Purplegoat's Sketchbook: A Complete Beginner

[Umbravita]

Those are good gestures. They help me understand them more as well.

And yes, I agree - best to jump on the opportunity while it's here, you never know when it'll pop up again. If we wait for when we're ready, being "ready" often doesn't come.

I look forward to seeing more paintings! That bottle was quite well done - the paint seemed inconsistent (for lack of a better term) but I feel you captured the translucency of the bottle very well, along with some of the highlights.

[Marian Rowling]

Hey PG I thought the painting was great and your class sounds like a brilliant idea, I'm a tad jealous but I know you will share as and when you can. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do. Steady progress with this update.

[purplegoat]

Kamber - Thanks the landmark information. I hope to study this stuff over time. So much to learn, so little time!

Umbravita - Glad my gestures help you understand them more. Thanks for the crit on the painting, now for "excuse time" lol. That painting was done in about 40 minutes with no focus on completion. It is definitely not anywhere near complete, rather the first layer of a painting I probably will never complete.

Marian - I appreciate your steady support. The reason I posted that god awful painting was because that anything I post later will look golden

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Gestures and figures from life
Sketchbook stuff
The last set are from an instructed class were we did various exercises.

[ErikHolfelder]

Very cool that you're starting oil painting. I've never tried oil paint.

Just thought I'd stop by an say hi. Keep it up.

[Umbravita]

It's always nice to just pootle along on a painting without aiming to complete it, no?

Great sketches there. There's a couple in particular where your lines look confident and accurate in places, I can see the improvement.

Update again soon!

[purplegoat]

eekolite - Thanks for stopping by. So far oil painintg is fun but very challenging. Getting a feel for how the brushes handle and the paint goes onto canvas.

Umbravita - Thanks for the comments.

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Gestures from photo ref, Bridgman studies, oil still life WIP.

[Ghast]

wow big improvement since your first post! The gestures are looking good, and theres some that are really confident and fluid

keep posting!

[purplegoat]

Ghast - Thanks!

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Value studies: one oil and one charcoal - from life.

[PeteJ]

looking good, just keep on doing those studies

[Marian Rowling]

Hey PG you are just making me so excited with these oils, great start, I like them all. It's really good to see all your hard work paying off. You're doing great.

[purplegoat]

PeteJ - Thanks! More studies are in my near future for sure.
Marian - Oil painting is exciting for me to do. Painting that cube was actually fun because I could really concentrate on mixing the paint and observe the behavior of the brushes and different paint consistencies. It is way different than drawing yet skills learning from drawing (i.e. measuring, squinting to see shadows ,etc) all carry over.

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Open figure drawing tonight. We had a handful of quick poses and one really long poses. I tackled the hands and face because I had time to get the proportions decently close. The headswas a disaster and I scribbled it out in my frustration. The hands didn't turn out too hot either. The feet were buried so I could not capture them. I worked on rendering in the last 25 minutes as well. Need to draw more hands, feet and heads!

[purplegoat]

Haven't been keeping up on uploading so this is a an image dump of stuff I've done since last time.

[purplegoat]

Oil painting WIP

[Marian Rowling]

Hey PG good updates. I can really see how you are progressing with the life drawing. Your proportions are looking more and more accurate. Love the oil painting WIP. Looks like it was a great idea of yours to take the class.

[purplegoat]

Marian - Thanks for the positive feedback. I feel like some things in regards to figure drawing are starting to click.
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Here is what I'd like to work on over the coming weeks
- bone/skeleton studies from books
- basic shape studies from life (cube, sphere, cone, oblong sphere) - drawing and painting (value studies)
- copy a master drawing
- continue with life drawing classes
- perspective studies - I have a video and a few books for this

Didn't do too much today. Took some time to set up a book shelf for all of the art books I've been acquiring. Organized my materials so they are not cluttering up my office so much. Did some getures from reference (90 seconds +)

[purplegoat]

Life drawing, charcoal, 16x20 newsprint.

