for in your paintings more than I do. Keep them coming. :)

[Basil]

it's October, and Octobers always make me cranky

same here, but it's so easy to lose the rhythm of painting something every day and then it's hard work to recapture it! i should be the one to talk, having posted nothing all last week :blah:

the paintings look great as always! :)

how long do you spend on them usually? if it's less time now, how long did you used to spend?

[Seedling]

This turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. It also didn't melt over the 45 minutes it took to paint it, which was a surprise.

[Seedling]

Hi guys! Thanks for all the encouragement. :-)

Bradley and Beonarri – I plan to do both of those things at some point. Stay tuned. Thanks!

Bojee – Naw, you didn’t throw me off. No worries!

Notspecialist – One hour is my usual time. On weekends I let the time go longer sometimes by an hour or more, and on some weekdays I can’t get myself moving fast enough to get a full hour in.

This morning’s pie was not as successful as last night’s ice-cream. But I baked it myself, from an actual pumpkin! First time I’ve ever done that.

[Mitchell]

Great oil paints in here! I started laughing when I saw the peanut one, I don't know why I thought it was so funny. good job though!

[Bojee]

Somebody's got a sweet tooth. ;)

[Jason C-M]

hooray for homemade pumpkin pie!

You could do a cool series of sweets -- head over to a choclatier and pick up some of those beautiful bonbons and truffles, and paint some beatiful tasty sculpted paints.

Of course, you'd have to eat them when you were done, but we all make sacrifices for our art.

[chaosrocks]

the pie is kinda floating.....very light and fluffy?
need some of tha heavy gravity pumpkin
nice work as usual
chaos

[Beonarri]

The ice cream is nice. I that one of those frozen milky way/snickers thingies.

The pie gets a little spongy on the top...the pumpkin pie I eat is usually smooth on top, but it's not usually homemade.

The shadow looks a little funny. It at a weird angle, it makes the area below the pie look inclined. Or like the shadow is falling over...that sounds weird. I know that's probably what it actually looked like, but I would have either turned the pie so the shadow was different, or painted the shadow differently.

MMMMM...punkin pie. *drools*

[Andy P]

Yeah, this thread is delicious, no joke. The candy bar was great! Somethin's a little off about the pie's shadow, looks great otherwise.
Yum.

[Rich Pellegrino]

OK, this is going to be long winded so be prepared. Also, I hope I don't come off as harsh, since that is far from what I mean to do. I can never tell if someone is being mean or not since there is a lack of personal connection, so I wanted to say that first.

In my opinion the red ring is your strongest work to date. The warms and cools are all working. value hiearchy, contrast...its all there. I think what that piece posesses is what the others are missing.

BUT. That may not be what you are going for. In the peanut one. I get a alot of mood... a sort of rainy day feeling. I like the absence of edges. it gives an airy feeling. Great work and composition.

The devil dog has too much contrast for me. it feels more like a study and doesn't have as much weight as the last two. It is painted well but it is missing that "something" Which is something I struggle with in my work. If you get any clues help me out too! lol.

The pumpkin pie for me seems the least succesful in all of these departments. It doesn't have the same care as the others. I think it is because it smelled so good or you may have wanted to eat it! lol! I know that's what my problem would have been.

Anyway, I admire your dedication and I have begun my journey on the painting a day bandwagon. I think you're starting a trend here! and a damn good one too!

If you have time check out my card I did for Fantasy Flight Games in the Finally Finshed section. It should be floating around on the front page. I'd love to hear what you think on it.

Rich

[crimsoneye]

Hey, I love your paintings. I seen the videos and everything. You inspired me to switch from a nightmare of a medium called acrylic(due to it drying time and my slowness as a painter) to oil paint. But getting back to your paintings, I really like how you handle them.

[Seedling]

Skeiff – lol, thanks!
Bojee – yes, I do have a sweet tooth!
Jason – you’re a mean mean man to tempt me so! ;-)
Chaosrocks, Beonarri, Andy P, and Voodoo – you’re right, the pie is not quite right, due in part to the shadow. I also couldn’t get the color right as it reflected off the top of the pie. Instead of shiny pie, it looks like toothpaste. Oh well.
Voodoo – Woot! Long crits make me happy! What am I going for? I’m still not sure. I’m just marching through subject matter trying to figure that out. Ooh, you’re joining the fun? Please let me know when you’ve got your dailies posted somewhere! Oh, and I will check out your recently finished piece soon. Thanks!
Crimsoneye – thanks. :-) Are you speaking of Duane Keiser’s videos? I’m not him, I’m just a beginner trying to learn the craft. Good luck with the oils! Acrylics have their uses, but if you want the look or feel of oils, only oils will do.

This weekend I absolutely must buy a shop light. The sun has dipped a little too low in the winter sky to be useful as a direct lightsource, and I am sick of trying to get decent light from lamps that were made for mood lighting.

Yet another painting hampered by not enough sleep and crappy lighting:

[Seedling]

I need to buy more orange paint now.

[Jason C-M]

I like that cog quite a bit, S.

What orange did you use on the drapery? It's quite nice (in your hands, at least).

[Rich Pellegrino]

Hey Seed! looking good on these last two. As far as painting shiny or transparent things, Nick J. gave a sort of hint as to how he paints this subject. CHeck out his painting of a cassette tape on month 16. He talks about different types of brushes and they're usages.

http://www.nickjainschigg.org/APaintingADay_Month_016.html

The orange cloth looks pretty good. Now I'm not too sure about this...but, wouldn't a reddish-orange cloth have a greenish blue shadow color? I could be wrong, as I am not to confident in color theory. The warm white BG really helps it pop!

[Beonarri]

All this talk about pie makes two feelings come to the surface. One is hunger.

[Onir]

hey seedling, beautiful paintings in here; also the fact that you've stayed this consistent is extremely inspiring! so many amazing pieces in here and a few I really liked were the chairs (all of them are really nicely done; how'd you get them to float?! lol), your arrakthura piece (I remember seeing that in the thread when I submitted it, the rendering and design just blows me away hehe), and the orange and gold helmet you did (again the rendering just came out really well). keep it up, I'll definitely be stopping back in :)

oh and the fact that you got so close to a spider that size is admirable to me; I'm not even afraid of spiders and that got me a little lol.

[Lee W]

nice paintings :) I just started fooling around with acrylics, I should paint simpler objects to learn color mixing first (and throw away the black) It's amazing you pretty much keeping up with your a painting a day ritual, I would have burnt out at your pace :)

[incolorinred]

huge fan, you've inspired a first time oil painter over here

[Halifax]

I'd like to see more finished works from you. Nice job incorperating the objects colours into the shadows and background. Even though just still lives don't slap them right in the center of the canvase, us the whole thing with more interesting compostions, plus its a better use of space and you waste less canvas. ahh sorry don't have time to see anything other that the first page, keep it uppp..

[Seedling]

Jason – Thanks. :-) It’s chrome orange.

Voodoo – Haha! I’m familiar with Nick’s cassette painting – I had read it with much interest. :-) As for the shadow, there’s no rule saying the shadow on orange absolutely has to be green, but green might have looked better than my muddy blue-bla.

Onir – thanks! :-) Levitating chairs is all about eating wheaties first. And coffee. Lots of coffee. Shucks, I didn’t know I’d left an impression on anyone with my arrakthura-thingy!

OldNoobie – Thanks! It’s like practicing the piano. . . just a little every day. . .
incolorinred – sweet! I hope you’ll be posting your paintings around here somewhere. :-)

Halifax – I would like to see more finished pieces from myself as well, but I’ve already decided to keep these little ones up until February, and if I try to tackle something big at the same time, I’ll crash and burn. You’re right about my compositions. . . I’ll try to work on that. . . thanks for the feedback!

********

I painted lots of drapery this weekend. It was hard hard hard hard.

[Seedling]

Slightly better. Having a clamp-light helps.

[Seedling]

Holy crash-and-burn, batman. They're the wrong trousers, Gromit, and they've gone wrong!

[Seedling]

This (along with the previous chairs) is for the chair assignment (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1019050&postcount=18) in my game art thread:

[dose]

Hey Seedling

I like your work and I respect your hard work a lot!

Who are some of your favorite painters?

[sith]

i love that orange drapery in 270. i love poppin' in here Seedling. wonderful paint jobbies

[Beonarri]

The middle drapery is the most successful.
The other two are really spongy and really random.

