Landscape practise 2

Landscape practise.
Oil on canvas panel, 12x16", alla prima.
Photo courtesy Steve Lyddon, PMP .

Tree Study 1

Oil study on primed paper.  10 x 8"
Photo reference, thanks to Steve Lyddon , on PMP.

Litte White Flower - practise

Practice session. 8x5" on canvas pad. Alla prima. (Not for sale.)
The colors in this photo may not be very true to the real painting, as I took this pic from my 8mp mobile phone.

Sumatran Tiger painting featured in the Indonesian Film Sang Pialang (2012)

My painting 'Sumatran Tiger' was featured in the Indonesian movie "Sang Pialang" (2012).
The print was obtained from FineArtAmerica.com. Sang Pialang is a first of its kind Indonesian Wall Street Drama themed movie. Here's the movie poster:

IMDB link

Screenshots from Sang Pialang featuring my painting:>   

http://www.sigodangpos.com/2013/01/foto-foto-christian-sugiono-dalam-film.html

Pandit. Oil on canvas panel, 13x18"

Recently completed. This is my first painting from the PMP resource. Photo credit thanks to Ahmed Farahat of PaintMyPhoto.com. . I painted the image after cropping it , so I could zoom on the panditji reading.  (Click on the thumbnail for a bigger image)

Here's a close up of the face

Elephant - Watercolor on paper

This is a watercolor I did as my entry for the August monthly challenge of Paintmyphoto.com
Photo reference by ESP on PMP. 16 x 11.7" .  Highlights in gouache. 

Sunflowers with Vase

Oil on canvas panel. 18 x 24"

Red Blaze

Back to my old craze..Formula-1.  This parinting stretched for a awhile. I could only finish it in spurts. Here's some advice if you want it: never let a painting lie un-finished for a long time. Because you'll soon lose the mojo required to finish it. Start to finish should be in one go. Ideally!

40"x30". Oil on Stretched Canvas

Close up

Sumatran Tiger

Believe me , I'm really trying to find the time. But in the race between earning money, and making the time to paint , the former wins. Add to that the fact the there is so much of stuff you put away for the weekend , its an uphill task to paint anywhere near the kind of art you really want to make.
Anyhoo, I made the time for the Sumatran Tiger, and finally got it underway. At this rate, I should be making one artpeice per-year!! Lol!
This is an Oil on streched Canvas,
30" x 24" h
This painting was based on the original photo by UK photographer Andrew Land.
Thank you Andy for the permission to use your photo.
Your photographs are awesome, and may they keep coming.
This is Andrew's site:  http://andy1349.daportfolio.com/

Sumatran Tiger, Oil on stretched canvas, 30" x 24" h

Close up:

Snow Leopard (practice - not for sale)

Snow Leopard. Oil on canvas. 36 x 24". (This painting is based on a poster available online. Its not for sale, but done only for practice )
Took me about three weeks to finish this. Considering this was done in my office. I like wet in wet painting , but since I was painting in my free time, I had no choice, so the painting was dry always when I went in for the next painting session.
At a stretch this would have taken me about three normal days to paint. I had fun painting this, and so did my colleagues . Many of them took pictures of them holding brushes, and posted it on their facebook, so it looks like they are painting. :)I normally prefer to be alone with some music when I paint, but this was a different experience!

Detail. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Wow! I've been away from my blog for a year now! It was not all artist block mind you. But yes, the block is there, and Im working on it.

Got a couple of pear studies done yesterday. First one in artificial light , the other in  natual light.

Both Oil on canvas, 8 x 5".

Jar with Tomatoes

Oil on canvas panel. 8 x 10" 

Did this today.  Took about a hour and a half.  I've been wanting to paint these jars for a long time now. So I went out and bought a couple of them. One big , one small. They are used mainly for storing pickles , here in south India. They make excellent compositional elements.

The jar is yellow ochre with a bit of Cobalt Blue. For the background I mixed Cobalt Blue/Paynes Gray/a touch of crimson, and a dash of Yellow Ochre. Tomatoes are pure Vermillon, with Cobalt Blue added for shadows, along with a touch of the background color to harmonize it with the background.

Bananas

Bananas in a metal bowl.

Oil on Canvas panel. 8 x 10"

Green Pepper

Oil on canvas panel, 6x8"

Tomatoes

Tomatoes.