[Marian Rowling]

Hey PG I've been feeling really excited for you lately because I can see things starting to click. These look good, I notice you are having problems with the foreshortened foot coming right at you on a few. I can sympathise as I can never work out how to deal with that either. I'm glad to read your art book collection require a shelf, mine requires it's own floor to ceiling book case! LOL. Good luck with you schedule, I'll look forward to the next update.

[purplegoat]

Marian - Feet, forehortened or not, really are hard to draw. I need to spend more time on heads, feet and hands. Thanks for the crit!

[Marian Rowling]

Marian - Feet, forehortened or not, really are hard to draw.

I most certainly agree with you on that PG, but I think you've done a good job with the feet in the very last one.

[ThomasM]

lovely figure work here. Those gestures are really great too.

I do have one thing to say regarding those figures though, which may come in helpful to you. It is something I have only just learnt, after almost a year of drawing everyday, but it has made a huge difference to me.

Concentrate on the silhouette of the figure and the outline first before any rendering at all is done. If the silhouette is right, the image will work. If it is wrong, then no amount of rendering will make the drawing/painting work.

Just something to think about when you start rendering - ask yourself, are you 100% sure about the silhouette?

Anyway, enough from me, keep up the great work!

[purplegoat]

Marian - Thanks for stopping by and the continued support

ThomasM - I will consciously try to concentrate on the silhouette before rendering. Usually I save rendering for last. It is sometimes required by the instructor sometimes I start into by choice.

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[I Bit Nosferatu]

Fantastic work!

[Marian Rowling]

Hey PG is that two oil paintings I see in this update. Is the first one a tonal study from life? Looks like a good start if it is and the wine bottle still life looks really good. I'm guessing that the oil painting class is agreeing with you. I can also see the improvement with the life drawings, they are getting better and better. Keep going you are doing great.

[Rain Walker]

its always a joy to witness a journey in its beginning... it reminds us all of our journey and remind us with the fire and passion we all have inside for art

[purplegoat]

I Bit Nosferatu - Thank you

Marian - The first painting (b&w) is actually acrylic from life. This was from an instructed class where they are teaching to paint by seeing the tones of big shapes then refining from there. I started the refining process but did not finish. Think we are doing another one tonight!

The second is oil from life, the WIP from the previous post. It is "done" as I'm moving onto something else next class

Rain Walker - Thanks for stopping by. I'm glad you are enjoying my sketchbook.

[Marian Rowling]

Hey PG that's great to hear that you are doing acrylic's and oil's. These last life drawings are looking good, keep it up.

[purplegoat]

Marian - Thanks for the encouragement

Just got back from an amazing trip to Miami. Didn't draw much while on vacation but felt good to get out of the daily grind for a awhile and recharge my batteries. All of my classes are over. There's a three hour workshop on the drawing head coming up this weekend that I'm excited about. Open figure drawing and a fundamental life drawing class start next month.

Here's some stuff I did a few weeks ago that I never posted.

The color painitngs are oils that I spen about 2 1/2 hours on each from life. The b&w paintings are acrylic. All from life except where obvious

[purplegoat]

Quick sketches from the face/head workshop, gestures from photo ref, self portrait from mirror.

[Marian Rowling]

Hey PG so glad to hear you have a good break in Miami. I enjoyed my trip to Las Vegas but it is one crazy place! These updates look good and I was like 'wow' at your last self portrait. I think it really shows your progress. Great to have you back.

[purplegoat]

Marian - Las Vegas is a crazy city for sure. The Grand Canyon and other national parks in the Southwest are amazing though if you love nature. Vegas is fun for a day or two. Thanks for stopping by and complimenting my last self portrait, I had fun doing it.

1 and 2 - color swatches, the cobalt blue is a little off on the shade and tone.... I added too much orange. I need to go back and redo that. This was an excellent exercise to see what each color looks like. Here's the breakdown:
Hue - color straight out of the tube
Tint - hue with titanium white
Shade - hue with mars black
Tone - hue with titanium white and mars black
Shade 2 - hue with compliment
Tone 2 - shade 2 with titanium white

3 - quick self portrait in charcoal, just messing around

4 - study of a painting done in oils

5 - monochrome self portrait WIP from life (using mirror)