Tuesday, July 29, 2014

More studies


 Working in Photoshop I can quickly create simple color roughs.
This is the drawing in my sketchbook of the painting from the earlier post.  The sketchbook is 11x14.

Here the sky is blocked in. My studio is downstairs and the computer is upstairs so I can't look at the digital color roughs while I paint the sketch. Sometimes I print the digital images, and sometimes I run up and down the stairs.  Yeh, I know how it sounds, but I've found that thinking the color relationships thru a 2nd time without being able to copy the digital has advantages.

Finished sketch book color comp.

Main photo reference.

Under painting on the final.  Here I'm using burnt sienna acrylic, sealed with a layer of acrylic matte medium.  You can see some of the pencil drawing showing thru the paint.

A couple of details of the finish.

The final. 12x20.  Your welcome to add comments under each post.








Monday, July 28, 2014

Courthouse Butte

In March 2013 we spent a day hiking around Bell Rock and courthouse Butte in Sedona Arizona. I took about 80 photos that day.  I didn't sketch or paint on location, but I did sketch latter that day and more the following days.



These are a few of the photos from that day. Mostly I use a small inexpensive digital camera. Its simple to use, and fits in my pocket.  If I hope to keep up with my 2 sons I cant speed too much time planning the shots.  I know I'm going to use the photos as a jumping off point, not as reference to copy.
I like to work in Photoshop, digitally creating color and composition. Sometimes painting 20 different roughs.  Then I'll do an 11x14 color sketch in my sketchbook. Once all that is worked thru, I have a relatively clear vision of the final painting.

Here's a group of color ideas for a different painting.


This shows the painting in progress. At this stage the drawing is complete, and I've started the under painting.

This is the final painting framed. Once it was framed and on the wall for a couple of days, I went back to the reference photos and realized that the right hand side of the rock formation didn't look right. If you compare this to the earlier image you can see the changes.
A section of detail.