a-painting-a-day in oils

[Seedling]

Greetings!

I used to paint in acrylics, but more and more I found myself wanting the acrylics to be more like oils. Lately I haven’t been painting at all – just using Photoshop and Maya at work. I have been longing for a squishy medium! And I found an artist to be inspired by:

http://duanekeiser.blogspot.com/

So, I finally picked up a set of oils, revived what little I learned of the darn things back in college, and started pushing pigments around.

My assignment is to do one one-hour painting each day. My objectives are to master color, form, and brush-strokes that looks fresh and quick. I’m starting with still-lifes, and I’m going to be like a katamari: slowly rolling my way from tiny, simple objects upward.

There will be a delay of a few days between when I paint ‘em and when I post ‘em, due to me fumblingly figuring out the best way to turn small, gooey paintings into blips on the monitor.

All feedback greatly appreciated!

Here goes. . .

[Seedling]

The adventure continues. As it turns out, painting “roundish” objects is far, far easier than painting round objects. It was nice to focus on getting such a monochrome subject exactly right, color-wise, including the shadows.

[Seedling]

I had some nice shades of blue leftover from the previous day’s blueberries, and I had a bluejay feather a friend had given me. I jumped up and down and squealed with glee when this one came together. Especially since I had only a half hour. It’s hard to get myself going in the morning.

[Seedling]

Banana! somehow, I took a subject that I find to be dirt dull and I made it sing! Yay!

[Seedling]

And in trying to use the previous day’s pre-mixed banana colors, I bit off more than I could chew. My mistake: not mixing up the full range of colors for the banana fruit and the inside of the peel. This whole image is kinda “off”.

[glikster]

very inspirational and impressive... the colors might be "off" in the last one (although I don't see it), but it's instantly readable....

[Bendragon]

Nice stuff. Getting more practice under your belt is the thing to do at the moment. You have a good idea of what you want to do which is good. Im not sure about setting yourself an hour a painting. I feel you could work more time into one sometimes. You could look into colour theory to help with your search to master colour too.

[blacky]

A-painting-a-day , huh?
Awesome idea.
but Bendragon's right. 1 hour might be too short.
Especially, when you've only started. You ought watch the colours more carefully and practice mixing em more efficiant. Some look off, too muddy or to bright right now.
I'm sure you'll improve on these rather quickly though.
So long....

[gorgnut]

Really inspiring! Love the tone you get from the warm background with light blue on it. Thanks for that link! The guy is amazing, and the movies of the process is really educational for me too.

Keep em coming ;)

[Seedling]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

Glikster: yay, thanks!

Bendragon: An hour will have to do, because it’s what I’ve got. At any rate, I practiced an hour a day at the piano for years with good results, and for a few months I made amazing progress doing this same drill with acrylics. At any rate, I want to regain that discipline. Also. A friend and teacher of mine did this with oils only in half-hour increments. I really don’t know how he did that, because it takes me a half hour just to mix the colors!

Blacky: yeah, I’m hoping with time I’ll get better at hitting the colors on the head. I know I’m still all over the map. :-)

Gorgnut: thanks! Yeah, seeing his work every day really started to remind me of how I was sitting on my butt, painting nothing. . .

Oops, it’s 7:30. I need to suck down my tea and start painting. . .

[Seedling]

Bleah, another too-hard-for-where-I'm-at subject. I spent too much time mixing colors, and had to rush the painting.

[Muttonhead]

Hey Michelle! Nice work. Your shadows are great, especially on the second golf tee.

I dunno, I think the dragonfly is good.

I say: if all you have is an hour, then an hour is better than nothing, and doing a new piece everyday will only force you to get better and faster.

Keep it up!

[Muttonhead]

Oh, and the skin on the banana is great too. You definitely captured that with a great use of a variety of colors.

[Seedling]

Thanks Sean!

Today’s gooey experiment: a lime.

I’m ashamed that I never spent time in college studying the uses of the color green. I’ve known for ages that I have a harder time getting green pigments right than almost any other color. Green is one of the most important colors, and yet I neglected it. :-P

I spent three-fourths of my hour today just mixing the colors. And cursing. Cursing helps.

[Muttonhead]

mmmmmmm.... LIME-Y.

[Elwell]

Blueberries are the best of the lot.
Use more paint.
I'm getting awfully tired of the same old white/light blue scumble over sienna wash background, aren't you? Mix it up a little; different background, lighting, angle, etc. For instance, maybe that teabag would be more interesting tacked to a wall.

[Seedling]

Thanks Elwell - I will take those suggestions and be back with three more paintings on Monday! (I don't have a photo-editing program at home, so I do it over lunch at work.)

[Ashrumm]

Wow nice oils, way to stay motivated with those oils keep it up!!

[Seedling]

Thanks ashrumm!

Saturday’s painting: goldfish crackers, now with more paint and more color!. Immediately after finishing this, I regretted picking a composition that is so uniformly saturated. But it’s growing on me now. Learning lots. . .

[Seedling]

I went for a more neutral ground on this one. And yay! I am so pleased that I managed to paint a marigold without obsessively rendering every wrinkle and every petal. And I tried doing different globby things with the paint.

[Seedling]

I am not as pleased with this morning’s leaf as with yesterday’s marigold, but I’m not kicking anyone’s puppies over it, either.

[chaosrocks]

I would suggest, underpainting. try maybe underpainting the whole painting withthe opposite color to what you see. then paint over it again. I recycle old work by turning the canvas upside down and painting over it. Although actually I usually paint on primed paper. Often gessoed in black.....
just some ideas to keep you going..you are an inspiration
keep iit up,.....an hour is plenty

chaos

[sandworm]

Great stuff Seedling! Your rendering of objects is great! I'd like to see you do a piece with hard light, it's just a personal preference though. Keep up the good work, I'm envious of people that use real paints... :)

[max xiantu]

Thanks for checking out my sketchbook.
I love the feeling of your style, it makes me want to hug everything you paint.

I like the hour a day thing too. I used to do that with piano as well, and just sitting down for an hour a day would often stretch out into a much longer time once it ebbed into a meditation. Works wonders for sure.

max:.

[darkwolfb87]

Hey seedling,

This is a very inspiring thread! Definitely need to bust out the oils myself. I would recommend setting up a table that is on the same level as your canvas to place the still life objects, preferably adjacent to your easel, and shining a lamp on it. This way, you'll get more dramatic lighting and will allow you to paint a darker background which will bring variety to your paintings. Keep it up!

~ Stephen

[Elwell]

You've made a real breakthrough with this last batch. Here's to many more to come!

[Goodbye..fromthevoid]

Ambitious to be doing oil paintings everyday. They're HARD!

Anyway I wanna see more microscopic detail. You hear me? Detail so small that I gotta zoom the picture out so big that all I can see are big pixels to make everything out. Make me believe paint in the manner of a banana is an ACTUAL BANANA!

[j a k e]

I'm not really sure that what Goodbye..fromthevoid said is what you should be doing. I think when it comes to small paintings every day for practice, it is more important in blocking in the right colors and shapes, than doing tiny detail. I'm not saying detail isn't good, but I think that it would be more beneficial to just keep travelling how it is.

[Seedling]

I almost gave up on this one. But then I thought of all the nice comments you guys have had for me, and I decided I couldn

[Elwell]

It looks like you're using an organic red of some sort (naphthol?), which is tinting very cool. Even though it's expensive, you might want to spring for some cadmium red light.

[Seedling]

I can’t seem to edit the text on my previous post, so here’s what I have to say:

I almost gave up on this one. But then I thought of all the nice comments you guys have had for me, and I decided I couldn’t let you down. :-) Circles are hard! I had to fight the shape of this bracelet so much that I let the color get away from me a little. But, it’s round, and for that I am pleased.


Chaosrocks – different colors of underpaintings are actually on my list of things to do. I’ve tried orange and white so far. I plan on preparing a bunch of boards with different colors, so when I’m ready to start painting, I can grab a board and jump right in. At the moment I’m using illustration board coated with acrylic matte medium. The next batch will have tinted gesso instead.

Sandworm – Thanks! Hard light is also on my list of things to do. But either I will have to buy a lamp or rearrange the furniture, so that won’t happen until the weekend at least.

Max – hey, a fellow pianist! Kudos! (I haven’t played in ages, but I’ll always love it.)

Darkwolf – Spiffy, thanks. Lighting variety may happen this weekend. . .

Elwell – Thanks! :-) Right now, I’m using an elderly set of what is quite likely student-grade paints. I let myself get talked into buying a box-of-paints-n-supplies, which wasn’t the brightest decision I’ve ever made. Ho hum. There are “cadmiums” in the set, of the “hue” variety, which probably means I could use them like toothpaste and not die as fast. They make me miss my college set of paints. At any rate, I’ll be replacing the crap with better materials a bit at a time, but at the moment I’m trying not to blow too much more money.

Goodbye..fromthevoid and J A K E – I’m deliberately avoiding details for now, except as finishing touches. My approach is big to small, which has worked well for me in other mediums, and is especially helpful when my time is limited.


Thank you everyone for your kind feedback! :-)

[chaosrocks]

I been using water color blocks (about 6 of them) primed in rotation, so I can just grab and go...try Black gesso Black is fun. or the terra rosa. the bracelet is good. the lime looked bit like an olive, but that may have been as seen through the martini I had for lunch ;P (lies all lies).

I'd suggest two objects interacting.

chaosrocks

[nacho]

I like these a lot.
Especially the blueberries because they seem to have these "greasy" spots they usually get when you touch them.
And the marigold because the shadow beneath it is great.

