Insatiable Curiosity

[LtPlissken]

The oil paintings are excellent. I admire. The other work is also great of course.

[ThomasM]

stan propokenko (just reminding myself to include this later in my post before I forget him!)

[alexson]

Really nice studies, and paintings too! Keep it up! Gonna have my eye on you!

[ThomasM]

qlotzan - thanks, thats very kind, I've posted something on your SB wall, hopefully its helpful

LtPlissken - thanks very much, I checked out your SB too dude

alexson - thanks, appreciate it.


WOOP PAGE 11/100 - getting there slowly! Busy day today for artwork I guess, I Have 6 pages of sketchbook to post and a digital paint. I'll also attach an example of what I'm aiming for with digital painting (out of personal preference)

Some of these are imagination, some are loomis and some are reference. Its probably fairly obvious which are which but I feel I'm slowly narrowing the gap with all this hard work! Some kevin chen in there, some Andrew Loomis and a new guy I found today called Stan Propokenko who is a russian fine artist. He has some incredible oils on his website so give him a look. Also hes uploaded a few tutorials so its good for all levels I'm sure.

The last environment is not mine (obviously!) its Tiger1313's on here whos sketchbook is called "cpt's sketches" and is a pretty incredible one to check out if you want to see some nice brushwork.

Edit: Now that I realise I have posted his environment next to mine it has made mine look far worse than before.. oh well! haha one day it might even match up to something like that. Anway I had this piece in mind when I was painting, trying all the time to keep the colours fairly loose andthe way I painted not too low opacity (as I have done previously). Although it obviously doesn't compare.. I feel it is a far better effort than previous enviro's and I learnt A LOT!

I have finally today decided that TAD is my dream. Ive been slowly building up the idea in my head for around 6 months and yeah.. thats what I want to do and where I want to go! I'm starting to save already and hopefully in around 2 years I'll be able to afford it! Who knows... might even get a scholarship in a couple of years time if I keep working my arse off everyday like I am now. Anyway .. its just a dream at the moment but I'm working hard to try and make it a reality.

Enough ranting and more arting!

Just to clarify that piece at the end isn't mine its just a reference to show you what I'm aiming for - I don't want to rip anyone off or take credit for it

[qlotzan]

wow man, i wish if it coloured by oil paint on canvas. any way, you are the best.

go ahead for your art keep it up

Qlotzan^_^

[Maledict]

Heya Thomas, thanks for stopping by my SB:

Ok, now onto the c&c:

The still life on page 10 could use a few brighter high-lights, but other than that, it's a very good painting.

The sun set environ is a bit off balance composition wise. You have a focal point, the setting sun, and then there's a huge swathe of black that's distracting from it. The piece probably would've worked better with a central composition/the sun being in the middle.

Your ink and marker designs look good, would like to see more. Also well done on your Bridgman studies.

The armour piece is great. As black spot said, really bad ass .

The 2nd still life (Fruit and blue vase) looks really fine. Reminds me of Rembrandt's rough painting style. Just be careful with the perspective/edge of the table. Maybe it was like that when you painted it from your perspective, but from what I feel, it should have a perspective skew to it a bit.

Anyway, keep on truckin'!

[Jovian M]

Plenty of progress with your anatomy studies since the first page. Those environment color studies look dope, dude.

[ThomasM]

qlotzan - thanks again

Rabbi Satan - thanks for the useful C&C I will try to leave some in your SB sometime soon!

Jovian M - thanks amigo. The second one isnt mine but whatever :p

First one is imagination characters from a few months ago before this recent portrait burst of energy. Then there are two from today which show (I think) a great improvement on the frankly appalling ones from before! and then there is a page of loomis and a page of referenced quick sketches from the internet! Voila

[qlotzan]

nice sketching friend.

You have a good experience to do it in the easiest way.

so have a nice time in your inspiration

good luck THOMASM

Qlotzan

[jskotte]

Some really great updates Tom I really like those vehicle designs, very nice. Also faces are looking better and better, still a few weird one sometime, for example first one from post #298. And all the animal drawings are really great. Also very nice oils. Maybe do some of the studies digitally, probably faster than the oil.

[ThomasM]

qlotzan - Thanks very much

jskotte - sorry to hear about you not being able to draw at the moment. Good idea doing some more digital studies - thats what I'm going to try and do for the next few weeks and months. I just wanted to get a few traditionals under my belt. I've sold a couple too so its all good!

Anyway.. rubbish little update today, just two sketchbook pages. Mostly ref, a couple in there from imagination too. Just standard loomis, trying to force it into my long term memory. What I really struggle with is the face from any extreme angle - the more standard angles are getting easier slowly.

[AChipps]

The last work is looking better, but keep an eye on the skull depth, so look a little too deep and deformed. Try drawing some real life for something different to check the difference for what you are learning compared to real people. The books you use to learn from is just meant to help you understand form and proportions of things you see in real life. So you just need to mix it with real life. I have been down that road a long time ago and it has been so long ago I need to do it again. I don't think I have a problem with heads and faces, but I forgot too much to feel comfortable with drawing anatomy.

