oil painting wip *updated 1.12*

[daarken]

something i am working on as a present for my gf. things are a bit rocky between us, and i thought this would cheer her up. its pretty big, and i have been having a lot of problems with proportion and distortion...just not used to painting big. any comments would be a great help. oh yeah, and can anyone tell who it is? haha

http://www.daarken.com/boards/groupwip.jpg

detail

http://www.daarken.com/boards/bendetail.jpg

update

http://www.daarken.com/boards/groupwip2.jpg

update, dont hate me!

http://www.daarken.com/boards/danieldetail2.jpg

[Bjorn]

to me its done...
its a fucking fantastic painting...

[J.Peckham]

yep, thats real good. i like the blue and redish orangeish colors together...leave it unfinished.

[daarken]

haha thanks guys! leave it? what about the other guys faces? heh. or are you just talking about the rest of his body to be left unfinished? worked on the middle guys face.

[Bjorn]

hehe...well...im one of those that seem to think that there is a lot to explore in the unfinished quality that is shown in your painting...for example the rough underpaintings/sketches of the heads in the background leaves a lot to my mind to fill in and explore...it's hard to explain but sometimes it's good to not give it all away...i mean how do one explain that i go wild when i see those highlights around the eyes of your painting...i dont know where you want to go with your skills...your techniqe is fucking awesome and you have heard it over and over again but now you have come to a point where you can get deeper in to theory...lucas art will hire you , dont worry about that...but i think that you will find more than you think in the text of theory masters...and whatever you do don't listen to me!!!....

[Kress]

A little part of me was disappointed when I saw you were totally fleshing out the other faces. I thought the unfinished marks in the background were the beginning of some really nice "phrases". Anyway - nice painting.

[daarken]

aww man, everyone wants it unfinished! haha, i kinda cant on this one though cause the guy on the far left is my gf's favorite, she she would be pissed if i left him undone, hah. thanks for all the comments guys!

[daarken]

heh, they are an australian band

[ZippZopp]

very nice Daarken! i really enjoy the contrast of the blue background to the skin tones. great composition as well! good job

[Oblio]

I can give you some advice here.
Leave it unfinished - and take her out. Spend more time with her, my friend! This thing with the "fav. band" comes and goes.
You should be the center of her desires! :p
Sometimes... we have to make this kind of choices. Sometimes...

Oblio

[daarken]

oblio: haha, i dont think this is a come and go thing, you would have to know her. plus i already finished it today :O. its cool though, there are thousands of paintings out there that i can leave unfinished right? thanks everyone! i will take some pics of the finished version soon.

[davi]

beyond impressive
keep up the good work.

[benzo]

yeah, very strong work man!

[JoshuaTheJames]

really cool ...

[pibb991]

silverchair right?

[daarken]

pibb: heh, finally someone guessed who it was!

final version:
http://www.daarken.com/FlashPage/Paintings/silverchair.jpg

[I.was.ink]

Reallly nice piece. I have no idea who silverchair is. but i like it a lot. I think that the last pic you took makes the bottom half look to white. Really nice stuff
:)

[Nog]

That's fantastic. I love how you did that; it looks great all the way through.

Can I ask you how you did that? I mean, a brief description of your processes. I'm just starting with oils, and haven't been painting long in general. The only instruction I've gotten is that which I've sapped from this forum, so I'd appreciate any tips you could give on how to get a final piece of this quality.

Nog :D

[daarken]

nog: thanks! hmmm, there wasnt much process to this one. most people will tell you "fat over lean" meaning when you start out you use more turp with your oils, and as you progress in the painting you use less and less turp until you are just using straight oils. i tend to not use any turp. with this one basically the only time i used turp was with the under drawing. but i start out by toning the canvas. in this case i used burnt umber gesso. then i did the under drawing with yellow ochre and lots of turp. then i just dove into the painting, virtually not using any more turp. so hmm...i dont know what else to say about process, hah. hope that helps some. if you have any other specific questions ask away. thanks

[Nog]

Hoy, thanks. Daarken. I appreciate it. I'm fairly new to the whole painting bizz and any advice I get is uber helpful, especially from the pros.

No thinner means you must go through a ton of paint though, doesn't it? :eek:

Thanks again,
Nog