Insatiable Curiosity

[krysjez]

#1022 left - her torso seems a bit long to me...but maybe that is what we look like when we stretch. I like the legs of the second one.

keep it up

[Dope Fiend]

i agree, the second is much better in terms of clear definition of values, and yeah i'm not certain either, but i feel the torso is a little too elongated, even if she were stretching, but hell, what do i know.

keep rockin' it!
cheers

[ThomasM]

Marian - haha on the yacht or artistically?

teapo - haha no worries I don't really expect people to read my ramblings, its written more just to recap and remind myself where I stand after the day is done.

Sean McClain - I'd be disappointed if there wasn't some improvement but thanks amigo

ryanryan - thanks, it definitely boosted my spirits whilst painting

Aerendyl - well.. no I'm ashamed to say, although hopefully next year I can attend TAD (providing I have saved enough)

krysjez - yeah I know what you mean, it looks unbelievably long. I re-drew it a couple of times actually out of disbelief. I think it might be slightly too long, so thanks for that crit. Useful stuff!

Dope Fiend - Nah you are right I think, she does have a long torso but it is slightly too long so thanks for bringing it to my attention. Its a classic mistake that I blundered into!


Thanks for all the great crits and comments to everyone that is keeping me motivated!


Ok.. last night I watched quantum of solace. And when I say watched I mean I put it on and then pretty much didn't look up from my sketchbook. But the important thing is that I HEARD the film! haha thats always the way these days.

Anyway, rambling.. .. orchids!

[ryan mcshane]

Dear ThomasM,
you have inspired me with your oil studies of the very familiar figures, at least for me because i've studied those both at least twice hehe
i must try out oil painting figures when i get my room sorted out suitable for painting goodness
thanks a lot thomas, have fun with TAD

[Marian Rowling]

Marian - haha on the yacht or artistically?

Hehehe....on second thought's maybe both! Can't help but think you are drawing beautiful orchids for your girlfriend Tom. I hope you do both get to spend some quality time together. Again this is a nice page of studies, my only suggestion would be to take the background darker round the right rim of the flower and lighter round the stem. I thought this might really bring out the white of the flower.

I'm just off to watch some more of those TAD discovery lessons, hope you're enjoying them to. (P.S. Don't visit me I haven't updated yet!)

[ThomasM]

ryanoir - I'm glad that I inspired you. I checked out your sb and it seems like you've been in a bit of an artistic slump recently. Everyone has those, so don't worry about it and just keep on plugging away

Marian - haha alright alright alright I won't comment until you've posted, but sometimes I'm too eager! I thought you said you didn't get the discovery lessons because of funding?! Thats great news. I'm just sitting listening to the third lesson now (on perspective) as it happens. Good news!


Ok.. not a very interesting post. I thought I'd push my figure painting in oils from grayscale into a little bit of colour. I used a very limited palette, with only two colours, black and white. This has been used by Anders Zorn, Rembrandt and various others, so if its good enough for them its more than good enough for me. If anyone wants to know the colours used:

Titanium White
Ivory Black
Cadmium Scarlet
Yellow Ochre

It is by no means finished, but I will return to it once it has dried a little to make further changes

And some little 5 minute portraits just because I had them lying around

[LtPlissken]

The pages in #1009 and in #1013 are awesome.
I have nothing smart to say, except you should keep
doing what you are doing, cause you are improving this way.
Really inspiring updates.

[ryan mcshane]

kickass oils dude! thanks

[teapo]

yay! portraits of generals and.. some such? digging the oil figure tom-- what type of surface did you paint it on?

[Deadlyhazard]

Omg please upload more paintings. I really like that one. Soon we shall have the oil master, Thomas!

[qlotzan]

that what i say the developing art style, wow my friend your artwork move to the
high level or art undestanding

keep it up

qlotzan; rafid

[ThomasM]

qlotzan - thanks for the kind words. Check out your Sb for my retort!

