► Ka.lie.doscope

[Brendan N]

Thanks Bhanu, wish I could oblige with even more but things are pretty tight this side. Keeping rocking it bro, you're doing some wonderful things.


Here is a behind the scenes of the ad for which the paint in the previous post was done:

http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/07/s...stv/#more-1197

And a process shot of the paint. went fairly quick, but hopefully there's enough in there for someone to make some crits; Also a repost of the image so you guys don't need to go back and load the previous page:

[Joystx_]

fantastic work.

[HunterKiller_]

Digging those photos from your trip. Totally hot.

[kidult]

You'l need to update or i'l blow my vuvu at you......hehe...hehe.......nice work here though like the bright colours on this last one!

[Brendan N]

Joystx_: Thanks very much.

HunterKiller: Cheers sir, glad you like.

kidult: Noooo, don't blow it! Here's an image, its all I have but you can take it. Just don't blow your horn....


Coming toward the end of a project here, so a little more free time on my hands; free time in which I was able to do this measly image.

So this guy has just been caught out: he is trying to dispose of a body on a planet which is in the process of being terraformed (hence the red rain: microbials with high iron content stain the rain this colour, and they help terraform the planet). In the middle of dragging this naked body through the mud of an as-yet unhabitable planet, the dead guy's lover shows up with a hatchet and our man is left with trying to explain himself....

So with the drab and yet nonsensical backstory out of the way, here's the paint. Crits would be appreciated!

[BludHund]

Brendan,

Thanks for commenting on my SB, and sorry I didn't stop by sooner. That Africa trip looked amazing, BTW

This last one looks really good, but, can you show us some process shots, by chance?

Also, I have a feeling you may have some good results by using a bolder, less fussy brush. These paintings have
millions of tiny strokes, it must take you forever to finish one. Or at any rate, you may want to concentrate your
use of details in only the crucial areas on which you need to focus the viewer's attention. Too much texture and
detail everywhere can be as bad as poor value distribution for weakening a composition.

Composition is pretty strong thus far. Color and Light look pretty good, especially on the balloon sculptor image.
The only crit I would make on that one is that the poses look a bit awkward and unnatural, however the light is beautiful.

Post more often!

[poetry man]

I like that last post. It impels the viewer to ask questions. I'm not sure what I would crit on, since I myself have lots to learn. But keep it up!

[Brendan N]

BludHund: Thanks for the crit. Unfortunately I don't really have process shots on that one - it was done pretty much in one sitting. Much of the detail was added with photo overlays and effects and not so much brushwork. Value structure is something I've been working on so hopefully that'll continue to get better - it become a lot more interesting when you're colour-happy like I am. I think both of these last two images suffer most from a lack of activation of negative space - which is unusual for me since I often like seeing how much I can get away with and not have the composition fall apart. But there's a lot of negative space in both of them that does not get activated and breaks down the images. Thanks for the crit, stop by again>

poetry man: Thanks very much, and don't shy away from a crit - if it's a good one I'll learn something, and if it's a bad one you'll learn something.

Something I've been working on periodically - 'Homo Sapiens Aqualis' haha - I'd guess a total of ~20 hours, not sure. It's just conceptual, so ignore the composition because it's bad. The aesthetic of the environment is also intended to be somewhat ambiguous - somewhere between submerged and totally arid. Not sure how well I pulled it off so feedback would be appreciated>

[And All That Jazz]

Wow! really great light bloom! All around, really cool style

[AeonPhoenix]

Sick stuff. Can't really find anything to nitpick. Keep it up is all I can say. Probably looking for more direction or whatnot, but I really dunno what to suggest.

[AztcFireFlower]

Hey Brendan,

Thanks so much for the though provoking comments back in my SB. Was waiting for a reply. I hope I got the gist of your question. Anyway, i appreciate the interest in why the gears turn in my head the way they do.

I always get the mood of your pieces. The murderous space-mate caught in the act. I can hear the patter of rain on the helmets and suits as well. A silent moment, all is still, then......
Like the yellow greens misted in with the reddish BG. Concepts. ideas are worth more than drawing for the sake of drawing in the end, but, will mention a few - Definitely get the sense through anatomy chrcter with ax is a female from our pov.
Guy works well. Only thing: My eye goes to is his left arm cause of higher contrast compared to his free arm then one holding the corpse.and it's near his head (face always will draw focus). What jars me a little is that the body is behind him, while his arm appear to be coming forward. An overlap of folds in reverse would correct this as would overlap of pec in front of shoulder. You know me. Bodies are my main focus. Otherwise, as BH stated- comp is strong and to the point comp. Neg space works pretty well. sparse for a sparse environment. Allows us to focus on the bad guy. Great exercise.
. I seem to have a mental block or maybe antipathy of my own work. Perhaps this is why I don't find the creative buttons light up easily. Admire exploration and fearless experiments.
Like where the aqaulitic warrior is going. Rocks and hoodoos support the main fig. Here the neg spaces create a frame around body, NICE. Rock shapes are cool and love how you rendered those in the light!
Arid and aqautic...hmmmm. colors work great for that mood. Totally get the feel of water space and depth. That blue-green is a favorite color scheme for me. Painted my bathroom that. I could, also, get a sense of critters that live here have to be tough and adapted to survive. This feeling works well in the planetscape as barren, by the way. I would suggest some jagged or particular features of this guy's territory that indicate a rough environment - arid - desert - harsh? Maybe his skin or plating could be textured or have organic spikes that come up at will as a warrior class of his species. etc. My opinion, of course, but I'm wanting his features to be less human, as well.

