Color studies

Continuing the idea from my previous post, this time with colors :)

Top two are Grimshaw paintings (I definitely have a thing for this guy's landscapes), bottom two are by T. F. Simon and Kramskoi.

Small value studies

I recently watched first video of Noah Bradley's Art Camp in which he recommended doing some thumbnail value studies... I thought it was a great composition exercise so I did a few myself :) It was a ton of fun so I'll do color studies like these as well!

I'm sorry I can't provide with the names/authors of pieces -- I picked stuff out of my art folder and many of the names are as informative as "01.jpg" :/

Though... I hate it how the frame was plain grey on the computer I drew it on, and it's warm brownish gray on the one I'm using right now... Can't trust anything these days! 

Two speedpaints

There's a group on facebook called Daily Spitpaint -- every day the group admins post a few random topics and everyone's welcome to join on the art fun as long as their work takes less than 30 minutes to finish. I only hopped on the wagon twiced so far -- but will hopefully join in again someday :)

"Laser beams"

"Cool shades"

Aloha

In light of a hurricane recently invading Europe... it's nice to try out some new techniques while painting an obviously warm climate rocky place. Totally used this lovely photo ref.

What sucks is that I'm completely stuck in a very nonproductive rut :( I miss the time when I was surrounded by art folk! It's really hard not having that :(

Fiddle fiddle fiddle

Fiddling around with one of the works from previous post :) Namely this one:

yawn.

got a hold of new photoshop brushes... oh man, t'was fun!

why stop if you can keep on going and change stuff around!

fun fun work fun!I spent practically entire day in front of the computer screen so I'm pretty sure my brain is scrambled eggs... so I'm not gonna write anything more. Bye!

Locations

Been fooling around with photoshop lately, trying to capture various locations!
It's a bunch of ideas not following any particular pattern, I mostly just wanted to try things out. :) I've been under a heavy influence of video games' concept art lately. I'm not only very much inspired by various works, I'm also trying to learn as much as I can from them. Getting as much information into a piece in possibly clearest and simplest ways, putting the mood across... that sort of jazz :)

Continuation of an oil sketch I did back in Switzerland -- I decided to play around with oils a bit more, then moved on to photoshop

And another Narasca sketch gone loose and digital :) Tried to get a fresh foggy morning vibe in it

I found a painting sketch I did way back in February or so, decided to give it a digital refresh :)
I actually found this process the easiest -- painting something in traditional media, then 'shopping it up. I feel much more in control and confident with colors when they're in a material form. :)

Mountains... Not too happy with it but I decided I rather worked on more interesting stuff rather than put more time into this.

Having fun with a horror/zombie apocalypse feel :D

This one is a huge let down... It felt like it's gonna be a nice piece but I just can't get it to work to the point of currently giving up upon it -- gotta give my eyes and brain a rest from it before I will want to get back to it :)

Wooden tree houses are overrated, tree cottages are the new black.
Drawing this was a lot of fun!

 Anyway, hope you liked these :)

Atelier Narasca

Earlier in August I came back from a four week apprenticeship under Patrick Devonas and Dorian Iten at Atelier Narasca (in beautiful Surava, Switzerland)... it was an amazing experience. Not only did I gain a bunch of art wisdom - I also had the best time just being there with those guys (and Esther Gnädinger, yet another artist in the house)! They are incredible artists, great teachers and simply awesome people, so spending time there was certainly a treat.

During my stay there I mostly focused on The Big Painting. It took vast majority of my time and attention. However I still did some drawing/painting sketches (and even a quick clay maquette at the end of my stay)... so here are some of my works!

Not all who wander are lost (mostly known as The Big Painting), oil on canvas, 80x40cm

View from the shore of almost unrealistically beautiful Lai Palpuogna. 

Painting sketch, oil on panel, around 25x30cm
On one a bit lazier (and rainier) day I just sat in the garden and painted a wooden fence surrounding Atelier Narasca. That is, I did until rain forced me out (or should I say, in).

Painting sketch, oil on panel, ~20x20cm
First sketch I painted when I got to Surava was from Lai Palpuogna, just like The Big Painting.
I am still dazzled by that place's beauty!

Surava, painting sketch, oil on panel, ~20x35cm
Mountain view juuust outside Surava.
I didn't plan on it, but I think I'll still touch it up a little.

I have one more painting sketch I was just retouching today, so I'll upload it some other time. :)
See ya!

Landscapes and other sketches

Just yesterday I went back from a week long winter art camp with kids from my atelier. It was a lot of fun, full of work and filled with heaps of inspiration. :)

Tempera on paper, around A3 in size.
This was sadly the only landscape from life I was able to paint there. I only  managed to paint for some 40 minutes and even then, I was in our work room with the kids who decided to stay with me after their classes - so I was giving critiques to everyone around me at the same time.

Oil sketch from today.
First time ever painting the outside view from my apartment.  

Oil color study of Monet's study of a Rouen cathedral.
I wish I had something more than a  postcard-sized copy of this while I painted it, would be much easier to  work on it!

Color study in oil.
Heavily inspired by this picture of the Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria.

Pencil sketch

Watercolor sketch loosely based off the previous one

Pencil sketch, a little bit of an experiment between careful shape design vs. loose organic lines.

Only other drawing from life I made (and kept) during last week. A beautiful art nouveau lamp from the palace we were staying at. I wish I worked on the glow effect of it more.

A portrait of a model at the atelier I did some 2 weeks ago. The model was lovely but she certainly didn't care about not moving while posing. Which I guess made it even more intense to draw.

A very quick watercolor study of a small part of a Zorn painting.  Again, I wish I had more than a museum postcard to study it from -- the lady on my version was smaller than one inch in size... Though obviously it didn't stop me! ;)
It's lighter in color in real life.

I am really hoping that soon enough I will be able to work from my studio space and show you all works that I will have spent more than two hours on!
Take care!