The chair is fine, but it's value is a little to close to the background's. It's kinda like that thingy I mentioned earlier in the thread, but I can't remember now, where its value was almost the same as the background. The back of the chair looks really thin as well. But the chair could have constructed like that, so I can't really make a huge fuss over that.

Keep 'em comin'!

[morningbloom915]

The middle drapery is the most successful by far. It looks so soft and I really quite like it! I really like this latest chair, but I kind of agree with Beonarri. It could use a little more contrast with the background to make it pop a bit.

[Seedling]

Thanks guys. I don’t like painting failures, but they are a decent indicator that I’m pushing myself. :-P Either that, or I need to sleep more and drink coffee less.

I know the chair doesn’t push the full range of value. But looking at it, I can see it would work well as-is in the background with something pushing a fuller range in the foreground. I’ll have to start working some depth studies of that sort in the mix.

dose – some of my favorites are James Gurney, N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Jean Leon Gerome, Kawase Hasui, Yoshida Hiroshi (er, those two are printmakers), and many others including those whose names have been temporarily misplaced by my dysfunctional brain and some who hang out around here. :-)

Today’s painting has me suddenly hungry for turkey and stuffing.

[permanente1600]

im loving your stuff, and i think you may have inspired me to get to work myself. thanks man, and keep it up

[Gilead]

The paintings are looking great. I really like the cool shadows on the last one. You guys have inspired me to resume my own daily painting exercises.

[Justin.]

Keep going!! One of these days you need to do 4 paintings to catch up.

Lookin good, keep truckin Seedling!!!

[Seedling]

Thanks guys. :-) Argh, yeah, I haven't forgotten that I'm still four behind.

Today's:

[bhanu]

Painting a day , cool concept.
ANd yes cool paintings too, plase do some more drapery paintings.Really good update, the texture of onion skin is very real.
Take care,
Bhanu.

[Jason C-M]

I love those cranberries. Love 'em. The twin shadows, the faceted reflections, the little stem-nubbins. Even their lonely placement on the page.

[glikster]

I love those cranberries. Love 'em. The twin shadows, the faceted reflections, the little stem-nubbins. Even their lonely placement on the page.
ditto...
great work!

[gigglepixie]

It's all your fault - your paintings have inspired me and today for the first time ever I will take up the challenge of oil painting. If it all goes horribly wrong I will hold you responsible! :)

[Seedling]

Thanks guys! And good luck gigglepixie!

[darkwolfb87]

Keep it up Seedling! So far your paintings have been relatively cool, are you using sunlight? I'd be interested in seeing you use warm artificial lights to get a dramatic separation of light and shadow :)

~ Stephen

[Lee W]

I recognize that die ... used to have one to play D&D many many many moons ago

nice painting of the die :)

[Beonarri]

Natural 20! I win!

THE NUMBERS A CROOKED...I shouldn't rub it in, I couldn't do a font manually if my life depended on it.

Ahhhhh, Photoshop Text Tool.

[Basil]

great work as always seedling, i love that onion (and i don't even like onions)! i like how you are getting more variety with the scale of your objects like going off three corners and painting tiny objects really big :)

[Coen]

Great update again :)

[morningbloom915]

I love love love the cranberries and the onion! Fantastic!

Edit: Oh my! Look at you on pg 6 already!! And I get to be the first post. :D

[Halifax]

That d20 D&D, I presume. I think the blankets are the best on here, do some more paintings like that. Yeah I can't imagine how this practice will benifit you once you are ready to birth a finished piece, it's going to look good.

Sketchbook of Halifax (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79849&highlight=Halifax+sketchbook)

[Discoskull]

The pterodactyl hunter on the first page is wonderful. I envy of those who can paint well with oils.

[blacky]

Looking swell.
Can't remember if I have said that bevore (I know I was going to), but the info you put up about gameindustry was hell informative. Thx.

[Seedling]

Hi guys! I made some crazy progress this weekend. I bought a clamp light and it has made all the difference; also, I’m now painting all the way to the edges of my boards. (I was cropping off the sloppy edges in previous images.) The paintings are messier to handle this way, but they look so much more finished that I am more prone to love them and to want to finish them well.

I’m now only behind my one-per-day average by one painting, out of 74 total. Of course I’m going to get behind again this weekend and again later due to vacations and my parents coming for a visit, but whatever. :-)

Darkwolf – Yup, a lot of my paintings have been dimly lit; hopefully the new light will make up for that.
OldNoobie - *grin* You should try Dungeons and Dragons Online. I mean, it can’t replace the real thing with dice and all, but it’s pretty! (**coughcoughpromotingmyowngamecoughcough**)
Beonarri – you have inspired me to paint more objects that include text. . . Greeking is my friend. . .
notspecialist – thanks! I’m paying more attention to composition now, finally.
Coen – thank you. :-)
morningbloom – If it weren’t for all the lovely comments, I would still be on page two. ;-)
Halifax – thanks! Really, you like my wrinkly cloths? They were really hard, and I’m not thrilled with the results, but I’ll keep trying drapery periodically until I can really do it well.
Discoskull – thank you. :-) That one painting was actually done in acrylics. I have yet to do a finished piece in oils.
Blacky – thanks! I do my best to be helpful. :-)

[Seedling]

Since the only blue I had on hand was Prussian, I couldn't capture all the colors properly in this jar. But I made it work with the colors I had on hand! *squee*

[Seedling]

This and the jar were cheap garage-sale finds. I love baskets. Capturing the weave, and the orange glow inside of the basket, were the challenge and the fun of this.

[Seedling]

I've been eyeing this paper lantern for some time now as a possible subject. Getting the colors balanced enough to make it look illuminated from within was fun!

[Seedling]

School of fish.

[Seedling]

I was so filled with glee at having painted the last school of fish, that I used the remaining colors to paint another.

[Seedling]

Crayons bring back such happy memories!

[MarkWinters]

Very inspiring SB! Subscribed!

[Mitchell]

Extremly well done. Your use of color is spot on. THe lantern and the crayon are amazing.

[Jason C-M]

That basket is encroyable.

[morningbloom915]

This latest batch is by FAR your most successful. That crayon damn near looks like a picture! They're all fantastic, but my favs are the crayon, the paper lantern, and the blue jar. Gorgeous.

[Bojee]

This latest batch is by FAR your most successful. That crayon damn near looks like a picture! They're all fantastic, but my favs are the crayon, the paper lantern, and the blue jar. Gorgeous.

I agree,plus the fishes. <3 <3

[Seedling]

Thanks guys.

Blargh. . . there is an obvious difference between my paintings done when I am well-rested, and when I’m not.

More coffee pleez. . .

[Seedling]

They’re raisins. The yellow kind. Excuse me, I’m going to go kick the pinecone around now while I sulk.

Well, at least I’m all caught up.

[glikster]

superb updates!

[Beonarri]

Your getting some great textures, especially with those backgrounds. Keep it up, whatever you're doing, with those backgrounds, keep it up.

The crayon is the strongest. I think, mainly, because of its texture and reflection.

The first gold fish are better than the second. The second ones are choppy and the color is off. Since these are a brand of fish, deliciously colored orange by a mix of yellow and red dyes that probably won't be broken down by the stomach, they have a certain color to them. The first fish are very close to that color, the second are not as close.

The illumination on the paper lantern is cool. Now try a neon purple, yellow, orange, red, green, loglow cityscape. :D

Really good updates! Keep em comin.

[Poison_art]

hey Seedling some of these are fantasic and others the colours look a little off but that could just be my crap montior keep up the lovely work I cant wait to see more from you

[Seedling]

glikster – thanks!
Beonarri – I’ve been mixing up two colors for the backgrounds, and just mushing them together. You’re right about the second goldfish painting. I was getting sleepy and bored with it, so I rushed. Speaking of indigestible colors, there’s this place I’ve been to in Virginia called the Purple Cow, whose specialty is a deep purple vanilla milkshake. That color isn’t effected by the digestive process, much to my initial amusement.
Poison_art – it’s probably my colors. I’m learning, and making lots of mistakes. ;-)

Today’s object is a wedge of a tree carved into a rustic and abstract animal. It was given to me in my childhood by a craftsman in Japan who was carving them by the dozen. I have no idea what animal it is supposed to be or what the sculpture’s purpose is, but I love that such a very few cuts in a chunk of wood can so elegantly evoke the idea of a fox or wolf or cat.