[ThomasM]

AChipps - thanks for the comment

Been away all week so have gotten little done - its difficult enough to sketch on the train without someone starting up a conversation about it!

Anyway what little I have to offer from the past week. Portrait of a celeb (guess who!) done in acrylics and wall emulsion paint. I call it "Acrulsion" and its muuuuch cheaper than pure acrylics so I think I'll be doing it again!

Second.. the armour study.. but this time I've gone back and done a couple more hours of adding at least some texture to the surfaces.

More Tomorrow for sure!

[alexson]

Very nice studies! This latest armor study is looking really nice. No crits or anything, just keep it up

[qlotzan]

nice update

i like the armour really cool but ithink it's uncomplete

good luck and have fun

qlotzan

[PHATandy]

The paintings are looking a LOT better tom. Your picking out forms much better.

I think with the paintings though you should look into using a lot larger brush sizes whenever its possible (both in the traditional and digital.)
I think it was Prometheus told me one day, back on IRC like 5 years ago. Always aim to use the biggest brush you can for the job. Only start getting small when you need to.
Its not universally, true, but its a really good way to practice thinking about shapes and forms and brush strokes. etc.

Keep up the hard work man, its paying off

[ThomasM]

alexson - thanks amigo!

Qlotzan - appreciate the crit and comment

PHATandy - thanks for the useful crit, its funny you should say that actually. Today I did another portrait in acrulsions and I used almost extensively a large brush. It was a lot quicker and I'm much happier with the results - same again tomorrow then!

again.. this one is on "hardboard" which is similar to mdf but even more like cardboard!

[PHATandy]

Seriously good Tom. That is a HUGE improvement in lots of ways.
The likeness is REALLY fucking good. I certainly couldnt do it that good (im shit at likeness ).

It might be nice with your paintings like that to try, along with the bigger brush strokes, try doing a bit less sort of 'brushy' blending and think about putting everything down in just big clear chunks of colour. It will help you think about form a lot too working like that.
If I can think of a good example Ill post it.

Keep it up!

[ThomasM]

PHATandy - Yeah man today I took your advice and aimed for a less "brushy" feel and blocked in colour more. Generally I preferred this technique but the painting came out less finished because I spent far less time on it

Today's painting of a celeb (I won't say who!) took 1 hour 45 mins and was done whilst clicking refresh for glastonbury tickets.

[Black Spot]

That last landscape on post 305 is excellent.

The last looks a bit like Will Smith, but it's not quite right.

[ThomasM]

BlackSpot - thanks

Today's paint. I have a lot of pencils to post too but I havent gotten around to photographing them. Have a guess at who it is too

[Krato]

hey now their is only enough room for one of that avatar

[qlotzan]

nice nice man !!!!. Have you made them by acrlyic colours ? !!! lol

those plates full of emotions keep your art up

best washes for you

Qlotzan

[Lyno]

Nice studies Thomas, you've got some nice sense of scale in the environment studies.

[ThomasM]

Krato - yeah I'll change it I guess as you've been here longer, I'll get on that in a minute

qlotzan - yeah all acrylics above... thanks for the comment and support

Lyno - thanks, although one of them isnt mine (the decent one lol)

Here is today's oil painting of a laaaady and another of Obama which was done in acrylics. Experimenting without sketching out first.. its haard and I definitely wouldnt recommend it for portraiture which has to be so exact.

The portrait of the girl I really went and tried to make it look smooth and feminine without blending too much, just applying colour in dabs from the brush rather than smoothing the oils.

EDIT: the sketches are from imagination, although a few are taken from AustenFM's sb, I was trying to learn his style of really simplistic angular features. Very nice.

[ThomasM]

so yeah... more art now

Colour studies done today, something I saw in PHATandy's sketchbook. Thought I'd give it a go. Did nine today, and they probably took 15-30 mins each. Learnt A LOT about painting digitally. Especially that its good to use opaque brushes with high opacity - the confidence is coming along slowly although I did overdo the texture brush a little.

[qlotzan]

your sketches of landscapes by using a digital painting are the best

i need more learning to be good as you LOL

you give me a power to work hard and be a good artist

keep it up and learn more friend

good luck

Qlotzan

[Nettle_Mountain]

very nice progression here from beginning to latest pages, i love those acrylic paintings, its really good to also paint traditionally and not all the time be your nose stuck to the screen. do more of those paintings, want to see em

[ActonArt]

I love environments on post 304, the water looks so real! I just want to touch it

[ThomasM]

Qlotzan - thanks buddy, btw your link to your sketchbook doesn't seem to be working. Not sure if you know?

Nettle_Mountain - almost all the paintings on this page are acrylics so yeah I'm not spending too much time with the tablet at the moment! (but I'm slowly getting there digitally.. very slowly :p)

Acton Art - thanks, although as I said the second isnt mine....


In a horrendous mood but at least I have art to keep me company!

anyway here are some sketches from here, there and everywhere...