Wednesday 29 January 2014



Lifedrawing, 5x5 minutes, 6x2 minutes and an untimed one where the model walks around the room, and does whatever, dance, anything.
Bought an Asaro head, it comes with a booklet, which has very useful information, and I bought a Bella Donna catalogue with it, a series of paintings by John Asaro on the female form, fantastic work.

This study was tough, I found it tougher than my skull studies, as the planes are much more pronounced, there's no getting away with anything, as each plane shows a different value, the drawing can become difficult to control, you adjust the value of one plane, then you may have to adjust another then another and so on, really testing, to the point where I had to just stop.  Though at the same time, I went about it to just blur my eyes and just think of it as an overall form, as I would usually with other studies, which helped, but at the same time I am working those planes.    The next studies I may keep the lines looser, and see how that goes.  I think the neck might be a bit long as well, so I will have to keep that in mind for the next study, and I may try softening the forms as explained in the booklet, which just looks really cool, but could be difficult to know what to and how to soften certain areas.

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Some Reilly Abstraction I been doing, with gestures underneath from "onairvideo" YouTube channel. 5x 1 Minute and then a 2 minute on the end, right side.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Another one from Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier.  I will continue on with this one.

Monday 20 January 2014

This is more it's colour taken at daylight.  Thought I should take a picture at daylight, it's not completely straight on, so little bit cropped from top and bit of sides, didn't get the angle properly straight on, but that's something to care about when its done.  I looked into buying a daylight LED lamp, so will see how that is when painting in the evenings, I've realised the slight yellow light in my room can interfere with the colour mixing a bit, and you can see the difference from my previous posts.

Saturday 18 January 2014

Think something up with my camera or I need a pro one with a tripod or something, need to keep my hand extremely still when taking these, still a bit blurry though.

Friday 17 January 2014

Picture is a bit blurry, was in a bit of a rush when taking.

Thursday 16 January 2014

Started the painting.  Painting it bigger than the charcoal drawing, so it was challenging trying to scale it up and keep it in proportion compositionally , but kept fighting with it and it's starting to take shape now I think.  I don't mind not keeping to the charcoal drawing 100%.

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Not sure if I want to work it up some more, may just move onto the painting.

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Bit overdue, decided to fill out the sheet a bit more a little last minute, got to be more strict to the midnight deadlines again.  Got a bit relax.  These are studies from Frederic Delavier's wonderful book, Strength Training Anatomy.

Monday 13 January 2014


Thought I should finish that skull page, and some Bridgman study I did prior.

Sunday 12 January 2014

Bit more work, must make sure I soften the shading on that arm.

Saturday 11 January 2014


Bit overdue uploading these, internet was down.  Hampton study.

Wednesday 8 January 2014


Tiny bit on the Rockwell study sheet, and working on a comprehensive character portrait which I may paint.

Tuesday 7 January 2014




A couple of block in studies of Frederic Edwin Church pieces, the top one I could have handled better, will do another one of that soon, and Bridgman drapery study.  Been doing a bit of research into some ideas for a painting,  which can be time consuming in itself, had to make sure I got some study in.

Monday 6 January 2014



Working on a Bernini study, and found a YouTube channel called "onairvideo" and they do a video series called "The Croquis Cafe", video's with various poses from 1, 2 and  5 minutes.

Sunday 5 January 2014

Friday 3 January 2014




Small study from Pan's Labyrinth, main focus was value and colour, meant to be kept a bit loose and gestural, though it can be difficult to know when to stop with these, and some Bridgman study.


Thursday 2 January 2014


Little bit of work on that painting, really just trying to figure out how to handle the textures, and got in a little bit of Bridgman study.

Wednesday 1 January 2014


A warm up sheet, and a painting I'm working on, reproducing one of my digital paintings in oil, trying to add something extra to it as well.  I actually attempted this painting on the 30x20 canvas board, painting to the edge, but the dimensions didn't really work, so I thought to try it smaller, on a sheet of canvas instead (18x14 canvas pad), that I bought with the boards, leaving a border for the dimensions I want.  I've realised I do prefer working on a unstretched canvas, it's just feels freer, when I look at a canvas board I think.. well I don't want to ruin this.  Mitchell Albala explains the advantages of unstretched canvas in his blog post, when asked about framing, which really sold me, because I wasn't really sure about that aspect.  http://blog.mitchalbala.com/framing-options-for-paintings-on-unstretched-canvas-or-paper/

It's beginning to take shape, though I have an issue, it does lose clarity in certain areas, when I turn the painting upside down, maybe that will solve itself when I start working into it more, but it's something I need to be diligent about.  I'm going to look into buying canvas rolls, for future so I can work larger, though right now I think it's good to just work at a reasonable or smaller size, and just focus on being efficient at getting my ideas down, otherwise it's just spending time trying to cover the surface.