This angle doesn’t show off the animal form well; I picked it instead for the three planes of color it presented.

[Poison_art]

either way seedling they are awsome keep up the good work :)

[Beonarri]

It's like eating way too many grape popsicles...you know. And it's always funny/a-little-scary, when it happens...you know. :x :P :D

And I vote for a wolf...wolves pwn!

[dose]

Hi Seedling

Looking good- there is a slow but steady progress!

2 quick questions:

1) what colors are you using for the background?

2) What surface are you painting on?

[Rich Pellegrino]

That last one seems to rely on line a little too much. Great updates as of late! Man you are kicking our asses!!! Thanks for that crit by the way. It was exactly what I needed. When I get around to scanning my recent paintings you'll be the first to know! Until next time, Seedling!

[trevor]

wow i had never seen this before
you may have just inspired me to take my oils out for the first time in a year.
wacom has me so spoiled i should punish myself a bit hahaah
thanks for all the advice too ill put it to good use

[Enola_Gay]

Yes this SB is quite inspirational! Its one of the things that got me to kick my own ass into gear and start one of my own.

[Ylla]

mmm, i can almost smell the paint looking at these.

the crayon is amazing. it and the paper lantern are my favorites of the recent ones.

what do you do with finished paintings? do you just store them or reuse canvases or what?

[Seedling]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! Yurk. . . I just got back from vacation, I'm six paintings behind, and I may be crunching at work for the next three weeks, so I may put the paints down until that’s over. We’ll see.


dose – The backgrounds in the recent ones are mostly white, with a bit of Prussian blue and a tiny dab of whatever else is going into the object. The surface is gessoed illustration board. There’s more info on what materials I’m using back on page two, if you’re curious.

voodoo – Thanks! The lines are actually the edges of the bark on the wedge of tree the critter is carved from. It’s really an unidentifiable object from the angle I picked. I’m glad the crit helped! Let me know if you ever want more. :-) And feel free to dish it out to me any time!

trevor – thankee. :-) When you post your paintings let me know!

Enola Gay – Thanks! :-)

Ylla – The smell of my living room got a bit strong over the weekend while I was away. :-) The finished ones are stacked in a heap, getting more progressively jumbled. The wet ones are pushpinned to my makeshift bulletin board that I never did get around to actually hanging on the wall. I don’t want to paint over them, because the good ones I may eventually try to sell, and the bad ones are my measure of how far I’ve come.

Beo – Wolves do, indeed, pwn. Have you played Okami? Wolfy goodness.

[Beonarri]

I haven't because I'm very, very broke right now. Having no money is not very good for playing new video games.

[Rabid]

hahah! "lightly salted peanuts" well that just made my day. Good stuff. I do like that last one, sweet lighting. Though it looks a bit like theres some sandcolored dust infront of the dragon, cuz of a tad to little contrast it seems. hoorah for oils anyways, keep itup!:D

I agree witht hat crit....great environments and use of sofening the background charcaters so we don't loose the focus!!:confident

[trevor]

thanks seed i will post oils next week
you have legitimately inspired me to do more!

[Seedling]

I’ve found a new sort of procrastination in myself. Maybe I’ll stop painting. . . tomorrow.

trevor – w00t!
Peanut – thankee sai :-)
Beo – well, at least “broke” is a good state to be in for practicing art. All it takes is some cheap paper and a burnt stick.

For this portrait-painting-day-thingamajig – this is a one-hour selfie:

[Beonarri]

If even that, I use computer paper, ball point pens, and Photoshop.

Office Depot is great for cheap bulk paper and pens.

:D

[Seedling]

Couldn't get the paint to do what I wanted.

[Seedling]

bottle

[Ylla]

the right side of the bottle is a little dented... not sure if it was that way or not...

and the curvy part of the top-most-surface dips down on the left side a little too much, making the top-most-surface no longer parallel to the "ground" and making the bottle look like it's rolling a little to the left.
if i cover the curvy with my finger, the roll disappears. in geometric objects, little things like that can disrupt the whole thing...

i like your colors. are you using a bigger brush in this one than others?

[k4pka]

Loving watching the progress! Just a quick question, are these all done under artificial light?

[Idiot Apathy]

Cool stuff dude,

Request for a different ground - get some colored cloths or something hehe.

[j a k e]

The blue bottle, crayon, and star lantern are awesome.

[Lee W]

nice work on the bottle :)

I was looking through the your sketchbook and noticed that you visited houghton's pond and I'm assuming that you live near by, I'm wondering if you ever been to the South China Restaurant in Stoughton? I worked there for approximately 5 years that ended about 3 years ago.

[Haxxxor]

hey nice nice work here!
i love the values at the most of your pictures the colors are nice but i don&#180;t know how they look in real so this is all i can say.

i buyed oils a few days ago and i hope you can give me help...
what paper do you use for your practice? i bought oil paper but they are only 10 sheets and i payed around 10$ for it!! now what do u use for practicing and do you paint on a easel or on your table?


ok so long... keep it up!

[Seedling]

Thanks for all the great comments! I’m now one week behind schedule, and feeling determined to keep it from becoming more than that. Between some possible crunch, my parents visiting, and Thanksgiving, that may not happen, but I’m going to try. I’m also trying to work more people into my dailies. I may try painting from photos over the winter, but for now I’m working from myself and whoever I can coerce to sit for me. The portraits generally take a bit longer than an hour.

Ylla – you are quite right. Straight lines give me fits! I generally work with my largest brush until I absolutely can’t make it work.

k4pka – Up until the last few weeks I was using only natural light, but with the winter sun being lower in the sky (and behind the trees), I’ve started using a clamp light.

Idiot Apathy – Agreed. I just can’t figure out what to use as the new ground. But it’s been on my mind.

j a k e – thanks. :-)

OldNoobie – Hiya neighbor! Nope, I’ve never been to that restaurant. Is it any good?

Haxxxor – lol, great name! Thanks for the compliments! There’s info on my supplies back on page 2 of my sketchbook. Generally, every board I paint on costs about a dollar. Good luck with the oils! They are mighty confusing for the first. . . many paintings. Hang in there. Oh, and realism is actually pretty easy so long as the subject is simple and right in front of you. Get the colors mixed on your palette and then put them in the right place. That’s all there is to it.




This is my husband, only somehow I so thoroughly botched it that this looks like a friend of his. The problem: I tried to edit his glasses out of the image. Adding glasses to a portrait adds difficulty. But apparently removing them adds difficulty, too. Next time I’ll ask him to use contacts.

[Seedling]

Couldn't get my motor started, so here's a half-hour tiny shiny.

[Deselect]

You earned my 5 star rating--not only have impressed me, you have inspired me to start painting again and stop procrastinating about it.

I have two questions for you: what are you using for medium and how long are these taking to dry? Reason I ask is I have a house full of pets and often worry about floating hairs sticking to my oils. I can only imagine tackling a number of paintings a week (the idea of a rack of wet paintings frightens me!). I apologise if this has been answered here already.

Keep up the good work!

[Seedling]

HI Deselect,
These are oils; they take upwards of a couple of weeks to dry to the touch. You will have a problem with pet hair if you paint in oils - and also, you will need to make sure that there is no way your pets can come into contact with the wet paints, because the paints will poison them.

A bullitin board might be a good solution for you. Or work in a faster-drying medium. And if you can, work in a room that you can keep the pets out of.

Good luck! And post a link when you upload your paintings!

[TheGnoll]

very nice sketchbook, nice too see all these oil experiments.DO you have a link to some other pics of yours to show (concept art, illustration, sketches or whatever)?

thanks for all the very useful tips, your topics are very interesting and a very good resource for the communtity, so thanks ;) :)

ciao

[Seedling]

Thanks TheGnoll!

Hmm. . . aside from my six-year-old pre-job paintings stashed around the house, most of my recent work can be found in Dungeons and Dragons Online. :-P It's not exactly the easiest work to show off. On the plus side, if you log into the game, a good quantity of what you immediately see is my work.