Keep up the great work, can't wait to see more!

[Muttonhead]

NOw it's time to capitalize on your paintings-a-day, check it out:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-08-22-blogger-artists_x.htm

-Sean

[Jason C-M]

while I'm fond of that early teabag with the red tag, your marigold is really something. The brushstrokes complement the form, it isn't over-fiddly-rendered but really sings anyway, and even the background surface has a very nice feel to it.

[Seedling]

All I have to say about today’s painting is “ick”.

Chaos – you’re right, it does look like an olive. LOL!
Nacho – thanks!
Mutton – dude! dooooooooooooood! thanks for the link!
Jason – thanks! *happy dance*

[Seedling]

Lightly salted peanuts.

[chaosrocks]

ooooh pretty flower.....ok that's enuff

the peanuts are fine but the back ground is not in the same plane as the nuts and its throwing the picture plane off kilter.

keep it up! yay

Chaos

[frostsnake]

they could be floating in air... with floating shadows..
anyway like your work! yay !pu ti peek

[2000YearsOldMan]

nice thumbnail paintings, I like the color tunes, has very soft and confortable feeling.
keep it up.

[Seedling]

Chaos – hmm, I’ll work on that, thanks.
Frosty – Thanks! Hmm, floating? *note to self, add less helium*
2000 – Thanks! :-)

I decided that as long as I get my still-life painting-a-day done, I can doodle whatever else I find the time for. So, I used the leftover colors from the peanuts to paint this. I’ll post it in the speedpaint thread, too, for kicks and jollies.

[Seedling]

And today’s still-life. I hope it looks less like an olive this time

[blacky]

You're climbing the stairs step by step.

I can see it's peanuts, but where's the salt? (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14935&stc=1&d=1156426704) :P
Hard to read what sort of building/ ruins (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=15382&stc=1&d=1156514195)this is but it looks interesting, nice composition too.
Like the last one the most of the recent batch. Nice reflection.Looks a bit dull though. Try ensuring good light conditions when painting. Had you placed a table lamp right over it, I'm sure you would've noticed a grteater variety of colours and values on't.
So long....

[White Rose]

lemon..wait..lime.. lime are green :3. i think you hit the color of the pulp right on the spot.. but lime skin is a bit lighter and has a highlight on the skin.

im curious though..why so many still lives... why dont you throw something else into the mix :3

[Seedling]

Blacky – I licked off the salt first. ;-) The ruins are. . . mushy. Light conditions were poo because it was raining this morning, and I currently lack a decent electric light-source, so I was painting in rather absurdly low light. (Excuses excuses!) Thanks!

White Rose - So, this (below) is one of my best acrylic paintings. When I did it, I loved that I was painting dragons. But I found myself frustrated with academic things: how to use the paint to render a round surface, how to get the right color mixed on the first try, how to get all the colors to all work well with one-another without repainting every part repeatedly. In another painting I had done, I got hung up on wagon wheels, and in yet another painting, roof tiles. I need to learn how to render boring objects efficiently and correctly; and I need to learn to love rendering those boring academic bits, so that I don’t burn out halfway through a big complicated piece with characters and perspective and blah. That is why I am painting still-lifes.

[j a k e]

The daily paintings are really coming along well. In reference to my first comment, i was agreeing with you that you should avoid too much detail, not the other way around.

Great work mate.

[Banshax]

These works are such joy to look at. they read incredibly well. keep it up!

[chaosrocks]

great fun....of course the rest of the lime went in the marghuerita? . it look much less like an olive, ;P
I like the loose pleinair type painting too. It has perspective problem (only one I see) but a wonderful hazy atmospereic quality.

but it does mak me notice that you are timid when it come to value. this may just be your style or it might be somethign you want to think about

the historic dragon is cool too. but even having just started with the oils I bet you could do it better now.

yay!
chaos

[Coen]

Awesome painting Seedling, I like the look of oils, makes me wanna try it.. Kinda scared of paint tho :D Keep going!

[Bendragon]

The ones with the blue backgrounds are my favourite. The last still life one looks a bit unstable to me, i get the impression its going to fall backwards. Anyhow Im interested to see how u cope with the transition from acrylics to oils bacause im tempted to do the same.

[stephen]

so cool, im gonna have to start doing this too..

i really like the goldfish one, how big is it?

[chaosrocks]

yay oils! wonderful wonderful oils!

Chaosrocks

[deadi]

Its amazing how just acouple of oils can lead to a great piece of art. keep up the daily's.

[Seedling]

J a k e – thanks! Oh, I know, I just wanted to clarify for you and Goodbye that I already have a tactic that I don’t intend to vary from, to save you the trouble of arguing for and against it. Though if you feel like debating the matter, that could be entertaining, too. :-)

Banshax – thanks!

Chaos – not a margarita, but some other drink that a friend made this evening. I think there was rum in it, and something else. Odd thing with the lime: it wasn’t a perfect cylinder, and I couldn’t make it look both accurate to the object and accurate-looking in perspective. I should have fudged it; oh well. Timid at value? Hmmm. . . *makes note to self* Thanks!

Coen – don’t be scared, just be careful. ;-) I recommend latex gloves and a well-ventilated location.

Bendragon – I was quite surprised at how stable that silly lime slice was when I plunked it on its edge. And I, too, am interested in seeing how this transition goes! I have three crazy detailed acrylic paintings that I abandoned half-finished a few years ago. I’m thinking of finishing them in oils. But I’m scared I’ll ruin them. Maybe in a few more months.

Stephen – ooh! I hope you do join me in the fun! All of the paintings are something like 5 x 6 inches on illustration board. I’ve cropped off the messy edges in the photos.

Deadi – thanks! Why does your sig say “poop”??



Did a painting of a mint today that is my best one yet! I’ll post it on Monday, weather permitting.

Just in case anybody is wondering, I’m female. ;-)

[Fishspawn]

Excellent stuff - makes me want to paint :)

[mechp]

Seedling, I just wanted to say that I think your still lifes are pretty awesome and you are awesome to paint one every day! I wish I had your discipline.
BTW, don't worry, I think everyone has gotten hung up on fiddly details in one painting or another.

[Smitherines]

Values can be pushed more. Nice brush strokes on the still lifes. cool stuff.

[Coen]

Seedling, I don't mean scared of paint in how it smells or how it's unhealthy, more just scared of trying it cause I fear ultimate frustration :D Maybe I'm not ready for it, maybe I should get good at drawing and values first..

[chaosrocks]

hm...mint ....lime...rum...sounds like mojito....;P

keep it up!
and welcome sistah.....I am also of the female persuasion

chaosrocks

[Orifice]

hahah! "lightly salted peanuts" well that just made my day. Good stuff. I do like that last one, sweet lighting. Though it looks a bit like theres some sandcolored dust infront of the dragon, cuz of a tad to little contrast it seems. hoorah for oils anyways, keep itup!:D

[dustbin1_uk]

I love these paintings. You make every day objects look very beautiful. Keep posting, I am very inspired by your work.

[Nallen]

Wow, excellent and inspiring stuff,

I'm trying to get back into being serious about my oil painting and it never occurred to me to take a sensible approach like you have done...I've been obsessing on the figure.

wonderful paintings,
Keep up the good work,

[Seedling]

WOOT, page two! And thank you for your comments everyone. :-)

Someone PM’d me to ask for oil-painting supplies recommendations. I’m going to share my answer here in case others are interested in trying oils. Please keep in mind that I’m still a beginner with oils, so I may not be the best person for giving advice. This is just what I’m using at the moment and had success with in college.

I’m painting on illustration board which has been coated with acrylic matte medium. In some cases I tinted the medium with acrylic burnt sienna. But I’m going to be switching to acrylic gesso, instead, since it’s cheaper. Eventually I may start painting on gessoed masonite with my studies, because if I start selling them, they’ll make prettier objects on masonite. (By the way, don’t ever buy masonite at an art supply store. It’s cheaper by far at hardware and lumber stores.)

For complicated illustrations later on I’ll probably stick with illustration board, because that way I can draw on the board, seal the drawing with acrylic matte medium, and perhaps even paint the first layers in acrylic before switching over to oils. Pencil doesn’t play so nicely on gesso.

If you want to paint with oils on paper, what you need to do is staple a large, thick paper to a board, coat it with gesso, let it dry, and then cut off the paper and trim it. It’s tedious to get it made, but it makes a much nicer home-made surface than canvass paper or canvas board. When stretched in this manner, it should stretch tight and wrinkle-free.

The colors I currently have came from a beginner’s set, so they aren’t the greatest. By the way, don’t make this mistake. The beginner’s set was a waste of money. It must have been 50 years old. The white was clotted solid, the medium had become jell-o, and the lid on the pitifully small jar of paint thinner crumbled to dust the second time I unscrewed it. The tubes of paint don’t say “student quality”, but I’m guessing that they are. Some of them are hues, which mean they are not-great imitations of the lovely (and toxic) pigments that the real versions contain. I’ll be replacing them with better as I run out.

Here’s what I have:

Payne’s gray – I use it occasionally for cooler blacks and grays, but I prefer in most cases to mix my blacks out of napthol red and phthalo green, nap red and Prussian blue, or some other combination of colors.

Titanium white – a good all-purpose opaque white.

Napthol red – a potent cool red. It should comes out of the tube looking black, because it is so packed with pigment.

Cadmium red – this one comes out of the tube looking like a warm red.

