Monday, January 31, 2011

Dragon Oil Painting - Continued


In lieu of last night's Livestreaming session I have taken a photograph of the painting in full daylight to get a better idea of what the work done actually was.

In previous photos the clouds are much different. We have since added different lighting, and changed the saturation to better reflect the lighting that was intended to be happening. Purple lightning is extremely saturated I found out after actually hunting down reference photos to work from. I also added the top of the anvil cloud in the far background. That's what was bothering me about it before, and doing that helped to add a sense of depth to the sky. I then was able to unify the lighting in the rest of the image, adding a mixture of Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Payne's Grey and Titanium white for the hills in the distance.

The nearer rocks have the same basic colors, but with a touch of raw umber added as well to add a slightly warmer tone. I still need to add small details such as gravel and smaller rocks/shrubs/trees etc to the foreground, but I am liking this painting more now that I was able to fix some glaring errors that were throwing me off.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Dragon Oil Painting


I have been working on this particular oil painting off and on for about a year now, and I figured that I'd post the progress pictures here to illustrate the process I use for my paintings.

I will generally sketch out what I am going to paint before I start, first by dividing the canvas into thirds in both horizontal and vertical directions. The sketch also helps me plan my composition before I start with the actual painting process. I stream my paintings pretty regularly on my Livestream channel, but this is a good way to log and record my actual methods for future reference.

The subject matter is going to be a pair of dragons, exchanging vows under a full moon, with a lightening storm in the background.





Here we have the background roughed in. The lighting is being defined, and shadows planned out. The dragons have not really been worked on at this point, as I was concentrating mainly on getting the setting started before I put any paint to the subjects.

















Now I've done work to the actual dragons in the piece. At this point I also noticed that there were several glaring anatomy errors on the male dragon, which I was having a hard time correcting initially. The scaling work has been begun on the male, and the female has had her colors roughed in and the lighting.

Colors being used are: Payne's Grey, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, Indian Red, and Cadmium Red. Windsor & Newton Water-mixable oil colors.

These paints are awesome by the way. They clean up with soap/water/brush cleaner and don't stink. Which makes them ideal for indoor work, or if you have pets/small children who can't tolerate fumes.





Here we have anatomy errors fixed. The male's horns and back sails have been painted in and refined, as well as his scaling. He is still not finished however, as I will be returning to him at a later time once I get the female up to the same level, and the far background completely worked.

















This last photo brings us current with the progress of the painting. I spent an evening on Live-stream detailing the female, her back sail, horns, wings and scales are all painted in now, and are about the same level of detail as the male dragon. The next step from here will be to work the background fully, detailing in the clouds, rocks and the moon/sky.

The piece is starting to look much more refined and finished. But there is still a great deal of work left. At this point I have probably invested about 35 hours of work into this one painting. And I have about that much left to finish it completely.