[Lee W]

Nice job on the portrait of your husband, but going to take your word that it looks more like his friend :)

as for the restaurant, it changed hands since I was there and their style has changed so I really can't say how they are anymore but they are still there, so I am assuming they must be okay :)

[walnut]

Love the zen economy of your paintings. Very educational too. Thanks for doing this SB.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Hey! These are looking better and better every day. The tiny shiny thing is the best I've seen from you. The color is working perfect. You can seel that for a pretty penny and I'm sure people would buy em all up fast!

I think you know what isn't working on the figure stuff... The shadows for me aren't working and the light is a little chalky at times. I'd like to see you ease up on that cool reddish purple you use so well. Try some new warm/cool varitations. I think you need more color in there. Try to utilize that confident freedom you wield in your tiny objects paintings in the flesh tones of the figurative work. There's alot of information in there that can be very challanging but extremely rewarding.

If you're having problems changing stuff up, I have a bunch of handouts I can send you from my color theory class with Mary Jane Begin. She was great at pushing us to use ground colors. Too bad I never caught on...whoops! Let me know.

[morningbloom915]

I love the tiny shiny!!!

[Halifax]

Wow, the quality of your one-nearly-a-day paintings has improved significantly. Really like your use of colours, and your compositions in these newer paintings. They don't have to be one a day quality over quantity. Where did you get that star lanturn, there has been one in my garage for several years, and I would wonder if it was supposed to be upside.

MY SKETCHBOOK - CRIT (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79849&highlight=Halifax)

[Jason C-M]

HI Deselect,
These are oils; they take upwards of a couple of weeks to dry to the touch. You will have a problem with pet hair if you paint in oils\

I use Gamblin's Walnut Oil/Alkyd Resin medium with my paints, which makes them dry overnight (slower or faster depending on thickness, etc. I'm really fond of it. Absolutely hate Liquin, though, which is probably a more popular drying agent.

[Deselect]

Thank you for the info, Jason.

When I first started experimenting in oils, I was told to use only linseed oil as medium, and after waiting months for the stuff to dry, devoted many a-year staying far awar from oils.

I now realise how wrong I was to have listened to that advice.

Interestingly, I have also seen mixed opinions about using 50/50 linseed and thinner as a beginner medium.

Be well,

[Jason C-M]

Hope the info's useful, Deselect.

And Seedling? I'm really fond/envious of that green bottle.

[jcaffoe]

as someone who has been thinking about getting into oil painting for almost 6 months now, this thread is an absolute treat to go through.

I think once I have some time on my hands I'm just going to have to jump in head first.

[Ryan DeMita]

this is great! i love seeing a ton of oil painting studies like this. great composition on all of them. oils are the meat and potatoes of painting. this thread is very inspiring. damn i wish i had time for oils. these great keep em coming!

-ryan

[Gloominati]

:nohope: damn 4 stars? what's that, here you've got your 5th well deserved star!
really amazing sketchbook, so inspiring and the improvement from page 5 to now is mindblowing. great shit!

[max xiantu]

Wow. I missed so much great stuff. The crayon and the drapery studies stand out most to me.
It's interesting how artists choose their palette. How we gravitate towards specific combinations, temperature, saturation, etc. It might be an interesting challenge to flip your palette and use a spectrum you aren't naturally attracted to.
(well, since you gave me such great assignments.... ;) )

[Haxxxor]

Hey thanks...but i am think about changing my nickname soon :)

To your pics.

The pic of your husband looks great but imo their is a strange value on his cheek but looks realy good at all.

And i have bought some painting blocks because i got them very cheap. I will keep the oils up... i promise xD

i wanna see more of these lovely paintings.

[Seedling]

Here you are, Haxxxor – more paintings, but, er, not so lovely.

So much for not falling behind. Been busy with various other things.

I’m going to be experimenting with color a bit more for a while. . .

[Seedling]

With this and the last one, instead of mixing colors based on both the hue and value of what I saw, I mixed colors based on the values only. The hues I selected somewhat at random.

Both are cropped down a wee bit to hide mistakes around the edges.

Eew – I played with blurring the colors at the end. That, along with the colors I chose, make this look like some horrible parody of a romance novel cover.

[chaosrocks]

actually it ended up looking like a pretty good painting donr in PS by a PS newbie....;P
glad to see you keeping up with thisI manage a SP a week but thats as dedicated as I can manage,, I think Im gonna start abusing my kids and makingthem sit for me..Im tired of looking at my own face.... btw your husband is very handsome

my personal fav is the basket.... although the first carved wolfy thing is pretty cool.. I am impressed by your ability to take an actual unrecognizable object and give it solid form.

My Daughter is addicted to Okami

Chaos

[Flake]

I like these last two, they kinda remind me of some of Gwen Johns work.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Hey Seed! The 2nd is stronger in my opinion. There are certain anatomy problems that I'm sure you see so I won't bother mentioning them. I like the direction your heading by the way. I was wondering when we'd get to see new stuff, don't keep us (your fans) waiting so long! lol.

[Beonarri]

Since you are female, I would say softer in the brush strokes up a bit. They fine now, but I would do softer transition from light to dark.

Good work, though!

[mondegreen]

Thanks for stopping by my thread!

I love looking at your paintings because I'm kind of noticing your thought processes with color. A felt like a few of the first paintings were using a lot of white and so the colors were getting a little dead because of the desaturation (it's also possible that I'm getting confused by the fact that the surface those objects are sitting on is white)... but as it goes on I feel like just by carefully examining your paintings I'm getting out of it some of the things that you are as well. Or at least I'd like to think that you're hard work is serving me as well. Really great... I'll check back to see more ^_^.

~Ben

[Seedling]

Thanks guys!

This was rushed and then badly photographed. :-P

[young paddy1]

The still lifes are coming along really well lady, I love the reflections and shadows you get especially in the green bottle, I'm not sure about the accuracy of the geometry but meh.

Some of the portraits appear very planar and angular, which tends to detract from the face being conveyed effectively, try getting some more smooth transitions to give roundness.

p.s. I like the last one a lot, dunno why just do.

cheerio

[Lee W]

hmm moved up to portraits I see, how you doing mixing the skin tones? *cough* I need some tips *cough* .... looks great so far :)

[FreshPaint]

I'm liking the oils. I think your objects are stronger than your faces, they are a little crisper. I think the eyes on the bluish tinted one seem a little too close together.


Some of the portraits appear very planar and angular, which tends to detract from the face being conveyed effectively, try getting some more smooth transitions to give roundness.

I think what paddy1 has to say is good too.

[Rich Pellegrino]

I can't wait till these experiments start gelling. I can see some beauties in the making. Try to start throwing more colors in there and less monochrome.

I would think about each (in this order) value/color/stroke every time I lay a new one down with less mixing on the canvas. This is very restricting but can actually free you up a ton.

Can you give me a little info on how you shoot your work so well, I want to update my thread more often but have such a limited knowledge of photography that my pics always suck.

[Seedling]

Young Paddy – Thanks. :-) Yeah, the things you point out are errors I would try to iron out in a longer painting.

Jens – aww, thanks. Go ahead and comment! You don’t have to know a medium to have an opinion on what’s being done with it.

OldNoobie – Skin tones? Well, the last four are all based on two colors that I picked somewhat at random. As long as you get the values right, you can use any colors whatsoever. However, if you want Caucasian skin as it appears under boring white light, Naples yellow is a good pigment to start with.

Fresh Paint – yeah, I gave myself piggy little eyes there. :-) When my portraits start looking as good as the items, I’ll move on to a more challenging subject.

Voodoo – aye aye cap’n, I’ll try to get more colors in! And that’s a good pecking order there. Photographing these? If it’s overcast, I drop them on the ground outdoors. If it’s sunny, I prop them in the shade outdoors. Glare is a problem sometimes. I haven’t been using a tripod or anything. It probably makes a big difference that I have a better camera than I really should be allowed – Christmas gift from my parents – a 7.2 megapixel Sony cyber-shot that has a handy macro functionality.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Seed! that is a big step right there! Great job on the proportions and I am starting to see that color/value.

Also, I think I am starting to see how your in separating value and color. Are you working mainly monochromatic first and as a result learning how to manipulate hues and, then later you will begin adding more color? If that's the game plan, its not a bad one.

[Jason C-M]

That's a really fun one, seed.

[incolorinred]

you compositions are so minimalist. I love it. I tend to have to same tastes when it comes to setting up objects to work on.

