Start your engines

Fun sketch i did today after seeing a smashed up engine on the road near my house.

(PS: I'm in the process of updating my webhosting, so if images are broken I'll get it fixed ASAP. )

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narcissus much?

Hey y'all! I'm currently doing some hardcore studies.. all in the pursuit of awesomeness. So I must apologize for the lack of posts. But rest assured I'm charging up for something big. :)

here's a quick self portrait just for fun:

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feelin' fruity

Another still life study for y'all. Learnt that orange gets muddy very quickly when you add black... needed to use reds and purples instead.

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the animated gif:

the setup:

Spent the day doing a digital study of local Fitzoy, Melbourne artist Joseph Zbukvic. He lives 100 meters from me and is just a great bloke and fantastic watercolour master Click here for his website

Joseph if you are reading this, I owe you a beer mate. Learnt a lot from doing this one.

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speed value

Quick impressionist speed sketch after dinner.

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Colour Scribble

The King receives his monthly internet bill. :D

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Phew.... busy weekend.

Apologies for the lack of posts this weekend; I spend the past 2.5days sketching and photo-retouching for Wacom in their booth at the Melbourne Digital Life Expo.

Back now in my comfy chair... more art coming soon! Stay posted.

Oasis

Having some fun with colours and girls. :D

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it's friday

On a friday night even the rain can't stop you feelin' good.

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John Singer Sargent Studies

Spent the last couple of days with my nose in a book of John Singer Sargent's later portraits. Couldn't resist some digital master studies. Hope you enjoy them, I've certainly learnt a lot while painting them.

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and another one

quick 2.5 hour study tonight. Might finish it.... might move on to the next.

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Enviro Study

Spent today studying more natural lighting setups. Here's one of the pieces that came out of the session.

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Sleevie Wonder

Some jacket studies from today; placement of folds, pockets and buttons.

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Drills drills drills

Get the value down, turn the form and get out! :D Enjoy.

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Sketch and Release

Seems like ages since I've just drifted off and sketched a huge page of figures in ink. It's been good to take a break, try some new mediums & content, then come back to something familiar. Enjoy.

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Freedom!!!

That's right! I'm breaking away from the computer and getting some vitamin D. :D Here's some watercolours for you to point and laugh at. Enjoy!

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Value Options

This blog is meant mostly to showcase my polished work, but there are occasional times where I'll share some jewels of information that I pick up on my life long journey into this thing called art. :D

Here's some rough, rough value sketches I did today after going back and revisiting some books about painting nature and building a strong composition. It's a great quick exercise that'll teach you about some of the options you have when creating a piece.

These are all the same scene with 3 main tones shifted about (foreground, midground and background) to give a different mood and highlight to each piece. They are all possible scenarios in reality depending on time of day and lighing.

The top row have the light value in the Background.
The middle row have the light value in the Foreground, with the dark value either in the mid (right image), or background (left image).
The last row has the light value in the mid ground highlighting the bridge element.

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Study study study

Matte Painting practice with ref

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Industrial Rig Concept

Had fun with this one.... easy to get lost in the details. Enjoy.

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and for those playing at home:

Returning home.

Spent a little more time on this one fleshing out the details of the house.

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another speedie

here's another one... with an Asian influence.

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speed environments.

Here a couple of speed sketches done under 2 hours each from imagination. These were a lot more free and fun than the character work I'm used to... more to come soon.

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Colour Study

I've been hiding from the sun these past few days doing this colour study. The boys at Concept Art gave a killer quote the other day; (paraphrasing) "Painting is just fixing one mistake after another until you are sick of looking at it.

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and here's the process for those playing at home:

colour studies

so..... you know how my life has layers, is some what a-peeling and makes me cry sometimes?.... well here's a colour study to represent that. :P

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Value Passes

Here's the concepts for the main protagonist. Onto the next phase.

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1st Value Pass

Here's the first thumbnail polished up to a value standard. I'll do a couple of these, pick a favourite, and do a colour version.

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Red Thumbs

Here's some more thumbnails developing the character a little more. I'm thinking devil may care biker chick. Enjoy.

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Lil Red.

So I'm trying my hand at redesigning the well known characters from the Grimm brothers; Red Riding Hood. Yes I know it's been done to death, but I'm going to do it better.

Here's the first stage: Thumbnails. I did dozens of these lil guys, and I really should have done hundreds more; hell I still might, but this marks the pushing off down the river without a paddle. Come join me, the water is great

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dude....

Quick surfer turnaround.

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Value doodles

Drifted off and just scribbled today. boo!

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Woof.

Went to see a girl about a dog.

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Eye Tunes.

These sculpts are just killer to learn the forms that go into the face. I'm going for a full body sculpt soon!

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Sunday Sketchin

We had a new fluffy member at the Sunday sketch session.

Ay Muchacho!

Here's another concept inspired from the studies I've been doing lately.

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Concept

Finally got around to polishing off an old sketch I did last year.

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Gra-Fight Club 2010 up and running!

We had a killer turn out for the first Melbourne gra-Fight Club of the year! Amongst some of the peeps to rock up were:

Edward, Georgina, Luke, and all the way from Ireland (although he swears he's from Scotland for some reason) was visiting artist Ken Anderson.

We meet up weekly on Sundays at 11am rain, hail or shine; cnr of Bourke and Elizabeth st (next to the marble purse). Call me on 0408 409 909 if can't find us on the day! See you on Sunday; bring your sunnies, it's going to be a hot one.

Drink Up!!!

W00t!