Tristan Elwell (UPDATE 5/11: NEW SITE)

[Interceptor]

Lovely piece, Tristan.
The smoke effect is incredible!

[Bowlin]

Very nice, it has a very soft soothing sort of feel to it. The idea of the goblet and red smoke/mist in relationship with her floating hair has a nice magical element to it. But it's the textures that really make the piece. No doubt this is something that would look even better in person.

[REAU]

Always a pleasure to see your work Tristan.

[Elwell]

Naomi -
You think everything is sexual! But in this case you're right.
Interceptor, Bowlin, REAU-
Thank you!

Here are the process shots I mentioned:

Initial sketchbook doodles (I may or may not get around to the pendant piece):


Final drawing on the board, acrylic underpainting, first oil layer (lots of spraying, splatterng, and throwing paint at the board):


Close-ups of the first and second pass on the flesh areas:

[Beelow]

Oh man I miss my oils, thanks for sharing your process Tristan. Did you use color pencils for the smoke? Goregeous painting though.

[Elwell]

No colored pencils. Just streamers of cadmium red medium painted into a wet medium layer over the background, followed by splattering different consistencies of a medium/solvent mix into it, and repeating the process. Then that texture was overpainted and modified when it was dry.

[Brendan N]

Like how the dark shapes of the hair and dress converge to create tension in the middle around her face. Clinches the composition. I would have liked to see more of a complementary to the read, but then the Payne's Grey in the shadows and lines works well and looks beautiful. Always like being reminded of your technical supremacy sir, well done .

[blue bed]

Wonderful as usual!

[Raffix]

ah man the original pencil sketch is beauuutiful.

the paintings alright as well

[Quigleyer]

No colored pencils. Just streamers of cadmium red medium painted into a wet medium layer over the background, followed but splattering different consistencies of a medium/solvent mix into it, and repeating the process. Then that texture was overpainted and modified when it was dry.

Have you done this before this piece was created? Where did this come from?

Awesome work!

[Elwell]

Have you done this before this piece was created? Where did this come from?

Yeah, I like throwing some randomness into the process to counteract my natural tendency for control and over-rendering. Sometimes it's fun to just get messy and see what the paint wants to do. A lot of the techniques I've used come from faux finishing and marbleizing.

[goldilockz]

Clicked the link in your sig in a recent thread and now I need more. MOAR COVERZ!

[sameer_123]

that's really a great work.
keep sending messeges.
bye

[Elwell]

Just to bump to say that this piece was accepted into Spectrum 18!

[Noah Bradley]

Congrats! Well deserved.

Can't wait to get my Spectrum letter and find out what got in.

[Brendan N]

Well done sir, well deserved - it still strikes me as a very well thought-out piece.

[bcarman]

Congratulations!

[Pierce9]

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your process, beautiful work.

[a la bapsi]

grats elwell!
you deserve it!

[Elwell]

After redirecting to my rep's site for years, tristanelwell.com is finally live! Check it out, there's tons of new and old work up there.

[Ericus]

The new website looks fantastic! Love the new stuff in there. Sleek and easy to browse around and get lost in (in a good way, of course!)

[Randis]

congrats on the new site!
Also the last painting is great, i like the composition and flow

[ArcZephyer]

I've seen you post everywhere and I had not seen your work yet, so this is a nice treat. Absolutely love the work on the website! I got a kick out the bride and doom illustration but I really love Ashling.

[isissousa]

Nice pics, specially the girl on the horse!

[artstudio407]

fantastic!

[Velocity Kendall]

i sure do like this a lot
http://www.tristanelwell.com/gallery...well-fa-05.jpg
its my screen background now

[Wouter Tulp]

GREAT WORK!!

[Hatton Slayden]

your work is evocative of Italian Renaissance oil painting, as well as Norman Rockwell's illustrations (i went to your site) very nicely done of the three my favorite is the horse and girl jumping through the flames

[Pavel Sokov]

you can put acrylics under oils? Somebody told me you can't do that because the paint will end up cracking

[Bill]

The site looks Awesome Tristan, Congrats.