[incolorinred]

and,
The gold fish are great. Made me chuckle. Are you underpainting in all of your quick oils?

[Justin.]

GO GIRLY PERSON, GO!

You are doin great :D

[smellykitty]

woooooooo!! so much fun!! =D

looking foward to the next updates!

you make me want to work in oils again...but..my room is small..and I have had problems in the past with my cat getting hair all over the place!! oh well, maybe when I can get a proper studio.

btw, what are you painting on? what kind of paper?

[Seedling]

voodoo – thanks! Yeah, I’m starting by picking a highlight color and a shadow color, and then I mix up a couple of highlights and shadows and important colors from there. It’s all experimental; I keep waiting for things to go totally awry.

Jason – Thanks :-)

incolorinred – Thanks! Except for the ones on the first page or so of the sketchbook, these are all painted on a white background. I could never do this with acrylics, because the paint dried too fast to cover up all the white specks. However, the first thing I make sure to do is cover up all of the white with a quick layer of the two or three major colors I’m using.

Justin – lol, thanks.

smellykitty – there’s info about my supplies on page two of the sketchbook, though now I’m painting on gessoed masonite. Wait until you have some space so you can keep your cats out of the oil-paints – if they get any oil paint on their paws or fur, they’ll be licking it off and getting poisoned. In the mean time, acrylics are great too. :-)

**********

This is the best likeness of me, ever! Including photographs. I hate photographs of myself, but I like this.

Again, I picked two random colors to start with: a green and a pale orange. And added a few more as necessary. And. . . crap, as hard as I try, I can't seem to not make skin-tones out of random color choices. This is enlightening, and encouraging.

1.5 hours.

[Seedling]

This is for Idiot Apathy in the gift exchange!

2.5 hours. I was so into it, I forgot there was a pizza sitting ten feet from me. And I was hungry when I started painting.

[Seedling]

Idiot Apathy, if you think you’ve found a hint – fooled you! This is a red herring. The contents of the box are elsewhere. Er, mostly because I haven’t yet figured out what the box contains. ;-)

This is the 90th painting in this series.

[Qxzi]

Hey,

wow, you really have improved sinse the first page! Im really liking your stuff at the moment, i just want you to keep on going and going! Its loooking good!

Qxzi 8)

[Rich Pellegrino]

This is a big level up for you! You make me proud! Keep going, I'm loving these new ones. Nice warm/cool variations and a great portrait.

[max xiantu]

I'm totally digging the narrative quality to the last batch.
Go with that!

[Idiot Apathy]

Aww! How sweet, you got me a box!

Real nice! Just food for thought, many of these seem to rely on a toned canvas for the harmony - which is cool, but I would like to see you pop the subject out just a little from that perhaps?

[Seedling]

Qxzi – thanks! :-)

voodoo – tee hee! I thought I heard something go “ding” when I was mixing my colors.

Max – narrative is something I am slowly working my way towards. Telling stories with pictures is what I love the most!

I.A. – Trying to! :-) I’m really pushing the contrast levels as far as I can get away with with the paint, but it’s always a toss-up. And then things get a bit muddled when I photograph and post them, because my photo and photoshop skills suck, and the full value range in paints is not as wide as a full value range on the computer. Excuses excuses! I will try to pop more. :-)

****************************
And now for something completely different. A friend’s mother is interested in commissioning me to paint her an autumn New England landscape with moose. This looks like a good opportunity for me to learn some subjects that I would like to be able to paint for inclusion in crazier illustrations, and learn to use photographs as reference, and learn how to assemble various parts into a final product that is entirely made up. So, I will be doing studies of trees, rocks, water, and of course moose.

This first one is based on a moose toy with lumpish anatomy of dubious accuracy.

***************************
Oh, and this will be the last painting until next week. I don’t think the airport security would smile kindly on tubes of toxic and flammable substances.

[Jason C-M]

Landscape with Moose! Can't wait.

[drd]

Wow, these are very nice...You can do stuff like that in Acrylics? (I mean your Dragon piece)

Well that gives me hope because acrylics are all I got...

Anyway, these paintings are very very nice, very inspirational, I might start doing what you're doing...But not everyday, I don't think, I don't have the patience for that.

[Seedling]

Jason – Thanks :-)

drd – Thanks, too. :-) Acrylics are a great medium. I simply found that I wanted acrylics to behave like oil paints, and there’s only so far they can be forced to behave like that. I did do three months of daily studies with acrylics. . . let me dig up some for you so you can see the difference. . .

One-hour acrylic studies, done two years ago:

[Beonarri]

That's a moose!

[chaosrocks]

yay moose
trouble with moose is that they look lumpen and unperportional in reallife
very odd creatures.. a real challenge


chaos

[Lee W]

a nice moose study :) autumn new england landscape? can't wait to see the final result.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Wow! Old stuff! There so good! I may have to dig out some of mine. Now that is going to be embarrassing. HA!

[360.]

Oh, and this will be the last painting until next week. I don’t think the airport security would smile kindly on tubes of toxic and flammable substances.


Oil paints aren't toxic or flammable. You can take them on the plane. The solvents are of course but you can get around them by buying walnut oil for the medium and just using soap and vegetable oil to clean your brushes. There is a document that I found that you should put with your oils in your suitcase to make sure the staff don't think oils are flammable. It has a number for them to ring and stuff.

I love your daily paintings, I have started doing them about 4 days ago, they are great fun. you can see mine here if you want, http://jackshannon.blogspot.com/

[EmmDoubleEw]

This is inspiring stuff! Great work! If only I had the patience for oils ^_^. Though this thread is making me want to give them a try again. Thanks!

[Ryan DeMita]

hey seedling, these paints are great. the gift painting is very nice. the ribbons have just enough attention to sell their believability. the portrait on the 17th is awesome! i love the nearly blue palette with just hint of red in the lips and ear. great work here!

-ryan

[Seedling]

Oil paints aren't toxic or flammable. You can take them on the plane. The solvents are of course but you can get around them by buying walnut oil for the medium and just using soap and vegetable oil to clean your brushes. There is a document that I found that you should put with your oils in your suitcase to make sure the staff don't think oils are flammable. It has a number for them to ring and stuff.

I love your daily paintings, I have started doing them about 4 days ago, they are great fun. you can see mine here if you want, http://jackshannon.blogspot.com/


Thanks for the info, 360. :-) You're right - it's not the paints that are flammable, it's the solvents. The paints are very much toxic, however. If I started spiking your drink with a cadmium or cobalt color, you could expect to get liver damage or brain damage or cancer. The reason crayola crayons are "non-toxic" is that they are safe to be touched and eaten and breathed. The same can't be said of most real art mediums. So please be careful with your paints.

BTY, I really like that paint tube you painted. Best of luck with the dailies! It's a gratifying habit to be in.


Almost time to go to the airport. . .

[Pascallo]

Great series of paintings!
Most of all unbelievable great is the veges stuff! really nice!

[incolorinred]

Very inspiring work. It is nice to see someone progress so well with a particular medium.

[360.]

Thanks for the info, 360. :-) You're right - it's not the paints that are flammable, it's the solvents. The paints are very much toxic, however. If I started spiking your drink with a cadmium or cobalt color, you could expect to get liver damage or brain damage or cancer. The reason crayola crayons are "non-toxic" is that they are safe to be touched and eaten and breathed. The same can't be said of most real art mediums. So please be careful with your paints.

BTY, I really like that paint tube you painted. Best of luck with the dailies! It's a gratifying habit to be in.


Almost time to go to the airport. . .

hehe, sorry i thought 'toxic' meant smell. Sorry for misinforming you. Have fun on your trip!

[Seedling]

Thanks everyone! The trip was fun. I caved. . . bought a real sketchbook to take with me on my trip. Some excerpts. Nothing particularly “fun”; since I had people available to draw, I took the opportunity to draw people from life.

[drd]

Wow, thanks for those examples Seed;Can you tell me, is that canvas or wood? Because it looks like grain to the top and left corners of the first one with the statue.

Very nice face studies as well, were those quickies or did people pose for you? I'd think it'd be hard to get a second long glimpse and still draw it accurately. Or at least I can't ><

[Beonarri]

Those aren't oil paintings, you little liar...er, I mean nice sketches. The portraits are nice, but the full figures are a bit stiff. Everyone looks sad/tired, but I guess that's the airport.