Deadlyhazard - haha I wish I knew what I was doing with these oils, but then you have to start somewhere I suppose. Glad you like them.

teapo - good question. I painted the smooth side of a bit of board a brown/black in acrylic then painted oils on to it. The bonus is that it uses very little paint BUT unfortunately I have learnt my lesson with it. It doesn't absorb much paint and is extremely smooth. This means that everything blends, as there is not much attachment to the surface. If I were better and didn't need to make many adjustments this would be fine, but for my current level I think I'll switch to canvas for something more forgiving

ryanoir - thanks

LtPlissken - yeah I've enrolled on the Discovery program now and for those of you who have the money or inclination to do it, I really recommend it.



Thanks as always everyone. I have done loads of drawings today and listened to some more classes. The paper for the drawings is massive so I won't bother with that, but here is an update on my oil figure. See above (my reply to teapo) for my thoughts on how its going


OH and for anyone who is interested, do yourself a huge favour and put in "Richard Schmid" into google images. I love his style!

[Jessibelle]

holy crap you've been busy. x) you're putting the rest of us to shame!
Those oil figure paintings are looking great, the tonal ones especially; and the life studies in your moleskine are amazingg. They're all so varied and full of character, makes me wanna start regularly jumping on trains just for the sake of the sketchin's.
keep this stuff coming!

[raminafshari]

i like your pencil work , do more .

[ThomasM]

Jessibelle - haha I'm nothing if not hardworking when it comes to art. Haha I wouldn't recommend sketching on trains if you can help it. Markets and public places in cities are perfect. Some trainlines are worse than others and I know my local routes quite well in terms of which are the bumpiest by now :p

raminafshari - haha very "to the point"


Ok... I saved this study about 30 mins ago.. and I just compared it with the one from then and it was better before the half hour's tired-painting was done. So here it it, a colour study of something by Sterling Hundley

Time to drag myself to bed from amongst this pile of art things in here!

Tomorrow I'm going to start a big pencil portrait which I hope to be as close to photographic as possible. Its time to whip these eyes into shape!

And I just realised this is my 365th post in around... 350 days. 1 post a day for a year, more or less. wooop woop! Bring on the next year before TAD!

[Marian Rowling]

Marian -I thought you said you didn't get the discovery lessons because of funding?! Thats great news. I'm just sitting listening to the third lesson now (on perspective) as it happens. Good news!

Haha Tom I resisted for a whole day not buying, then just when I thought I was safe they went and had a Birthday 50% sale, and I just had to click and look and it was just too good value and I had to buy, I'm hoping my bank manager is an art lover! LOL

These last updates are great. I'm really pleased to see you getting back to painting and I think for a beginner they look good. I was really interested to read your comments on making the board too smooth. I shall have to try and remember that. So glad you've found Richard Schmid, his was one of the second books I brought when I first started and it is well worth the money. So add it to your wishlist.

The Sterling Hundley study looks really good. Well done on posting every day it's is a great achievement. (I've been trying to work on some longer studies so don't check my sketchbook yet.......still not updated........but coming soon. )

[ThomasM]

Marian - hoorah! Great news. I was hoping that if I pestered you enough you'd buy it, but in the end you didn't need much tempting! I'm waiting on those updates, I've been to your sb a few times just to check so I'm expecting great things!


As for me, well I am going to try and push this portrait from bare paper to as close to photographic as possible. Its grayscale and the photo it was taken from is really really high quality, so there are no excuses from me! I'll also post the final and a slow GIF with loads of process shots in, for those who are interested.

This is it so far, probably around 3/4 hours in - most of that time spent laying in the proportions exactly, and then doing the hair

[qlotzan]

really nice sketch i like the shade and light tech.

keep it up my friend

qlotzan

[teapo]

omgomgomg~ i can't wait to see this pencil finished patience is much needed with this but you're handling the rendering very well ~ love the careful attention to detail!

also-- thanks for answering my question. i've never painted on boards myself, was yours masonite? i'll have to give it a try sometime but after reading that it doesn't absorb much-- it might be tricky keeping the strokes looking fresh and not muddied up too much though it looks like you handled it quite nicely :3

looking forward to the next update tom!

[PaintMyBrain]

you have become so good! the last portrait looks very nice, would love to see the finished. keep it up!

