Tristan Elwell (UPDATE 5/11: NEW SITE)

[Bill]

Beautiful piece Tristan. I'm curious, do you ever use flat washes with the oils?

[smugbug]

Absolutely beautiful. Your horses are always both dynamic and graceful.

[Shantih]

Beautiful. There may even have been some hand flailing when I saw this topic.

[bcarman]

Beautiful piece Tristan. One of my teachers, James Christensen, didn't do horses. Always told us that he couldn't, and he was and is great. For some reason horses seem to be more difficult than other animals for me and others I have spoken to. I wonder what that's all about.

[spaztastic]

Really awesome, I love the looks on all there faces, especially the horses, ou can really tell the emotion through it's eyes. Great job.

[Rist]

Amazing. I need to do some more oil over acrylics. A little confused in what they are doing; flying (how?), jumping, floating... I guess the story will take care of this.

[Cthogua]

The horses skin is really amazing. You nailed that short haired shine perfectly.

[Eric Lofgren]

Very beautiful painting. Were you able to use reference for this horse or did it come out of your head? The up shot view makes me wonder how easy it would be to find reference. Whatever the case, yeah horses are tough to do, but you've nailed it

[PuppyKitten]

Very pretty! I know you're probably sick of horses, but I'm glad you draw so many of them. A beautifully painted horse is indeed pretty rare.

[Interceptor]

wooo Elwell you dont post enough. |This looks wonderful

[Ilaekae]

Very nice. I hope to become the go-to guy for aardvarks and naked mole rats before I kick off...

[Chris Bennett]

Very nice piece Tristan, I particularly like the way you have painted the girl's foot in relation to the horse's belly.

[ADStudio]

Nice painting Tristan. I do agree with the comment that some foreground terrain might help... or maybe a moonlit cloud... just to add a little interest to the composition.

[Elwell]

Here are some process shots form this one:
1: The initial, no ref concept sketch.
2: The final drawing, down on the board.
3: An early stage; the sky, horse, and flesh areas have a coat of oil paint, the rest of the figures is still acrylic underpainting.
4: This was what I submitted initially for the final version, but the client wanted the female character's costume modified.

[D@niel]

Thanks for those steps! Beautiful work Elwell!!

[rlederer]

Gorgeous! I love the luminous quality to it. You and Dos Santos are masters of that 'glow'. Wonderful!

[AlexandraBirchmore]

No funny story, I'm afraid. It's just that most people are so BAD at it, if you have a decent horse in your portfolio you'll get asked to paint more. And then it just snowballs.

Maybe my horse drawing skills might have some use then after all Someone needs to tell my mother!

[Elwell]

Firstly, thank you to everyone for your kind words.
Now for some specific replies...

I'm curious, do you ever use flat washes with the oils?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean. 98% of my work is straight opaque paint, but the underlayers do have some effect.

One of my teachers, James Christensen, didn't do horses. Always told us that he couldn't, and he was and is great. For some reason horses seem to be more difficult than other animals for me and others I have spoken to. I wonder what that's all about.

I think it's a combination of familiarity, the difference between specialized quadruped and human anatomy, and the fact that you can't cover up things with fur.

The horses skin is really amazing. You nailed that short haired shine perfectly.

Thanks. Part of that was the effect of cooler colors over a warm underpainting.

Were you able to use reference for this horse or did it come out of your head? The up shot view makes me wonder how easy it would be to find reference.

Yeah, it was tricky. I used a whole bunch of stuff: photos, Breyer horses, even 3-D models (Daz's Millennium Horse).

I do agree with the comment that some foreground terrain might help... or maybe a moonlit cloud... just to add a little interest to the composition.

The plain sky background was meant to subtly indicate that we're looking way up at them, since the horse is flying. Also, originally the design concept was to have the title in the lower half of the image (they ended up cropping in and doing something more traditional, though).

[sony]

Your initial, no ref concept sketch is really accurate, you got the mood there. awesome work

[Mr.Punch]

I've always wanted to try oil over acrylics. This is really terrific, love the horse anatomy, and the pure colors.

[Oblio]

hehe ... nice one.
you make me want to read

[Bushido]

The colors are just perfect!

Love it!

[Max_Bertolini]

the way you paint them, seems like you've been riding horses through all your life!

the colors, mood, the horse's skin are great...all that space you left around is for the titles?

Tristan, I invited you to take a look at my last post as I really think you're opinion would help me to improve... will you?

[Porg]

Very nice, loving the way stars sparkle.
Cheers for posting up the larger version too.

[Max_Bertolini]

The way you paint them.. seems like you've been riding horses through all your life!

The colors, mood, the horses's skin are great... all the space you left is for the titles?

Tristan, I invited you to take a look at my last post in the finished section as I really think your advice would help me to improve my art... will you?

[Pigeonkill]

Fire Horse cover makes me want to learn to ride a horse just so I can jump through some flaming hoops...but it would never be as awesome as that cover.

[Elwell]

Hey folks, here's a piece I did for a group show Travis Louie is putting together at the Copro Gallery in Santa Monica. The show's theme is "Monster?" and it will be up starting July 11.

Archangel, oil on masonite, 16"x12"



Here's the ad in Juxtapoz. Pretty cool lineup, no? (Art by Miles Teves.)



COPRO GALLERY
2525 Michigan Ave., T5
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 829-2156
Monster? opening: July 11th from 7:30 pm -11:30 pm. I won't be there, but Travis and a bunch of the other folks will be.

[Hexokinase]

Pretty legit Tristan. The wing-ears and tough skin are excellently handled.

The monster feels a little too top heavy though. The head has a real feeling of mass to it while the body feels a bit ethereal. I think the body could stand to be a little larger. The body could stand to use a little texture like that of the head to unify the skin.

[Noah Bradley]

Sweet.

Love the transparency you got in the ears/wings.

[xinranliu]

nicely dali-esque