Wm.B.Hand • WATERCOLOUR PENCIL PRACTICE -- (Updated Dec.5th) [Archive]

sve

March 24th, 2007, 11:46 PM

I'm sitting and looking at this girl with blue eyes... I didn't know you were going to update so soon I wasn't prepared to see it and the more surprising this encounter was.
I thought I will write about the first image which although created this sensual, primitive, raw sensation in me, still is not so mind controlling and unexpected as this piece, the red-haired sphinx.

This is something else, it is not an image, it is some kind of mind controlling tool or voice or conversation... the rest of the images have 1/100000000 of the power of this one... I would call this image "Contact", because that what it is... a window, teleportation point. You enter through those eyes and live in them... I have so many associations with it, so many pleasant associations.

This image energizes and comforts in the same time, there are so many all kind of symbols and hints there, but they all work in certain direction, create certain "melody".

I would call this image "Nature" as well, because it has its taste; unpredictable, exciting and sexual. And delicate as well... So many straight to brains and heart coming symbols: innocent face, young full breasts with modest and provoking in the same time body language, eye to eye contact, persistent, non-human, leading, hypnotic eyes...
Green and rusty colors, slightly suffocating, subtle, comforting, wrapping around me, changing, devouring everything.
I look at these strange shapes on her skin and I don't know if it's continents and oceans or it is strange flowing pigments on her skin... But it feels nice and I'm not afraid of her.... She is not a friend, but she is a major intoxication, source of pleasure and maybe even a new knowledge. She promises unforgettable moments and takes a lot for that -your will and always gives back something - tips of your nerves trembling from excitement and pleasure.

I liked her relaxed and relaxing pose, I didn't see it right away and it was sudden discovery that she sits on this soft hill or sofa in the pose of a big lazy cat. I like those wings or huge caterpillars behind her and lizard and life happening in front of my eyes and independently from mine.

I like so much her innocent and shameless altogether gesture, covering her magnetic breasts half way...
I really don't want to talk about anything that could be changed in this image, it is a very powerful image, should be posted in FF section.
I think it will be loved, but who knows other people tastes.

I love it... I wish it was mine. Someone will certainly see those eyes and will hear her calling for him, this painting will go from you...

If I could add somehting I would make her lips just a bit more calling, trapping, seductive in a very extremely subtle way, they are a little bit flat and subdued.. I would put a little of moisture on her lips, make them sweeter, like a sweet poison. I know you don't want to revert your viewer from her eyes, but still, something to make her lips not domineering in picture at all , but fresh and desirable would add some more magic, IMO.

But it is not that important
I think, she controls minds, I don't know if she is good or bad, but she delivers a lot of what she promises and whatever she takes is worth it.

-------------------
The first image...
I like the subtle manner to talk through colors and delicate transition of them, but this piece is avoiding contact with me. I look at it like something that happened many, many centuries ago... we will never cross our roads.
I look at it as some strange engraving on an ancient wall or strange drawing found finally. Some unreadable message from people who lived many years before me.
If talking about technical site I would say that although those soft dissolving silhouettes and outlines have a strange effect on me combined with other opposite symbols (hostile grimace, horns, muscles)... still my eyes want to stay on something, some sharp edges, some contrast and they don't' have this, they just slide through the whole image without stops and fall down the page...

That's what I think, Will. All the best to you and thank you for kindness and special sweet attention you gave to me today.
I think you are an awesome artist judging from this mind changing girl in the post before last one... I wish I could've created her...
I feel spasm in my throat when I looked at her.. true emotion.

sve

March 26th, 2007, 05:23 PM

She is beautiful, Will. I'm looking at her again... Magic painting, of a huge charm.
I'm so silly. I'm getting tamed by images so deeply.

heh, just noticed the alien with a walking device. heheh, that's funny.

Ragathol

March 27th, 2007, 12:14 AM

Fabulous. The demon is amazing, and the sphinx oddly alluring. Love the lineart sketches as well, the little "this just passed by" remark made my day.. or well, night.

sve

March 27th, 2007, 01:21 AM

Anid Maro

March 27th, 2007, 01:43 AM

Yep, really charismatic painting of the red head... You know if you post this image in a bigger size to fill the whole screen, well at least bigger than it is now, I will probably have triple enjoyment from this painting... I like how our faces and eyes lined up against each other and how serious and calm she is. She doesn't blink. I can't do that. Is it OK that I write about the same painting many times? you know I like to come back to old images... they are better than new ones. Always exciting once I felt their loveliness.

Heh, I think you've got a fan William. :)

Not that the praise is undeserved, it really is a very nice piece. The texturing makes it very enjoyable to look at while her eyes just draw you in. It has a lot going on while being very centered. Well done indeed.

AztcFireFlower

March 27th, 2007, 03:22 AM

Love the aged aliens.

The sphinx is an eye trap. Draws one in for a long enjoyable time. Textures are lovely.

d00dle

March 27th, 2007, 03:28 AM

oh, man god. u people r super talented. the top one is nothing like digital painting at all. I wonder how you even do that. Yeah, really like all of your paintings. I hope u don't mind if I save em on my desktop as reference.

William b. Hand

April 5th, 2007, 02:35 AM

Diego - Thanks! Glad you like that.

sve - My goodness... How do I begin to respond to such wonderfully articulated appreciation? ...Especially when I'm as tired as I am... Well, the answer is: I don't. :P Thank you so much. Please feel free to comment as often as you like about whatever you like here. It just makes me want to paint more, you know. :D As to your crit about the mouth... Yeah, I actually thought about that and considered doing exactly what you suggest, but I was unable to really visualize it at the time, and did not trust my airbrush to behave. Between those two concerns, I decided I would just leave well-enough alone and hoped it wouldn't actively detract from the image. I still feel the same, although I agree with you. Next time! :) And as to your desire for a larger pic... I will accommodate you soon. It's thrilling to learn that a painting has had such a deep effect on someone, and I appreciate the energy and thought that you put into eloquating your feelings about it. Very curious reaction to the Demon, too... Good stuff, sve.

Ragathol - Thank you! I'm glad you're digging the variety here. :)

Anid Maro - Thanks!

AztecFireFlower - Gracias! I hope you enjoy further installments!

d00dle - Glad you enjoy! I've been really enjoying getting back into airbrushing. And, no, I don't mind if you save 'em to your desktop (just don't sell or co-opt or anything ;)). I've got a huge "inspiration" folder, myself.

SO.

I've been fumbling around with this painting for the last week.
I'm afraid I didn't use colour (beyond the yellow) this time around, but NEXT one... There're a number of things that're wonky about it, but I'm satisfied that it finally came together in the way that it did.
See whatchya think...

THE GREETERS : 20"x30" (50cm x 76cm) : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/TheGreeters.jpg

DETAIL A
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/TheGreetersdetailii.jpg

DETAIL B
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/TheGreetersdetailiii.jpg

Shinryu

April 5th, 2007, 09:39 AM

Really nice thread man, "DEMON PORTRAIT ii" and "THE GREETERS" are my favourites, great stuff.

cheers

sve

April 6th, 2007, 01:52 PM

Hello, William...Yes, I can tell somehow that you are tired, not actually in your posts or words you chose, but in your paintings.
And not exactly physically tired, but more like you want comfort, restoration. And you want deepness and honesty. i think that that because of direct eye to eye look in some of characters which you apparently love yourself, meaning they are your dreams.
I think you want a comfort because of so many round forms in your paintings.
They have the same effect on me, they comfort me, pat me, slide a in smooth movement off me. Your paintings don't confront, they smooth things around them, they want silence and attention.

I think about you not being confrontational because of the colors too, they are very often of colors of past, so to speak, events that already happened and which can't be a source of anything really catastrophic anymore... It 's your favorite brown. Images look like centuries lie between them and me and like time already started its work on them, like waves in ocean smooth all sharp edges, preparing to oblivion.

I think the manner in which your paint is telling too... you like softness and delicate and indefinite quality of this airbrush, it calms your nerves. The smooth surface of your paintings tells me the same.

If I really did something to make you want to paint, it is striking. I'm honored.

I imagine you reading my words to you now and I feel a bit shy and I feel a responsibility to be as honest as possible and not to say anything to please or charm. To be truthful... It is hard in a way, I have tendency to fantasize about my associations and memories and I don't know how much reality in it and how much fantasy. And more of it, I feel what you might like and I'm a people pleaser.
I do feel what I write, but it is coming to you in words... so there is an editing in it of course in some way.

I'll start from the painting you didn't post, it is in your blog, it named ANTOINE.

It has a strong communication with me... What I feel looking at this profile is a bit terrifying, and intriguing and charming as well. It scares me a bit too and provokes my curiosity...

Profile's painting like this, static but with an expectation that it will turn over any minute makes me feel threatened a bit... And he has such a fine sly look about him. There is something crazy about his face, he is sick, but in the same there is some gentleness and sweetness, especially somewhere in the area between his eyebrows and in the thin skin of his eyelids, something fragile, vulnerable.

I have a very inevitable association with the novel
'Perfume" by Patrick Süskind. You probably read it, it is a top notch literature, but if you didn't I would suggest to look at it... You painted a character form this novel in my opinion, the criminal person with a beautiful rare talent.
This painting doesn't have time between me and him... it is happening now and here and that's why I feel scared and threatened.

And not the many mechanical details you used as details of this face and costume scare me, but his eyes and quiet horror of his next action. His eye is alive, and dynamic surrounded by static gruesome rest. And his tiny sharp lips and nose, like a beak and an attentive ear... He spies on me, searching for me weakness and he is so smart and cunning. But strangely enough I feel a compassion to him as well. he looks like deformed soul. Or maybe it is a fine manipulation from his side. He is a nervous impressionable fine actor.

I think this painting is perfect, I don't want anything added or removed from it... it is very warm despite the creepy feeling it gives me... mechanical design makes me think about centuries of science mixed with superstitions, synthesis of Homunculus, searching for the philosophical stone to create gold from a lead, with ideas of mice and rats being born from garbage...
I like colors in this painting and i like amount of details in it, not overloading, well thought out in a good strict taste, IMO. Great placement on canvas, composition.

I would call this painting be the name of the character form the novel I mentioned, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille or I would called it Deformed.

Now about your recent update, I look at it as a humorous image... it has a curious mix of fantasy and real life event, associations from it... Those bored, gruesome greeters... hehe. Judging from their look I expect a brick to fall on my head in the next step. Heh, yep, don't put honest people to sell you something you don't want...They'll spoil the entire fun. They don't have this sportsman quality to have their own way in things.
I wish you used colors in this one. As I said I have a strong association with past when I look at this fading brown... And because of that I feel calmed and not present in the events you show me, your viewer, I feel just as an passive observer.
I'm not sure about how you use sharp marks in this painting, my eyes mostly on the front figure, the bird and on the horizon on the lightest value of the sky and they are very often stop on the sharp details of little brick border in the front of the painting... and it is not that informative to make me look at it for so long, I think
Looks like soon going out of business store or something :).

That's all... Bye..

TheGnoll

April 6th, 2007, 02:09 PM

man, that a very cool technique indeed, i'd love to know how it actually works ;) nice smooth look.VEry original subjects and approch to them too...i'd love to see sketches and doodles too, no need to post just finished work here :D

keep sharing!

ciao

...I feel like a retard posting this comment after sve :D

William b. Hand

April 9th, 2007, 04:58 AM

Shinryu - Thank you! Glad you are digging these monochromatic ones :D.

sve - Yet again, a deliciously long and delightfully frank reply from you that I will only have the wherewithall to respond to in the briefest of terms, alas. ;) I think your observations about my tiredness, the desire for comfort, and the non-confrontational nature of these entities, are all pretty savvy. And, again, there is a definitive sense of inspiration that I've received from reading your responses, yes. Something about them... like birds off the bow, letting me know that I am approaching land... Or that I am on the right path, or something.
... Regarding "ANTOINE", I must relate to you that back when I did that painting, I felt unsure about it's level of finish, and I didn't find anyone who thought it especially interesting as it was. Shortly after posting that pic on my blog, I went back into it and made a number of disastrous errors that seemed would be the ruin of it. Knowing that I still had that posted online, and knowing that I had doomed a painting I had been fond of (despite my misgivings), led to a certain amount of shame for me. Reading what you recently wrote about it furthered my sense of guilt ("I think this painting is perfect, I don't want anything added or removed from it...").

Today I managed to pull it back from oblivion, and I'm happy with the result, but I know that it is no longer the same painting, nor will it draw forth quite the same feelings. So, I offer my apologies, Sveta. :) I read "Perfume" a very long time ago, and have an extremely limited recollection of it, but I do remember enjoying things about it. I'm so poorly read, that your reference to a book that I actually finished is surprising.

I agree with you about THE GREETERS... In fact, I was planning on painting something entirely different from what that turned out to be, and by the time I realized how much it cried out for colour, I was far too deep into it. Also, the bricks... yes, they became quite the problem. Thanks again, Sveta. I hope you are always able to respond as you feel want to do. Hm... I guess I had more wherewithall to respond than I thought I did. ;)

TheGnoll - Thank you! It's nice to hear about interest in my technique or approach. Although I'm trying to explore and utilize the time-saving effects of pre-painting sketches, up to this point I have not done any for any of these pics. I just usually feel my way through a painting, you see. I am trying to get some sketches worked out for use as guides, though, so maybe I'll be able to post such things soon...

Alright, without further a-do...
LINK TO EARLIER VERSION (http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_AntoineLAviateur.jpg)

Maybe I should re-name it "THE CLOWN"... ?

"ANTOINE" : Airbrushed Acrylic on board : 32"x40" (81cm x 101cm)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_Antoine_Final_ii.jpg

sve

April 9th, 2007, 11:33 PM

Hello, Will... Thank you so much again and again for such a warm welcome and so much kindness to my comments. :). very pleasant feeling, you know. I feel like I was given keys from all doors, no fences and I can step in and go wander around freely in enchanting forest of William Hand's world. Or is it valley? It's probably a valley.

You got rhythm here.

"...Something about them...
like birds off the bow,
letting me know
I'm almost touching the glow.

That I am approaching the land
where plays musics old band
and every thing's grand
but time slips like a sand...

Still I sit on the rock
and watch foxes in frock
dancing slow minuet
deaf from an off-tune clarinet...''

I'm going wild in your book, you know, in no one's book I would write the things I'm writing in yours :). because I feel it's OK to do.
When I'm tired from wandering in your valley you will allow me to sit in your squeaky chair with my feet off floor and cover me with an old orange blanket weaved from camel hair and give me a huge cup of smoking coffee. And I have realistic hopes for a tartlet. And that's a human happiness for me :).

OK...
I want to tell you one more funny thing. I had one more association with your "ANTOINE" piece. I didn't write it down because I don't remember the name of a novel and the writer... But it was a fantasy novel about some strange space adventurers.
One of the characters was a young girl and her many friends, and another was a strange Clown, mute, very thin, with a huge expressive eyes... Girl heard sometimes voices talking to her and trying to convince her in things in which she didn't want to believe... The travelers go from one disaster to another... The girl felt a compassion to the strange, homeless, lonely Clown, or Joker, but no one from her friends liked him... And with time it's started to get obvious that all catastrophes were coincided with presence of this Clown.
In the end it started to be clear for everyone that the huge, mysterious, destroying force was always near them, looking harmless, friendly, but being the most active hostile enemy, entering their minds effortlessly and manipulating them... He was very charming, made their victims to feel a sympathy to him. Weak on the first sight but armed with a talent to read thoughts and change them.
Great story, I don't remember where I read it, it was a long time ago, probably 12 years ago.

