I have been creating beautiful portrait paintings for my clients for many years now. However, I have been very conservative with my brushstrokes. My clients have tended to want a more smooth look in their painting – or perhaps that was simply my projection. I think I will begin to veer away from this from time to time. Skin will always be smooth but I can create greater expressions within other aspects of the painting. The following is one such example. The response to this painting has been very favorable. Ultimately, I want to make my clients “thrilled” with their portrait and I will always stay with in their comfort level.
A new 4 week class has begun with the Digital Art Academy focused on painting street scenes. We were all given the same reference image and allowed total artistic flexibility in how we developed our paintings from the image. It was wonderful to see the range of artistic expression amongst all in the class. Off course no one else painted people in different clothing nor created duotone paintings. I think I have been watching too many historic European movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXGmzsQim48&context=C3dee137ADOEgsToPDskKjoyY7OK5cl4wSX7FTj7TT
See how I visualize and compose a painting, Add impasto texture to your painting. This video demonstrates these processes.
My Corel Painter 12 watercolor class is over. I have been studying with quite a wonderful and watercolor obsessed instructor who teaches at the Digital Art Academy – Skip Allen. He is passionate about watercolor and brush making. I thought it important for me to at least become familiar with this digital media – to understand it’s opportunities, challenges, and to understand the brush controls. I also wanted to work with some of the concepts of traditional watercolor as we attempt to translate this into a digital medium. The following video will discuss the 3 types of Painter watercolor brushes. I will show a few paintings I created. I will demonstrate how some of the brushes work – you will be so amazed to see them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c75tCdzUiCY&context=C3dee137ADOEgsToPDskKjoyY7OK5cl4wSX7FTj7TT
Creating Flower Girls
You have seen my “flower girls” posted in a previous blog. I made this video to show you how to create them. It is quick and easy – unless you choose to paint them as I did. But for this video, I chose to do a non painted demo just to show the technique. I think you will find it interesting – I hope you will enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9SrrWT4mi8&context=C3dee137ADOEgsToPDskKjoyY7OK5cl4wSX7FTj7TT
I bet you never heard the term “negative” painting before. I had not until today – in my online class with Skip Allen, my watercolor instructor at the Digital Art Academy. There was quite a bit of discussion about this term. First of all it is a watercolor term, and it refers to painting in the negative space, the space which surrounds the focal point of your painting, to give the subject of your depth and luminosity. That as opposed to doing substantial positive painting on the subject of the painting itself. Am I being clear? Hopefully looking at my finished image helps. In case you are interested, Skip gave us references of a couple of watercolor painters who do “negative” watercolor painting,
Well, I am making progress – I hope you think so after what I showed you yesterday. That was playtime – this is more serious.
I started with this photograph. I think I was in – I am not sure really. I will do better with that next time. Anyway… the photo from which I painted…
I then took in into Corel Painter. This is how I set up my workspace. I am surrounded by many tools, brushes even images when I paint.
Thus is a screenshot I took while I painted. It shows the canvas I am painting on, to the right of that, there is a selection of paper textures I can bring into my painting to simulate watercolor paper or many other textures I might want to include. Next, my color wheel and to the right of that many short cuts for actions I might take during the course of my painting. On the bottom row you see another, what we call “custom pallet”. It is a way of keeping some of my favorite tools, commands and brushes close at hand. Next you see a blue toned water color image by traditional water colorist David Taylor. I wanted to keep it close at hand to reference his style and just for inspiration. Beyond that – more tools. Beyond that a mixer pad. I can mix colors on the mixing pad, just as any artist would use a mixing pad. In addition, new to Painter 12.1 I can bring in an image to my mixer pad to use in my selection of colors. In this instance, you can see a small version of my reference image. it served two purposes. One, I could select my colors from it as I painted, and two, it also served as my visual reference for the painting.
This is my final image – at least for today. I enjoyed painting it.
I don’t photograph lots of seniors but when I do I enjoy it. They are definitely fun to work with. I like to keep things simple, natural, and outdoors when possible using simple but complimentary settings. I think long tern and don’t want to go wild with the possibilities which are available to us digitally. I want to create timeless portrait. These are important portraits and mark for many a major turning point in life. The following are recent images of “Missy”.
Modest enhances were added to these images using Nik Software.
My monitor display is optimized using X-Rite Color management solutions, in this instance, i1 Pro Photo.
This process started when Karen Bonaker, instructor at the Digital Art Academy, mentioned that one of my paintings reminded her of Klimt with all of the gold on it. I thought I should go further and created this piece. The video allows me to share my creative process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhuiILO7QxU&context=C3dee137ADOEgsToPDskKjoyY7OK5cl4wSX7FTj7TT