Chromium orange deep – I’m still not entirely convinced that I need orange at all, but it has been handy.

Naples yellow – I’m not sure that this one exists as a non-hue any more, due to its toxicicity. But even as a hue it’s very useful. Very mellow.

Cadmium yellow – a hit-you-upside-the-head yellow, for when the subtlety of Naples yellow won’t do.

Emerald green – there has to be a better green out there that fills this niche. This one is icky.

Phthalo green – like napthol red, this one should come out of the tube looking black. It’s a potent cool green.

Prussian blue – a beautiful blue that has one startling feature: when mixed with yellow, it does not make green. Nor does it make a nice purple. Nevertheless, I find it essential.

Permanent magenta – I find this one suspicious for not going by the name of some obscure chemical, but since I can’t mix a purple with what I’ve got, it does the job.

I am currently lacking in Burnt Sienna, which is a wonderful orangy-brown. Never leave home without it.



A friend and former professor of mine has a rather spiffy limited palette that he uses, which I may try at some point. But I don’t have his list of colors on hand. Maybe this will convince him to make an account here and share his wisdom. He has been doing a painting-a-day for over a year now, with magnificent results.

[buzzz3d]

Love your dedication. I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread.

[chaosrocks]

thanks for sharing.
I use
Prussian Blue
French Ultrramarine
Alizarin Crimson
Titanium White
Winsor yellow (I like this one cause it can go either cool or warm green depending on the blue you add)
yellow ocre
Burnt sienna
Payne's Grey
the very occassional cadmium red

I find I can mix everything else up from this pretty well
I never use Black, don't think I even have any

I paint on Gesso'd paper. but rather than the whole "tape and board routine" I just gesso watercolour blocks, peeling off the paper when its painted.
I like the black or red gesso

I'll have to try that napthol red
thanks

Chaosrocks

[Banshax]

Hey seedling, tnx for your passing along my sb. I`ll be keeping this page open till you post some new work damnit! :)

[Seedling]

Sorry Banshax, I forgot my camera at home. I'll post tomorrow!

[tehmeh]

thanks for the comment in sb, and i definately see what you mean about still life practice, i've only done a few paintings from life before so i'll have a go at some (: thanks for the tips!

[Spats]

Hi Seedling!

I really appreciate you dropping by my unworthy sketchbook :bashful: those crits really helped me.

Anyway, I really love the idea you got going here. Wonderfully executed too!
Can't find anything to crit about, sorry.

I'll keep my eye on this thread. Keep it up :)

[Elwell]

I never use Black, don't think I even have any

You are aware Payne's gray is just a convenience mixture of ivory black and ultramarine, right?

[chaosrocks]

yeah but its dark without going flat like black does.
chaos

[Elwell]

No problem. If you wanted to strip down your palette even more you could get the same hue with an ultramarine/burnt sienna mix.

[AmishCommy]

Props to you for your dedication. You bust these out after work? Looking forward to your progress.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Youv'e got some really great oils going on here. I was at your lecture at RISD a couple of years back by the way. Thanks for coming to talk to us! I think you've just inspired me to start doing a painting a day too!

Is that teacher you mentioned happen to be Nick J. from Illustration? If so I have to say he was a great teacher and always had so much knowledge to share. I especially liked the inclass demos he did! Cheers!

Rich

[dindon]

A good idea :) I really like the goldfish crackers and peanuts. The two colors work very well together.

[chaosrocks]

weird..you lectured at RISD? my husband was there as an evaluator last year. and as a visiting artist a couple years before that.....He graduated from there and went to UW in Printmaking. Is the world really that small?
pm me
Chaosrocks

[Seedling]

I'm going to keep my commentary minimal at the moment, just throw the art down and run, but yes! It's a small world after all! :-))

[Seedling]

I need to look at some of N.C.Wyeth's night paintings before I do another. Black is just so bleah.

[Seedling]

Okay, okay, I know this was a cop-out, but I really really needed to do some laundry. ANyway, my husband has already mocked me about this one, and *he* got clean underwear out of the deal, the big meanie.

;-)

[Seedling]

C is for cookie!

[chaosrocks]

like the match and the candy, the cookie is floating a bit and looks too healthy. and the candle flame is sorta solid and doesn't glow....tell me how if you figure out how that works.....

keep up the good work
chaosrocks

[dustbin1_uk]

ANyway, my husband has already mocked me about this one, and *he* got clean underwear out of the deal, the big meanie.LOL! We men no nothing of priorities, next time you should leave the underwear and paint a picture of his expression when he realises he has none to wear! Kinda thing my wife would do, just to proove a point! ;)

Anyhow, I love your work, I look forward to your next posts. Keep it up!

[Seedling]

Time for commentary!

The mint – I’m pleased with this one, despite the 50’s colors.

The candle – Dang it, dark paintings are hard to photograph. There is actually a reasonable amount of contrast in it. I feel like I caught the actual colors and values pretty well. That said, I think the colors suck. The best night-time paintings I’ve seen are by Wyeth and some other illustrator whose name I’m forgetting, who painted lots of cowboys. They both did night scenes in beautiful greens and blues. I must dig up some examples and learn from them.

The match – ‘nuff said already.

The cookie – slightly overcooked chocolate chip with oat bran and nuts, so (you got it Chaos!) rather on the healthy side for a cookie. ;-) Color-wise, it was fun figuring out the colors.


Dustbin, Banshax, Buzzzed, teh.meh, dindon, Spats – Thanks!
Fishspawn – come paint with me! :-)
Mechp – Thanks! You, too, can have the discipline to do anything for an hour a day. I find it really helps to do this sort of thing at a set time each day, by the way. Kind of like flossing.
Smitherines – thanks! I’ll work on those values.
Coen – Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death yadda yadda yadda ;-) You can do it!
Orifice – yeah, there’s nothing like putting twenty hours into a painting only to realize you would prefer if the whole thing had just a little more contrast! :-P That’s part of what I’m trying to learn here: getting it right the first time.
Nallen – teehee! Isn’t “sensible artist” an oxymoron?
Chaos – thanks for sharing your paint list. Drat, I need to pay my gravity bill.
AmishCommy – I paint them second thing in the morning, actually. Right after a cup of tea. :-)
Voodooshile – WOW! You remember me from that? I am honored. Why do I suddenly have the theme song to “It’s a Small World” in my head? And yup, that’s Nick Jainschigg I’m talking about. Have you seen his recent work? Let me find that link. . . Ooh, and your paintings are wonderful! I hope you do join me in this daily fun!


My friend and former professor Nick Jainschigg has been doing a painting-a-day for well over a year now. He also started off as an acrylic painter, who wanted the loose look of oils. He is very strict about time: after mixing his colors, he sets a kitchen timer for 30 minutes. When it dings, he puts down his brush. Check out the amazing progress he has made here:

http://www.nickjainschigg.org/

[mrdigs]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook - thought I'd come and have a look at your paintings, these are great ! nice and loose but everything's there still.

Loved the red bracelet on the first page too - I haven't touched real paint for a while now and keep thinking I haven't really got the time but I'm thinking otherwise now.

Great to see your stuff, looking forward to more.

[glikster]

i'll be honest.. I quite like that match....

[Farvus]

That's an interesting challange. So far I've been painting still lifes that were made of several objects. This might be a bit different.
Good luck and never give up :).

[dustbin1_uk]

...yeah... me... too, I have to admit, I'm a closet match liker too. I feel better for comming out about it though! :)

[Elwell]

C is for cookie!
That's good enough for me.

[Beonarri]

Good paintings! Keep it up!

They're great little studies of various things, great practice for learning how to draw different materials and shapes and stuff.

Now, all you have to do is show some people.

[Coen]

Nice paintings again Seedling, keep it coming. Got any pics of your equipment by accident? :D

[Jason C-M]

Cool to see your friends stuff as well. It's defnitely time for me to start doing something like this. Maybe not every day, but instead of the pencil studies I've been doing for the past year.

[Bojee]

Some of these are really nice, I like when you play warm and cool colors off each other. Keep them up. :)

[Oddmind]

:D I'll take you up on that. One still life a day doesn't sound so bad, I think I will enjoy this.

Of course I don't have enough money for Oil's and brushes and gesso and canvas and easel etc. Until I do I'll be using photoshop :]

Its almost time for me to hit the sack so I'll do two tommorrow.

[Jason C-M]

oddmind, remember that you only need four or five tubes of paint, and there are much cheaper surfaces than canvas to paint on.

[JAIR428]

i definitly can appreciate what you are doing here!! excellent studies... however i see that you outdoor enviroment needs some attention...

great werk though

-jair

[jharford]

Thanks for stopping by my book, Your making great progression. The match is simple, but one of my favourites!.
The candy comes a close second. Very nice color choices.

[Seedling]

I couldn't get myself going this morning, so this didn't take a full hour. But for a zombie attempt, I'm pleased; it's loose and quick and (I hope) it's obvious what it is without being rendered down to the fancy text.

[Seedling]

Thanks for all of your nice comments everyone. :-)
Beonarri – whom else should I show?
Coen – pics for you!

Here’s where I do my painting: at a small table behind the sofa, to the left of northeast-facing sliding-glass doors. The white push-pin board is homosote from the hardware store, painted with house-paint. One of these days I might get around to nailing it up on the wall. In the bathroom is an old cheap-o shelf plus string that I’ve designated as the holder of all things stinky; the palette, rags, paint-covered latex gloves, and wet paintings go there when I’m done, the door gets shut, and the fan turned on. It has the added advantage of providing fresh art for the entertainment of whomever is going to the bathroom.