So... yes, He is a clown. I agree... When to think about it this story is never boring, it is emerging from time to time, the image of clown who makes people scared ... Rigoletto, Hamlet with skull in his hands:" Poor Yorick", election of King of Fools in "Notre-Dame de Paris" by Victor Hugo, Quasimodo becoming the King and Joke for crowd, Ice house built to perform a wedding of two fallen from grace.
OK, not sure if it is interesting theme.

Yes, the painting changed... it is a different person now... I don't feel threatened anymore, and he doesn't look unpredictable and crazy,,, he looks more sympathetic now, much softer.
The most global changes is that you made his eye sit deeper and it removed the nervous unsettled feeling from his face. Before that his eye was watching me and conspiring on me, now his eye is turned inside, he is watching, listening himself... You made his lips with a new wrinkle on a corner like a wrinkle from a smile, it relaxed his features a lot and removed tension. Before the eyes were the sharpest detail and wherever my glance was before it always returned to the strange restless eye of his... now my eyes have a lot more to look and his eye is not the main priority.
He looks sad and soft now, sweet actually and romantic.
Before his strange, unnerving essence was a priority, now it's his soft face surrounded by sharp metal mechanisms, he looks much more vulnerable now.
He has my full compassion now... before the emotion was much more complex... Still I love this image. Don't feel a quilt.. Emotions are tricky things, aren't they? it is interesting how they change from image getting wider in size or from few shadows on his eye lids...
Bye, Will... all the best to you...

William b. Hand

April 13th, 2007, 02:20 AM

sve - "..Still I sit on the rock and watch foxes in frock.." :teeth:
I am not familiar with the book that you describe about the strange clown, but I like the reference and the parallel to this pic even as it changed. It's so interesting to me how differently people are affected by the same things... A friend of mine said she found the new eye to be very disturbing because of the separation from the socket area, but my feeling echoes your own. The current effect is much closer to my original intent, as I always meant for him to be benevolent. I'm glad you still like him. :)

Here is my latest painting, completed tonight.
It was done very much with Z.Beksiñski in mind, though nowhere near his level of sophistication. It's rather new for me in that I made a small, very rough, sketch that I used as the inspiration for the full painting. I have issues with it here and there, of course, but I think it fulfills its purpose, and I'm satisfied.

I'm afraid I had a tough time getting a decent photo (as usual), but I think you get the idea. I'll try for a better shot with tomorrow's sunlight.

BRAMBLE MAN : 20"x30" (50cm x 75cm) : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/BrambleManii.jpg

DennisCurrie

April 13th, 2007, 02:34 AM

Amazing work. Yopu make me want to pick up my liner brush again and start painting sweet, fine details. Incredible sense of atmosphere. Would love to see more.
Alas, I do not have the patience you seem to have. I must therefore utilize a more painterly approach. I admire those who can spend so much time on one piece.

Dile_

April 13th, 2007, 04:47 AM

Wow, never saw any artwork by you until now.. I'm really glad I found this stuff, as Dennis said, Amazing work!
I have nothing good to add really haha, the only thing i can think of is to click the subscription button ^^

-Dile

Spats

April 13th, 2007, 04:59 AM

That's a beautiful technique - lovely depth in "the greeters".

TheGnoll

April 13th, 2007, 08:23 AM

creepy n really fascinating stuff as usual man, i bet these must look sooo nice in real life and original size ;)
nice to chat with ya the other day man, we should do it again ;)

btw, do you know Beksinski?

keep sharing,
ciao!

William b. Hand

April 15th, 2007, 12:40 AM

DennisCurrie - Thanks! Patience, huh? Well, yeah I suppose sometimes it takes that. Frankly, I think I need to cultivate even greater patience in my approaches, hehe. :P Glad you like it!

Dile_ - Thank you! Yeah, I haven't posted so much as I might've over the years... Thanks for subscribing!

Spats - Glad you like the depth in GREETERS... I'm trying to push into doing more of that sort of thing. Cheers!

TheGnoll - Thanks! As to how they look in person, hopefully they look better. So much depends on the lighting, actually. In sunlight, they really seem to pop, but in the bar... I don't yet know.:S I'll find out soon enough, I reckon. (the 29th) To your question do I know Beksiñski personally... Nope. I'm sure he's still living in Poland, and I've had no contact with him yet.

Okey dokey...

Here's another that's essentially monochromatic in spirit. See how it hits ya.

"DARK HORSE LISTENS TO THE BEE" : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 20"x30"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_DEERGIRLANDBEE.jpg

EYE DETAIL
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_EYEDETAIL.jpg

BEE DETAIL
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_BEEDETAIL.jpg

William b. Hand

April 15th, 2007, 02:48 AM

Thought I'd post a sketchbook page from a few days ago, too...

TALL WEEVIL SKETCH
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_TALLWEEVILSKETCH.jpg

sve

April 15th, 2007, 11:47 AM

Hello... You have strange characters in your mind, I think... I wonder about that... They are very vulnerable and there is not feeling of home in your pictures and but a lot of longing, a lot of it. I see insanity in many of them (not yours, but in the told story, in chosen themes) and pain. Most of them are outcasts with no apparent threat to them, but they are on the run and they feel very restless, very worrisome. And those sadness and longing are combined with a calm manner to tell the story, no sharp angles or layers of thick frozen bulk of paint to carry strong aggressive signs, everything is calm and silent... it feels like it is happening in silenced environment in your pictures...

I liked the girl deer more than man in torn wool sweater, although I like some things in the painting too. I liked this sweater :). it tells me a story. Looking at its shamelessly sticking in all directions threads, at its pitiful appearance I appreciate beauty of it in the same time... its look is appealing to me and in the same time I feel insanity in this. I like this improvised lace, swirls, mild transitions of yellow and brown, the feeling of wool and burlap... I don't see the face of the man, but I think about him as a crazy, aggressively crazy, very miserable man, who isn't aware of his tragic state, so lost his mind is. This sweater is his only possession, his imitation of home, the only source of warmth for him. But he doesn't give one thought about it. I think his mind is working madly all the time, thoughts are jumping like fleas with an insane speed, never stay on something definite for long... his brains are burning out and destroying themselves, but producing zero... so much efforts and in the end...a lot of energy spent without any result in indifferent vacuum...

So I like the tilted bald head, the skinny arms and hands and I especially like the very expressive sweater... it is actually a man who carries his house on his back all the time... One of the biggest fear, btw. to end up like this.

I like the composition, and placement of the main shape across the page...

What I'm not sure about is his restrained legs... I kind of like it, because it is a contrast to the mad energy from the figure of the man, but in the same time I don't like it because it is an unexpected stop, a barrier to the constant motion in the picture... I follow the motion in his figure, the wave he creates with his body and then I see his static legs and I sort of lose the rhythm and might flip over mentally so to speak.

You don't need to follow my wishes but I think it would be better to create some source of his worries around him as well, some sort of dust behind him, little tornado chasing him or repeating his crazy senseless moves...But there is none right now in the picture, the man is alone in his insanity, there is no reason for him to escape from anything, nothing pursuits him and it makes the picture even more painful and hopeless for anything healing, comfort.
I understand why you didn't create any outside commotion though.. maybe you are right. The man is his own worst enemy, it is a self destruction.

Girl and her bee...
Strange picture as well and I feel the same malfunctioning creature in it... I think about this girl when I look at her face... she is not miserable and she is not happy, at least she is not aware of it,,, she doesn't focus on one thought, she is wandering in her mind like in the endless journey... I don't know... there is a a lot emotions, feeling on her face, but it is subconscious. I think it is a reaction on the subjects and effects surrounding her (like a wind or cold or noise or even her buddy bee) but she isn't aware of them in the next minute... she lives like in an eternal fog, with some objects reappearing from the cloudiness for a minute and falling back into it.
I adore her beautiful stylized little ear, so feminine and accurate charming shape, like a lovely shell. I like her stylized eyes, they carry the unpleasant insanity as well, but it is a beautiful stylization, like they are painted on her face, on the surface... I like her cheek less face and some refinement in her delicate features... she has noble features, the face of the mad Ophelia (and btw I would say the man in the torn sweater reminds me story of the King Lear).. Overall those updates reminds me Shakespeare's intensity in feelings and in chosen themes.

Bee is the only one who is sane and in harmony with itself, I think... There is probably response from the girl to friendliness and constant companionship of the bee, but it is scarce and hardly fulfilling as a response from an autistic person. It is probably enough for a bee...
This picture is not about happiness in my opinion, it is about a short break from darkness, girl's eyes and red sky don't make me be calm and hopeful...
Technically I'm a bit worry about so many big monotone shapes in your painting... you are risking to lose attention of your viewer... Girl's expressive eyes and face don't let to happen...

But on the other hand I like the laconic language in the story telling and the suggestive manner for viewer to fill the rest and just hints on the foreshortening of girls pose... that's all... bye.

William b. Hand

April 16th, 2007, 04:22 PM

sve - I will have to respond at a later time. :) Thank you so much for you comments, as they kept me from totally re-doing the eyes. Someone said it really bothered them that the eye placement is so wonky (which it really is), and I considered altering the pic, even though I rather like her face, wonky eyes and all. I know that her expression would change, and I don't really want to lose that, so your comments have helped calm me.

I didn't get around to any painting yesterday, but I did do some anatomical imaginings in my sketchbook. Historically, my study and understanding of the human form has been woefully lacking. Only in the past coupluv years have I begun learning something about it, and that has been sporadic. But, I think I may be on the verge of a breakthrough.

I began this page at the top, trying to see if I could describe a figure in a pose... had some success... and continued on down the page. Each drawing began with the super-simple ball-jointed stick figure, (which seems so important to me now) and then I tried to see what muscle and bone I could toss on. It's all from my mind, and I really haven't studied properly, so much of this is quite inaccurate or peculiar. I was just trying to determine what I really know or don't know, which I expect will help me focus on the areas that I understand the least when I look at a book. Anyhow, I'm feeling a bit wordy about the whole thing, but I just wanted to communicate something about what this page means to me, despite how wrong much of it must be.

:P

See whatchya think:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_StickFigures.jpg

p.s. Incidentally, the wildly hunched and elongated spine of that big central figure came from a desire to do something much more monstrous and bizarre, but it gravitated back toward human. I didn't actually think that a back like that was realistic. :teeth: Just thought I'd mention, cuz it really is more peculiar than the others.

sve

April 17th, 2007, 12:22 AM

sve - I will have to respond at a later time. :)

When? :) Soon? :) OK... I'm looking forward.

Why are you changing your panting when someone, even if it's your close friends tell you they are uncomfortable with something in your picture? Especially when those new changes will destroy the mood and something that you personally like? You respect the taste of your friend that much?
Picture is your soul,,, show it as it is, don't embellish it for anyone. I think you are more than average intelligent... it means I have to listen when you're trying to tell me something in your art. I always think about someone's art that nothing is random in it...each line or how the artist pressed his brush or pencil has a certain reason. If he left this line for me to see... it is because that's how he sees and feels and that something I need to accept and try to love because he loves it. It is especially true with experienced artist, who is trying to communicate. But it is true even when artist is searching on paper or canvas... if it's something he was careful not to remove in his creation and it came to me overcoming all barriers through struggles and love/hate relationship with the picture... well it means it was here to stay and for me to see... I need to be delicate with it... don't you think?

OK... studies...
You hesitated a lot about the center figure, but I actually like it as it is,,,with catlike bent back and with super small skull and with huge ugly arm and hand :dur: .. because it creates an emotion in me, it is more than studies.Well, almost as it is,,, I would prefer a bigger foreshortening of the closest arm.
Those curse textures effect my mind... and the greedy hand... there is a passion in this figure and tension and approaching to me.
There are some cases when exaggeration of human anatomy is too big and brains refuse to accept it... but it is not the case... it is an expressive drawing...
You might have a tendency to draw very small feet and heads and avoid hands in the rest on this page... in some like in sitting figure on the top proportions are wonderful and realistic not even stylized. Figure siting on the bottom of the page has too many anatomical mistakes ... so my brains don't recognized it as believable pose and proportions... his head is too big, torso is too short. neck is too pulled out of shoulders...
I wish I could see your fast drawings... how you are in gestures, without rendering... your lines are very, very cautious and slow, you think all the time when you draw, it is not subconscious drawing, on the contrary, very controllable lines. Which makes me think you like to be in control. I want to see your wild side, care free. I would like to see something to check your observation skills as well... some portrait from a life or ref,,, life drawings.
But nevertheless I think you are very open in your art... your paintings are little stories full of thoughts.
Good night.

Brendan N

April 17th, 2007, 02:19 AM

Wow, I clicked on your thread because you kept your cool and stayed reasonable in the Linda Bergvitz (?) thread (kudos, sir), but I never expected THIS.

I'm in love with the red haired sphinx and the girl and bee pieces - there is so much poetry in them, very engaging pieces that beckon me to think. As a crit, the sphinx's hair looks a tad like cloth, don't know whether that is intentional or not.

But this (http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/BrambleManii.jpg)one is right at the top of my list. Beautiful colours and I love the eerie mood, the somethings-not-right feeling I get. Once again full of poetry.

more please is all I can say, sorry for not being able to give more crits :).
cheers!

William b. Hand

April 27th, 2007, 02:02 AM

sve - Again... I'm sorry... been very busy and tired this week and will comment at a later time :bashful: . Thank you so much for your comments, though!

Brendan N - Thank you very much!

So, I've started several paintings that haven't worked out, created and distributed fliers, and been generally awkward as the timer ticks down.

Here's one that worked out okay, I think... Of course I'm providing another crap photo :nohope:

"Toro" - Airbrushed Acrylic on foam core - 20"x30" (50cm x 75cm)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_Early_Toro.jpg

sve

April 27th, 2007, 01:13 PM

That's not a big deal. Bill... it is just I'm getting unpleasant feeling talking to myself :)... and that's will make me go silent soon. Because it is not fun, you know :). I know what I'll write, rarely I have any surprises :).

Happy Birthday again and hope you will spend this day the way you want it, noisy or quietly wildly or commonly accepted, but it should be an enjoyable day for you, you deserved it.

To the arrrrt...
Several paintings, my... you should show them... would be interesting to know what you were up to the whole time... I bet they are a very curious peek into your subconsciousness, show me, Birthday boy... maybe I lose gravitation and will fly high in the sky..."Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"...I'll take you with me for a ride :).

"Toro"...
I looked at it like at a little funny mechanical parody, a toy made for His Royal Majesty King's daughter on her 8th birthday...

It wouldn't be a Spanish infanta, nope, she knows how a real bull looks like probably... no, for some infantile little North European princess with pale cheeks, who's surrounded by hothouse roses and orchids. She thinks buns are growing on trees and source of cheese are cheesecakes... that's who will appreciate the intimidating look of little mechanical creature. I can see her elongated little face with long golden eyelashes above the toro, clapping her hands and loudly admiring it.

"Ahhh, how big his horns are... it will march through the crowd of our brave soldiers untouched"... "ahhh, how scary its teeth,,, lock the door in my little silver/golden room, I don't want it to come after me " :). Ahhh, ahhh, ahh... 15 minutes long fainting :).

