Doug Hoppes (SketchBook)

[Doug Hoppes]

Hi all,

Okay, guess it's time to create my sketchbook. I'm a Vermont oil painter and fairly new to the art world. I started drawing/painting seriously about 5 years ago and decided that I can actually sell my works.

Most of my work traditionally sell at craft shows/art fairs with random painting sales to various clients at my office.

My paintings can be seen at: http://www.HoppesStudio.com and I have a Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/DougHoppesStudio). Here's a good place to start posting some of my work, also.

Dougie

[Velocity Kendall]

yep definitely digging your surreal vs real landscapes, really cool!

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1297947304

love it!
i think the colurs and lights in post2 arnt quite realistic though; the greens are very bright, even on the evening scene for example.
here are some amazing studies i refer back to a lot by Min, whos a god of this sort of thing and piants impeccable studies

http://minart.net/studies/other-studies/379
http://minart.net/studies/other-studies/373/
http://minart.net/studies/other-studies/372/

[Doug Hoppes]

Thanks!

Do you mean the landscape one with the orange sky? Yeah, that's not real. Should have put it in the abstract/color landscape one. I was just mixing the daytime landscape with a weird sky.

I LOVE those studies. Excellent work!

Dougie

[Doug Hoppes]

Here's my latest still life painting.

[Doug Hoppes]

Here's some small 6 x 8 practice landscape studies. The paintings were loosely based from some photographs. Trying to make sure that I incorporate what I learn during my plein-air sessions into interpreting a photograph, properly.

[Doug Hoppes]

Still Life Studies: 3/11/2011

[Doug Hoppes]

Portrait study from a cast.

[Doug Hoppes]

Sketchbook drawings of dinosaurs (from my nephew's toy collection).

[Doug Hoppes]

kay, it was absolutely gorgeous in Vermont today. The day was bright and sunny... and coooollllldddddd......

When I was driving home from setting up my nephew's computer for DSL, I saw this seen near my house. I decided that: "It's bright, it's sunny, and I would LOVE to paint that scene". So, I got home, rushed out to get my gear and then headed back to the spot (it's about 5 minute drive from my house).

As I started my setup, the wind was seriously kicking up in the field that I was working. However, I had my hoodie, hat and gear. I should be warm enough! Hah! No chance. Standing in a windy open field on a cold day is just asking for your hands to stop working. However, as you can see... here's my effort for the day. Took about 1-1/2 hours to paint. Later on, I'll post the basic procedures how I do my paintings and my setup.

[eyestrain]

Ohhh I really like the colors you use... Lovely paintings.

[Doug Hoppes]

Thanks... I'm a fan of strong colors and linear design. Lots more work to do to create more realistic landscapes and still lifes, but it's getting there. Now I just have to convince my wife that I can quit my full-time job to do it (yeah, right) :-).

[Ven S]

Wow, I love the paintings. The Dinosaurs looks awesome.

[Doug Hoppes]

Thanks! The dinosaurs are my nephew's toys. On vacation, I set them up in different window sills to change the natural light on them and practice my drawing. I'm trying to figure out how to paint them. That's been a challenge for me.

Dougie

[Crowv]

Hia Doug, you advised me to look at getting the book "The Technical Pen". I think its out of print as I can only find very expensive second hand copies. Would you know if there is an E-book version available?

much love

[Doug Hoppes]

Hi Crowv... wow, just did a google search about it. Man! It's totally gone up in price. I did a google search on "The Technical Pen pdf", but I think that the site that had it is not a legal site.

Sorry, dude... don't know. If I still had my copy, I would have been happy to sell it to you, but I sold it a number of years ago.

I would try going to WetCanvas and going onto the Pen/ink Forum. They may know where to get an inexpensive one.

Dougie

[Doug Hoppes]

More pen/ink drawings for some painting concepts.

[Doug Hoppes]

Last night's painting study. Three hours.

[Doug Hoppes]

Starting to work on a design for my next painting. I tend to go through multiple variations based on some scribble and see how it fits into a particular landscape scene. In this case, I decided that I liked the tentacled arm, but wasn't sure what to do about it.

By Drawing 4, I liked the final general shape of the object. Each area where it touches the landscape, I would show only color. A variation of this is Drawing 6, where I would do the same landscape painting in a monochrome color with the circles becoming areas of actual color.

[Doug Hoppes]

Beware: Cuteness alert. Was working on some still life toys.

[Doug Hoppes]

More pen/ink sketches of landscapes.

[Doug Hoppes]

More pen/ink work.

[Doug Hoppes]

More Pen/ink Work.

[Doug Hoppes]

Still life drawings.

[Doug Hoppes]

Starting playing around with value paintings and various color inserts.

[JeffX99]

Hey Doug - did you check out Al Held's work? Just curious what you thought.

[Doug Hoppes]

Latest painting: "Temple Journey".

Everybody makes a journey. The roads are steep and treacherous, for some. In the beginning, it seems hard, but, as you go along, the road seems easier and the world around it seems to be a lot calmer and less treacherous. The destination is what you make of it. If you really want to get there, you'll go through the obstacles needed.

[Doug Hoppes]

Jeff, thanks for the name: Al Held.

I really like some of his stuff. It's pretty cool. My favorite pieces are the ones that seem to have the "bars" going over each other (http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Artw...www.artnet.com). I also like the choice of colors that he uses. Part of me thinks that his colors are a bit too saturated. There doesn't seem to be any areas where my eye can rest. If I were trying his style, I would do the saturated colors near the focal point and then grey out the colors as you move away from it.

Dougie

[Doug Hoppes]

Quick 10-minute sketch of my dog's toys.

[JeffX99]

Yeah, I agree about the color - the aspect of his work I like least. I have his big monograph and it has a lot of variety - just thought you'd like some of it as inspiration for your landscape geometries!

[Doug Hoppes]

Definitely some interesting ideas about how Held goes about doing his work. I may end up adding some of his rectangular tubes to my paintings. They're a pretty cool idea.