I’ve spent about $250 getting this set up, and that investment should keep me busy for some months. It’s cheap compared to golf or a Cintique or even a standard Photoshop/tablet setup. Come Spring I may try to earn that money back by selling the paintings, if I’m still at it by then.

[jharford]

Hey seedling,
The money bill looks great, you nailed the greens.

your setup looks very cosy, and it's always great to see art in a bathroom :).
The toxicness is not so appealing though :).

[Beonarri]

I meant paint some people and show those. Sorry, it was a quick post and I didn't proof-read.

[Oddmind]

hmm I like your studio setup, looks very welcoming.

what would you deem a bare bones oil paint set? I could add on to it later.

[Coen]

Cool setup Seedling, I like the dirty things shelf :D Damn, seeing this makes me wanna try oils so bad, especially these paintings just hanging there, but I'll be screwed if I buy all kinds of stuff and hate it after 1 or 2 tries..
Did you learn to draw well and handle values well before you started painting? Well I'll try to keep pencilling for a while. Thanks for the pics!

Oh and by the way: you should still be at it coming spring, it's going way to well to stop now :o

[frostsnake]

that candle is sweet, even thoug black is so "bleah" :)
keep running, your doing great!
An yes it would have been cool to see you do some other stuff aswell.digital or pencil

[Jason C-M]

Your vertical file is really clever.

What are you painting on, by the way? Bristol? Unstretched canvas?

[chaosrocks]

yeah the sticky shelf is very clever.... I'll have to set up one of those
I like the Bill its looser but still gets the idea

if there are art schools in your region you can pick up a lot of what you need at the end of the quarter/semester...for little or nothing
bare miniumum 5 tubes of paint two brushes and nearly anything to paint on
and a piece of plexi or an old plate to use as a pallete. oh yeah and turpentine
chaos

[Seedling]

Hi guys! Thanks again for your feedback. There’s info on my supplies up in post #63 for those of you who asked.

Today’s painting is a reminder to myself that if I don’t take the time to get the colors exactly the way I want them, then I won’t like my painting no matter what else goes right. :-P

[Beonarri]

Very nice!
And unique, a painting of origami is like art of crafts...wait...ok, what I just said makes sense.

[dustbin1_uk]

I really like that origami painting! Your use of light and shade is great!

[Rich Pellegrino]

where's the update!?! We're waiting over here! sheesh! I like your palatte I think I may get some phythalo green soon. Sounds like a good color. I would definitely buy one of these when you start selling them! Keep up the inspirado!

[Banshax]

The origami piece is quite good! And its very nice to look at as well. Such a delicate shape. Keep it up, or better: make sure you enjoy what you`re doing.

[gogetlo]

I know I can benefit from that exercise, don't know why I haven't thought about that before... Oh yeah I'm a lazy bum.
For that I admire ur drive and your stuff is perty fantastic too, I especially like the paintings on the first page of this thread.
These are making me angsy to paint again just from looking at your pages, even though I always have a hard time with colors and paints.
But anyways, great show. Looking forward to see more from you

[young paddy1]

fantastic ickle paintings, I wish I had the time for a still life a day, I'd maybe go for something with a bit of shadow interaction, or some translucent colour overlay in the future otherwise it will get dull

keep it up, you're obvioously getting better.

cheerio

[drummingpariah]

Thanks for the suggestions on my sketchbook, Seedling!

You really make me wish I wasn't color-blind. It makes a huge difference that everyone else is giving such vivid descriptions :teeth:

Your work does look incredible though, even missing out on hues.

[Seedling]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I'll address them a bit later. I'm going to get the weekend's paintings posted quick-like.

[Seedling]

I substituted landscapes for my little objects Saturday through Monday. It was fun - and a bit of a workout - hauling my supplies out to local parks.

[Seedling]

Since it was raining, I had to go looking for a sheltered location with a good view. I found it in a picnic area at Houghton's Pond, to the amusement of a few folks with wet dogs, and one very small child so bundled in rain-gear that all I could see of him was his smile.

[Seedling]

There’s some serious glare on this one, and on the first landscape.

This is an amazing little rough-stone stairway in real life. And I managed to turn it into mediocre mush. Note to self: practice painting rocks. But on the plus side, I caused two small children in the space of ten minutes to ask their parents if they could be artists when they grew up.

[Seedling]

Cherry tomato. Hmf.

[Jason C-M]

The ripples across the pond are pretty incredible -- very sculptural feel to them.

[Seedling]

I almost forgot - I did a painting for fun, too.

[rblitz7]

Wow dude these all look really nice! I like the candy and spoon ones. What are you working on? Illustration board, canvas or what?

[Lazy]

I like them!, very nice lush colors.
Keep em coming, i like the spoon especially.

[Beonarri]

I like the river one and the stone one. Very nice!
The stones look really good, and its awesome you got kids to like art!
The river is really cool, nice rippling effect. I love the impressionisticness...
.
.
.
Yes, that's a word I just made up.

[Seedling]

Dustbin1 – Thanks. I still feel like I could have done the origami one better. Maybe I’ll paint another origami one soon.
voodoochile – Sorry! ;-) I can only update on weekdays and when the weather permits me to take decent photos.
Banshax – thanks! :-) I’m trying very hard to enjoy this. At the moment, I’m clawing my way out of a slump. At least I learned one useful thing during years of playing the piano: there will be weeks when I don’t want to be doing what I’ve chosen to do. But if I do it anyway, I’ll come out of the slump knowing more than when I went into it. Hopefully.
gogetlo – I’m a lazy bum, too! Which is why I have to make myself get up and painting first thing in the morning, so that I can then spend the rest of the day being properly lazy. Care to join me?
young paddy1 – if there’s something like games or television that you could do less of, then you can totally manage an hour a day of whatever is important to you. Come on, you know you wanna!
drummingpariah – well, cool, I’m glad my paintings don’t turn to mud when seen in black and white. Are you entirely colorblind, or red/green?
Jason C-M – thanks! My husband said the same thing about the ripples. (And he told me my foliage needs work, heehe.)
rblitz7 – I’m working for the moment on gessoed illustration board. There’s more info about my supplies back on page 2, if you’re interested.
Lazy – thanks!
Beonarri – cool new word, thanks. :-)



Okay, back to the shinies. Yesterday’s was such a stinker that even my husband couldn’t figure out what it was. I’m feeling slumpy after a weekend of schlepping supplies all over the landscape for mediocre results. I feel like I’ve been getting colors “right”, but that “right” isn’t necessarily what’s best. I need to stop thinking about what a long, long way to go I’ve got.

Today’s, at least, went better than yesterday’s. I think.

[Craig D]

Hey Seedling
nice to see you doing this. About your plein aire, they turned out well I think, especially the one with water. Painting outdoors is really hard compared to the studio, keep it up.
i might try and start up with you but I have a few things to do first. One of which is some colour charts I'm working on. Trying to paint in one hour is a lot more difficult when you can't get the right colour in a few minutes of mixing.

[Beonarri]

Very nice string of jewels.
You are correct. Drawing things right is not necessarily the best, drawing things believable is probably more important. It's like, do you want something to look technically correct or visually correct.

But, it's one of those things that has to be let go, because when you think too much you end up not working on stuff, and thinking to much. Sometimes it's best just to jump in the deep end, instead of wading through the shallower waters.

I like the reflections in the beads though.
Very nice!
Keep it up!

[Seedling]

Thanks, guys. :-)

I've been encouraging lots of people to draw or paint chairs, so I did one of my own this morning. I didn't have a full hour today.

[Banshax]

Hey I like your way of seeing that chair! Its such an easy object to make dull. The string of pearls is amazing, I remember you were reluctant with shiny objects? seemed you just overcome that one. Keep it up, I thoroughly enjoy what you do. And i dont even paint

[blacky]

Nice ones. Am really curious about where this is gonna tacke you as it looks like you're on a good run

[robin-eleven]

Thanks for the info about RISD in the other thread.

Had to come check out your work, and I've gotta say i'm completely in awe! I've only just started *trying* to work with paint but i wasn't sure on how to go about it. It's great to see your practice, very nice, very nice!!!

[chaosrocks]

good progress... the plein ares are tough. esp on a cloudy day.
and I haven't clue about shiny. These look shiny

the chair oh god takes me back. I spent my entire first semester in drawiing class drawing the same damn chair...heh... nice one

chaos

[JHoffstein]

Ooh those last two turned out awesome! The highlights and colors and colored shadows on the pearls turned out beautifully, and of course figuring out how to take a boring chair and making it interesting is no small feat :)

[Seedling]

Thanks for all of your comments, guys! I hate to post and run, but I'm in a hurry. Today's object: black, round, ugly, and on a reflective surface. And. . . I won!

[Jason C-M]

Ha! that's cool!

[Seedling]

Okay. . . lunch in one hand, keyboard in the other. . .