Oil on canvas panel. 6x8"

Colors: Chrome Yellow, Vermillon, Yellow Ochre, Little bit of Crimson and Cobalt Blue in the shadows.

The big birds

Here's a larger image of the finished plein air. (Click on the pic to enlarge.)

Here's a cu of the birds.

Crane city on the Lake

My first plein air painting in a long long time! This is the lake I go to for inspiration. A short drive from my house. Its the location for most of my study into colors, composition, tone, etc.

My equipment is simple. A failed pochace box (!) acts as a table for materials. An alumunium easel helps to hold the support. The fact is local carpenters here don't know what a pochade box is. And i DID scout the whole of Bangalore city to buy one. But nada. Nobody , no artists in Bangalore uses a pochade box! So I had to go and coax my carpenter into making one. But the end result is so shaky, that you cannot paint on it, cos of the fact that we couldnt find a tee-nut here to hold the box to the tripod. So I decided to use it as a materials manager, and used my alumunium portable easel to paint. 

This scene is the bunch of trees where the cranes come . I have no idea what those cranes are, nor the names. Wish I knew though, but they were beautiful! Huge wing span, orange,  black and yellow. Lovely birds. 

This is first and last time im carrying a 12 x 16" canvas on a plein air trip!! Lol. It took me the best part of a couple of hours to finish this. The light changed , it become hot and sweaty. 

Here's the block in stage: 

The finished plein air:

12 x 16" , Oil on Canvas panel

Orange

Hey People! Im back. Sorry for the looooong absence ! I was shifting residence. AND a lot of work. So I was kinda away from my easel. Now Im back, and the good news is I have set up my new studio. Well, its an office cum studio sort of. Will post some pics once its fully done up. Meanwhile this is my first painting in my new studio. I was testing the lighting and general setup and taste of my new place. And..... believe me, its great. Expect to see a LOT more works coming up.

So stay tuned.

Orange. Oil on panel. 6x8". About an hour. 

Green Apple with Rose

Another Apple-rose subject this week.
6 x 8 , oil on canvas panel. Colors; White, Chrome Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Sap Green, Ultramarine Blue, , Burnt Sienna and a touch of Alizarin Crimson.
Medium : Maroger .
I'm not too happy with the rose. That's the objective of this particular range of paintings I'm doing. To get the flowers right. :)

Apple with roses

Back after a looong break! Like I mentioned before, its a real luxury to be able to paint DAILY!!
Remember that, write that down where you can see it daily, and rejoice that you ARE able to afford that luxury, if you are a daily painter, or one of those lucky ones who can paint daily !! Lol.
Work seems to have taken over . With just a hour each in the morining and evening, I really couldnt fit in a painting schedule. Today Sunday , I dashed in this small 6 x 8" oil on canvas.
For the next few weeks, I will be using the same subject, roses and apples, although I may vary the fruit used. This is to help me get used to painting roses, and from there master the art of painting flowers.
Oil on Canvas, 6 x 8".

Chart showing the application of Oil medium

This is a chart I made to show the application in layers of Oil painting medium.

This is a popular approach. Your approach could vary. 

Feel free to copy , print, publish, and distribute this.  

(Click on image for bigger printable jpeg)

Red Pepper with Steel Bowl

Oil on Paper. 6x8" 

The past two weeks were kind of hectic for me, as I was travelling, and found no time to paint.

The Zorn Palette

And here's the Anders Zorn Palette:
(Click on image for bigger printable version)

The final painting.

Although really far from the original, I don't think its too bad for a three hour job. :)

Oil on canvas panel. 36 x 24" .

Also on Sunday, I worked on my entry to the Anders Zorn Master of the Month (MOM) thread on Wet Canvas.

Although I used the Zorn palette, I found this painting "Woman Dressing" to have more yellow and Green than the usual colors he used. So I added in a bit of Chrome Yellow plus Sap Green .

This was done in about three hours. The reference image was a small Jpeg I got from ArtRenewal.org.

Final version:

Stage Three: Color lay in

stage II : block in

Stage  I : Sketch in with brush. This was an old canvas, which I had aborted, then re-applied a white wash, then covered it with a ground of burnt sienna, and alizarin crimson.

Canvas panel: 36 x 24"

Red Peppers

Sunday, and I got these lovely red peppers. 