The truth is though, that a sly master created this little bull after his house poodle, giving it the same graceful pose and self-esteem in posture. His poodle is a well known coward... but the old master knows how high imagination of Northern princesses can jump and he is confident, the toy will be well received.
That will be all. bye.

TheGnoll

April 27th, 2007, 02:00 PM

is it your birthday man?
if it is, happy birthday to you, man ;)

btw, i meant to know if you knew beksinki's work and if he inspired you the "bramble man" painting...my mistake, you mentioned him in the post right above the pic :D
btw, i'm afraid he was assasined a few years ago (really)

nothing but love for those pencil sketches, and the latest paintings.
Excellent work as usual man ;)

keep sharing :)

ciao!

asoir

April 27th, 2007, 02:42 PM

good god, antoine and bramble man are stunning. indescribable, really!

hurricane

April 27th, 2007, 03:04 PM

great stuff as always william!
on the page with the humans there was some minor issues with anatomy..
thanks for sharing!

William b. Hand

April 28th, 2007, 12:24 AM

sve - Thank you! My day was relatively un-extraordinary... My boss is outta town for these 3 days prior to the Show Opening, so I was sittin in the store for the better part of the day. Just trying to get the final pics done, now. Maybe I'll have my birthday next week? After the show... Will respond further. :teeth:

TheGnoll - Thanks! Glad you like... see what you think of today's sketches. I did not at all realize that Beksiñski had been killed, and am really upset to hear that. Really upset to hear that. That f*cking sucks. :(

hurricane - Thank you, sir. Yeah... I know that the issues are more than "minor", hehe... and knowing that, I hesitated to even post the page; But, there's a personal breakthrough in an ability to visualize the human form that happened there, so I figured What-the-Hell. It'll hopefully be a nice gauge of improvement for my future anatomical doodlings. :P

SO.
Here's what I did today at work (it was pretty dead):

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_Apr27o7.jpg

Mr-Joe

April 28th, 2007, 02:20 PM

I don't see much airbrush work around, you have nice paintings, I really like the Toro one. Your sketches are really good.

Can I ask you what type of acrylic paint your using in your airbrush and what type of air brush you have?

_andreas_

April 28th, 2007, 02:30 PM

the "old-alien" is something very special
i really like your pencil work and the mh.. textured feel your paintings.

great great stuff

William b. Hand

April 28th, 2007, 11:14 PM

Mr-Joe - Thanks! The paint I tend to use is GOLDEN®. The type of airbrush I'm using is the PAASCHE VL, with a VL-3 tip (that's the mid-sized tip). I'm sure there are other great airbrushes out there, but this is just what I happen to have purchased and I've been impressed with their resilience in the face of abuse. Many people have purchased an airbrush, tried it out once, and then let it collect dust in a closet... So, if you ask around, you'll probably find yourself a used piece of equipment on the cheap.

andreas - Thank you! Glad you're enjoying these.

So, here's another monochromatic (I know, I know :rolleyes: ):

"THE TYPIST" : 20"x30" : Airbrushed Acrylic on Foam-Core
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_The_TYPIST.jpg

...and a crappy-ish detail:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/WmBHand_TheTYPISTdetail.jpg

JERI

April 29th, 2007, 12:50 AM

don't believe I've seen your SB before, William, I really enjoy your personal style :) Gotta love geiger.

SB rated, will check back for more.

sve

April 29th, 2007, 01:47 AM

OK. William B Hand...our communication is one side road... it goes from my side and there it's getting dissolved in atmosphere somewhere. Well, you are not the only one like this.
But I was touched with this last painting very much... so with respect to this creation and because you are probably nervous and you were just recently born... all this is important... so here is my impression. Actually there are two associations from this paintings. In short words this is about love.
It might be desire being loved and warm and surrounded by someone reliable and warm and loving like your mother or maybe and I think it is closer it is about another kind of love and that was my first impression, much later I noticed that those lacy looking conglomerates can be mother's tissue, her womb with life feeding vessels, surrounding and protecting fetus.
My first impression was this:
This painting is delightful, it is about love, about gentle shy feelings, about first confession, a letter to someone who is the most important person for you.

There is a very nice delicate feeling in this portrait :). I can't be wrong about and if you say me that is not what you thought painting I'll say you are wrong... This paintings has sounds... of water.
I'm looking at this image and I feel the sensation like probably astronauts have, no gravity and slightly claustrophobic feeling. Like I'm slowly swimming up and descending down with this man/fetus and currents. And that's unreal, delicately exciting feeling...
His eye, it is a creepy looking to be strict, like fish eye boiled in water but it is not unpleasant, just a bit unusual and alerting... it behaves strangely when I look longer at it, straight at it or when I look from a corner of my eye at it... it is moving toward me and growing very slowly and when I move my eye it jumps back to its old sizes... and starts its hypnotic growth again.
I like the delicate feature of this man, nothing material about him, he is pure spirit and longing.
He has a very fragile neck and growing brains, and gentle beautiful mouth and strictly shaped accurate nose and weak, submissive hand. There is so much undecidedness, uncertainness in this image...This hand frozen in an air... not being able to start... feeling are good though. It is a gently loved person to whom he wants to write... little butterflies / hearts make me think like that and the soft gentle lighting through the entire image.

Beautiful idea, it makes me think about so many stories and unexpected conclusions... it is like fate, already planned for us, not being born yet, but already with someone in heart writing love letter. Feeling is very truthful.. Undecidedness...
Hand and arm look good and essential to this piece to me and hopefully you will not jump to repainting. It makes him look so much more vulnerable and prolongs delicacy and sympathy. There is not one tiny aggressive detail in this piece, it is open, longing, loving and extremely vulnerable in its open feeling.
I wish it was some other color, it is all right with monochrome. but I wish it was some other color... maybe even pink or blue or lilac... brown is a color of earth and age for me... here is reins of other essential life elements ... water probably.
My favorite details are his gentle mouth and wrinkled from water fingers on his hand...

Bye... I wish you all the best in your show... don't be nervous... I wish I could see your paintings all at once looking at me... they are very warm and touching paintings... crazily soulful.

crazy3dman

April 29th, 2007, 02:04 AM

Wow! All of it...just Wow! I love "TORO". Thanks so much for sharing all this great work.

William b. Hand

November 11th, 2007, 06:22 AM

My goodness, it has been quite a while...

Welp, I'm insanely shooting to create enough new paintings ( 14 - 18 ) for another show (again at the Bug Jar) that's to open on Dec. 2nd, 2oo7. I also have to allow several days for framing, and it really would be nice to visit family for Thanksgiving, so these things bring my realistic working time to just about 12-14 days. :^^;:

I may have to fall back on finishing some previously abandoned paintings, but I'd prefer not to. So, here's my first of the new batch. I'll be tweaking it slightly, but it's close enough to being done to post. Oh, I've reversed the image. Usually when I reverse an image, all of it's worst flaws come to the fore, but with this painting it looks better to me flipped. So... what the hell.

"DEMON PORTRAIT iii" : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 20"x30"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/DEMON_PORTRAIT_iii_reversed-2.jpg

Detail of Head:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/facedetail-2.jpg

Detail of Hands:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/handdetailc-1.jpg

Sveta - My apologies for taking this long to respond. Mostly this will be a "thank you" note. As for your comments about my figure sketches, I suppose I pretty much agree with all the stuff you were talking about. I used to do very loose work, but felt that I didn't have the option for something tight and measured because my technical skill was lacking. I agree that it might be nice to see some loose drawings or paintings again. As for observational skills... hm... we'll see. Maybe in the form of some portraiture. *** I love your take on "Toro"... a gift for the king's daughter... nice. Perhaps I shall consider this narrative if I follow through on my notion of revisiting the subject in colour... after his house poodle huh? Marvelous! -- I had forgotten this description. :) *** You appreciated and enjoyed "The Typist"! Thank you -- I am most fond of that one, but - in person - not a single person has expressed any care for or against it, so your interest is most welcome. You are right, it is a letter to someone imagined. The "butterflies / hearts" are, ostensibly, falling pieces of bark from the branches. I don't even know how to respond to all your observations, frankly... They are so astute, and the care with which you express them continues to floor me. I should mention (if I haven't already) that such thoughtful and relevant appraisals as those come from you are not just rare... they are unique. I too hope you have an opportunity to view some of my work in person someday. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I couldn't imagine a better audience. Thanks for commenting further, even though I was such a poor correspondent. Now, I suspect that tonight's image posting won't hold your attention for long, sve, but I'll be posting plenty of others over the coming coupluv weeks and I hope some of them will sate your appetite.

:^^:

sve

November 11th, 2007, 03:04 PM

My dear Will, thank you for letting me know your reaction about my letters to you. I'm starting to lose this feeling they are needed to anyone. People seem to think too much about the things, they see a pride and control and God knows what in a simple trying to make someone smile and a bit happier.

I wandered again in your book, looked at my old friends, paintings...Happy to say that their effect didn't wear out... First version of "ANTOINE" still makes me feel worry and spied on, the second one... compassionate, the my most loved one painting, blue eyed sphinx - enchanted and led, a girl with a bee creates a mix of charm and horror of someone's insanity...
I do love "Typist" ... for the gentleness, for the light sadness and dreams.
I'm a piano player, not very accomplished but I can extract some very soulful sounds sometimes from the instrument, make it cry and sing and remove the obstacles between two people. Not always but sometimes... why I'm saying this... your Typist sounds like piano. You know like someone touching your heart with weak, gentle, very unpretensionious notes, simple, sad melody. Sound of some pianos is very strict and straightforward and gentle in the same time. I had a piano like this.
Those are all my memories from my childhood... light sadness, sweet solitude. When I look at your Typist I feel the same, like someone running their light gentle fingers through my heart... not hurting... not making a contact even... not trying to control...making a memory.

I don't want to say my emotion only about this painting... with time between then and now I see now I wish those lacy tissues half hiding the loving man from me were more 3Dimentinal... sort of like pictures we get from the electron scanning microscope. I wish it was more depth in the picture and the globes of the mother's tissue were like half walls and I would enter the image in stages passing by them one by one, deeper and deeper, like I need to make some work, remove a distance to experience soemthing.

about your new painting...I do think the story in this painting is less appealing to me... because it is more reserved... but nevertheless you do tell me some story about a certain personality you put in front of me.

The most curious detail to me is his hands and especially his fingers... I like its contrast with fleshy heavy palms of an earthy man. The fingers look weightless... I look at them and certain words come to the surface: hunger, spirit, meditation, intellect, age against will, wisdom, distance, unwillingness to contact, willingness to observe, certain fragility...
Maybe he is a demon, but seems to me he is hurting himself most of all... with being too self conscious, too worry, too brainy all the time. The gesture is calm and wide... but nevertheless it is a blocking from the rest of the world, and the fingers have some nervousness about them. I imagine him trying his best to keep a calm, confident appearance but I see those fingers changing their position easily in the next moment and running nervously all over the place, trying to fix something incorrigible.
His eyes look like a tear is swelling in them... old people eyes have some involuntarily tears in them often... Because of that I think about an age and weakness and bitter feeling of lost power. Thin skin on his bony fingers make me think about the same... Juice is drawn out from this man.
His horns are smooth and pointed downward... he doesn't have any forces left... just memories and unwanted wisdom from many mistakes.

Crits:
hopefully you will not change a thing because I said so... but your image is divided on two parts, they are almost even... you make my eyes jump up and down like resin balls. I would vote for some hierarchy and some bridge between two major conglomerates in the image... just to push away not needed vanity while observing the piece. The bridge could be his shoulders and the rest of the arms... But... maybe not... I like something in this head hovering above the hands... Fingers ARE a focal point because of their sharpness... maybe I would like a bit more leading from you... not sure. :)
OK... interesting to see your avatar's evolution ... I liked your "Eye" avatar, btw... I think I wrote to you about... this one I like less, but I'm delighted to see how peaceful it is... I'm happy for you, the change should mean something.
I like to observe your interesting manipulations with text...only you do this thing... what you emphasize or separate... it is sure fun and information for me...
Wish you luck and happiness.
Bye.

oh,,, you know, recently I discovered the title and the writer of the story I wrote to you about concerning your "Clown" image... Imagine, it is no less but Isaac Asimov and his Foundation series.

Idiot Apathy

November 11th, 2007, 03:42 PM

Sweet dude!

William b. Hand

November 13th, 2007, 01:23 AM

Here's what I did today:

DIVISION OF EXPECTATION : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 2o"x3o"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/UntitledFull-1.jpg

Detail 1:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/untitledmandetail.jpg

Detail 2:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/untitledcatdetail.jpg

Detail 3:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/untitledwomandetail.jpg

Sve - Well, I hope that such a foolish trend reverses itself. I'm glad my previous paintings haven't lost their appeal for you :). Your further comments about "The TYPIST" are just super! Having it referred to as piano music is about as good as could ever hope for. I'm not quite sure what you are referring to when you talk about the "lacy tissues" that you wish were more 3D, but I do feel that much of my work lacks the depth of which you speak and I hope I'm able to act more boldly on that observation in the future.

I'm glad that you actually enjoyed something of my "DEMON PORTRAIT iii"... You found more in it than I anticipated. As for your crits about the structure of this one... yeah, I agree about the visual tug-of-war. I did tweak some things and attempted to remedy that issue, but any success was limited and I'm just gonna have to declare it "good enough" until I have the time and the druthers to do something further to it.

He he... not so impressed by my little bunny mouse avatar, eh? :^^:

Wow, the Foundation series? That's one fat series. I think I read a small portion of that many many years ago. I'm going to guess that you read it in full, because I don't picture you fucking around.

So, here's my newest painting, obviously... a bit more meat for you to chew upon, I think?

Idiot Apathy - Thanks! :D

Okay... too much typing, not enough painting.

Idiot Apathy

November 13th, 2007, 01:52 AM

Crazy dude, I love it - love this detail especially; http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/untitledwomandetail.jpg
Going to be a sweet show I think.

sve

November 14th, 2007, 12:30 PM

Hello, Will. Heh, thank you for taking care of my appetite. Your karma should run high and forward like crazy after a good deed like that. Well, you were not afraid to pour a lot in this image... expect a lot of critique as well. Initiatives are always punished you know.

I will start with what I like and what I feel looking at your image. because it is the most important about art, IMO.

Because you are not fresh from experience artist I assume that your choice of color was not random. And here is how it influences me together with other things:
I feel heaviness... In some way your image presses on my brains like a heavy, thick marble plate, blocking air from me... I feel death in your picture, winter, cold, oblivion, a dumb, inevitable force, Time.
I have an association with a cold, half frozen dug up soil, a tomb digger with fingers crooked and rough from a wind, smell of soil, heavy and final. Even the young pretty face in your image looks momentary passing by and unreliable.
Cat doesn't look cute ( that's a good thing), but alerting and weird (a good thing too).
I don't mind flatness in this image... this manner suits to the mood. I actually rarely mind it in your art... you found some good way to use it in your picture (I mind it only in Typist). The flatness is not something to be ashamed of. It was used skilfully in Orthodox icon's art. Exactly this flatness and from darkness appearing faces give this very strong impression to people: strict Gods, Absolutes.
You have some of the mood in your image... There is no compromise in your image... it is final.

I like small details which connect the characters in your painting, I wish you put more of them though...
but nevertheless:
I like eyes of the old man focused on the little shiny thing he is holding in his hand.
I can't quite see what it is but I wish it was something belonging to the young person who goes away not approaching anyone. I kind of like to think he looks at something from other parallel world or other dimension, because frankly speaking your painting looks like some events which happen in the same moment but not in the same place.