Craig D – Hmm, color charts sound like a good idea. If you do start doing a painting-a-day, let me know so I can cheer you on! About color mixing: I easily spend half of my hour doing exactly that.
Beonarri – thanks. :-) I’ll add to that that beyond believability and correctness there is also beauty, which can come in many varieties. So along with those more basic things, I’m searching for the variety of beauty with paints that suits me best.
Banshax – thanks! I’m trying to learn how to find the beauty in everything. And I’m working on capturing shiny!
blacky – I think that cherry tomato already tackled me good. :-P Thanks!
Robin-eleven – my pleasure. And thanks! As Valentine Michael Smith would say, “I am only an egg!”
Chaosrocks – Every object is shiny, only some moreso than others. Each of those pearls was like a small round mirror that blurred and whitened everything it reflected. I copied what I saw and figured out what I was seeing as I painted it. And chairs. . . you’ve gotta love a piece of furniture that hugs your butt all day. :-)
Jenna – Thanks! If I don’t learn how to making boring fun and interesting, I’m afraid someday I’ll commit hari-kari with a paintbrush.
Jason CM - :-)

[morningbloom915]

I'm so impressed, and jealous, and inspired. My mother - in an attempt to push me to new things got me a bunch of oil painting supplies last year for christmas. I'm terrified of them, because I have NO IDEA where to even begin. I've only attempted one oil painting, and it came out muddy and frustrating (but mom loved it). I wish I could just sit and watch you for your hour each morning. Keep it up, you're making such progress.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Nice updates! How big are these? Are you painting on a white BG now? very brave! Every time I try that I get my ass kicked by the lack of color harmony god! hmmm...now where did that burnt umber go?

[Beonarri]

Round, black, fugly, but you painting it well!

[Banshax]

I agree with Beonarri. Just got one crit, Try and be bold, try and put some things not dead center or close to dead center, it might lighten up the composition. Ofcourse use this advice as you see fit. By all means keep going :)

[morningbloom915]

You ask a very compelling and surprisingly difficult to answer question. I'm shocked by how long I had to think of how I would reply. I don't really know, I don't guess. I do know certain things I just HAVE to sit down and draw. I enjoy the act of creating art. Its very calming (when it goes right). I dont really know what my long term goals are though. I'm not good with long term goals for anything in my life. My short term goals though look something like this:
-solid grasp of fundamentals (form, value, color theory, etc)
-confident strokes. I struggle with short choppy lines when laying down the form of things
-diverse media to work with. Right now, I'm only really comfortable with graphite pencil. This is something I would definately like to change.
-right now I'm always working from reference. I would like to have a sure enough grasp of things to draw from my imagination.
I dont even know if this really answers your question or not. What are your objectives?

[Seedling]

It occurred to me that I put down all of the advice I give on the games industry in one place so that the next time someone contacts me with questions, I can help them without writing up the same information all over again. So, anyway, here it is, if anyone reading this is interested. Assorted advice about the games industry: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76898

Voodoo – these are about 6 by 7 inches. I am painting on white gesso at the moment. But the first thing I always do is block in the main colors and cover up all the white.
Beonarri – “fugly”, heehe!
Banshax – Oh thanks, that’s a good idea.

Morningbloom – Aww, shucks, you flatter me. If you want a good tutorial on oil painting, go to Duane Keiser’s webpage and watch the videos. My goals are to gain enough mastery and love of oils that I don’t fold from frustration or boredom when confronted with the details of a complex illustration. As for what I plan on doing with these skills, should I acquire them – life is long, and I want the option to try a new career should I get bored with my current one or should find myself looking for work.

As for your goals, do you want to make art professionally? And if so, what kind? The answer to that question should dictate your short-term goals. Though, until you know your long-term goals, your short-term goals are a good holding pattern. You can’t go wrong with fundamentals, confident brush strokes, and a knowledge of a range of media.

If you want to be able to draw things from imagination, however, then don’t copy photographs. Draw from life. Photographs can be an effective shortcut for advanced artists, but they are a crutch for those who are learning.

Sorry, no art until tomorrow. . .

[Stupidity'sUglyHead]

Impressive stuff, to sketch with paint. I recognized everything except the very last one?

[morningbloom915]

Morningbloom – Aww, shucks, you flatter me. If you want a good tutorial on oil painting, go to Duane Keiser’s webpage and watch the videos. My goals are to gain enough mastery and love of oils that I don’t fold from frustration or boredom when confronted with the details of a complex illustration. As for what I plan on doing with these skills, should I acquire them – life is long, and I want the option to try a new career should I get bored with my current one or should find myself looking for work.

As for your goals, do you want to make art professionally? And if so, what kind? The answer to that question should dictate your short-term goals. Though, until you know your long-term goals, your short-term goals are a good holding pattern. You can’t go wrong with fundamentals, confident brush strokes, and a knowledge of a range of media.

If you want to be able to draw things from imagination, however, then don’t copy photographs. Draw from life. Photographs can be an effective shortcut for advanced artists, but they are a crutch for those who are learning.

Sorry, no art until tomorrow. . .
Yet again a compelling question. You're good at making me ask myself things that would otherwise just sit in my subconsious for God knows how long. I would love to make art professionally. I've always held back from this though for two reasons.
1) I'm afraid making a career of something I love will steal the joy from the activity. But theres so much about a career in art that I know I would love. Right now it feels as if theres never enough time in the day to make the progress that I want to make. Work seems to get in the way, and that nasty sleeping habit.
2) My entire life I've been fed the image of the "starving artist", blissful in their creation, but struggling to scrape the cash together to make ends meet. Thats a scary spot.

Is it possible to build a career with no formal training. I'm sure there have been those that have accomplished such a thing, but its certainly not a reasonable assumption that I'll be one of the few that can cut it this way.

Now I'm just puking my inner thoughts out onto a public forum. (sorry for those of you that werent interested in my inner struggle and for taking over your sb thread :P ) Its a circle of "if" questions. Enough blabbing. I know I would love a career in art. I have no idea what kind. I wouldnt even know where to begin. This is where I run into a brick wall. Drastically changing directions is difficult when you dont really know what direction you want to go in. Intimidating. Thats what this is.

And about the working from life rather than photos, I'm working on that. My fiancee has agreed to sit for me and I have a lady friend or two that may do the same. I know thats where I need to be working.

[Seedling]

Monday Monday! Time to post the weekend’s art.

Stu. . . gah, I don’t want to call you by the name you’ve chosen for yourself; it’s just not kind! . . . S.U.H., that last object was the rubber gasket that reduces the number of forks that fall into the dispose-all.

Morningbloom, I’ll answer you later when I have more time. . .

This one turned out poorly. Too dark, too blue, and the shapes are not ad delicate as they should be. Supposedly these are my husband’s and my wedding rings, but they turned out more like washers. I really need to buy a cheap-ass uber lightsource from the hardware store.

[Seedling]

Asparagus, in masochistic saturated colors. I really need to buy a cheap-ass uber lightsource, and maybe find some colorful surfaces that are mostly muted.

[Seedling]

OMG! That last tomato whipped my butt, but I think I defeated this one!

[Jason C-M]

Nice tomato!

From my recent experience photographing small detailed sometimes shiny things (compasses, beam compasses, etc.) I really recommend trying some diffuse lighting -- get a thin white sheet, and clothespin it up to something so it wraps around 3 sides of the table your object is on (the fourth is open to let you see the object just fine) and a strong lightsource goes outside the sheet, and gets wrapped around the object you're drawing because the whole sheet lights up.

Building this little tent seemed like too much work to me, but it was really four minutes of cobbling things together and it produced incredible lighting. I was also turned off by the artificialness of this light situation, but no more!

I use light from the window almost exclusively in my painting setups -- I just love it.

[Rich Pellegrino]

nice update seeling. The asparagus is a standout for me. No the tomatoe, wait ...argh! they are all good!
Rich

[LoydID]

Chair's a winner. And I'm learning at a joiners.

[chaosrocks]

tomato's a winner too....nice and squishy
chaos

[Beonarri]

The asparagus is good. Probably my favorite of the new set. But I like green more than non-green stuff.

The rings need a bit more sheen. The tomato is good but a little unresolved in the middle area.

Keep up the painting!!

[morningbloom915]

I could tell the rings were rings. The asparagus is good, but the tomato is my favorite. You really showed it who was boss. Great job! Take as much time as you want to reply. I'm not making any decisions tomorrow. :)

[Seedling]

Oh noes, there's glare on my levitating chair!

[justadoodle]

Those are really great, im loving the chair. This excersize is so smart, i should give the painting a day thing a try, such a good idea. keep up the posting!

[incolorinred]

Your oils look good. I am impressed with the one a day pace. I wish i could be doing things one a day!! I also think your blue backgrounds compliment your objects well. question for you: what are you painting on, some type of paper or board? and how long are these taking you? I'm going to keep an eye on your thread. Nice work.

nick

[max xiantu]

The asparagus is delicious and so is the chair.
well, the chair looks uncomfortable ;)
the lighting is great on there.

I'd love to see some warm colors up in the mix.
Good stuff :.

[Seedling]

Thanks for all the comments! Got to drop my mushrooms and run. . .

[Beonarri]

*hippie voice*
Those shrooms are great maaan!
Like they're all.....great maaan!
Whoa! That chair's floating upside down........great maaan!

[incolorinred]

Nice... the cast shadow looks a bit funny. Why is it so dark by the stem but not the head of the mushroom?

[Seedling]

Dang, I forgot my camera. So no art until tomorrow. [edit] or maybe not until Tuesday.

Jason – thanks! I will have to try that lighting setup.
Voodoo – Dood, your portfolio rocks. Do you use oil paints for your work?
LoydID – Thanks. :-) Joiners? Does that mean you’re doing woodworking of some sort? I take it the ID stands for Industrial Design?
Chaos, Beonarri, Morningbloom – thanks :-)
justadoodle – you know you wanna!
incolorinred – you know you wanna, too! There’s info for you on page 2 about the materials I’m using. I didn’t do so well with those shadows, did I? :-P
max – warm colors coming up!