[Marian Rowling]

Marian - hoorah! Great news. I was hoping that if I pestered you enough you'd buy it, but in the end you didn't need much tempting! I'm waiting on those updates, I've been to your sb a few times just to check so I'm expecting great things!

hoorah! indeed....I caved in pretty quickly, didn't I! LOL I've been enjoying them. I did Day 1 & 2 and then skipped to Cast Drawing with Carl Dobsky which I thought was great, now watching him on still life painting. Well worth the money,me thinks.

This latest study is already shaping up nicely. I can't see any proportional errors and you've done a great job tackling the hair. It's going to be exciting to see this one completed. Pretty good on the time you've taken as well. You are going to be very well placed by the time you've saved up your money to go to TAD. I'm so excited for you and what you're doing. (Maybe a little update in my sketchbook later tonight, if I don't get to into these lectures!)

[Kristoff]

wow! love the color and the last portrait of a man! Great lines!
Keep that up! ^_^

[ThomasM]

qlotzan - thanks

teapo - afraid it wasn't masonite no, which is a proper board for painting. I bought mine from homebase for really cheap and its hardboard. I painted the smooth side a darker colour but its so smooth the paint doesn't really stick to it. Cheap though!

PaintMyBrain - haha very kind of you, I'll keep on working away on this one.

Marian - Mmm yeah Carl Dobsky is quite clear at explaining things. I haven't moved on to the drawing and painting yet (I'm doing it in order and just finished the foundation week tonight) but looking forward to it - I'm about to check out your sb so don't let me down!

Kristoff - thanks, I checked your sb out and left some feedback.


Another day's labouring. Worked hard and shifted a couple of tons of rock and cement again today.

As always, I came home and after seeing a few friends carried on with drawing. Now this is at least 7-8 hours in. Starting to shape up, so I made a GIF of the process so far. Hopefully my set of NuPastels arrive in the post tomorrow, and I'm going to cambridge to buy some big pieces of paper and to sketch a little. No work, so I'll be drawing all day, but in the evening I'm going to London to see ClassicFM live with a friend - for a bit of a bonding trip. I'm not really that up on my classical music, but I do listen from time to time, and I've never seen an orchestra live before so I'm expecting good things

About 1/3 of the way through being finished I'm guessing. I'll render the whole coat and sort out that face for a lot more time to come. I'll rest when its photographic, because I'm really trying to train my eye with this one!

[NickyBeats]

damn bro. this last pencil portrait looks sweet so far!! keep pushing it!

[ThomasM]

argh late for a train to london, here is the progress so far!

[hücumkedi]

man you are getting awesome

[Marian Rowling]

Great progress Tom you most certainly have a lot of stamina. I can't see anything that looks wrong to my eyes. So I have to ask did you manage to find a UK stockist for those NuPastels? Or have you found a US stockists with low shipping?

How you enjoy your classical experience, sounds like it might be pretty cool.

[teapo]

hot dayuum that portrait is turning out awesome where did you get the photo from if you don't mind me asking? :3 btw, i PM'd you so check it out when u can !

see ya tom!

[Turbosnail]

Hey Tom, really nice SB man.
Your latest portrait is looking very impressive so far.
Keep up the good work mate!!

[ThomasM]

Turbosnail - danke schon and thanks for stopping by again - time to check out what you've been up to yourself.

Mike - from google images. They used it as a reference for one of the Discovery program lessons I watched and I thought "thats a great photo, I wonder if it is on google image" - and sure enough it was. Great quality, so a good one to do. Not much form to it, but then the silhouette is to complete and strong that it reads well.

Marian - yeah it was great! The royal albert hall is an incredible building anyway, so I wasn't disappointed. In the end I had to get the whole set of 96 pastels from a site called refuelled.com. It wasn't cheap at all, but then its on the list of materials for TAD, so I thought I'd inevitably end up buying them at some point down the line. They haven't arrived yet, but I'm hoping that will be tomorrow! I have 30 pieces of paper I bought especially waiting for them, so expect some big updates of my pastel-figure learning process.

hucumkedi - thanks, I'm working more and more these days.



Ok... so I couldn't face slaving away at that portrait any further after work. I will take it further, but for now (the next couple of days) I'm going to give it a little rest. Here is a portrait for this evening, of a recently deceased and incredibly popular british actor - hopefully the likeness is there as it was from a good photo.