I like then how his hand is patting the strange cat with a face of a woman and how it disturbs its eye glasses. I like how cat's tail drops a shadow on the girl's neck... I do think those objects are in different slices of time and space, but the physical connection between makes me feel good.
Eye glasses, cat in the cozy pose, man not in a hurry looking at little lady's knickknack... should have a nice warm association... but it doesn't... feels like a heavy disturbing dream.

Especially man's fingers bother me (in a good way), his hands are like shovels... bring me back to this association: digging frozen soil in a cold winter's day. And his face and little particles of dead skin falling from it bring me to this thought.

Girl's face is lovely and mysterious... Young beautiful girls have faces like this and unreachable aura around them very often I think. Hard to tell about what they think in the current moment when they are silent like this. Probably nothing... which is no less mysterious :).
What I love especially is the little winter scene behind the faces and figures,,, little contemporary buildings, a bird on tree's branch, snow falling, dense air.
Silence.

OK. Crits:
My personal thoughts: Your paintings gain a double attractiveness when you add some colors to them. More colors, even more attractiveness. You demand a very thoughtful focused attention from your viewer using stingy colors to express yourself... your fair right, but modern people are busy,,, you need to hook them from the first moment, IMO.

Colors would really helped this piece. IMO. And they would help in distribution of accents in the picture as well.

I would say as with a picture in the post before your composition is not easy to swallow. maybe it is a good thing and I need to open up for these new ways... But overall, there is no smooth flow from one object to another in those two paintings... I left with wishing it was more bridges between them and more leading from you... There is some careless feeling in how you place objects and how you stress importance of them in your paintings, not all of them, but some.

The details demanding attention right away are the girl's face and especially her light eyes... then you shift my eyes to the next brightest spot: little naked figure on the top of the page, especially round and bright buttocks of her. Then cat's face... and one of the best faces in the image, the old man has leftovers of my attention... he is my favorite in the image nevertheless, but I hardly noticed his wonderful face expression in the first and even a second look.
I can tell something about the naked figure of angel trapped in the narrow tube... Its across the page placement helps to throw the static composition off balance and it is a good thing... It doesn't help me to guess the story...

Conclusion: May fav are man and his old hands, young girl passing by, and winter in the picture, especially the little city street scene...
I wish characters in your image had more influence on each other, left more footprints in each other life... and I wish you reflect it in the composition.

----------------
Your avatar :). It doesn't' matter what I think, enjoy your avatar, but the reason why is that I like cute only when it doesn't have "Cute" written all over it :P .

Foundation series, heh. oh boy... I stand up and go away from movies theater if the movie is not dense or vivid enough. I don't read a book if it feels empty or stupid from the beginning. I always feel like I don't have enough of time ahead of me. I will not say of course, that I read the book or know the movie if I didn't read it or see it to the end.
But I'm not that patient.
I didn't even remember the author or title... and I didn't know the series were that huge. I read what happened to come into my hands in 1991 year. That's when Soviet Union collapsed and all kinds of information flew into people's mind and drowned them. I think I read two of the books. It had a great story so it was not a burden.
I reserve the right for myself to say a stupid or silly thing in any moment :). That's about me not "fucking around" :) I will not lie, but I can say something not true mistakingly.

About Typist... Lacy tissues... I just imagine him sitting inside of his mother's womb and not being born yet... Lacy tissues are his mother's tissues. I wish they would be roundish and voluminous, rather than flat. Like images we see in scanned microscope, like here:
http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/BD75479E-5D8C-4941-932E-C4AF7A87B6B6/0/ypestis_4.jpg

I apologize beforehead for writing too much... my bad.
Bye.

William b. Hand

November 22nd, 2007, 03:43 AM

Oh man... these are going far too slowly... Very much under the gun here...

Welp. I've been working on other things, but none of them are finished (except for this one). This is a bit larger in size, so I'm sortuv okay with the fact that it took me a couple days to produce (but, also panicking that it took me a couple of days to produce).

YET TO BE NAMED : Airbrushed Acrylic on Foam Core : 32"x40" (81cm x 101cm)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/11thhour.jpg

DETAIL A:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/11thhourdetailb.jpg

DETAIL B:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/11thhourdetaila.jpg

Idiot Apathy - Thanks again! I hope your prediction for the show holds strong... I'm freaking out.

sve - Hmm... Well, There was a certain arbitrariness to my choice of colour in that pic, but then... The piece itself evolved from that colouring, so there's that. I will say that, on the matching background of the CA.org forum, it looks particularly flattened. In person, I think it's a bit more dynamic and satisfying to look at. I'm glad that the flatness in my work doesn't usually bother you. You wrote a lot and I have to keep scrolling up to look at it. Time is the enemy of a fuller response. You know... I hesitate to mention it, but the man is peeling off a piece of what rises off of him. I agree with your sense of heaviness about this. I am very pleased that you enjoy the town... I had a curious suspicion that you might respond positively to it. You're quite right about colour, of course. But colour is new and confusing to me, and I am critically short on time. If I had 2 more months in which to paint for this show, perhaps I would produce a version in colour. Your criticism about the composition is quite right, of course. This is yet another painting that I just leapt into without any plan, and it shows. It's maybe an immature way of working, but hopefully I still have some years in which to mature. Oh... while I think of it... The title of that painting is "Division of Expectation". Okay, between photographing today's pic, tweaking levels in Photoshop, posting the images, and addressing comments... I have lost painting time. Must learn to work faster faster faster!!!

Idiot Apathy

November 22nd, 2007, 03:52 AM

DAMN! Badass William. Still got to get you a better camera :|

William b. Hand

November 22nd, 2007, 04:56 AM

Idiot Apathy - Thank you, sir! Like that one? Good. :^^: Yesss... get me a better camera please. Yes please, thank you a better camera please.

Here's another one I did within the past few days. The contrast is maybe nicer in this digital shot than in the actual painting, but oh well.

"WOMAN IN GEAR" : Airbrushed Acrylic : 20" x 30"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/woman_in_gear.jpg

CRUMMY DETAIL:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/womaningeardetail.jpg

Camara

November 22nd, 2007, 05:21 AM

Only four stars!!!??????????????Imposible!!!

Here are my 5 stars!

TheGnoll

November 22nd, 2007, 12:11 PM

great to stop by in here t see what you've been up to, Will.Remember me? :D

very lovely painting as usual, and i hope you're doing well :)

ciao!

Vulgar`

November 22nd, 2007, 12:20 PM

The leader of the DSG - 5 stars from me. This is organic embroiderment in demonic brass overtone. If this isn't exploration, Sputnik never left the launch pit.

Keep doing you

Jska

November 22nd, 2007, 12:29 PM

GORGEOUS work. Very nice handling of textures and palette use... so delicate and fierce at the same time! I love how you handle the eyes - they look like glass jewels. What kind of airbrush do you use? (sorry if that's been asked already!) :heart: I love it all, seriously.

William b. Hand

November 22nd, 2007, 05:11 PM

Camara - Thank you for the extra star vote! I think that 4 is probably appropriate, but your declaration is one that I enjoy, nonetheless.

TheGnoll - Certainly I remember you! Thanks for stopping by and giving the wave. :)

Vulgar' - Wow, what a great blurb! Thank you my friend! Can I use that descriptive quote in my resumé?

Jska - Thank you! Glad you like :^^: ... I use an old Paasche VL series. I haven't used any others, so I really don't know how it compares, but It's been a good little workhorse (with the occasional replacement part) for many years.

Thanks again for the kind words, everyone.. makes me feel good on a Holiday in a cold empty apartment.

Here's the latest... Rather cutesy and devoid of any real compositional value, but I think he's nice, and it'll fill a little more space at the show.

"BIRTH" : etc. etc.
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/Birth.jpg

DETAIL:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/BlueBunnyandtheFireflyDetail.jpg

Idiot Apathy

November 22nd, 2007, 05:30 PM

Bill these are ace man, the show is going to be brilliant! Whatever you are charging, double it!

Mischeviouslittleelf

November 22nd, 2007, 05:53 PM

the airbrushings are brilliant man! Just brilliant! There are a few faults at the human anatomy page, but apart from that I am on my knees here;)

HunterKiller_

November 22nd, 2007, 06:06 PM

This surrealistic style you've got is just awesome.
The two demon portraits are by far my favourite. Love em'.

William b. Hand

November 22nd, 2007, 09:18 PM

Idiot Apathy - I'm glad you think so. Can't very well double my prices, or nobody's gonna buy 'em around here. :P Thanks for the cheers, dude.

Mischieviouslittleelf - Yes, the anatomy is pretty poor in those sketches. I should really do some more studying after the holidays. I was actually trying to get a feel for what I knew and for what I don't. Turns out, there's a lot what I don't know. :^^;: Thanks for the upbeat words regarding the paintings!

HunterKiller_ - Thank you! Glad you like DEMON_iii as well. In my hair-pulling efforts to get this show made in time for the opening, I might well do another one... The b&w makes 'em technically MUCH easier to do, and I have a lot of fun with 'em.

So, here's another pic. I liked it better before the white paint, but that's the breaks. If I have the time ( :dur: ), I'll do some more to it later, but right now I gotta try and crank out another painting tonight. :zzz:

"STUDY OF A FIGUREHEAD" : Acrylic on Board : 20"x30"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/MOONHORSE.jpg

William b. Hand

November 22nd, 2007, 10:31 PM

This is one I had done a little while ago that needed some work to finish up.
I think it's finished up now.
I know it's got something of a cheesy factor going on, but it's colourful and should do what it needs to do. See whatchya think.

"VERDANT MEDUSA" : Acrylic on Paper : roughly 20" x 25"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/LUSH_GREEN_MEDUSA.jpg

DETAIL
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/LUSHGREENMEDUSADETAIL.jpg

gluck

November 22nd, 2007, 10:43 PM

OH!
Really fantastic!
I love your work. Great!

Bravo!

Gumdrop

November 23rd, 2007, 12:20 AM

Wonderful images, William. Love how you twist limbs and faces into exotic forms. It's great to see your work as it was always a nice surprise to see one of your rare DSG inputs when I used to participate. I've only recently started to work on my art again but I promise to get back the the DSG ASAP. :)

Question: In the top left corner of a page of sketches posted April 28th there's a grub creature with a little face which reminded me of a sketch I saved to my inspiration folder. Did you happen to do some Dune/Guild Navigator designs some years back?

William b. Hand

November 23rd, 2007, 03:01 AM

gluck - Thanks, gluck!

Gumdrop - Good to hear that you're getting back into art! Maybe I'll do some participating in the DSG again after the holiday season comes to a close... Hmm... Dune/Guild Navigator? Not familiar with it.. Certainly didn't do any designs for them. Ah, well... a derivative doodle on my part, I guess.

So, here's something a bit sketchier than the other recent works. A friend of mine just stopped over for a little while and this was the only painting that she seemed to like at all. See whatchya think. I go to sleep now.

(Thanks for looking!)

"11:30 P.M." : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 2o"x3o"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/birdparty.jpg

DETAIL
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/birdpartydetail.jpg

HunterKiller_

November 23rd, 2007, 04:21 AM

Mixed flock, inspired by H.Bosch, right? Awesome.
H.Bosch rocks.

towy

November 23rd, 2007, 06:13 AM

nice work

joiton

November 23rd, 2007, 01:23 PM

Hi man!
Thanks for checking my sb :)
I'm really impressed by your work, its fabulously weird!
Great to see such a great imagination!
I'll be cheking for updates you can be shure

maxetormer

November 24th, 2007, 05:29 AM

Great surreal work, thanks for inspiring me to work.

grenogs

November 24th, 2007, 06:30 AM

nice to see a change of no apperent stenciling as most airbrushing is done, realy liking the freehand work you do, almost as if thats what the airbrush was invented for. Are these the true colours in the actual paintings or are the originals much stronger?

William b. Hand

November 24th, 2007, 09:08 PM

HunterKiller_ - Glad you like. This was not directly inspired by Bosch, but his stuff is certainly in my psyche. That man was brilliant.

Towarlock - Thanks!

joiton - Thank you! Hope to see you around!

maxetormer - Happy to be an inspiration! :steph:

grenogs - Glad you dig my approach! Someday I plan to do at least a little bit of masking, but not just yet. About the colours... Well, the old CRT that I'm using can't be properly calibrated, so I'm kinda guessing about how accurate it is. The work that I'm doing on black board tends to require white to be mixed into whatever colour I'm using, so that does give me chalkier hues. It's not ideal, but it is how it is for now.

So, "Study for a Figurehead" was irritating me more and more, and I had to do something about it. Hopefully, I've improved it.

"STUDY FOR A FIGUREHEAD" (THEN................................and NOW)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/Study_for_a_Figurehead_2.jpg

Naomi Ningishzidda

November 25th, 2007, 07:17 PM

William you're such an inspiration....I'm glad you decided to keep a sketchbook...

InvertedChalupa

November 25th, 2007, 07:22 PM

Awesome stuff dude. I love looking through the sketchbook forum and finding stuff that suprises me in a good way : )

joaKimArt

November 25th, 2007, 08:35 PM

Your acryl pictures are crazy good! Awesome consistency. And very nice colour and improvement in the update!

Keep this up mate. Your skills are kick-as!

William b. Hand

November 26th, 2007, 06:41 PM

LadyHydralisk - Thank you! :) Makes me very glad to inspire.

InvertedChalupa - Thanks! I hope I will continue to surprise!

joaKimArt - Thank you! Glad you dig what I did to the horse... I spent way more time on that than I meant to, but I'm pleased with the improvement.

So, here's another crappy photograph of my mostest recent pic. A LOT of glare off the surface, and it doesn't read well, but I don't have time to get the photo right. I'm really starting to panic at the time now... Tomorrow, I have to order my frames and I'll have to order them for paintings that I haven't even begun. I don't like skirting quite this close to the wire. :^^;:

"BEJEWELED" : Airbrushed Acrylic on board : 2o"x3o"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/UNTITLED2.jpg

DETAIL
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/UNTITLED2detail.jpg

sve

November 26th, 2007, 06:44 PM

Hi, Will. don't panic. you are doing great... I love four of your new ones I didn't comment yet... I will comment later today... but the last one and the horse and the loud birds and the mother and child are beautiful... walk in the park a little, breath and them renew the painting :).
yeah last one is charming... has my nose :).

MarkBehm

November 26th, 2007, 06:46 PM

Hey great stuff! I'm glad I checked it out! Esp dug the Figurehead and Demons. Please keep posting.

sve

November 27th, 2007, 12:11 AM

Hello, Will... hope you are feeling better, calmer... don't worry so much, you already have some of the pieces to admire.
You are feeling nervous and I kind of catch this nervousness from you a bit...
I will criticize you slightly and please don't take it seriously... listen what your own taste and instincts tell you... you have enough of a good taste for two people... you should trust your feeling I think...Don't think about commercial success when you paint either, IMO. Think about approaching closer to your own vision... people who look at your paintings will feel your unique soul and personality and this will be the most important thing for them... this and how much common they have in their life experience with you... or how much they are open to experience something new.

