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!

Three hour works

It's been a while!
I've been working quite a bit though. Some works are in progress, some are abandoned (since I'm always hesitant to use the word "finished").

I was thinking about applying to Warsaw's Fine Arts Academy painting program but I kinda dropped the idea for now. I still made a few works that I would have put in the portfolio.
As far as I understand, their requirements are a bit strange. They require huge works. As in, 100x70 cm (or at least 50x70cm) in size. And it's my understanding that they kinda require them to be done within 3 hours time frame, because that's how long their practical exam takes.
Having studied at the FAA, it seems abstract and absurd and simply crazy!
Still, I tried and surprisingly enough... I had fun with it!

50x70cm, charcoal. This took me a bit longer than 3 hours - more like 6 or something...
The paper I used was awfully rough!

50x70cm, acrylics.
It was a second still life I  painted, I started it and then  my friend and I realized we had no paints to mix greens from, really - just yellow ochre and ultramarine that gave a dark, kinda muddy sea green. (I didn't paint with acrylics before, just oils, that's why the shortage of paints). Luckily the next day I stocked us up with what was missing and we managed before the flowers died completely!

50x70cm, acrylics

50x70cm, acrylics
The mask is actually a plaster cast of my face, so one might say this work is kind of a self portrait. But I didn't really strive to achieve the likeness - I mean, come on, it was a 3 hour work. :)

around 30x40cm?, acrylics
Not a portfolio piece - just messing around with paints, creating a very, err, painter-esque self portrait.

I still can't believe how fast acrylics dry up. Compared to oils it's freaking unreal! It definitely helped to keep the work fast and more loose - which I found was surprisingly fine with me. It's definitely easier to paint without unrealistically high expectations about the work I'm about to create -- which is something I'm definitely struggling with. I just need to be careful not to get too lazy now :)

Been to London

Saw a few Rembrandt paintings at the National Gallery.

Two words: holy shit.

My mind is still blown. I can't wrap my head around how amazing his self portrait at 63 is. I am devastated, but not at all surprised to not have found a photo or reproduction that would do justice to this artwork, it's all so much flatter than when seen live.

Odd Nerdrum's Rembrandt obsession makes so much more sense to me now.

That is all.

New works from new studio

8 days ago I finally moved in to my studio! It's been quite fruitful so far.
Here are two of my works that I am not planning on working any more.

Self portrait in charcoal, around 35x40cm in size

"Keys", an oil painting, around 16x25cm in size

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!

Some unfinished projects

Some of the projects that I've begun last month, I suppose they'll have to wait till 2013 till I work on them some more :)

 Charcoal portrait of an acquaintance, Anna - the drawing still needs polishing up, there was only one sitting session - approx. 30x60cm in size

2hr oil sketch of a baby head cast