back from CTNx & painting colours on walks

Walking at the beach and walking around my streets, I had to stop and paint the pretty colours.

Painted 5-10mins on Brushes iPhone app

Sunset Boulevard Colour Script

What a year of learning! 2014 has been amazing with so many assignments and working on my fundamentals, I can not wait to share everything I have learnt!

At the start of this year I studied once again under the guidance of Chris Oatley at the Oatley Academy and kicked the year off with a bang! Focusing on learning everything I could about colour, the class was simply amazing. It opened my eyes on how much you can achieve with a limited palette, support from a mentor and amazing group of very talented students. Chris set the challenge to create a colour script for a black and white film to apply all the principles of the course. I was given the film noir classic, Sunset Boulevard. I had never seen the film before and loved it! It also started my new addiction to watching black and white classics to learn about compositions and clever use of limited values.

This colour script has evolved throughout 2014, returning to the piece again and again, to apply new knowledge and adding more colour keys from my collection of screen caps.

Hope you like my interpretation of the classic. I have included my favourite 4 colour keys. If you would like to see any of the other keys bigger please just post a comment to this post.

If you want to learn anymore info about the Oatley Academy here is a link to Chris's site http://chrisoatley.com/ 

Sunset Boulevard © Paramount Pictures

Colour studies of my worldly travels

Went through the old travel photos and painted some colour studies for my CGMA course. Painted with 100% opacity brush and no colour picking. Was tricky and now I just want to travel the world again!

the forever challenging foreshortening

The latest life drawing sketches, proved so challenging I put the marker down and tackled these foreshortening poses with graphite, mapping the lighting first and then finding the lines. Also this is my first post for SPRING!!!!!!

graphite and marker combos

My cool grey marker dieing half way through a drawing was a blessing in disguise. I didn't want the detail of greylead and found a chunky flat graphite pencil and observed the lighting with rough block-ins followed by black marker. It forced me to observe more precisely and be confident with the each marks I made on the paper. Think i will continue this next week.

2 twenties, 1 ten and a five, life drawing

My hat is off to Sir Laurence, drawing study

Here is another Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema study I have drawn. The Painting is titled "A silent greeting." The study was drawn from observation of a colour print out, I forced myself to convert the colours into values. By doing these studies, my drawing skills are growing again, even observation skills. It's amazing how sometimes you don't realise how rusty you are. Will try to keep more of these up through out the year.

gaining confidence in life drawing

 

After stretching myself with marker for most of the year I have returned to greylead for a week of lifedrawing. She was an amazing life-model who wants to join the circus and could hold some amazing poses. Here is a 20 minute pose. 

Learning from the masters

In my latest course, Chris Oatley's Painting Drama 2 he gave me a challenge to do some studies of the great Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. The structure in his highly detailed paintings is extraordinary. This simple challenge has taught me so much, and challenged me. This is the first of my drawings, it is A4, and it was from straight eye observation of a coloured print out. It challenged my drawing skills, observation skills and value knowledge of how colours convert. There are flaws in this drawing and I didn't capture the magic of the original Cleopatra piece, but man did I enjoy the hours put into this drawing. More to come

Finally seeing the classics

I have a book pile 2 metres high and a movie list even longer of all the classics I have been told to watch. Finally I am making it happen! I am watching these classics and being blown away by their powerful stories and re-watching to awe at their cinematography. One of my goals this year was to correct my values in my paintings, and watching these black and white films, I am blown away by how clever they were directed and produced. Their frames are rich with dynamic compositions and strong story, who says you need colour? Many more movies on my list to watch but please send me your recommendations, this is a new found hobby of mine which is teaching me more than I could ever of imagined.
Movies above left to right: The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Shawshank Redemption, Sunset Boulevard, It's a Wonderful Life, Schindler's List, Casablanca, Double Indemnity, On the Waterfront and Breakfast at Tiffany's.

more markers and life drawing

A little proud of this 20min marker sketch

Absorbing colour everywhere I go

My mind has been observing colour and light like never before, learning so much right now at the Oatley Academy with Chris Oatley, I keep having to stop, paint and record what I'm seeing. Here are my latest iPhone brushes paintings.

Life drawing in 2014!

Sorry I haven't posted any updates lately but that is not because I haven't been creating new art, the opposite, super busy enjoying Chris Oatley's latest class Painting Drama 2. 2014 has started off with a bang and I am practicing daily at improving my drawing skills. Here is the latest life drawing sketches, I have experienced a massive break through in my approach to observing after reading Marcelo Vignali's Fractal Methods books. If you can get your hands on one I highly recommend it, I was lucky to purchase it at CTN in LA last year. Here's a link to his site: http://vignalistudio.blogspot.com.au/2013_09_01_archive.html