I think you should paint more women faces... every piece where you painted a girl is especially charming. There is a mystery and magic in their faces. I think you look at women like at totally different creatures :) with different bloodflow... against the normal currents.
They look surreal, unapproachable, attractive and always at distance in the same time... like a dream.. If you attempt to hug a woman like this she will melt like a cloud in your earthy arms. I think their voices are sharp and non human... half alarming, half attractive... not sure if they are pleasant... maybe not... but curiosity provoking for sure.
I'm talking about your last painting especially.... you know you with your paintings are weaving a whole new world, and it is different but very organic. it is weird world... but poetic... time is flowing slow in your world and stopping sometimes. And that's OK... creatures inhabiting your world are a little insane. They don't feel time... Maybe your manner to paint creates this feeling together with face expressions and body language... a little fog in human mind... nothing definite... slightly myopic vision.

A bird woman like this belongs to your magic valley lawfully... I should encounter her if I ever will step there.
I love her face and deep glance. I like that she has this small mustache on her upper lip ( tad too deep dark shadow actually, but I hope you will let this stay.. it makes her look so independent from standard canons of beauty.)
I like everything about this piece...even the unexpected blue beads on her chest and slightly awkward feet... it makes the piece raw...I love it.
You said it is a glare from light?...looks lovely though... this amber glowing... Wonderful piece... hypnotic.

Second favorite ... the horse after the changes... I like the delicate transition of colors and the light tender sadness in the painting... this sad eye... very touching. The horse is much more vulnerable than this woman bird... you can't disturb her, she knows everything about you before head, she is wise and stronger... but the horse is already wounded and it is crying.
I love the midnight silent feeling and the moon in the corner... I love the painting... somehow I wish to see the rest: its feet folded under its body... tiredness and tolerance in the pose...

This painting is lacking lovely simplicity of the Woman bird... but it is very talking nevertheless IMO.

Loud birds... do you use trains a lot? I used too... living in Moscow... that's what this painting reminds me very vividly. Train station... untidy, chaotic, a bit ugly, impatient, heart wreaking with permanent vanity place. I look at those faces and don't know... should I just close my eyes and tolerate or start hitting the first face near which I stand. They all look like enemies, torturing my nerves.

I never hit any faces,,, it is impossible thing to do... but faces in this painting will be sure a physical pleasure to hit.
Crits:
Your use of color... this orange look not specific enough in my opinion for the scene, you know... I'm not sure of monochrome either in this piece... all birds are different,,, they are all very bright circus freak like personalities..which you love to hate... I would love to see a color explosion on this piece... strong, attention demanding, obnoxious colors.
Good depth in this piece, good association with a train or bus depot and good feeling of claustrophobia and solitude in crowd.
I like the composition as well...

The mother and child... I like the unusual poses... it is a strange, disturbing and stressful piece for me... but I like to look and recognize the placement of those two in relationship to each other in space... I love this turned up chin of the mother and hairless forehead of the child... a lot of pain in this one.
I love the foreshortening of the arm... actually I love all foreshortenings in this painting..
the image gives me a strange mix of feelings: I think "Flesh", "Meat" about those people, sort of rude, rough feeling... and in the same time I think " Love", "suffering", "tears". "Fate", " grief", " tenderness", "sacrifice"...
You know there is so much sadness in your later pieces... How are you, my friend? some sadness is light... some is pretty painful. Hope you have someone to say that you feel sad today.

Critique, unfortunately... yes... this strong painting is not perfect IMO, unfortunately:
First of all: BG is a focal point... very strong one... you did it with much sharper outlines and details than foreground... my eyes are led to the back with them... that's not good. I should stare at those pain inducing limbs and bodies...
second... compostion is not very smooth... maye it is a good thing in this image, it should disturb me,,, throw me off balance... but maybe not... a bit too much for me...
Mainly I think that weight is distributing unevenly in the painting.. and it feels like it will not stand like this and fall apart, you know... maybe it is because the weight of child id concentrated on one side ... looks like she doesn't have steady pose or support to hold him like this... Maybe I'm wrong...

Woman in gear... I like the sly, cruel expression of her face and I kind of like and kind of dislike that it is much more blurry than the rest of the painting... faces are focal point if you want it or not and when you make it harder to look at them and try to lead my interested eyes away from them.. I feel violated in my right.
I like this in the same time... because it makes her look even more leading, cunning.
I like her body language with this squeezing motion., like she presses water from her hair... I like that her hair look like the minced meat when it just comes from a meat grinder... it's disturbing and makes this character even more evil.

"BIRTH" Great title and very much suited. I like his eyes welled with tears.. . of wonder or recent pain... Like his step and feeling of not our life event you know...
The reddish BG makes me think about other hot planet... but in general I wish it was some other color... on another hand I like something in it... life is vivid in this painting. colors are active.
I kind of wish you filled more of the bottom of the page. I wish he stepped from the derbies of something in which he lived all this time... that he stepped from something into something... but it is no a big deal... title added so much to this piece. IMO.

"VERDANT MEDUSA" I like it the less... but only becasue the placement of the face... I wish it was more symmetrical from both sides of the canvas. I'm making a mental effort against my will to move it to the spot where I wish it was... and that struggle steals from a pleasure to observe the piece.

You know I probably made a lot of grammar mistakes and maybe you will have a problem to understand what I'm saying here... but I will correct them tomorrow...
Hope you are feeling better...

dsg

November 27th, 2007, 12:14 AM

jesus christ sve...lol.
Really nice work William. You have a very unique style, its incredible. I love your ideas there really cool. Im curious to see you attempt an environment. Great work. keep posting! :) ill be watching.

lennon

November 27th, 2007, 12:18 AM

great great great stuff! (really)

Idiot Apathy

November 27th, 2007, 12:21 AM

You're a machine! A beef ramen devouring machine!

ArtZealot

November 27th, 2007, 12:24 AM

absolutely awesome stuff. I loved it all, it's very inspirational. I just wanted to say thanks for putting it up on your sketchbook so we can all see it.

killermachine

November 27th, 2007, 12:33 AM

wow.. the last one's r my fav after typist and demon portrait. :D looking forward to see more

William b. Hand

November 27th, 2007, 02:42 AM

sve - My goodness. :^^: I will return to you later...

dsg - Thank you! Mmmm... environments... yeah... In small bits they are creeping into my works. It used to be that my subjects didn't inhabit any space at all. :P These little hints of world will one day expand.

lennon - Thank you!

Idiot Apathy - Thanks dude! Working as hard as I can make myself. No Ramen today... Got a coupluv nickels to rub together, so tonight I lavished myself with Thai food and inexpensive champagne. It were good.

ArtZealot - Thanks so much, man. You're welcome. :teeth:

killermachine - Thank you thank you. More on the way (I need several more to fill out the show).

So, I just could not get a good photo of this... It looks much better in person, I think, but you should be able to decipher the important bits. I've included the original sketch that I was looking at, since it's such a rare thing for me to do any art in steps. Very satisfying, though...

Thanks again everyone... Really good to hear.

"GLOW-CAT RESCUE" (working title) : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 2o"x3o"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/RESCUEfull.jpg

DETAIL 1
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/RESCUEdetail1.jpg

DETAIL 2
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/RESCUEdetail2.jpg

ORIGINAL CARTOON from a few years ago
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/RESCUEcartoon.jpg

Idiot Apathy

November 27th, 2007, 03:57 AM

Sounds like a feast dude!
I am seriously in love with this last one!
<_<
>_>
How much you selling these for anyways?

Mr.Delicious

November 27th, 2007, 04:08 AM

wow, last ones reallly awesome! theyre all pretty awesome tho

William b. Hand

November 29th, 2007, 01:12 AM

Idiot Apathy - Glad you feel so strongly about it! I'm quite fond of it myself, and might not actually put a price-tag on this one. I haven't begun to consider prices for the pics, but the prices in the first show ranged from $XXX up to $XXXX, so that should give you a notion. I reckon these'll be comparable. I should mention that limited edition signed prints will be available in the $XXX range. Perhaps you will want one of these, yes?

[ EDITED: It's no longer prudent to post those numbers. -Wm. ]

Mr.Delicious - Thanks man!

Sveta - I promise I will articulate something for you tomorrow! :sungod:

Here's another bad photo of a good painting. This looks so much better in person, but blah blah blah.
I wrestle with the fact that there're no other details or weirdnesses going on in it, but I'm convinced i'd ruin what's already good about it and time is too short to ruin anything. Incidentally, Mnemosyne (pronounced "nee'-muh-seen") was the Greek goddess of memory, and the mother of the Muses.

(Down the road, I suspect I'll be compelled to also paint her sister, Ms. Lesmosyne. She was the goddess of forgetting, which makes an uncomfortably enormous amount of sense if you know me.)

"MS. MNEMOSYNE" : Airbrushed Acrylic on board : 2o"x3o"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/msmnemosyne.jpg

sve

November 29th, 2007, 02:35 AM

Will. I don't need you to say anything. I saw you were in a very calm, peaceful mood and that's good enough for me :). I'm not looking to stroke my ego :).
I can't sleep and I can't write right now... tired and have an headache and my work of three hours was erased by accident...so... I'm just meditating now.
Lovely two paintings... I will write my crazy stream of consciousness later. OK? I prefer it like this anyway...after time of thinking about it... You are doing great.

P.S.
I love it... kiss her for me :). This little shell ear is especially charming.

How I love old masters' calm manner to tell the story... so it is especially nice when looking at your muse.

sve

November 30th, 2007, 12:57 AM

Hello Will.

Well. I think you are like a runner on long distance... all warmed up and getting more effective with each image... And I don't know about other people... but I feel very warm looking at the last images. They are very soul healing you know.... have repairing, therapeutic quality. heh,,, maybe it is not for everyone... but for me it's a great quality... I kind of think world has enough horror already to satisfied any horror lover... I need something to repair my soul.

Yours make me feel pleasantly subdued.
"MS. MNEMOSYNE" ... you know you have a way with words and I sincerely think you have a very unpredictable, independent way to think, to look at things... Not for a first time I feel a pleasure from how you named your paintings...

I adore that fact that you shortened Muse to Ms... brings past and contemporary together. for me it 's like a bridge between our daily functioning and black box we know a little about... our brains, our soul...

She has a light of knowledge, of acknowledged dedication in her face. Her face is refined, developed. Beautiful calm face...beautifully calm face :)... you atheists deny sense in believing in something irrationally... but here is in your image I find some confirmation to my thoughts... knowing your own belonging to something brings an order and heals soul.

I'm talking rubbish.... but she is so calm and self-esteemed. Despite carrying the baggage of past memories which are always with her... how one is saved from it... when one creates a meaning in her existance and order.

Your paintings always carry some uncanny feeling... this one is strange because she is composed and lacking a vanity... it is a very weird quality...

She repeats Mona Lisa's posture and glance...she is her incarnation... I wonder how she will mix with tempo of life around her... she will not. Buses, subways and modern social life don't fit her... she should occupied some remote room, surrounded by books, dried flowers and delicate smells.
She should have some independent income... I can't imagine her running behind the morning bus or buying shoes with discount... But if she does all this and still has this nonchalant face expression... well... she must just not take all of us seriously.

I think when she is called by some one... she turns her head very slowly, in a very distinguished manner and self-esteem... and self esteem is horribly hard to keep.

As I said I like the wrong perspective of the ear... lovely, very elegant and I like how charismatic and calm her face is.

The painting before...it is very warm... before you fall into blood and gore again I'm gonna enjoy this altruistic, light stripe in your creations... makes me relaxed and softened.

I have a little critique though... the stripes on the cat's body... for me they are a bit too hot and eye melting (with temperature and saturation) and a little too separated form the image... I wish you added a bit of texture and shadows to them... I wish the perspective on those curves was a little different too.... it is not a bit deal, but I know it could be done a little easier for eyes to recognize the volume...
If you don't mind I would like to give you a link to bluefooted's image (an artist from this site)... maybe you are willing to observe how she defines the volume, the rise of the back and perspective with those stripes on the tiger's back.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56348&page=9
Hope you are well...
Bye.

William b. Hand

November 30th, 2007, 12:05 PM

Sveta - Thanks for the link! That one pic reminds me very much of Lukavi's work (don't have a link handy). I know what you mean about the stripes and understand that you wish there were better description of the cat's form, but - frankly - I was shocked that it worked out as well as it did. I was unsure what I was going to do with regard to the cat's colouring until almost the end, and I actually narrowly missed making a disastrous alternative decision. In person, under the proper lighting, I think the smooth vibrant glow of the cat is a pleasing contrast to the rest of the painting. As I push my boundaries, I find myself skirting quite close to total disaster on a regular basis. Even moreso, I find myself creating elements that are something less-than what they might be, but have contented myself with the perspective that these imperfections can be guideposts for future efforts. To be fair to my thought processes about the cat, though, I think I considered adding detail and worried I would lose something of the glowing quality. The job that bluefoot did on those animals was just superb, I agree, and they far outstrip the form of my little glow-cat. :P

As for Ms.Mnemosyne, I'm glad you have enthusiasm for this piece... I think you would like it even more in person, as I do. Now, I feel I must give credit where credit is due: Several of the titles, including the ones that you have specifically singled out, were suggestions by a friend of mine. Although titles occasionally present themselves to me readily, often I am left feeling blank and resort to disappointingly descriptive titles that add nothing to the piece. On a recent visit to my city, she declared her disapproval with several names I had given and immediately offered better ones. Because of her interpretive prowess, I am now asking her to view my paintings online and work out a title with me over the phone. I think it would be unfair not to mention this. :)

I'm glad you like Ms. Mnemosyne's ear.

My new (untitled) pic is kinduv a mess on a few levels... not the best of the show, certainly, and the photo is especially bad... leaving some areas much darker (or lighter) than they really are and giving a poor understanding of the colour's satisfying punch, but oh well. This was one of the first paintings that I started for the show, and I know its composition and other things about it are wonky... It's been sitting there unfinished, and last night I made a lot of changes to it. I think it's much better, but too much time was spent on it. In the interest of being complete, though, I post it. I've found that having a few pieces I'm less satisfied with in a show allows me to sell them at lower prices and broaden the affordability spectrum. hehe.

Today, I am left with the need to paint 2 more pics... One large (3o"x42") and one small (2o"x3o"). These will fulfill the minimum necessary to fill the space at the Bug Jar, and also meet the number of frames that I have ordered. Tomorrow, I get to spend all day framing and creating those little identifying plaques that go on the side of each piece. I both look forward to being done with this show and also worry about it. These are the first paintings I've done since I painted the first show... after the 1st show, I went into a bit of a depression and I suspect will soon face a similar state. I will certainly endeavour to find further impetus to work after this preparation is over, and suspect the current key for me is in setting up similar shows or other projects that include a defined end-point, audience, and possible financial reward.

... not that you asked. :teeth:

THE INNOCENT MISSTEP
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/YETTOBETITLEDFIGURE.jpg

DETAIL
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/YETTOBETITLEDFIGUREDETAIL.jpg

sve

December 1st, 2007, 11:30 AM

... not that you asked. :teeth:

Showing our true colors, aren't we :)? Wolf in sheep's clothing. It is not that sweet when I forced sincerity from you... so... yep, I don't need you to reply to me against your will... but, yes... of course I want to go to the center of your heart. The nectar is there and I feel it from a distance :).

heh,,, did you notice? consequences of our almost daily exchange... You started to abuse ellipsis like I can't resist doing. But isn't it fun? It creates the illusion of a human voice when you read the words, doesn't it? With its sudden pauses, confusion and lack of confidence.
I'm on the other hand trying hard not to emphasize especially strong words in bold or with underlining... like you do. This creates illusion of persuading, of leading will. I think you might be a bit controlling in real life and have certain principles one should take in consideration dealing with you.
And that's all good :). "Let one hundred flowers bloom", right?