[Spats]

Great job on the vegetables lately.

Don't slip, keep it up!

[darkwolfb87]

Hey Seedling, this is great stuff, I'm setting up a painting table myself to do this exercise.

I like the tomato and the mushrooms a lot, they have great solidity to them. Though one thing I would pay closer attention to are edges. The edges of the tomato or mushrooms on the side of the cast shadows will never look as sharp as those in the light, so lose those sharp edges on the shadow sides. The only sharp areas I would put into the shadows are where the cast shadows are closest to the object. As the cast shadow moves farther from the object, it will gradually become softer. The tomato's cast shadow was getting there, but it is so colorful it lost it's flatness. You don't want the cast shadow to be more interesting than the lighted object, do you? :)

[edit]: Actually, if you haven't yet, please read this essay a few times over, it goes into much more detail about oil painting than I can:

http://www.nasonart.com/writing/bongartlessons.html

[chaosrocks]

peppers...you are ready to advance to peppers...quick before the season is over....;)

chaos

[elisa]

very nice paintings, and very inspiring! Great idea to do a small painting every day - I think I have to try some too. I can defenitely see some progress in here! I really like the last one, the mushrooms. Great work! Keep it up :)

[lord_rabboon]

looking at fruit kinda made me hungry. you are indeed on your way to be a master

[arttorney]

I liked the leaf though I though it might it's angularity would have been enhanced if the brushstrokes were more clearly those of flats instead of rounds.

I know you are working with almost a found object set of paints but if you have a warm and cold yellow, and a warm and cold blue you can make greens that range from startling spring leaves green to algae in a ditch. Try ultramarine and yellow ochre together and then try Phthalo blue (just a bit) and some cadmium yellow. Mix and match for variations.

Above part posted after only the first page.
I can see that you are actually advancing fast and impart subtlety to the more recent works. Your palette from the second page is foreign to me so you're on your own about colors, but I think your are doing fine.

[Marty666]

Hi Seedling!

Very nice paintings. The everyday subjects are a bit boring compared to all the chicks, fighting machines and dragons here, but I think you won't meet many dragons in real life that are willing to be painted :D...
I like your use of color and convincing materialindication. I'd love to see some concept art from you. Keep up the good work!

[Unbreakable]

cool stuff seedling!

[frostsnake]

hei!
just wanna say I like the last ones, chair and mushrom, so keep your head up and draw more, would like to se some studies from you other than painting!:)

[maxetormer]

All rigth mate, youv got me convinced, ill do one still life
on acrylics oils or pencils a day too...I started out today and ill keep
doing em till things feel rigth...wich means till the ends of time. :P
THANKS for the INSPIRATION!!!

[young paddy1]

your paintings are really coming on the mushrooms look solid as rock, really good work on the volumes, and the chair is fantastic I didn't even notice the surreality of it to begin with.

nice

cheerio

[dorian]

dang!
one word: PROGRESS!

well actually.. some more:
I think this hasn't been mentioned that often so: you're really getting better!! That last couple paintings are solid! I also love how you keep it nice and personal, answering all the posts and stuff - the info between the images is highly appreciated!

keep it up!


.

[jharford]

i love it!
great updates, and especially the tomatos and the chair.

How are you photographing the paintings?
I see they can become a little undersaturated. Is this from the photo? or from the colors. ( rocks in park and spoon being the best examples ),
Either way , fantastic progress..

How to get rid of a turp headache? :(

[Seedling]

I love old keys, but I've had so much trouble in the past with metal textures that I was intimidated by this. But I seem to have got the colors right.

[Seedling]

I was so excited at my success with the key that I went looking for a more complex brass object. This scared the piss out of me. After an hour, it looked like crap, so I kept going. (Thankfully I had the day off.) It took three hours total, and I was surprised to discover that I could approach it by ignoring the detail stamped in the metal until the end.

[Banshax]

Holycrap!! That looks quite pleasing. Lush detail and color with ease. The mushrooms and key rock as well.
That object doesnt look easy at ALL. Very impressive. The time you took paid off. good decision to break with your 1h limit.
Damn I wonder where you`re gonna be in a week from now. dont let succes ruin things keep taking risks ofcourse

[Elwell]

I was surprised to discover that I could approach it by ignoring the detail stamped in the metal until the end.
An important lesson learned.

[Seedling]

I decided I was not yet done with brass, so I tried out the character-of-the-week assignment. I made the mistake of using a yellow underpainting, which threw me off-course with the colors. It took about five hours, and I’m not as pleased with it as with the box. But it was nice to get back to my familiar acrylic approach to illustration, and it was especially nice to find out how well it can work with oils. Which shouldn’t surprise me, I suppose, since I picked up the techniques by looking at James Gurney’s Dinotopia, which is all painted in oils.

Here it is finished, and also in its early stage with the annoying yellow wash of acrylic.

[Seedling]

I practiced some plant-life this weekend, too, with results I feel pretty good about for a first try. But there’s loads of room for improvement.

[Seedling]

Queen Anne’s Lace, er, sort-of. Not my best painting.

I brought one of these flowers into the house two days ago. Today, I found it slumped over sadly, and its herd of aphids had migrated dangerously close to a painting. And I thought gnats in my paintings were annoying!

[Seedling]

And this is totally just for fun, because I'm still having such a hard time believing that a monster like this exists in Massachusetts. She caught my eye on a stroll through a neighborhood field, among the late-summer flowers and herds of insects. I swear she's about ten times bigger than the picture really shows. For reference, that's a dragonfly she is eating. I think I'm in love.

[Fishspawn]

Awesome, awesome. You're getting better! I love that dagger, you handled it very well. The chairs are great too, along with most everything else. Keep it up and you're golden! (or brass ;))

[jharford]

wow!,
Great work on the brass objects, the first key being my favourite, compositionally, and color!. Really good work.
The first flower is very promising too.. has a lovely soft feel to it.

[Seedling]

Spats, Elisa, Lord Raboon, Unbreakable, young paddy1, Dorian, Fishspawn – thanks for all the nice comments! :-)

Darkwolfb87 – thanks for the tip on edges. I’ll try that. . . Ooh, and thanks for the link! That’s one of the most info-packed essays on painting I’ve ever read. “A stain is a color that has the property of transparency as soon as it is thinned to any degree. For instance: Indian Yellow, Transparent Orange, Permanent Rose, Magenta, Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine, and any Thalo color (to name a few). No Cadmium or Cobalt color is a stain. Generally, a stain is a color that has no white or black in it. Most colors gray when white is added to them. Stains, on the other had, intensify.” -- This is new to me! :-) “A better way of getting black is by mixing Alizarin Crimson and Thalo Green.” And I thought I was a nut for using this trick!

Chaosrocks – mmm, peppers!

Arttorney – I still haven’t found much use for rounds. What do you use them for? Yeah, then next time I go shopping I’ll do some research first, and try a more traditional palette. “Found objects” does sum up my paints well, haha!

Marty666 and Frostsnake – After marinating in fantasy subject matter for a few decades, dragons and damsels and giant robots get boring, too. :-) But my reason for sticking to these real objects is to teach myself to love rendering the “boring bits”, and to improve my mental library of materials and colors and techniques, all of which I hope to apply back to dragons and characters and robots.

Maxetormer – awesome! I’ll stop by your sketchbook and have a look. :-)

Jhartford – My photography is entirely ghetto. I take the painting outside, prop it up in a shadow (if sunny) or drop it splat on the ground (if overcast) and snap a picture. My camera has a macro setting, fortunately, since these paintings are a bit wee. I also haven’t been doing anything in the way of color-adjustment in Photoshop, except in cases where the photos were just awful. This is because I’m posting my pictures from work, as quickly as possible while I drink my coffee. But whatever errors are in the colors are probably due to my inexpert color-mixing. :-P

Banshax - teehee, thanks. :-)

Elwell – I’m lovin’ the learnin’! Have you ever used acrylics at all, or have you been an oils guy all along?

[chaosrocks]

heh...Nature fights back!
heheh

wonderfull update. I was greatly amused by the fear of shiny objects I too avoid them. very brave and really nicely executed.

keep it Up! (wheres that pepper......;))
chaos

[morningbloom915]

I am super impressed with your newest stuff. The key, and the box are excellent. Your weapon turned out really well once you changed the background color. And the dandelion puff thing is very very well done. You did a great job capturing that soft airy feel.

Keep it up, so much improvement, so quickly.

[Art_Addict]

You did a fine job on that key. The best one so far I think.
btw, thanks for your reply in my painting thread.

Now, i think you could benefit from spending a bit more time on the paintings once in a while.
If you varry the duration more often I think you can progress faster on all levels.
You'll notice things you didn't on say ' a couple hours' paintings.
Also, I'dd like to see some life figure work, maybe a self portrait.

Good luck, I'll keep my eye on this thread

[Jason C-M]

That dandelion is really awesome, S.

[Beonarri]

Great flowers.
The yellow underpaint thingy looks cool! Nice detail on the box as well.
Also, gnarly spider, got any more pictures?
If you wanna see a crazy spider look at the Bolos Spider or the Goliath Bird Eater. Both a weird and cool and scary.

[Dawood Marion]

Your work is progressing. Good Idea (daily sketches) I do the same thing but in pencils. BTW, thanks for the helpful comments.
Paint on.

[Seedling]

Sorry to just drop my work and run again, but I've got to get to work.

