Rob Rey Sketchbook

[RobRey]

Kate Huntington runs the portrait groups where I paint these portraits every week.

Kate, Oil, 9 x 12 inches


Thanks for the comments everyone! Sorry, I don't know much about acrylics, Sapphirelullaby, I just stick with oil and don't bother with them.

[RobRey]

Zane, Oil, 9 x 12 inches

[RobRey]

Crissy, Oil, 9 x 12 inches

I've just received word that my painting "Elegant Enigma" has been awarded an honorable mention in the Oil Painters of America Spring Online Showcase! I am honored to be among the winners which you can see here

[RobRey]

Mark, Oil, 9 x 12 inches

[meth]

love your stuff, but i would like to see full figure

M

[Kambei Shimada]

Beautiful studies man. Makes me realise i would like to practise with some oils.

What sort of surface are you painting on to?

[RobRey]

A few things here. I painted an illustration for a children's poetry book. The poem I illustrated is called twilight...


Oil, 18 x 24 inches

And here's a detail shot...


And because I haven't posted in a little while here's a portrait study too...

Rudy Cheeks (that's his real life nick name, as you might be able to see why)
Oil, 11 x 14 inches



Thanks MatejaPetkovic and Kambei Shimada for the comments! I'm painting on MDF panel gessoed with Utrecht acrylic gesso.

[Nick Podraza]

I love your paintings and that last illustration is awesome too. I really like the thick brushstrokes so amazing. We do a similar thing I believe at our school where a student or teacher poses for portrait club and we all just paint after school. I can't do it this semester unfortunately but I'm tryin to get as much painting in here and there as possible. Id love to see these paintings in person. very inspirational work.

[GEB]

Oils!

Jesus thats pretty impressive

[cgaddict]

Stunning work here, really enjoy your brushwork and those portrait pieces. Very inspirational all around, keep posting!

[p sage]

Really impressive sense of depth, as well as the brush strokes in the Pan painting.

[Odayga]

Wow... beautiful work. I love your style and how painterly/expressive all your work is. Contributes to the life within the character and story. Subscribing for sure! Glad I stopped by Have a good day!

[RobRey]

The Etiquette of Drawing in Public...

I usually get my drawing practice while visiting my local coffee shop. I am often asked if I have frequent encounters with angry drawing subjects demanding to know why I'm staring at them, but the truth is I've never had anyone get upset. I've only been met with curiosity and enthusiasm. The secret is... don't act like a creep! This sounds simple, and in practice it is, but it takes some thought to understand it from your subjects perspective.



Number one, don't hide and don't hide your drawing. It may seem counter intuitive when you don't want your subject to be aware that they are being drawn (since this can make them assume a less natural and more self-conscious pose) but acting secretive equals acting creepy. Be open, be friendly. You don't have to tell your subject that your drawing them, but if they happen to come over or walk by, don't cover up your drawing . Show it to them if you like or just make it easy to see so they know what you're doing.

Number two, don't be distracting. This is the most common mistake artists make when drawing in public. They put their sketchbook flat on the cafe table and continuously bob their head up and down between subject and sketch. Movement in our periphery vision catches our attention, especially when it's followed by a face looking at us. So just as the left side of the animated image in your periphery vision (below) is distracting you from reading this, the artist distracts their subject with constant movement and draws the subject's attention to the fact that they are being stared at. Solution: find some way to situate you drawing surface and the subject in or near the same field of vision so that the only thing you have to move is your eyes. This is different from being secretive. It's a matter of common courtesy to avoid being distracting.


Don't be distracting to your subject!

Even using this method, I am sometimes "caught." I glace back up from my sketch to have my gaze met head on by the subject before the drawing is finished. Not wanting to disturb them from their pose, I change the direction of my glances to something else nearby for three or four glances. This is usually enough to make them think I'm actually drawing something else. When they go back to what they were doing I continue my drawing. Then when I'm done, I leave it out on the table for them to see if they decide to come investigate with a walk-by; sometimes we have a conversation.