Well, credit goes to your expressive friend then...but actually when I said that I appreciate this ability of yours I summarized the deep titles of the paintings with abundance of themes you create in your weekly activity you lead...
But yeah... I should have looked carefully... your friend is a woman of few precise words.

Your strong quality is diversity, the wide and complex, branched imagination... so to speak... IMO. Hope you don't mind my conclusion.

Two paintings... oh I think you will be all right... I amazed at your artistic rhythm...in a good sense ...very interesting how inspiration visits you... it looks like you like a pregnant woman carry your creations with you for months and then suddenly delivers them in one day. Your creations look like they are all children of night, you know... they have this silence and presence of moon.

Yeah I wish I could see them all, and better in one room... double, triple effect, you know.

Don't be afraid of coming show. You will be all right. What is bothering you? I think your paintings are charismatic and mind controlling. I think they will tell people stories and give them taste of your soul...
Money is the whole other thing and in this you just need to expose your paintings more and often. I wish you could allow me to sell your soul to this fantasy magazine. Imagine FX.. they are looking for interesting projects and artists to write an article about them and show their artwork. They asked repeatedly about that on this site.

Your art fits perfectly to this magazine. I dare to say that you need to show your work more and more... and one day your favorite metal group will see them and ask for the cover to their album.

Depression... yeah... I thought you might have them... because of the sudden disappearance and unpredictability... well I had friends with depression... it is part of our life... don't be afraid to write to me if you are feeling down. sometimes you just need someone to show you things in perspective. Depression is not real, it is Goya's monsters, they rule when reasons dreams.

OK... back to art...

Well, I'm not very fond of composition... but I don't know anymore... and I never thought that art should have definite borders... disturbing composition might be part of the plan. You took my offering of the link in post before pretty well... do you mind if I give you another link?... I read this information for myself and I kind of think it is good to have this knowledge.
Here is an artist from this site Ilaekae gives a short but informative summary on composition and how human eyes can be led and manipulated with it and with certain elements in the image.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=111813

I think the composition of your painting Mother and child is there...
In the new painting what bothers me is that again you have two strong elements: face and hands and they are kind of separated from each other and placed not very wisely...IMO. Once again my eyes jumps up and down ... it's a vanity, my friend and loss of energy.
I do like very much when you insert a slice of street in your paintings... they are so very personal, effective, connected to you and place where you create... I love them all the time... especially those debris flying in the strong wind and air, blue, dense and cold. I love city life in general. it excites me :).
I love his hands too... ha... but I have fetish with man's hands.
Untidy tree is beautiful... wind is beautiful... I wish it was just a human face... but that's all right. I like the roughness of textures in this piece and this sweet/bitter feeling of not belonging and desire to belong... wonder if your interpret it in a right way .
OK
hope everything goes according to plan
Be well.
Sveta

William b. Hand

December 1st, 2007, 10:31 PM

sve - You know I wasn't directing that "not that you asked" comment toward you, right? That was more a general chuckle at myself for what felt like a bit of an unnecessarily complete explanation of my situation.

I got nearly everything framed today, and still have one more painting to paint tonight :^^;: ... Plus figuring out pricing & creating i.d. cards etc.
I've somehow managed to waste 2.5 hrs, and I blocked my responsibilities completely! Ugh. How did that happen?? Damn you, brain.

So, here's a larger one I did yesterday... Nicer in person, of course :P

"JUPITARIAN" : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 32" x 4o"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/JUICEDTRANSITIONiii.jpg

DETAIL 1
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/JTiiilefteyeandfacedetail.jpg

DETAIL 2
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/JTiiimouthdetail.jpg

Arn J.

December 1st, 2007, 10:44 PM

This is masterful, what else can I say?
So much, so much, in so little time, this is one if the most admirable thing I've behold, thanks.

sve

December 2nd, 2007, 12:16 AM

hello, Bill... very delightful painting. I just wanted to wish your show to be a great one and for you to have fun and enjoy it... I wish you to restore yourself too. I think you worked extremely hard.
About right or not right I understood your words... it doesn't matter. it is funny both way... You are my friend, I think highly about you. I'm on your side. Of course you are not a wolf... maybe a little :).
I like that the last painting will be big in size... those golden eyes will be haunting and dominating in room.
A little critique...corner of her mouth on my right is bit lower than I think it should be, mouth is bit askew. But it is not important...maybe it would be better to lower the other corner of the mouth, her face becomes serious... but it is your decision. Heh, she is still a bit on a weird side... those reptile-like scales on her skin.
I would call her "Golden eyes".

Hope you will be happy and carefree tomorrow ... well at least when show will start. Wish I could be there... try to sleep a bit and eat before tomorrow to look your best.
Love,
Sveta

Naomi Ningishzidda

December 2nd, 2007, 12:32 AM

my god, your weirdness is stunning

have fun at the show - getting ready for those is so stressful.... XD

hey that glowcat - that's a DSG!!

William b. Hand

December 3rd, 2007, 11:13 PM

Arn J. - Thank you! Glad you like it!

sve - Thanks for the encouragement and advice, sveta. For "The Jupitarian", I was referencing an old pic I did a coupluv years ago. I have issues with the decisions I made about her features, but am pleased with the sworling textures. I do know what you mean about the mouth... as much as I tried to keep things symmetrical, I still had problems. There are a few on this pic. It does seem to grab people's attention, though, and that's nice.

LadyHydralisk - Thanks! Yes, stressful. But more and more pleasing... Hm, you want glowcat as a DSG? Perhaps dot dot dot.

Here's the final picture I did for the show (finishing it a mere hour before hanging!). Because it was so rushed, I was forced to leave some things about it a bit rough and there are several unresolved issues, but overall I'm rather pleased with it. See whatchya think:

"NEW FAMILY" : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 2o"x30"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/NEWFAMILY.jpg

DETAIL 1
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/NEWFAMILYdetail1.jpg

DETAIL 2
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/NEWFAMILYdetail2.jpg

Naomi Ningishzidda

December 3rd, 2007, 11:17 PM

lol! you're a machine...unbelievable...but believable, now...

I was referring to glowcat rescue resembling the "monster rescues a cat" thing we did recently...

our most recent DSG idea is delightful too and Ill have to make time for something cool.

great work as usual - what a cute family.

Idiot Apathy

December 3rd, 2007, 11:48 PM

dude! this one is great too!
On a roll man! Any more sales?

William b. Hand

December 4th, 2007, 12:37 AM

LadyHydralisk - Aah... yes, I understand now. It certainly does have a similar flavour... I don't even remember -- maybe I carved that topic out of this painting's general narrative.

Idiot Apathy - Thanks, man. No more sales yet, but then it was only last night that they went up, and the weather here has been kinda shitty. :P

Chermilla

December 4th, 2007, 09:32 AM

Wow, nice work! You're great at painting eyes too, so much depth to them. beautiful! :)

Cx

Mr.Delicious

December 4th, 2007, 10:30 AM

awesome stuff man, you airbrush all of these?? I've always wanted to give airbrushin a shot but doesnt it get pretty expensive? Anyways, they look great and you got a great pace goin dude

davi

December 4th, 2007, 07:34 PM

love your work hand, truely impressed!

style reminds me at times of a brilliant blind between 3 of my favorite artists, giger, beskinski, and barlowe.

Keep these up man, you are become a favorite of mine.

Draniel

December 4th, 2007, 07:43 PM

I really like the face texture of JUPITARIAN as well as the big eyes!

joiton

December 4th, 2007, 09:03 PM

Really loving the new ones too,
I'll be waiting for the next update
:)

Mr-Joe

December 6th, 2007, 10:55 AM

Hey William,
Really great work , I liked the first version of study for a figurehead.
How much do you sell these paintings for approximately?

TheGnoll

December 6th, 2007, 02:01 PM

so cool the face of the jupitarian recalls the planets whirly gas texture...very nice!

i don't care if "new family" is rushed or not, it looks great, quite scary but also very calm fr some reason...and even if i already told you i second what davi says...very nice work Will ;)

ciao!

Naomi Ningishzidda

December 7th, 2007, 01:07 AM

I liked Jupitarian because it looks like she is a burn victim but she has the most beautiful eyes, I would think that now whenever I see a burn victim....art that changes me is the rarest of all, so I find wisdom there.

HunterKiller_

December 7th, 2007, 03:01 AM

Oh yes. 'New Family' is grotesquely delicious. Mmm yum yum.

William b. Hand

December 7th, 2007, 04:41 PM

Chermilla - Thank you! Yes... eyes are a lot of fun. :)

Mr.Delicious - Thanks man! Hm... well, there's a little bit of money that you gotta use to buy the airbrush and the compressor, certainly. But, although the paints might seem expensive, they go quite a long ways, so it's not too bad once you've got it set up.

davi - Giger, Beksiñski, and Barlowe... YUP. :teeth: They are amongst my faves as well. Glad you're diggin the recent stuffs! Thank you, sir!

Draniel - Thanx! I'm glad you enjoy that one -- it was (mostly) fun to make.

joiton - Gracias! I hope I don't keep you waiting too long on the updates. Maybe this one will help extend my time credit... even though it's an oldie. Thanks for stopping by again!

Mr-Joe - Thanks! Sorry that one no longer exists in that form :P... As far as pricing goes, that particular pic is marked at $ XXXX (signed prints @ $XXX).

[ EDIT: Those numbers are no longer accurate. - Wm. ]

The Gnoll - Thanks, man! Glad you like NEW FAMILY and JUPITARIAN. :) I'm pretty happy with both.

LadyHydralisk - Mmm... A little suggestive of burn victim, yes... Although I dunno if she'd be smiling. Glad you are touched by her!

HunterKiller - Thanks for saying so!

SO... Here's an older pic, BRAMBLE MAN, that I just got scanned in and gives you maybe a bit more detail to see... Hope you like, even if it's old.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/BRAMBLE_MAN_for_CA.jpg

Pistol

December 7th, 2007, 05:01 PM

Not a 1000000 words could describe these paintings.
Excellent Work.

Stoat

December 7th, 2007, 05:08 PM

Scanned in? I assumed these were digital (I guess I really ought to read the words, not just look at the pictures). What medium?

Really creepy, evocative work!

William b. Hand

December 7th, 2007, 05:26 PM

Pistol - Thanks! Maybe you're over-reacting a bit, but I certainly appreciate the enthusiastic positivity!

Stoat - Mmm... Well, okay... This is the only one that I didn't label clearly right above the image (since it's a re-post) :P Anyhows, this (and almost every other image in this thread, really) is Airbrushed Acrylic on board. 2o"x3o" in size.

I'll be maybe getting back into some digital (or acrylic and digital blending) before too long. Right now, I'll be focusing on imagery that'll be useful as family giftage.

Idiot Apathy

December 7th, 2007, 11:41 PM

YAY, no more digital camera noise!
Soooo much clearer. :)

sve

December 9th, 2007, 03:20 AM

hello, again. :). I've hesitated to write about 'Happy family", especially after your marathon week, and you mentioned that you are happy with this piece...so... don't take it seriously. It is just my opinion, nothing much.

I like this painting in parts. And I like the idea, it looks truthful for me. In my student's years and before that living in my home town I remember seeing families of this sort... hehe , metaphorically speaking of course, ahahaha... Man, your thread is really contagious in its madness , hehe... Not sure if I'm starting seeing human features in those ugly snouts or I'm starting see snouts in humans... soon will be wearing a straight jacket.. well anyways... remember seeing those happy families. Especially one. They started with ideas of a big family with strong connections. Every year a new baby... oldest help youngest... bond and legacy of generations... well as our classic said:
"Gray, worthy friend, is all your theory
And green the golden tree of life."

The life happened to be much more colorful in a way... I remember the whole family leading the life of natural selection when I saw them last. Surviving on their own... and somehow I remember them right in these colors of wet, muddy soil.
And I know you wanted for me to see their amicable nature... but I can't stop seeing and remembering other things I got stuck in my brains.
Poverty is a bad satellite for childhood. Poverty goes together with cynicism. Can't remove children with cynical adult faces from my memory.

Those sympathetic children on foreground reminded me abandoned kids from orphanage, into which we students were sent to entertain them for one day a year... That was scary.

I can't help to do reversed to your action. You take your experience and create a new reality... I take your surreal characters, strip them from fantasy features and make them suitable for our world.

So after long and awkward writing I think you know in some way about what your image made me think and remember.

What I think would be great is to crop this painting and just leave those two youngsters and work more on their outlines... because like many other parts of the painting it is hard to see whose leg or arm it is.
I like how you saw a thick, healthy baby in the larvae... that poetic too and funny. that's my favorite part of the painting too...
I really feel that painting would be better if you define the borders of each character more... some suggestion is good but in this painting it is constant guesses for me: who is who and where one creature ends and another begins.
At the beginning I saw some long nose of a hippopotamus like and bent back instead of the baby in arms of mother...
Brown muddy colors make me think about poverty...
I'm not very fond of the composition unless you left it just as two children on the bottom.

BRAMBLE MAN... the painting became colder I think... I kind of had more compassion to him with warmer colors. Red/ orange was more aggressive and more energetic... better for expressing madness I think. I can be wrong.

Forgive me please for for this critique and if you don't like it.. I stop writing those when I'm not sure in my impression.

krossj

December 9th, 2007, 07:24 AM

Great stuff man!

I really like the "NEW FAMILY" image, wonderful stuff!

Cheers

MonkeYoakum

December 16th, 2007, 11:37 AM

Hey I'm glad I found this thread again! Freaky cool paintings man, Im so happy to see some wierd shit on here. I'll keep watching. Thanks

Carnifex

December 16th, 2007, 12:20 PM

so after going through these pages,i just have to subscribe. those acrylics are damn tasty,and even though i can't word my thoughts as eloquently as sve,know that they are pure joy to look at.
edit: especially after almost exclusively knowing you as "the dsg mod" ;)

Soul Karl

December 16th, 2007, 02:55 PM

wow your paintings are just awesome as hell haha :D i wish I had something constructive to say for you but I sadly do not ;[ but just keep up the good work and I'll keep watching these and enjoying ;] so cool

William b. Hand

December 17th, 2007, 03:53 AM

Thanks everyone!
Will try to comment back tomorrow sometime, but too tired now.

Just a little Photoshop sketch... Haven't done a thing in the computer for many many months, so I'm dipping my toe into the waters again.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/OPENSESAME.jpg

December 17th, 2007, 02:27 PM

beautiful imagination and wonderful rendering - I feel warmed!

Jacob Kobryn

December 21st, 2007, 12:05 AM

YES!!! Absolutely awesome! Your airbrush stuff is amazing! PLEASE visit my site and give some feedback! I hope you don't mind but I'm posting a link to here on Airbrush.com...

Jacob Kobryn

December 21st, 2007, 12:15 AM

I couldn't help myself: http://www.airbrush.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=327750&mpage=1&key=񐁆

William b. Hand

December 22nd, 2007, 04:54 AM

Jake Kobrin - Welp... As I said in my posting on that thread over at AIRBRUSH.com, I do appreciate the enthusiasm of your response, and understand that it comes out of respect for my work and that your intentions are only good. As I also say on that thread, though, it's kinda bad form to go ahead and post an artists works like that without getting permission first.