I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt at brass from imagination, so I picked a shape that was more simple, and tried again.

Now I'm behind on the paintings-a-day by one. I'll catch up sometime this week.

[Rich Pellegrino]

that last one ROCKS! The reflected light in the shadows are great. I have been working on some character illustrations recently that have alot of armor. I didn't realize how difficult it was to illustrate! Damn you people who can do hard things effortlessly!

Oh and I do use Oils for just about everything, although I am trying to learn Photoshop and Painter at the moment. Any tips?

[Seedling]

Jason CM, Morningbloom915, Chaosrocks – thanks!

Art Addict – I agree – when I can spare the time, I’ll let more of these go over an hour. And I’ll add a self-portrait or two soon. :-)

Beonarri – Yeah, I’ve got more pictures. I’m thinking I may use them to do a spider painting. If I do, I’ll post them here for you.

Dawood – thanks! You should put your drawings in a sketchbook here. :-)

Voodoo – Thanks! It wasn’t effortless – I had to start with a little tiny key and work my way up. :-) I bet the same tactic would work for you. Notice my helmet doesn’t have a head in it yet. . . you’re still waaaay ahead of me!
The only tips for those programs I can think to offer are beware the shiny distracting extras. But since you already know how to paint, I doubt you’ll be seduced into button-twiddling. Have fun!

[Seedling]

The foilsome thing fell just as I was getting started. Note to self: practice levitating smaller objects before attempting large or fragile objects.

[Beonarri]

Nice chair. There's very nice light on the top leg/back and the shadow looks cool. But, the chair, perspective-wise is slightly crunching in on itself. It might be my eyes or the curve of the chair back, though.

Unless the chair folds up, then you can BS your way out of it. :D

I would try levitating a cup or jar, maybe even a cat next time.

[Rich Pellegrino]

You know how to make objects levitate?!?! Are you a jedi too? Maybe we can learn how to make our paint brushes paint with out using our hands! Now we're onto something. Cool chair by the way it looks like a really tough angle. I hope you don't mind me throwng a little crit your way. I'd like to see you use less white. You do have alot of cool colors and sometimes white is necessary, but If you lose it in certain areas (highlights) you will have more vibrant colors (you paintings will pop!)....but its just a suggestion. If that isn't what your going for I understand though. Could be cool!

[Seedling]

Oh well. . . so much for today's attempt. I guess a failure now and then is necessary to keep my ego from puffing up. Thanks for the subject suggestion, Chaos.

Voodoo – Dood! I would love to hear any critique or suggestion you have to offer! About the less white thing. . . what do you do instead, do you work transparently? That actually brings me back to a running joke I had with a friend in college. His paintings were muddy and dark, so I told him he needed to use white – at which suggestion he would wrinkle his nose at my chalky paintings and tell me I needed to use less. :-) I still haven’t found a happy medium.

Beonarri - *giggle* *imagining the startled and irate meows* Yeah, I’ve been faking the perspective on the chair. The tricky part is that the legs aren’t parallel to one-another, they’re narrower in the back, and they’re curved. I’m not sure how to accurately draw such a complex shape. (That’s an exercise for me to do another time.) But on the bright side, in looking so intently at the shape they make in space, I see now that they form a much more pleasing shape than they would if they were all perfectly rectilinear. Yay, I learned something!

[Myako]

Hey seedling,
http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=24299&stc=1&d=1158525031
What a spider O.o looks like a death-head on the back lol
pretty nice oil paintings, very accurate , you must have a bunch of small canvas by so many paintings ;D

Keep it up looks nice

[Banshax]

Keep it up seedling, Its so nice to see you get better and better. Once again its so easy to apreciate your work.

[jharford]

nice new paintings seedling,
the last pepper definately has to much white, it's overpowering the image and doesnt fit.
I like the chairs , would be nice to hang the 3 chair pics together somewhere..try ebay :)
I updated my thread, if you have time can you give me some crit?

[Unit18_Nate]

Very nice works. I keep telling myself I need to do something like this but my lazy ass keeps not doing it.

[Jason C-M]

I've certainly had that "chalky" problem myself. (Which certainly isn't to say that I've got it beaten now.)

A couple things that help me:

1. are you using really good paints with strong, dense staining pigments? They can help your whites glow rather than chalk.

2. how much are you mixing the white into the form on the canvas? I find that when I do that too much, I keep adding more white and then more white and finally a little more white until I've got a chalky mess. If I mix my light areas on the pallette with a knife, then lay them onto the painting (into a thin area or on top of a thick area with a soft brush) it comes out much nicer.

3. kind of a cheat, but I often use naples yellow instead of white to lighten up my other colors.

4. Finally, what white are you using? I love the silkiness of flake white, but on these smaller guys use a lot of titanium because I need the opacity.

[Beonarri]

The pepper looks like one of those drawings where the pencil (or in this case, brush) just doesn't want to work that day. But the shadow on the back looks interesting.

Just remember, this is key now, so listen:

When you levitate a cat, make sure you tape it and put it on youtube, for everyone to see.

[Seedling]

Gotta post-n-run.

Post card, painted slightly too wide.

[Myako]

Hey seed ^^
yeah yourself criticism is good ;D but actually not bad like it , i actually don´t know if the hand should be merge to the white paper , i can´t really see the hand ?

Greez Mya

[Beonarri]

Good postcard. It's something different from the veggies and chairs.
Is there wear-and-tear on the top, left corner?
If so I think it should be pronounced more.

[Seedling]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Myako – Just stacks of illustration board, actually. Takes up less space. Yeah, I could have painted that hand better.
Banshax - :-)
jhartford – Ebay? Heehe! Perhaps eventually I’ll give that a try.
Unit18_Nate – It’s all about establishing a regular routine that doesn’t wear you out so much one day that you don’t want to do it the next.
Jason C-M – I’ve actually been doing all of that so far except for the good quality paints. But new paints will have to happen soon, as I am now out of Naples Yellow. Thanks for the tips! I thought I was being nutty for using Naples Yellow like that.
Beonarri – one levitating on you-tube coming right up! ;-) Yeah, I could have painted that bent corner better.


I did self-portraits this weekend. This one was two hours, and I tried not to use much white in the warm side of the face. Ye gads, I sure paint myself looking ugly.

[Seedling]

Another two-hour self portrait, again with the ugly look of concentration. This time I wanted a painting that wasn’t so dark. I tried using white paint liberally. Despite my looking like a marble statue, I preferred the gooey thickness of the paints in this portrait to the thin saturation in the last one.

[Seedling]

I got myself caught up with my dailies with this here broccoli. And then I went and had insomnia last night, so I’m once again a day behind.

[Spats]

Urh I'm scared of spiders >.>

That broccoli is very nice. Keep posting!

[Rich Pellegrino]

Hey Seedling! The broccoli is nice. The yellow light on the stem is what I was talking about earlier. That part is working great, on all levels. The head is where I lose it. It looks like your caking the white on there. I bet there are many more colors in there.

One of my cold professors always told me to slow down and really think about what your looking at, then what your mixng, after that repeat the process once and THEN lay down your brush stroke. It's a long process but I was rushing and painting blindly. Once I started to slow down alot of doors opened. It looks like your in good shape though (I was a mess only a year ago, whoops!)

The first sp is GREAT! I love the lighting. When are these things hitting up ebay?

PS, I graduated this past year, I did however leave RISD for two years until returning and graduating. I was in the illustration dept. My name is Rich by the way. I don't think we've met, but I was at the lecture you gave a year back.

[Rich Pellegrino]

One more thing to avoid any further white problems....When you have your palette set up, based on the lighting your sublect matter is in, add some yellow or red or purple to you're white. Just a little to offset the color. It will give you a warm or cool undertone. I think I am missing some info on this process but I think thats that basic jist of it.

[Seedling]

Hiya Rich!
We must have just missed each other in college. I graduated in 2000. And I think it’s really cool that you remember one of my visits. :-)

Ooh, I’ll give that trick with the white paint a try! And I do know what you mean about painting slowly. That one thing that always tripped me up in college.

Ebay? Haha! Um, I dunno, maybe after the holidays. My family is getting my experiments for Christmas. Oops, they’re probably reading this. LOL!

[Art_Addict]

Hey ! you followed up on what I suggested, cool !

Nice SP's. You're not afraid of color like I am... :)
Love the saturated shadow bits in the second. strong sketch !

[Beonarri]

People!! Soilent Paintings are made of PEOPLE!!

They look really good. The first one, reminds me of when people first do portraits and they draw all the lines and shadows harsher than they should be drawn. The second one is better. The subtler shadows on the face are more successful. The only thing that really stands out are the harsh reds in the shadows. Above the eye, nostrils, ear, and upper lip. It's too noticable and is really close to a blood color.

The broccoli looks good! The warm lights definitly help push the illusion of 3d. Too bad that stuff tastes terrible. :blah:

[Seedling]

Spats – thanks! Will do.
Art Addict – Of course, it was a good suggestion. :-)
Beonarri – mmm, tasty soilent people. Yeah, I’ve still got lots of experimenting to do with flesh colors.

Another chair sketch, this time sitting about as close to me as my setup would allow. Fortunately it did not decide to tumble onto my head.

[Jason C-M]

Your chairs are so much fun. You should definitely hang them all together somewhere.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Nice chair! Now that all my deadlines are finished today, I think I am going to join you in this painting a day madness! I may even do some digitally, since I've been tryinh to sharpen my skills in painter! hmmmmm, now what should I paint?

