Routine : Illustration Friday

Friends and readers of this blog know that I’ve been trying to build painting into my daily routine for a while now.   The time I spend on the computer every day has prevented me from succeeding so far.  There’s an interesting article in NY Times “Wake Up. Wash Face. Do Routine. Now Paint.” about artists and their routines.  The Artists Way by Julia Cameron once helped me jumpstart daily art activity.  Then, it was in addition to attending art college and my class work.  I’m hoping that the book by Carol Lloyd, Creating a Life Worth Living and delaying the acquisition of a MacBook (currently in the process of selling my PowerBook) will help me achieve my objective.

Started this earlier today.  30″ X 36″ Acrylic on Canvas. WIP.  Photo ref copyright Manu.  Used with permission.  You can see the earlier smaller piece made using the same ref here.

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Mixed Media

When it is finished it’ll qualify for the title given to this post. So far it is in acrylics and today I plan to add oil paints to it. I’ve added a couple of layers of wash to the background and to the two male figures in it to make that part of the painting recede. Looks like a lot more of something is required before that happens. Any suggestions? Plan to add some texture to the woman in the middle to make sure that she is the focus of the painting.

Update : Later in the day 😀 : one more wip. this time the layer with oil and two options using layers in art rage to make the background recede.

Update : Feb 7, 2008 : This is the first piece in which I’ve used both acrylics and oil. Though I’d used acrylics to tone the canvas before starting in oil, it had never crossed my mind to make a more complete painting in acrylic and then add oil until Bob Martin suggested it. He helped me immensely by making a demo and posting a step-by-step to illustrate his process. I have to thank him for this piece. You can see the final version here.

Frangipani

There were a couple of sketches made yesterday which were two toned. A left over from working on the Kevin MacPherson exercises. This morning when I stepped out on the balcony to look for a subject, the sun was really bright and that ruled out taking any photographs of the lake. Noticed that the recently gifted, grafted Frangipani ( Champa ) plant and the pillar were making interesting shadow patterns on the tiled floor.

I had thought that a black & white version would look good but I think the original looks better after all.

Colourful Bangladesh

I take reference pictures of scenes and subjects that I would like to paint. My focus, in the past, had been on friends and family. It’s only after arriving in Dhaka that I’ve started taking photographs of the daily activity around me in the streets. I prefer to take photographs during the golden hour in the afternoon. Usually the snaps are taken while whizzing past in a car. Here’s one which I’ve saved inspite of the blur. Something in it appeals to me.

Once more with feeling

Update : November 23, 2007 : Worked some more on the portrait today.  Still very much a limited palette.  Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue ( used by mistake 😛 ) Yellow Ochre, Titanium White and a teeny weeny bit of Sap Green.  And oh I did use and equally tiny amount of cadmium red medium.

November 21, 2007 : I am making very slow progress on the WetCanvas Annual Portrait swap project. Incredible portraits have been started, finished and are in the process of being mailed out. If you want a treat go and have a look.

I’m one of the few in the group still stuck in the early stages. The 10″ by 12″ canvas board proved to be too small. I was waiting for my husband to return with some larger canvas boards [ i always have an excuse 😛 ]. Giving it another go on one that is 12″ by 16″.

The first layer was drawn using burnt sienna thinned down with turpentine. Today, I added in some white and burnt umber to separate out the light and dark areas. I’ve managed to shorten the length of the face a bit today but it needs to be shortened some more and the features need to be reworked. Leaving that for tomorrow night. 😀

Yakub

Recently I asked an old friend to provide me with a reference for the photograph used in his profile. The photograph is stunning and I wanted to have a go at it. This is my first attempt. I plan to have another go drawing or painting it soon.

Pen & Ink, 4″ X 6″ in my pocket sized sketchbook on handmade paper.

Scale : Illustration Friday

How would you rate these on a scale of 1 to 10?

8″ X 10″ Pen & Ink in my sketchbook.

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A week of Nablopomo

This is based on a photograph of a teenage girl. An attempt has been made to turn her into a young boy to see if I can play around with references instead of using them exactly as they are. Tried out a couple of variations for the background. For the first time I had a problem with the blending tool and gave up quickly. A visit to the Ambient forum for a solution is due. I’ll be working on this some more once the blending problem gets sorted out and hope to use it as a study for a larger piece either in oil or acrylics.
Digital made with Art Rage 2.5

Some more sketches from a couple of days ago

Two more pen & inks from the lot made a few days ago.  Not happy with what I made today and so scrambled to take these photographs a short while ago to make sure I made my post for the day.  Not happy with these either but todays was worse 😀

On the 5th day of ….. Nablopomo :D

This quick sketch has been based on a photograph, taken by Zahedul I Khan, that appeared on the cover of last weeks Daily Star weekend magazine.

Pen & ink wash in my 8″X 12″ sketchbook.

I know it is a bit early for Christmas songs but this (sent to me a few weeks ago by a friend on Facebook) reminded me of 30 days of Nablopomo and I thought that I’d share it with you here.