Putting a book on the scanner will help flatten it a little, and using a layer mask with the gradient tool in Photohsop, or using Levels (Ctrl+L) to even everything out would help with the presentation of the sketches.

Good job, etc., etc.

[dCepT]

Cool to see such dedication! I should paint more in oils.. hehe... The wrapped gift looks real good!

Oh... and if I haven't said this; thanks for the thread with tips for getting by in the business! Don't think I've replied in there, but I drop in for a read every now and then!

d-C

[Lynn Yang]

Hey. Thanks for replying in my sketchbook. Actually.... What I would like to say is your sketchbook inspired me to my own painting thread.

I think you should push the value on the face painting pictures. It looks too saturated. But anyways, nice sketches.

[hurricane]

nice paints!

i just love color, and aparantly so do you :D
cheers and thanks for sharing!

[crimsoneye]

Hey, thanks for posting in my SB. Really enjoy the color scheme that you used in those portraits....

[k4pka]

Great colour choices in the portraits. Its fun how so long as you stick to your choices, you can make flesh convinving in any colours.

[Seedling]

drd – the recent ones are on gessoed masonite. I have not sanded the gesso, so the pattern you are seeing is the brush-strokes in the gesso. For the face drawings, the larger drawings were family members who sat for me. The smaller ones were sniped at the airport. :-)

Beonarri – lol! You’re right about the faces. I did ask the guy on the bottom left to smile for me just a little, but he was so twitchy that I had a hard time drawing him. As for stacking books on a scanner to flatten a sketchbook, I broke a scanner in college doing that. :-P

dCept – thanks. :-) I hope the games thread has been helpful to you.

Lynn Yang – Cool! I can’t wait to see how your paintings progress.

Lynn Yang, hurricane, crimsoneye, k4pka – thanks! I was expecting at least one of those color studies to go horribly wrong. I was gathering info on what worked and what didn’t. My verdict is that they’re all reasonably accurate light depictions for certain extreme light/fog situations. But without a setting to explain why the colors are so weird, they’re way odd.



An even more awful painting of the toy moose. Just scroll right on past this one, please.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Hey Seed! These are looking good you know. I think the moose pieces are meant to be learning tools, which IMO you are doing well at. I like the cool lights on the back on the last one. As for a crit, maybe some stronger highlights to help carve out the form. Keep it up you inspiring mothatrucka!

Rich

[Seedling]

Posting that old acrylic study of my chop made me want to try it out again. (For those who don’t know what a chop is, it’s a Chinese stamp carved from jade. They make those red signature stamps seen on so much of Asian art.)

[Seedling]

This is a color study. Using the same setup, I fudged the colors to fake darkness. Hey hey, it worked better than I expected. Notice that I haven’t been able to consistently paint the lumpy muppet of a lion carved on top, though. Oh well.


[edit] Oh, hey, thanks Rich! :-)

[Beonarri]

I broke a scanner doing that too...

But now I have a smaller scanning and a lighter book, just to make sure everything is flat as possible.

[Seedling]

I had to skip the oil paintings this weekend, because a friend needed me to make a tee-shirt for his team. Cool, says I, I can do that. It has to be a vector file, says him. Um, sez I. Okay.

This is my very first time using Illustrator. It will make experienced Illustrator users cry, but my friend is happy.

[Rich Pellegrino]

That is hilarious. You are forgiven for no oils, only this time though!

[Kubushas]

Lol. Those ilustrators should more laugh than cry :)
Poor guy...)

[Seedling]

Yesterday, I woke up and looked out the window at the rain. I fixed myself a cup of tea and looked out the window again, and there was snow on the ground. The snow tapered off just as my hour ended.

[Seedling]

Today – I had lots of paint left over from the previous day, so I painted this from imagination.

Kubushas – teehee, thanks!
Voodoo - :-)

[edit] those orange windows don't look right on my monitor, and I'm not sure how to adjust them properly. :-P

[Jason C-M]

mmm, seed, I just love these last two.

[Onir]

hey, great updates! I wish that snow had lasted longer yesterday, was so nice seeing it. great timing with that though, seems like it was holding out just so you could finish up your painting hehe. I really like one you did from imagination; great colors and you did the atmospheric perspective really well. the trees in the one preceding it are really nice as well; great colors on the two in the front and in the woods behind em. the car is a nice touch as well hehe.

kind of a random question, but do you work for Turbine? if you've already answered this I'm sorry, just kind of occured to me the other day that you said you were a game artist and that things you've done are in D&D online. if you do lemme just say that, while I never really got into D&D online, I was a huge fan of AC2! wish it were still here hehe..

keep up the great work!!

[Seedling]

Json - thanks. :-)

Hi Onir! I do work at Turbine. You liked AC2? That puts you in a bit of a minority. ;-) Poor, poor dead AC2. :-P Thanks for your feedback on my paintings.

[Seedling]

A stout little antique box.

[darkwolfb87]

Hey Seedling,
How did you approach the colors in that last one? The range of values look quite delicate. I would still push the darkest darks more, if just to hint at them.

Oh and about adjusting colors, try Image>Adjustments>Selective Color in PS and fiddle around with that. Sometimes the light source used to take a picture causes those problems, and this way you can pinpoint the light source /affected colors to tone them down.

[Beonarri]

That little painting from you imagination is pretty cool. The orange windows do take away from it, though. I probably didn't need to say that and I'm only hammering you down more. It does, however, need something like that to keep itself interesting. I can't give any advice on how to light up windows with oil paint, Color Dodging in Photoshop would pop them out nicely though.

[DannySketch]

really inspiring stuff here seedling also thanks for the 'game art' threads you have started, incredibly interesting stuff

thanks for the kick up the ass, and, not that you need me to tell you, keep at it.

[Seedling]

Same box, different colors. Darkwolf, to answer your question, I grabbed dioxine purple and cad. orange as my starting colors for the first box. Then I added a couple kinds of yellow and a blue that I accidentally grabbed instead of payne’s gray, and white. And maybe something else. For the second one, I started with napthithol red and a green of some sort, and naples yellow, and some white. Thanks for the PS tip! I don’t have time to try it today, but soon. . . Blah, stinky glare!

Thanks Beo. :-) Criticisms are always welcome! I did put the value of those windows dangerously close to the values of the surrounding buildings. It looks passable on the painting, but not in the photograph. Dodge ‘n’ burn doesn’t work so well in pigment. ;-)

DannySketch – thanks! :-) I’ll keep on keepin’ on. . .

[Coen]

Wow Seedling just wow, forgot to watch your sb for such a long time, and you improved so much! I love the snowy one and the 2 last ones are awesome too.. I still didn't start with oils (already bought'em tho..)
Do you use imprimatura's? Oh and do you paint only values at first? Got way more questions about oils but I think I should just get started..

Still doubting tho, maybe I will paint with gouache instead.

[k4pka]

That snowy one is bloody marvellous!

[solidcube]

I like this style and I like your subjects.

My favorite one so far has been what looked like a chinese carved enamel bracelet. I thought the complex carved texture was indicated very well indeed.

The snowy scene above is also wonderful. I think the issue with it is not so much the color of the windows as the fact that they look pasted on. I think if you reworked it with just a few paint strokes to sink those rectangles of light into the walls of the building, it would sell the whole thing much better. Another thing is they're a little eensy bit too dark, especially around the outsides. They seem darker than the surrounding and in that situation they would be brighter, as would the cast area which is almost a red, darker in value than the surrounding wall.

[NicoRaven]

I scanned throught the first second and last page. The painting here really seem to be more elaborate. i also saw the Archer and the Dragon piece liked it lots. True the orangish window dont read well as windows to the passive viewer but as your petroleum mileage increases your just get "it" faster.

I can probably use yours and others to pratice from. Seedling cool sktchbk

[Beonarri]

What I meant by Dodging was the Color Dodge option in the brush tool in Photoshop. It lets you add color on while lightening up. Normal Dodging is teh suxxors!!!11

[Zaknafain]

This is one of my favorite sketchbooks... I hope that one day I will find the patience to start such a project myself...
UPDATE!
:)

[Seedling]

Friday’s painting: blah. Too much brown!