Now, I'm glad that you posted a link here and that you made clear that it's my work and included links to my blog and to this thread. Again, it's clear that you meant well.

Because of the obvious logic of perusing and posting at a site like AIRBRUSH.com, and because of the warm reception, I'll likely start up an airbrushing thread of my own over there at the site. I hope you understand that right now I do need you to remove those images from your thread. Thanks, again, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you over yonder.

Jacob Kobryn

December 22nd, 2007, 02:31 PM

I'm sorry William. People post up artists work that they admire over on AB.com all the time. I didn't really think anything of it.

Blue Disciple

December 22nd, 2007, 02:58 PM

Fine traditional work! Great reflections and rich color!

TOOLED!

December 22nd, 2007, 04:52 PM

bizarre and beautiful, i am watching this thread for sure. thanks for sharing!

Charles Ratteray

December 22nd, 2007, 05:20 PM

fantastic work man! just amazing

mccatana

December 22nd, 2007, 06:49 PM

look like is the end of good days...and that is kind of magic art, when a world totaly apart appear from imgination rezult and lot of work. great stuf...i keep on looking

Vulgar`

December 23rd, 2007, 01:12 AM

Damn.

Mydrim

December 23rd, 2007, 07:17 AM

yeah, awesome

TheBeast

December 23rd, 2007, 07:37 AM

woah man, thx for the inspiration! your work is just awesome......maybe its a little funny to upload this on a scetchbook-forum, eh?

;) cheers!

Arteater

December 24th, 2007, 06:13 AM

great work William

William b. Hand

January 14th, 2008, 10:29 PM

Idiot Apathy - Glad you're happy at the crisper image of the BRAMBLE MAN!

sve - I hear what you're saying about NEW FAMILY... There are many technical issues with it, I agree. It was done in a very hurried fashion in about 2 hours just prior to my hanging of the show, and the need to get it framed in time took priority over quality. I am intending to create another (more finished) version of that in the future, though. Concerning BRAMBLE MAN, mmm... Yeah, I see what you're saying about that as well, and I think the current image is pretty close to the original. It is what it is, of course. :teeth:

Carnifex - Thank you sir! I hope my continuing posts do right by your subscription. :)

Apocalypse_Rex - Gracias! Very kind words, dude.

Jake Kobrin - Again, thanks for the appreciation! I know I'm gonna be draggin' my feet about starting an airbrush.com thread a bit longer, but I still mean to accomplish that at some point. ;)

krossj, MonkeYoakum, Soul Karl, Blue Disciple, TOOLED!, Charles Ratteray, mccatana, Vulgar`, Mydrim, TheBeast, Arteater - Thank you! Thank you! I very much appreciate all the support, and apologize that I'm sometimes super-slow to say so. Cheers, guys!

Here's what I did today for the current DSG:
Photoshop : "Creature: SABRE-EYED, STRETCH-SKULLED, BLEACH-SKINNED, BEAR-BEAST"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/bearbloodb.jpg

William b. Hand

January 15th, 2008, 05:31 PM

So, I started messing around with a simple custom brush to see if I could create hair effectively on this thing. It was looking totally ridiculous for a while, but I was just playing around and having fun, and ultimately it started to actually look good. I never intended for him to have quite so much hair, but I rather like how it worked out, and also enjoy my little success at creating some sense of environment in such a simple way. Baby steps. :)

See whatchya think:

WOOLY SABRE-EYED BEAR-BEAST : photoshoppery
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/woolysabrebear.jpg

RandAlThor

January 15th, 2008, 06:00 PM

Cool imagination and def excellent skills with the airbrush.. digis are cool too.. keep posting dude ;-)

Nadiamoon

January 15th, 2008, 06:10 PM

Man, I can't say that this is good. This is just freaking amazing! Keep posting!

sicko

January 18th, 2008, 04:09 PM

WOOLY SABRE-EYED BEAR-BEAST is awesome. Of course I like all you work.

one thing though... please remove the "perfect" snowflakes from WSEBB ;)

Mat Kaminski

January 28th, 2008, 01:08 AM

Man, that last creature is beautifully rendered! Great work on the texture pass. I think I may start getting back into the DSGs as soon as I get off my lazy bones and reorder my tablet lol!

William b. Hand

February 8th, 2008, 05:34 AM

RandAlThor - Thanks!
Nadiamoon - XieXie! Very kind!
sicko - Danke! In future snowflake pics, I will make them be not-perfect. ;)
Malakai SinClair - Glad you like! Yes, tablets are good.

So...

Here's what I did today for the DSG topic of an alien sphinx:
[ Photoshop ]

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/AlienSphinxB.jpg

Arteater

February 8th, 2008, 07:10 AM

Wow, that is awesome. Nice work William, that blue in the face is real cool.
You be the man!

William b. Hand

February 9th, 2008, 01:34 AM

Arteater - Thank you!

Here's a little walkthrough I made per a couple requests...

ConCrete

February 9th, 2008, 02:10 AM

Thanks for the walk through Mr. Hand.

jMarkus

February 9th, 2008, 04:10 AM

freakin sweet ... think i commented in this book a long time ago as burning eyes, but havent been here recently, ive been missing out! awesome stuff on this last page, will have to look at the others again, but here some stars... u def deserve them! CHEERS!

silentbrain

February 9th, 2008, 02:48 PM

Totally saving that tutorial for further study. Thank you so much! (still loving the polka dots)

TheGnoll

February 9th, 2008, 03:35 PM

great stuff as usual Will, thanks for sharing that process ;)

keep sharing, how's life?

ciao!

Hive_minD

February 9th, 2008, 09:46 PM

Saw your update a few days ago, or less...
Liked that new creature of your. Like it even better now that you showed the process. Cheers, and keep drawing. You can only get better!

Chris

William b. Hand

February 10th, 2008, 04:29 AM

ConCrete - u r welcome!
jMarkus - Glad you found some stuff to like here! Thx for stopping by, and thx for the stars!
silentbrain - Glad u r still diggin the dots, and I hope you find something of value in the walkthrough! I forgot to mention using soft-edged brushes, which is sortuv important. :P
TheGnoll - Hey guy! Life's not bad, really... Just tryin to build momentum. Hope you're well!
Hive_minD - Thank you sir! I certainly hope you're right about getting better.

I need to start producing more paintings, and this here pic is part of that.
The composition's not good, and it's sortuv a confusing mechanical mish-mashery, but I was really just shootin to get the robotic gears turning in my mind, so it succeeded in that regard. See whatchya think!

"Tortoise" : Airbrushed Acrylic : 14"x20"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/TortoiseI.jpg

February 10th, 2008, 06:28 AM

lovely! i'm intrigued by this traditional airbrush business, i might look into it a bit more. :)

Hethabyr

February 10th, 2008, 06:55 AM

Brilliant stuff! It's got that "tortoisy" feel about it. I was watching an episode of David Attenborough's excellent new series, "Life in Cold Blood" a couple of nights back, and it showed some fascinating footage of tortoises fighting each other. The males of this particular type had an elongated spike protruding from the carapace, just below the head, which they use as a sort of fulcrum lever, to wedge under their opponent's body and flip them on their backs. Amazing to watch.

Keep up the good work : )

Amir the night wolf

February 16th, 2008, 06:42 PM

Love the the walk through :) do more please :D

Smeg Head

February 16th, 2008, 07:04 PM

Utterly astounding work, I'm gobsmacked by the level of detail. The walkthrough is also a fantastic read, wish you all the best.

Me,Myself & Me again

March 1st, 2008, 01:56 PM

Absolutley of amazing. Love your airbrush work, those have to be my fav.
Keep it up!

MARMENTIDO

March 9th, 2008, 05:12 AM

WHOOOW¡¡ men, super realistic , nice render better imagination!
I love your stuff men

William b. Hand

March 15th, 2008, 10:06 PM

Apocalypse_Rex - You absolutely should look into it! It's like any medium in that there are things that you just wouldn't otherwise create if you weren't using that particular item. Do lemme know if you ever dabble, dude.

Hethabyr - Thank you! And thanks for the heads-up on the new Attenborough series! I am a huge huge fan of his work and was unaware of it. If you haven't seen disc 1 of the LIFE IN THE UNDERGROWTH series, you absolutely MUST. I was just watching that for the millionth time a couple days ago.

Amir the night wolf - More walkthroughs, huh? We'll see... those take time, but I'm glad you dug it - thanks!

Smeg Head - Thanks much! I do appreciate the support.

Me, Myself & Me again - Thank you, thank you! Will keep airbrushing.

MARMENTIDO - Gracias! Much obliged!

So, I've finally gotten around to doing some more art again... :P
This is my one piece for a gallery opening in NYC that's just around the corner. I spent all yesterday evening and most of today working on it, but I think it came out pretty well. See whatchya think...

"THE BIRTHDAY GUEST" : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 2o" x 3o"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/birthdayguestdetailforweb.jpg

Detail 1
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/birthdayguestdetail1.jpg

Detail 2
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/birthdayguestdetail2.jpg

Detail 3
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/birthdayguestdetail3.jpg

MonkeYoakum

March 16th, 2008, 01:55 AM

Nice! Real nice. And thanks for the detail, wierd stuff but cool.

Mr-Joe

March 16th, 2008, 10:55 AM

I'm wondering if you could take some photos of your progress while working on an airbrush painting?

Thanks,
Joe.

William b. Hand

March 16th, 2008, 03:01 PM

MonkeYoakum - Thanks, and you're welcome! Yeah... detail shots do seem to help. :)

Mr-Joe - Okay, I'll try to do that on my next paintings. It is somewhat weird to take snaps of in-progress paintings, because it requires a break in focus, and I never know if a particular painting will even work out... But -- for you -- what the hell, I'll do it.

rahulmehta5

March 16th, 2008, 03:28 PM

VERY INTERESTING CHARACTERS DESIGN AND COLORING ..
FULLY IMPRESSED..!

KEEP IT UP MAN..!
GOOD SHOW..

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120926

D.Focus

March 17th, 2008, 12:53 AM

fantastic. you really know what you're doing.that tortoise one is done all gieger style. incredible. thanks for the WIP shots. i'll take that info into account.

Draniel

March 17th, 2008, 01:01 AM

wow that's really good! i like the color you chose and the atmosphere you created, and nice textures as usual

zweiDee

March 17th, 2008, 04:48 AM

William thats a very nice Airbrush, wow!

Spade

March 17th, 2008, 04:56 AM

Those airbrush works blow my mind, very appealing, i love the softness of it even though you are painting monsters! thanks for sharing

Amir the night wolf

March 17th, 2008, 06:00 AM

ThanX :) I so god damn lovem all :D and yes i dug it all :D

Merlkir

March 17th, 2008, 06:33 AM

Incredible sketchbook! Thank you, I feel very inspired :) You creatures are amazing and your rendering reminds me of Neville Page's whose work I like a lot! (especially the eyes).
First impression was "why does he keep on adding that ugly noise effect ?!"...then I found out it's airbrush. :) sorry. Really stunning work.

Mr-Joe

March 17th, 2008, 08:18 AM

Thanks a lot William I can understand about breaking the focus, so I appreciate you doing that. I'm excited to see how you work with that thing.

Clochette

March 17th, 2008, 08:47 AM

Creepy and beautiful! I like the textures so much, and the expression of the creature giving the heart gift! Can I saved it in my inspiration folder?

silentbrain

March 17th, 2008, 09:20 AM

Duuuude! Awe-inspiring!
I haven't any experience with airbrushing but those pieces look like they were totally killer to execute. Love the soft focus on the tortoise one too, it really adds to the piece. Bravo!

Sady

March 17th, 2008, 09:22 AM

Geriatric Alien made me laugh. ^_^

And that demon portrait in the second page made me stare for quite a while, I like it.

Quinn Simoes

March 17th, 2008, 02:16 PM

Nice to see in this digital age that someone is still producing astonishing paintings with airbrush, Brilliant work William!

Quinn

William b. Hand

March 20th, 2008, 05:28 AM

rahulmehta5 - Thanks! I'm still pretty rudimentary in my understanding of colour, but I'm trying. :)

D.Focus - Thank you! Tortoise reminds you of Giger? Really? Wow, I never know what's gonna get that. Fascinating.

Draniel - Glad you like the colouring and textures. Thanx!

zweiDee - Thank you!

Spade - Thanks! By "softness", I wonder if you mean the fuzziness of the edges (since I don't use masking), or if you mean the amiable spirit of the narrative?

Amir the Night Wolf - ALL of it? Wow, thanks!

Merlkir - Thanks, dude! Very happy to be an inspiration! Hm.. the grit of the airbrushed stuff can be a bother sometimes, yeah. Room to grow!

Mr-Joe - You're welcome (in advance)! ;)

Clochette - Thank you, thank you! You may certainly save it in your inspiration folder! :)

silentbrain - Thanks, man! Yeah, that took some real focus I must say.

Sady - Aah... Thanx! Going back a bit there. Glad you like!

Quinn Simoes - I can't give up airbrushing... Love it too much. :teeth: Thank you!

Wow. So many kind responses... Thanks everyone -- much appreciated!

So, here's what I spent my evening on. It's Photoshop. There's actually supposed to be a second creature in this pic that is challenging the first, but there were some issues with it and so I'll post the full image when I've beat it into submission. Hope you like!

"THREATENED ALIEN"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/TerritorialAlienCROPPED.jpg

• CLICK ME FOR WONKY FULL VERSION • (http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/TerritorialAliens.jpg)

PerinGalitte

March 20th, 2008, 06:34 AM

Lovely textured skin. Nice one, man.

William b. Hand

March 22nd, 2008, 08:56 AM

PerinGalitte - Thank you very much!

Welp, I just did my first batch of silhouette thumbs, and I am completely sold on this old technique. I can't believe how satisfying it is to crank out so many creatures, even at such a small scale. I'll be doing a lot more of these, I think. I just can't recommend them highly enough... This stuff is like crack.

Take a look:

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/CreatureThumbs.jpg

TheGnoll

March 22nd, 2008, 09:02 AM

man, the airbrush painting rock as usual, just lovely, bt its really cool to see you do some concept art again, the creature thumb look really tight for such a basic stage, can't wait to see more critters :)

ciao!

William b. Hand

April 21st, 2008, 06:27 PM

TheGnoll - Thanks! Couldn't really find anyone else as excited about the thumbs as I was, but that's how it goes sometimes. :P

Here's something expanding along the same lines as the critter thumbs... I tried putting in some shadows, but my shadows are still crap, so I ditched 'em.

GREYSCALE ROBOTS • (Photoshoppery)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/GreyscaleRobots-1.jpg

Quinn Simoes

April 21st, 2008, 11:57 PM

Great thumbnails in the last two posts, was it just for practice or for work?

Very nice presentation as well!

Look forward to more,
Quinn

William b. Hand

April 22nd, 2008, 06:19 AM

Quinn Simoes - Thank you! Just for practice/fun. The robots I did for the most recent Daily Sketch Group topic.

Here's some doodling:

THREE HEADS • (phertoshep)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/ThreeHeadSketches.jpg

UCT

April 22nd, 2008, 06:46 AM

Dude, your SB rocks. Love the air brushing, mindblowingly good fun to look through...

and thanks for doing the DSG, its a cool part of this place.

TheGnoll

April 22nd, 2008, 06:53 AM

love the smooth, precise look of those robots, clean and organic at the same time, diggin' a lot head no2 and no 3 is very...very..."fleshy" :D

keep 'em coming!

ciao

DANKA

April 22nd, 2008, 07:12 AM

Impressive airbrush pieces!
Amazing art!... Love the HRGiger\Beksinski style!

