032514 a small update

 New things! I finished up my old sketchbook so I'm trying to deal with drawing on the first couple of pages of it. They will pass! The color bit took an hour tonight. How's everyone else doing?

eth.

Forest Study

Spend about 1-2 hrs talking to a friend and trying to glean information from some reference photographs I took in the woods last year. Pretty vague all in all, but I've been feeling like I really just need to focus on learning about different material types a bit more.
I also invited another fellow to the blog that seems to be a like-minded individual, very self-motivated and set on improvement, so he might be posting on here soon as well.
eth.

a new thing or two

So I know I'm always harping on how great the 1950's are as visual inspiration, but now I'm going to to attempt to prove it and dole out some concept art. So I'm playing with mech designs right now/trying to learn how to paint metallic surfaces. 

Major revelation: They are impossible to paint in the absence of an environment because as long as something is reflective, it's reflecting its environment. I think it's super beneficial to lay out a really simplistic idea of what the color in your environment is so you can temper the local color of the reflective object (be it steel gray or turquoise) with those other colors in mind, making them warmer or cooler as appropriate.

It seems like something I should already know by now but I consistently try to paint reflective surfaces without establishing in my mind what's around it.

eth.

I'm not being lazy!

Okay guys. So this is a just a little bit of the stuff that I can show at the moment. Some sketches that I haven't really thrown up anywhere else yet and a piece I did for Simutronics for freelance that I can show since it's up on their website now. I might ask you guys some opinions on compositions in the coming days since I have to start working on a little more long term painting.

Thanks for sharing and keeping us all accountable, Alison!

eth.