Coen – thanks. :-) I don’t paint the values first; generally I block out the big areas of color as you see them, and then work the details and smaller patches of color on to that. Sometimes that first blocking-in ends up transparent, but I’m not sure if that counts as “imprimatura” or just sloppy painting.
k4pka – why thanks!
solidcube – thanks for the feedback! Yeah, you’re absolutely right about those windows.
NicoRaven – Thanks for stopping by! I certainly have learned a lot over this span of paintings.
Beo – I knew what you meant about dodge ‘n’ burn. ;-)
Zaknafain - aaaw, now I’m blushing. :-) Hey, you know, the whole reason I started this was that I got annoyed with myself one weekend for thinking yet again that “golly, I really want to learn to paint in oils some day.” That, and an impromptu conversation with a stranger about hotdogs. But I’ll save that story for another time.

[Seedling]

Instead of my dailies over the weekend, I worked on a 3CH submission, but I doubt I’ll have time to finish it.

[Seedling]

Daily painting 100!

[Jason C-M]

100, wow. How cool is that? Nice crayon, and those boxes are particularly strong.

[chaosrocks]

finish it!!!!!
chaos

[Mr. Visions]

Congrats dude. You have a lovely collection in here, now only 900 more to go (haha) -

- Visions

[Beonarri]

I just thought I would clarify since many people on the internet don't know what I'm talking about...sometimes I wonder myself.

You new stuff is pretty good and it's...wait...when did you post count shoot up to 1200?!

[Maxine Schacker]

Seedling, you have a real feeling for paint. One hint: if the light source is warm, the lightest light will be warm and the darkest dark will be cool. If the light source is cool (daylight), the reverse will be true. In between there is an alternation between realtively warmer and relatively cooler color. This applies to the shadow areas as well as the light areas. As soon as you have more than two color changes without a temperature change, it will begin to read as pattern rather than form. For every plane change there is generally a temperature as well as a value change.

You may already be aware of this, but just in case : more important than knowing that greens and blues are cool and yellows and reds are warm ,is the fact that warm and cool yellows, reds, blues etc. exist and are the stuff we play with .They make the magic of natural color.

Have you ever read Hawthorne on Painting? Its not about warm and cool. Its about exact matching of color, and seeing everything as a mosaic of shapes of color. If you exact match the color, however, you'll discover that warm/cool alternation is, in fact, how nature works.

By the way, i really enjoy your intelligent and insightful comments.

Your finest paintings are those that are using the warm underpainting and the transparency of the white paint to give warmth. The least successful tend to have too many cools in a row.

[Miro]

Hi seedling
no you haven't spammed my sketchbook :}
maybe it's because there's this artist called Juan Miro
(i got the name Miro from a song by Finch, i found Juan Miro when i googled up miro :))

your oilpaintings are coming out really nice! i wish i had the skills
oh, and the Concept Art 101 is a neat initiative
i'm going to try the exercices and post 'em

oh, and please forgive me for dumb behaviour, but i'm a real newbie at art
so for example: i don't have the slightest idea what a wacom is (my guess is that it's similair to a touchpad on a laptop, but with a pen and stuff?)

well, keep improving your oil painting skills :) you're doing really well
cheers

[k4pka]

Seedling, that crayon is brilliant! You have a damn good handle on working under (wo)man-made illumination( ;) ). Could I be so rude as to question your set up? How do you light your still lives?

And congratulations on 100! That figure for me feels a looooong way off yet :S

[rakuda]

Hey, you have a great sensitivity to light. I love your colors. What size are those ones you did some time ago with the fish crackers and small objects? Well, I guess that's a silly question... most of them are small objects. I really like these studies!

-Brian

[Seedling]

Wow, so many comments! I’ll be back later to answer you all.

Lucky cat, slightly lumpy.

[Seedling]

Teapot from outer space. Two types of shiny surfaces in one hour turn out to be a bit much to ask of myself. :-P Most of the hour was spend mixing colors, not that it shows.

[Seedling]

Woot! I got published!

http://www.womengamers.com/articles/girlingames.php

[morningbloom915]

Interesting read. Yay for being published!! Lots of good stuff recently. The snow paintings are my favorites on this page, especially the first.

[j a k e]

the crayon and boxes are really good. I really like the way you've used the blue in the shadows of the cat and crayon. Sorry if this has been asked a million times before, but what size is each piece of board/panel?

[crimsoneye]

I really dig those landscape painting that you did. I really like how you using blue to paint the vase in the last one. Good job on reaching number 100 and being published.

[smellykitty]

I like the urban scene from your imagination! =D

[Seedling]

This is a part of the gift-exchange (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82405) thread. . .

IdiotApathy – about the goofy gift-image I cobbled together for you. It was based on an acrylic painting that I did six years ago when I was applying for jobs and nervously twiddling my fingers. I got this cheerful image in my head of a little old man climbing a mountain in Japan, and carrying with him baskets full of birds to release at the summit. He is a sort of tour-bus for the birds. Anyway, this year the old man has been chartered to carry your birds and critters and things to the temple. Where, I imagine, they will create a memorable rucus.

It was fun pouring through your sketchbook to find critters to invite! Merry Christmas.

Here is the original, in an awful blue state:

[blanquish]

whoa the last one is stellar!
nothing else to say but keep pumping em out, great improvement!

[Seedling]

I slacked off this weekend. Yay Christmas shopping. :-P

[Seedling]

I had to put the brush down because there was no white paint at all left. Shopping list: pick up framed paintings, white paint, and quarters for laundry.

[Seedling]

Jason CM – thanks!
Chaos – sorry, I suck.
Mr.Visions – lol! I’ll get right on it.
Beonarri – 1200? Dude, someone hijacksord my account! Actually I just love giving people feedback and marshmallows.
Maxine Schacker – Thanks for the pointers! That’s some good stuff. And thanks – I try to learn and improve at writing just as much as I try to learn and improve at painting.
Miro – Now I remember! I used to know someone with a similar handle. :-) I have miles to go with the oilpaints, but I’m making progress. I’m glad you have found CA 101 to be useful! No need to apologize for not knowing stuff yet; a wacom is a brand of drawing tablet for the computer. It’s a flat object that you “draw” on with a stylus that functions like a pressure-sensitive mouse. If you want to make 2D art on a computer, a tablet of some sort is necessary.
k4pka – aww, shucks, you made me blush. :-) I have a table, chair, and pile of boxes crammed behind my sofa. The still lifes go either on the table or boxes, and next to that I position a standing lamp with a cheap clamp-light attached to it. The whole thing is next to a glass door, so that gives me three possible light-sources to work with. As for the 100 thing, I just hope to keep up this daily ritual. This still doesn’t hold a candle to the number of near-consecutive days I once spent playing the piano. If I can keep *this* up for eight years, then I’ll be really cookin’. :-) BTW, I drool over your flowers daily.
rakuda – thanks! I’ve been trying to improve at catching light, because I love light so much. Every painting here is about six inches by eight, if I am doing my mental measurements correctly.
morningbloom – Thanks! I had fun painting the snow. :-)
j a k e – thanks! They’re all about 6 by 8 inches, more or less. I’m suddenly blanking on which blue that is – pthpthasdad somethingorother – it packs a punch, and I suspect it’ll take me years to use the whole tube, because so far it only seems good in those very specific lighting situations. :-)
crimsoneye – thanks! I’ll have to try that teapot-thing again sometime. It’s really a lot prettier than I made it look.
smellykitty – thanks! Eventually I’ll do more stuff from imagination. . .
blanquish – Thanks! The one with the birds is from a long time ago, in a medium far, far away. Soon I will see if I can do the same in oils.

[TheGnoll]

the last one looks good to me...finally i get too see something that is not an egg or a box hehehe

...just pulling your leg, all is good here...altho i still think some more action would help the thread :)

ciao

[Beonarri]

Marshmallows?!

I didn't get any marshmallows!!! I was gonna say that your eggs looked good, although the top on is a little dirty, and the bottom ones shadow looked cool, but now! Forget it!

:P

[Infinit]

overwhelmingly nice and warm SB
I appreciate how you go around and help out too

(I'm sure it's in the name of the community to say) thank you

[ironorchid]

hey, just wanted to say that I liked your article, and I think the oil painting a day is really inspiring. I too have been sitting around saying that I was going to learn oil painting someday, and I even have the basic colors sitting in a drawer. Think I'm going to get them out as soon as I find something to paint on...