[Basil]

great paintings and the dedication to your work is inspiring. :bow:

i love the first chair on this page, because its dynamic position with the shadow tell a story unlike some of the other sketches that more or less float.

i'm trying to do the same thing in reverse to learn to paint digitally and conceptually. do you do much digital painting?


well, keep up the good work and i'll try to do the same :wink:

[Tigermilk]

beautiful work. Will definately try this out.
lov the floating shair.

[arttorney]

Re: round brushes
When I was a beginner at oils I thought of the brushes as making marks the way they were shaped. I used to use rounds to paint the outline of something (or a dotter if I wanted a really fine line) and then I filled in the space with whatever brush seemed like the right one to use. I ruined several brushes and produced several paintings that look like crap. Reading books and studying van Gogh's paintings closely resulted in an epiphany concerning flats. Turning the flat sideways makes great lines. Using just the tip of one corner makes great dots. Now I just use rounds for signing, and slashing strokes for foreground vegetation. Sometimes I will incompletely mix something like some olive looking green and some yellow ochre, get some of each loaded heavily on a round, and spin the handle between my fingers as I stroke it through a ground area. Some really weird striations can result. (Frankly, I have spun flats and even a fan blender this way though. It all depends on how big of a diameter you want for the weird looking marks churning through your impasto.)

I like your metals. I did a still life of a rusty chain and lock with watercolor pencils once. Metals can have so many colors and textures. It's great.

[morningbloom915]

I have to say, that broccoli looks edible! I think thats the best one yet! I love all your chair paintings. I'm impressed that you're able to maintain the level of concentration needed to both levitate and paint simultaneously! :)

Keep it up. One day, I'm going to join you in this painting a day thing.

[Seedling]

Jason CM- thanks :-)

Voodoochile – awesome! I look forward to seeing your progress! And I anticipate that you’ll leave me in the dust right quick. ;-)

notspecialist – Thanks. :-) Yeah, I agree, the sideways chair is the most interesting so far. I haven’t done any digital painting for a while. I used to paint a lot of textures at work, but then my interested shifted more to technical sets of models, and I worked out a system with my art lead so that I would just paint the first pass on my textures, and a better artist would do the real work. Now I’m just building dungeons, so I’m not painting digitally at all. In a few years, I hope to have children. I may switch from oil to digital at that point, for safety reasons.

Tigermilk – thanks :-)

arttorney – Cool, thanks for the explanation! I found that I’ve been using flats almost entirely, and I assumed it was just because I had never figured out the secret of rounds!

morningbloom – woot! Thanks. And I look forward to seeing your work.


Today: bread, good for mild hangovers.

[Rich Pellegrino]

That bread is possibly your best piece yet. Great job!

[Beonarri]

MMmmmmmMMMMmmm...toast!

Looks good! Is there anything on that toast? Looks like there maybe butter or some type of girl creme cheese on it...the strawberry stuff.

Also the chair looks really good! Nice and dynamic.

"What if it's made of people?!?!" - Fry.
"No, they already have a soda like that: Soylent Cola." -Leela
"Oh...how is it?" - Fry.
"It varies from person to person." - Leela

[elisa]

Great updates here seedling! You have done some real progressing! Awesome selfportraits, especially the first one. I like the lightening! And nice broccoli and toast! (gaah, I have to eat...now....*hungry*) Keep up the good work:)

[incolorinred]

you have a knack for making really soothing blue backgrounds.

[crimsoneye]

I really love your paintings and the color choices. By looking at your stuff may have learn something on how use colors when painting. Varying subject is cool too. Hope to see more.

[Fishspawn]

You keep rocking the oils :) I'd actually like to see more self portraits, thats where i see weakness and the most room for improvment. Coincidentally then you can give me tips on self portraits.. buahaha!

... Anyway, keep it up, this kind of thread is what CA is all about.

[Seedling]

voodoo – thanks!
Beonarri – no, there was nothing on the bread. (Which makes great feedback for me – I need to improve at bready surface textures.)
elisa – teehee! If I have made you hungry, then my devious plan has worked! Thanks for stopping by.
incolorinred – thanks! A blob of white plus a smear of blue and a smidge of orange.
crimsoneye – thanks! I’m learning lots.
fishspawn – haha! Can you point out any areas in my self portraits that you think I should focus on improving? Thanks!



This is painting-a-day number fifty!

I’ve definitely improved at painting round shapes. And shiny things. However, so far I’ve had two out of three people glance at this and then ask what it was, so obviously I have more work to do.

[Rich Pellegrino]

A nickel! I think people are having trouble decifering what it is because it is upside down and there can be a little more contrast to help define some edges(especially inside the coin) I thought it was a crumpledd up can at first but then registered it as a nickel. Maybe I am wrong?

[Jason C-M]

The reflected highlight in the shadow is a particularly nice touch, though the couple of warm brushstrokes in the nickel's face read to me like brushed on paint rather than anything to do with the form itself.
It read as a nickel to me instantly, but looks a tiny bit puffy and rounded. But that may be me worrying that my hard-edged stuff looks puffy and rounded so I'm over-picky about that right now.

[morningbloom915]

Well its a nickel obviously! How could you not see that?

[Moai]

Very beautiful sketchbook. The toast is your strongest piece, I think, and I like the nice weird theme you have going on with the hovering chairs.
As for people not being able to tell what a coin is, all I can say is that the ignorance of the untrained eye can be astonishing.

[CCThrom]

Your dedication is inspiring!

By the way that beautiful spider is probably a Golden Orb Weaver... we get them down here in 'Jersey too.

[Seedling]

Heehee, thanks for the feedback, guys.

Oh yeah, CCThrom, thanks for reminding me - a friend dug up some info on my spider:

http://www.fcps.edu/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/black_and_yellow_argiope.htm

[chaosrocks]

nice work...the SPs remind me of Kathë Kollowitz and little to honest.....;P
the napkin seems a lillttl un focussed
I need to do more drapery
keep up the good work! we're all watching you
doensnt that make you feel special?

chaosrocks

[Beonarri]

Though using white as the background probably made the towel easier to paint, it makes it hard to differentiate the towel from the background.

A soft color for the towel like pink or light blue or light yellow (common towel colors) I think it would help.

Good work on the texture though. It's nice and sublte but you can definitely tell the texture.

Talking about orb weavers, here's the bolas spider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas_spider
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=bolas+spider

[Seedling]

Chaos – Thanks. :-) Watching me? I’m just not going to think about that. . . stage fright makes me spend more time than necessary in the bathroom. . .

Beonarri – I was kind of having fun making the edge of the washcloth vanish. :-) Yeah, I picked a boring color/lighting scheme (light from outdoors on a rainy day). Woah, thanks for the spider links!

This weekend I had planned on doing more cloth, but instead procrastinated, and did three paintings of transparent things on Sunday night. I notice my quality went down as the evening wore on.

Round, shiny, and transparent:

[Seedling]

Shiny, transparent, and complicated, and painted while listening to Mythbusters:

[Seedling]

Shiny, transparent, and round, and painted while listening to a documantary about China. I’m noticing that like with practicing music, I can inadvertantly cause the memories of stuff going on during a practice session or painting to be permanantly attached to the piece. If only I could figure out a way to make this a useful skill.

I’m now all caught up. 54 paintings done in 54 days so far. I intend to keep this up until February. Here’s hoping.

[Seedling]

I shrunk my morning painting time down to a pitiful smidgeon because I had a sudden craving for eggs. So this mysterious object is now even more mysterious, and unintentionally ugly to boot. It’s a Chinese couch-potato food, a boiled and oiled nut, the name of which translates as “buffalo horns”. I was told to crack the shell with my teeth, but I have a weakling jaw, and succeeded mostly in hurting myself. If you ever get the chance to eat these nuts, use a nut cracker.

[morningbloom915]

Fantastic! The first bottle painting is my favorite of this last batch. All of them turned out very well, though. The buffalo horns, while mysterious and slightly unattractive, still reads very well as a horned sort of object. I've never seen the nut before though, so I dont know.

Keep it up!

[Beonarri]

Bubble wrap would be way too hard for me to paint.

Here's some digital bubble wrap.
http://www.urban75.com/Mag/bubble.html :D

...and suddenly the thread stopped.

[morningbloom915]

Bubble wrap would be way too hard for me to paint.

Here's some digital bubble wrap.
http://www.urban75.com/Mag/bubble.html :D

...and suddenly the thread stopped.
You really did stop the thread Beonarri! The people demand paintings! I dont know what to do with my afternoons if I cant come look at your paintings, Seedling! :(

[Beonarri]

I know it's crazy!
Behold the power of BUBBLE WRAP!

[chaosrocks]

I paint while listening to Project Runway podcasts.....

the transparencies are getting better,, the baby food jar doesn't quite line up right. buthe bubble wrap is cool .. challenging
chaos

[Coen]

Hey Seedling great stuff man, I like the faces, you should do some more.
I love the helmet too, cool reflections there, keep going man :D

[Tigermilk]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=30799&stc=1&d=1159797344
such beautiful colors
keep us updated,
tiger

[Bojee]

You have some really nice paintings here, they've gotten progressively better as you've gone along, the only thing is they're starting to seem a bit formulaic. Maybe try to mix things up a bit so you don't always know what to expect, a different color background, a different pallete, play with your edges, maybe push your values, or paint more than one object. The only reason I say this is because it seems like you've got this pretty much down, these are nice but I think you've got more in you.:yayca: :yayca:

PS It's very cool you writing about the industry. :)