I first did the canvas panel version, before trying out a rough paper version.

Actually, I liked the rough paper version better than the canvas one.

Oil on Canvas and paper. Roughly 8 x 10 " 

The one on the right is the paper sketch.

The two versions seen side by side

 The paper version:

Mug and Carrots

Ah, the luxury of being able to paint DAILY!!!!  

Hope I can experience that soon. :)

Today was a holiday here in India. The famous Elephant God festival. Ganesh Chaturthi. So, took my time setting this up and painting it. Normally I paint before I go to work. So I hurry through things.

Carrots can be quite luminous. I pulled these carrots outa the fridge. They were a few days old. If you can get the reddish variety of carrots , paint them in the sunlight. The luminous orange is fantastic.

Remember, when painting metallic objects that reflect the surroundings, the metal takes on the color, in most cases, of the background. So if you are painting metal make it a point to have some the metallic color on the metal, in the background.

This is 8 x 10" , Oil on Canvas. Done in an hour and a half.

Two Pears

I'm hooked on Pears!! 

This is a 8x6" oil on canvas panel. Im painting on a canvas after a long time on MDF boards.

Along with the colors I used on the previous pear painting, I added Mauve to the list, to get the dark background. 

PEAR!!

I always was fascinated by this lovely fruit, but never had the oppurtunity to eat it.
Pears are grown in India in the northern mountain regions, but not easily available in south India.
I always wanted to paint pears, so I went ahead and did this 6x7" oil on board today.
The painting was done live, without reference to the photo.

Pear, Oil on board, 6 x 7 ".
Time taken to paint , an hour.
Colors: White, lemon yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue , and a dash of Sap Green.


Photo. ( Public Domain, download & use at your free will for any purpose. )

Bottle with white Pebbles

A week later, I found the time to do my next small painting.
Bottle with white Pebbles. Oil on board. 6x7"



I liked the way the bottle turned out, but am not so happy with the pebbles.
Its too soft , and I found it a tough task to add the highlights. :)
Maybe if I had pulled the white down a bit.
Next time.  

And here's the photo , again I did not use the photo for reference, but painted it live.

( The photo is free for your personal use.)

Cup with spoon

I did this 7x6" Oil on Hardboard today, which after a long break is a first.
I played with contrasts, dark with light, also, the firm hard cup and spoon with the soft abstract nature of the paper napkin.


Cup with spoon
Oil on hardboard, 7 x 6 "

Wow!Its been just over a year since I posted the Ferrari painting!
This past year has been a learning experience for me! Just when you think you know everything, you hook a left, and suddenly you realise you don't know zilch! Im talking about all the factors that goes into a painting. Its like a elevator. The more you climb up, the more you can see. But you can paint from almost ANY level, no matter how much you know.

I've been feeding myself stuff about compostion, color theory, value composition , things one needs to be aware of if you are to be any good at what you do.
It will still take me a lot of attempts before I am satisfied.
Meanwhile remember at the start of this blog I 'd mention Im fighting a serious artist' block.

This , after horsing around with the sketch in Photoshop.

Back after a long gap!

Sorry folks, I had to be away.
I was needed to work on some 3d projects, and I now end up working full time!
So no time at present to do art. But I have worked out some free time, and i should be doing some art, although the frequency would be on the lower side.

This is a pencil sketch I did of an African elephant.

This is the project I've been working on the past few weeks.

Ferrari in Garage
Oil on gallery stretched canvas
36 x 24 x 3 inches
Unframed

The painting in a digital frame.

The second stage done in acryllic tonal wash. Dark and light areas are defined in acryllic. Painting in oils was begun a day later, when this layer was thoroughly dried.

The sketch, done in pencil, directly on canvas, then erased sufficently before painting. This way I ensure that the pencil lines don't show throught the oil layers.
I used up one whole eraser (!) to get it down to the way I wanted it! Talk of being lazy!! A good swipe at the end with a dry brush gets rid of all the unwanted graphite.

Because I needed to get familiar with the form and construction of the Formula 1 racer, I made this card model of the Ferrai, based on plans available on the net.
Parallel to the construction of the model, I also read up on as many facts as I could read about Formula car construction.


Did you know that the tail fin of the Ferrari can hold up to 16 grown men standing on it? Awesome facts you come across when you study these things!!