[Seedling]

I haven’t been painting each and every day, but I haven’t fallen out of the habit, either. :-)

TheGnoll – Thanks! Here’s one more egg, then on to new stuff. I’ll get to “action” stuff eventually. . . ;-) But first I must get a grip on rocks and trees for a big painting I promised someone I would do.
Beonarri – never underestimate the power of marshmallows. Thanks for the feedback!
Infinit – Thanks! :-) I love to help.
ironorchild – Thanks! Have you gotten out the paints yet? Post your results! :-)




One last egg before moving forward.

[Seedling]

Moving on. . . a friend wants an autumn landscape with a moose. It’s a little more mundane than the subject matter I’m usually inclined to paint, but this is a perfect opportunity for me to make myself learn to paint rocks and trees. But, this being the winter, I don’t have actual autumn trees around to paint. So, I’m using photo reference for a while. The following are based on photos, some of which I took myself a year or two ago, some of which I gleaned from the internet or other sources, and some of which I shot at Blue Hill a few days ago. (I got some great rock reference there, but failed to get good bog photos, because the Ponkapoag Bog walkway was icy and partly submerged. I hope they fix it in the spring – it really is a beautiful place, but it is utterly inaccessible without the log walk. It has three kinds of carnivorous plants!)

Anyway, I’m not a fan of working from photographs. In each of these, I’m doing everything I can to make sure that these are not copies of the reference photos.

Oh, right – this first one is from life. It’s our little potted Christmas tree, painted the day before I finally got around to decorating it.

[Seedling]

Foggy day, dramatic tree.

[Jason C-M]

a little compositional "something" to that purple tree, seed, and I think you've got a good solid stand-alone finished piece.

I notice your "chalkiness" problem seems largely tackled. How are you feeling about that? Was it a conscious success, or something that just happened accidentally in the process and you didn't really notice?

[Seedling]

Hi Jason! Thanks. I think I just needed to mix colors and mix colors and mix colors until I could get them to do what I wanted. :-)

I was interrupted; here are the rest of the trees. . .

[Seedling]

tree tree tree. . .

[Seedling]

treeeeee

[Seedling]

treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

That's it for today.

[Seedling]

Whoops! Almost forgot. I needed a break from trees, and I had this tiny, partially-finished dyptich cluttering up my shelf. So, I figured I'd play with it a bit. This first image is the abandoned acrylic painting, the second is after a couple hours of goofitude.

This was helpful - I have a few other acrylic paintings that I had abandoned a few years ago because I just couldn't get the medium to do what I wanted. Now I know that I can finish them the way that I want. But, first I must paint the moose scene. So I'll be returning to landscapes from photos tomorrow.

[Asatira]

Love the diptych. Is it difficult to paint oils over acrylic?

[Pascallo]

Hey Seedling!
The first egg is a bit too brown colored and the sunnyside up is great but the light reflections that have hard brush strokes and chiseled shapes look somehow wrong to me.
Your winter-paintings have a great mood, very nice!

[Seedling]

Asatira – Thanks! Oils on top of acrylic worked about as well as oils over a blank surface.

I should also mention that the surface was cardstock with a layer of some odd, lumpy decorative paper product glued to it. Those rectangles were originally to be the covers of a handmade book, but I never made the book, and instead slathered it with gesso, and then acrylic paint. It made a fun texture to paint on, but it probably isn't very archival.

Come to think of it, this thing has been sitting around for six years now. That makes it one of the longest projects I've ever worked on! :-P


Pascallo – haha! I should have just painted a brown egg. They’re easier to come by around here. Thanks for the feedback!

[Fellah.]

Wonderful work!!

[Pascallo]

Haha, right!
Anyway - brown eggs seem to be discriminated against - everybody paints white ones ;)
so next mission: Paint a brown one!:)

[draw]

Your trees look like they have caterpillar like bites out of them maybe reinstate some leaves over the top of the background. Cool stuff keep up the great work!

[Tigermilk]

well.. what can I say... other than extremly impressive?
lovely paintings, as usual. :)
tiger

[chaosrocks]

missed you...... like the trees... you seem to be relying on an impressionistic technique.... maybe try some totally different tack, duuno...have you read Hawthorne? it seems like you got the color block think down pat, I guess you just need to break them down more?

who am I to offer advice... carry on...make it work

and where's the MOOSE!

chaos

[Beonarri]

WHA!?

You snuck like 10 updates under my nose!
The egg is really nice. The harsh oranges at the top of the egg kind of detract from it, but you don't need to change it.

For trees, crack open some Impressionists books and look at how they did them, since yours kinda, sorta have an Impressionistic feel.

Lookin' good as a whole, keep them comin'.

[MUNIZ]

Lovin the oils and acrylics. When I went back to college the digital revolution had taken over and all of my classmates said I was a dinosaur for still drawing. It's nice to know that the traditional mediums are still important in all of the arts today. Keep up the good work and the very informative threads.

[Seedling]

Thanks for the great comments! I’ll have to reply individually later. . .

Um. .. about that moose painting. .. I got a little sidetracked. Over in the super secret ladies’ forum we got to talking about the lack of interesting and varied female characters displayed here at CA. I got a bit swept up in making some female characters. The following are from imagination, and took about three hours each.

Maiden. . .

[Seedling]

Mother. . .

[Seedling]

Crone. . .

[Seedling]

A small brass statue of Kuan Yin. . .

[Seedling]

Same statue, closer to actual size. I couldn't for the life of me get the colors adjusted right in PhotoShop.

[Seedling]

I would really like to be able to paint gold. So here's the one gold object I own. I need to practice this more.

[frostsnake]

wow, your paintings are so impressive, the latest look realy good, the eggs, and trees kick ass! :)

[chaosrocks]

The characters are fun, and each beautiful in it's own way. The gold and the Brass aren't quite working yet colorwise. but Im sure they will.. I jus tposted a bunch of Pleinairs... I would be honoured if you would check them out

I also just proposed you as a judge for the Gods at War TD hehehehe

chaos

[k4pka]

Burnt sienna and yellow ochre are very much your friend for painting gold! Cobalt blue will cool them both nicely as the form turns also :D

[Seedling]

Fellah – thanks!

Pascallo – will do, eventually. ;-)

draw – haha, “caterpillar bites”! Yeah, I’m still a long way from really figuring out how to paint trees.

Tigermilk - Thank you. :-)

Chaosrocks – Yeah, I’m workin’ on those trees. . . moose slowly on the way. Still working on the metals. . . what am I not still working on? :-P I’ll check out your images soon! Thank you for proposing me as a judge. I’m honored.

Beonarri – Stealth art! ;-) Impressionists – good idea.

MUNIZ – thanks! Will do.

Frostsnake – thanks!

k4pka – thanks for the pointers! Any idea how similar yellow ochre is to naples yellow?

[chaosrocks]

I actually like a weird compound called windsor yellow
its the most neutral mixable yellow Ive found can go warm or cool without turning to mud
chaos

[Beonarri]

Lack of interesting female characters....interesting. What would you like to see for interesting female characters?

(Think newscaster voice)
Also, this secret ladies forum, raidable? Will find after this commercial break!

[seth1]

I had really had high doubts about the daily when i first saw this sb begin. You actually are pulling it off, Awesome. There is some great progress comming out of these daily doos . Can't wait to see where you are in a couple months... Keep up the good work..

Seth

[k4pka]

Both naples yellow and yellow ochre are warm yellows. (All relative of course, but as yellows go these are warm, look at lemon and even cadmium yellow to see their comparitive coolness)

Naples yellow is however much lighter than yellow ochre in value. Yellow ochre pale (at least the W&N one) is closer to naples, but is still at least one full value darker.

Naples would be useful in painting gold, but its high value means that an ochre would be more useful due to the larger value range that can be made from it.

[finlay]

The crayon and the statue are really nice. My favourite is the second winter scene (It looks really three dimensional). I love the way you're doing paintings like there's no tomorrow. You seem to be making a lot of progress and I can't wait to see more:teeth:!

[Envisor]

Lovin the paintings and the pencils.
Keep up the posting.

My Sketchbook- C&C very welcome
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=85772

[Seedling]

Thanks for the nice commentsd! I'm rtoo sleepy to answer right now. . .

[Seedling]

blah. . . . .

[Seedling]

from a photo I took