Good stuff as always. Love to see all your ideas.

[AztcFireFlower]

Well, we're not too far off on the same process of concepting:
descriptive word >conditions (environment) of description> parallel idea as I played around with the word "arid"!
Yup. Same process.

[jiina]

Hey there mr
Its good to see you're finally posting work again.
I love your colour use in the last image, the browns of the sand bring a nice warmth to it.
He is an interesting character too. He seems to be a warrior and despite his strange and almost deformed form i feel as though i could approach him without being afraid. His empty eyes and soft smile make him seem almost gentle. I like that you've used bright colours to break up his form with the coral growths on his body. The bubbles are a nice touch too
Ive been staring at this picture for about 20 minutes now. I find that although he seems so content to be where he is, he feels very detached from the world around him. I don't think the environment is really responding to him. As though he is just "there". I think that i would have liked to see the sand creeping around his legs, defining his movements. Maybe even have his one foot touching the ground as though he were about to stand on it whilst the rest of his body were floating. It feels like he's been standing there forever, which admittedly does add a great depth to him, an eeriness.

Nice work as always. Keep it up Brendan and do us all a favor by posting more often

[shambok]

Hey there .. love what I'm seeing! Keep up the good work.

[glaudarien]

Wow! stunning sketchbook so far! I love how you use colour and composition so well in each image to make them appear 'whole'.

[prsnsweeney]

love the lighting and color in post 182 i really like the composition of some of the older works in your sb

[Brendan N]

Thanks everyone. Will get to specific replies later (and a few deserving sketchbook visits), when I'm not supposed to work. In the mean time - here is a new painting on which I've been grinding away patiently for the past month or something - I don't know. Not even sure the total amount of hours I've spent... probably ~30. And don't ask me to explain what's going on - I honestly have no idea. The colours seem pretty and that's all I cared about in the first place.

Crits and comments very welcome - if they're really good I might even go back and change it!

Inside The Songs Of Entropy:



Details shots:

[prsnsweeney]

that paintings awesome man i really like the way you did the water and the skin tones

[prsnsweeney]

Hey Brendan thanks for stopping by my sketchbook and thank you for the crit i definitely needed it. I was looking at your last post again and there was one thing that was sticking out at me. The rock on my right seems to be closer so i think it should contain more detail and be rendered out further than the rock on the left, but the rock on the left seems to have more detail on it so it stands out to much.

Of course you can feel free to ignore my crit since you are much more advanced in painting than i am

[jiina]

Hey mr
I really love this one! I know it probably wasn't intentional, but you've managed to make it look as though it were painted with oils.

I agree with prsnsweeney's comment about the rocks. I like that the detail on the one on the right fades out but the lack of detail compared to the left does make it seem unbalanced.
I think i would have defined her ankle and foot a bit more too. Right now it seems more like an odd bend in her leg than a foot. I guess because of the way its been painted the foot really doesn't bother me so much though. By which i mean that its more of an "artsy" piece, so it doesn't necessarily seem unintentional.

Overall it really is a beautiful painting brendAn Can't wait to see the next one!

ps- roarke asks where the boobs are.

[Velocity Kendall]

i want to see more of the rainworld undergoing terraforming please!

[AztcFireFlower]

Hey Brendon

This is very intriguing. Epic direction with a great story to develop. Would like to know what it is (the story).

As far as the foot ankle thing, I think it's a matter of defining the ankle bones grabbing or clamping on either side the wedge of the foot. And defying a clear side and back planes of that wedge.

I do love the colors of her skin. Vibrant with the flecks of cool contrasting color. Should check out Pino's work.

[Velocity Kendall]

dude, its been too long!

[Brendan N]

Hello.

I'm going to look silly if I address each of the year-old comments individually. Instead I'll rant about the morons at Microsoft who green-lit with the "Date" tab. The date tab is a curious thing as it represents neither the date created, nor the date modified. It's simply the date tab. It has no purpose other than to deeply annoy you when you're trying to find the latest version of a certain file. Microsoft decided that "date modified" and "date created" were far too simple and understandable, and implemented the anonymous date tab to obfuscate interaction with the OS. What they found was that, with its implementation, people were spending more time in windows than other applications and they deemed this to the greater benefit of their customer base. The idea, as with many of their ideas, was conceived by two pubic hairs having an argument inside a giant vat of earwax.

Also this is my latest painting: (I don't actually have anything else to say about it)

Buoyancy Troubles:



Details:







And Pseudo-timelapse:



Feedback welcome as always>

[lionheartGFX]

great sb here man your compositions are getting seriously strong i really liked that last one, what i like about your stuff is that there seems to always be an interesting backstory and the image portrays that very nicely, keep on posting updates man!