Thanks Nick Podraza, GEB, cgaddict, p sage, and Odayga for all the nice comments!

[catukas]

Very clean sketches. I don't get how people draw so beautifully with pencil.

[RobRey]

Ali, oil, 11 x 14 inches




Thanks catukas!

[stroan]

Thanks for the tips on drawing people in public considerately. It's something I've been nervous about doing for the reasons you've listed, but I'll be giving it a shot now.

[Mr.Ebony]

Your use of colors and lines is so awe inspiring... Keep it up.

[RobRey]

Roark, Oil, 11 x 14 inches

You may remember my last painting of Roark in a knit cap and long hair that I posted back in March. Well, he shaved his head and he hardly looks like the same person.


Thanks stroan and Mr.Ebony for the comments!

[kikindaface]

great sketchbook dude !! keep up your great stuff !!

[BlackDelphin]

haha that is a good way of drawing in public. i was avoiding it just because i didn't want to
be attracting the subject's attention like that. i'll give it a try, thanks!

great thread, great art, thanks for sharing

[Merē.Jorg]

Knew you were on DA but didn't realize you were here. Really love your work. I hope to achieve your level of skill some day.

[RobRey]

Tasha Oil, 11 x 14 inches



Thanks for the comments kikindaface, BlackDelphin, and Merē.Jorg!

[thesimplylife]

thanks a lot for the public drawing tips! i often get nervous drawing in public.
and your oil portraits are awesome!

[andrewg2442]

Very nice - I really like the way you define the planes of the face in your portraits. Also, I tried your method of sketching in public and nobody came over to tell me I was creeping them out, so thanks!

[Mashach]

Great work & thank you very much for the tips. Never tried drawing in public before, now i can do so confidently!

[z01ks]

Nice colors, nice brush strokes, nice edges, nicely captured characters - i like it!

Maybe this has been asked before, but do you use a medium to achieve smoothness?

Oh and great post on drawing in public - should be a sticky It's funny because as I was reading it I was agreeing with everything and I kinda was already using those principles but I haven't thought about them before. Like starting to draw something else or at least faking it when the subject starts showing interest in you. I do the same thing hehe. Little mind games

[RobRey]

This is the first of what I hope to turn into a series of paintings based on energy sources. I hope this piece contributes, in some small way, to enthusiasm for clean energy and other dialogue about solutions to big problems.

I also encourage anyone supportive of clean energy to visit the Department of Energy's Green Power Network to find out if there is a supplier of clean energy in your area. Many people don't even realize that they can easily sign up to purchase their electricity from clean sources for a near negligible increase in price.


Wind, Oil, 18 x 24 inches


But wait, there's more!
I've also created a video so you can watch the process of creating the painting! In the video I quickly flip through the rough, preliminary planning stages and then you can watch me paint the whole piece in stop-motion. This is the first video I've ever made and isn't really meant to be an instructional video, but hopefully it's fun to watch the process. It compresses many weeks of planning and about ten days of painting time into three and a half minutes. I usually work section to section because it allows me to work "wet into wet" as much as possible without the paint drying.

I recommend selecting HD quality and watching it full screen to see the details of what's going on.





Thanks thesimplylife, andrewg2442, Mashach, and z01ks for the comments! I'm glad my post on sketching in public is useful to people. To z01ks, I usually just use plain linseed oil for a medium. It adds fluidity, which can be smoothness, but it can also be muddiness depending on how it's used.

[RobRey]

Jessica, Oil, 11 x 14 inches


In just two weeks I'll be exhibiting at Illuxcon in PA. I hope to see you there!

[RobRey]

A Fairy and Her Steed, Oil, 18 x 24 inches

Detail:

[Mr. Corlan]

Wow . . . that's awesome. The portraits are nice, but this fantasy stuff (that I assume you spend a lot more time on) is so good. The wet-into-wet look is quite nice, and somehow you manage to keep things very clean . . . ?!

P.S. Any chance we can see some progress shots? Do you do a preliminary drawing first?