DANKA

April 22nd, 2008, 09:06 AM

I forgot to mention Oscar Chichoni, and something from Hieronymus Bosch...
In your style there are some of the first artist I discover in my artistic path...many thanx for that revival! :-) keep up!

Spats

April 22nd, 2008, 02:33 PM

Love those thumbnails, inspiring work as usual!

Keep it up!

William b. Hand

April 22nd, 2008, 05:26 PM

UCT - Thanks! Good to hear it.

TheGnoll - Thank you! Yeah... I used to receive a lot of criticism about the fuzziness of my Photoshop pics, and the super crisp look of those bots is a bit of an answer to that. Glad you like the heads. :)

DANKA - Thanx! Yup, Giger and Beksiñski are huge influences. Not familiar with Oscar Chichoni... Will have to look him up.

Spats - Hooray! Glad you like the thumbs!

Thank you all for dropping by and leaving notes, guys! :hugsmile:

So, I messed about a bit more with those sketches from yesterday:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/ThreeHeadSketchesC.jpg

Carnifex

April 22nd, 2008, 07:22 PM

nice ones! i like the upper right most,the creature head falls abit flat (literally). pop some shadows in there, or atleast decide on a general lightsource (or make it more apparent? i can somewhat see something if i squint...).

William b. Hand

April 22nd, 2008, 09:20 PM

Carnifex - Thank you! Welp... I misread your post and thought you were talking about head #2, so I messed around with his head a bit. :P
Then I realized what you were actually referring to and messed with him a bit. I think you were right, but I don't think much of what I did to remedy it. Oh, well... these are just meant to be quickies anyhow. Hopefully futures will improve.

Reject-D

April 22nd, 2008, 09:22 PM

nice dude.. interesting and a bit creepy.. love the designs maybe you could stop by my sb and have a look around..

Dorkthrone

April 22nd, 2008, 09:54 PM

The fleshy feel of your paintings is boss.

Naomi Ningishzidda

April 22nd, 2008, 10:16 PM

wow, william

I'll try those silhouettes sometime, never really made the time to sit down and develop a technique for it.

William b. Hand

April 23rd, 2008, 04:00 AM

Reject-D - Thanks! Glad you sense a creepy aspect to these.

ninjacat11 - Thank you!

Naomi Ningishzidda - Thank you for liking my silhouettes! They're like Concept Candy. :yum:

So, here's a pic I did for current DSG topic ("ALIEN HOLDING ITS BABY").
I might maybe go back into it further, but ya never know. Just time to go to bed.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/alienholdingbabyA.jpg

hurricane

April 23rd, 2008, 04:11 AM

last one is super!!
I'd love to see a few harder edges to guide the eye but besides that, killer!

cheerS!
Bjorn.

Carnifex

April 23rd, 2008, 05:57 AM

hehe shit happens i guess? :P
no time spent in vain though,looks better aswell. (from what i remember)
last one makes me go "d'awwww" :^^:

edit: oh yeah,maybe you have time to stop by sometime?

Quinn Simoes

April 23rd, 2008, 12:43 PM

Hey William,

I absolutely love that red gooey creature in post 184, excellent detailing and the translucent skin works great. Nice to see your traditional airbrush skills carried over to your digital work.

Quinn

William b. Hand

April 25th, 2008, 12:31 AM

hurricane aka Björn - Thanks, man! YEah, I'm sure some sharper edges'll make it in there... This is definitely not finished yet.

Carnifex - Yes it does. Good. Good, that's the idea. I certainly will. :)

Quinn Simoes - Thank you much! I'm kinda fond of him as well. :P

So, here's an old painting from earlier in this thread. The colours in the actual painting never really looked as nice to my eyes as the digital snapshot I'd taken of it. Since I'm using it in an upcoming show, I tried to punch it up a bit. (For some reason, Photobucket seems to have over-saturated it, but it's close enough.) I managed to ruin it for most of the day but finally, somehow, got it looking good again (I hope). Phew! :^^;:

I should probably re-name it "Toy Horse" at this point... It's strayed so far from it's genesis.

See whatchya think:

"STUDY FOR A FIGUREHEAD" •Acrylic on Board • 2o"x3o"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/STUDYFORAFIGUREHEADscan.jpg

LINK TO THE EARLIER VERSION OF THIS PAINTING (http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/FIGUREHEADearlyversion.jpg)

.

Naomi Ningishzidda

April 26th, 2008, 04:00 PM

Oh god help me, I'll never show up in the DSG again now, out of ego. :(

Not just the silhouettes, W, everything - indeed, the red gooey creature was what I was oohing over...it looks so delicious. :(

Damnit you always make me want to work....

Horses have very elegant faces :)

Iridyse

April 26th, 2008, 04:29 PM

Yummy!

I'm so totally overwhelmed but the amount of fantastic art over here. I need more time before I can come up with a coherent comment. Bookmarked!

Tec

May 7th, 2008, 09:31 AM

i really enjoyed browsing through your sketchbook. your analog airbrush works are refreshing in comparison to the mostly digital stuff here on CA. it's astonishing how you manage to capture a lot of athmosphere in all of your works....great stuff

i think "Tortoise" is one of my favorites. maybe it's a bit hard to read (like you already mentioned), but i really adore the shapes....it's a very inspirational piece

Kan Muftić

May 7th, 2008, 11:07 AM

very fucking cool.

hurricane

May 7th, 2008, 11:12 AM

give it to me and i can die happy :D

love it

William b. Hand

May 10th, 2008, 12:12 AM

Naomi Ningishzidda - Thank you! Thanx for liking my red gooey, too! He's pretty jelly, thas fer sure! Please don't avoid the DSG, for Pete's sake. :P

Iridyse - Thanx for stopping by!! Eat all you like! Really?! -- Wait, do you mean overwhelmed by this thread, or by CA.org in general? I very much look forward to your "coherent" comments (You'd better make one or I'll thumb my nose at you)!

Tec - Thanks! It's good to hear the positivity about TORTOISE... I'll have to do more that's akin to it (but, more thoughtfully organized).

Chupacabra - Thank you, sir!

hurricane - Give you what? STUDY OF A FIGUREHEAD? Hm... Well, I dunno about "give"... But, prints'll be available soon. ;)

So, here's some new shtuff from me...

FAUX BIOLOGIQUE • 15" x 20" Acrylic on Board • (Just sortuv a big 'ol jumble, really)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/fauxbiologique.jpg

SERAPHINA • 16" x 20" Acrylic on canvas • (An old, unfinished painting, that I just finished up)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/SERAPHINA.jpg

THE LORIO DRAGON • 15" x 20" Acrylic on Board • (I like him lots!)
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/THELORIODRAGON.jpg

HunterKiller_

May 10th, 2008, 12:16 AM

Oh yay, updates.

Lorio Dragon is mah fav!

hurricane

May 10th, 2008, 04:58 AM

YAAAA GIVE ME!!!

so good, i'm in total awe of the acrylics skill. I need to get a print then ;)
The dragon is so good

yoitisi

May 10th, 2008, 05:03 AM

Got to love the old school approach you have :) Saw it on the blogspot you share with Davi. The last one is really cool, I like the structure and design of it. The head is a bit flat I think, partly because of the pose I suspect. Anyway, great to see your SB here.

Dandilion

May 11th, 2008, 07:20 PM

I like you lots! ;)

~Em

Quinn Simoes

May 11th, 2008, 07:39 PM

Loving these latest paintings, especially: THE LORIO DRAGON.

Keep sharing William!

William b. Hand

May 29th, 2008, 02:31 AM

HunterKiller - Thank you!

hurricane - Thanks, man! I'll give you the heads-up when the prints are available.

yoitisi - "old school approach", eh? Ugh -- that makes me feel my age. You're right about the head being flat... I should watch it. :( Thanks for stopping by, though! ;)

Dandilion - :)

Quinn Simoes - Thanks! I'm glad people are liking LORIO.

Welp, I should really be updating with a bunch of new (old school) paintings, but I've been bad and can only post a few Photoshopperies I've done over the past coupluv days. Just a little thread CPR to keep the brain alive. I continue to timidly dabble with textured brushes... See whatchya think.

"MERMAID" creature I did for the DSG:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/MERMAID.jpg

Some more "MERMAID" types:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/mermaidsb2.jpg

2 Creature Studies that I'll put some colour into later:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/2studiesofcreatures.jpg

William b. Hand

May 29th, 2008, 04:51 AM

A colour treatment of this ©ola fellow... Might do another, later. I wasn't really picturing the fish scale look, but when it began to appear I just had to chase after it.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/olaolorAlessred.jpg

Naomi Ningishzidda

May 29th, 2008, 10:41 AM

Oh look he even has that fluorescent skin fish have...I love it.

What's with the strange appendage on his ass? Nevermind, the mermaid un-nipples are unexplainable as well, I suppose...

I love the shrimp...

MonkeYoakum

May 29th, 2008, 11:36 AM

Really nice color, not even sure how you made me see in a different color spectrum...hmm nice to see some digital work. My only crit would be sometimes your edges are soft to the point of fuzzy, and it will occasionaly ruin it for me. But usualy you have another focal point anyway, so maybee thats your goal. Either way, I love seeing more stuff from you, keep up the goods, Creepy goods.

William b. Hand

May 29th, 2008, 05:34 PM

Naomi - Thank you! Yeah, the sortuv opalescent quality of the skin was an interesting, and unexpected, effect. I've replaced that image link with one that isn't so intense on the reds. For some reason Photobucket always seems to oversaturate my files, and I'm then forced to desaturate the image and cross my fingers about the results. As for the butt-nubs, those are actually this weird hip that it has that performs a similar function to the human ass. :teeth:

MonkeYoakum - Thanks! As to your crit about the soft fuzziness... Yeah, I've heard that numerous times before and I keep trying to deal with it. Can you get uber-specific about it though? I am able to find some softness, but sometimes I feel like I have a blind spot regarding it. See if what I've done in this posting has alleviated what was bugging you or not.

So, I did try another colouring, after all. I also tried to give it a higher polish in some ways... The nails gave me all sorts of difficulty, and took forever to figure out. The ©ola can reveals a rare attempt at reflectivity than gives me some hope for future specular investigations. Added some slightly less-vague bounced lighting that - at least - carves out the chest better.

See watchya think:

"©heers!!"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/olaheers2.jpg

DARAF

May 29th, 2008, 05:42 PM

Great looking stuff dude.

William b. Hand

May 31st, 2008, 01:57 AM

•

Huh...

I just tried to print this most recent image out, and it looked like total crap. I mean, I knew it wouldn't look great on account of it's just 72 dpi, but... There was all kinds of hazy fuzziness around the limbs, as well as multiple artifacts that I just am not seeing at all on my monitor.

So... Now, I'm suddenly paranoid that because I'm using a crummy old CRT, that maybe what I'm seeing is not what everyone else is seeing (Which is relatively polished by my view). Which totally would suck, if that's the case, because I'm very fond of this.

Ugh. :[

•

KingCobra00

May 31st, 2008, 03:23 AM

HOLY CRAP! I give up. You're that good.

Naomi Ningishzidda

May 31st, 2008, 03:26 AM

it looks pretty darned good

I looked again and I do notice a tiny cloudy mark near his mandibles and under his coke can

There's some transparency along the limbs but nothing extreme.

I know my LCD is pretty fancy too.

i wouldn't worry about it too much but try adjusting the levels to extremes maybe to check for anomalies.

It looks good though, William, I wouldn't worry too much.

yoitisi

May 31st, 2008, 05:35 AM

Yep that last one looks pretty good on my monitor too, and it usually shows stuff too light. I think part of the anomalies in the print come from the fact that it is a black (or almost black) background. Most printers have some difficulties with that.

A few minor crits on the critter: the first thing I noticed is the hips. It sits on two very boney knobbles, which can only be uncomfortable in my mind :P Also, the perspective in comparison to his mandibles is a bit off. As far as the softness of the lines goes, the leg up front has it a bit on the thigh -you made part of it where it overlaps with the body more sharp but where it touches the background it is soft again. In general, it might pay off to do some hard-brushed thumbnails just to see where you hit trouble (no soft edges possible with a hard round brush :D). The softness is really apparent in your thumbs.

William b. Hand

May 31st, 2008, 11:28 AM

DARAF - Thanks!

KingCobra00 - Gee Whiz, thank you! Never give up -- Never surrender! :)

Naomi - Thanks for checking, and for the good advice about adjusting the levels. This is lighting a fire under my butt to get new equipment, though.

yoitisi - That's a good point you make about the printer's handling of black. Truth is, the printer's not in the best shape... but, this whole "soft/fuzzy" issue has been gnawing at me for some time. About the hips: (*Sigh*) Maybe I'll alter them, since they seem to be such a hated element of this guy. I still sorta find them interesting, but I'm willing to believe I might be wrong. :P The mandible perspective, huh? Hmm... Yeah, I think I see what you mean [*adds to list]. I'll look further at ways of crispening the legs up. Now... I think I'm definitely gonna have to make some changes in my methodology, but I am left somewhat stymied about your comment "no soft edges possible with a hard round brush", because - ironically - those thumbs were all done using a hard round brush at 100% opacity!

I'm beginning to think that this has to do with my working at lower resolutions. My computer is 10 yrs. old now, and I can't work at a proper scale or I find myself sitting around waiting for the brush strokes to slowly appear after I've made them. Again - the fire under my ass to buy new equipment grows stronger. Luckily, I'm finally at a point where that's financially possible, so a lot of this crap might soon evaporate.

Thanks for the care and the comments guys, I really appreciate them! :hugsmile:

MonkeYoakum

May 31st, 2008, 11:50 AM

Ah! Ok perfect example. As a general rule things that are closer to you have harder, more defined edges than things far away. Of corse the human eye can only focus on one point at a time, so somtimes you can take creative license in the plane things focus in so that rule is not always true, but the last post has great examples of irregularitys with what plane is in focus.

This one. (http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/olaheers2.jpg)

I'll talk more about the guy on the left because its more subtle there.

The face, in clear focus high detail good it should be its nice to look at, stays in focus down along the body, nice nice down the arm eerrrrkkk wait, elbow joint out of focus continues down hand IN focus. There is the inconsistancy. Dude bug has pretty straight arms so I would think due to his position they would all lay on the same plane. I would think the leg wich is largly out of focus but on that same place would be edged in the same manner. Using a 100% Occupacy and 100% flow brush 100% hard and 0 spacing works nice for hard edges. I think if you try that out, make the edges laying on that plane and leave or possibly even exajurate the edges that are pushed to the back, that it will give you good separation of space.

I hear you on the old comp issue though. Low res does make it harder for crisp edges, but you have the detail in other areas so I know it can be done. I think it goes back to that whole Loomis thing "dont pet the line". Esspecialy in low res, where the computer is taking a lot of liberties with bluring and changing value around your brush. Another trick, turn your resolution down to as low as you can and make the image bigger, that seems to work well for me (who also has a really old laptop)

Wow wordy, I hope it came through clear enough. I do have to say I love your style and keep it up, even though Im sure Ive stated that here several times ;). Cheers!

P.s. Im a fan of the hips for what its worth.

yoitisi

May 31st, 2008, 11:56 AM

Heh since you mentioned the soft edges was a problem I suggested doing a few quick hard brushes studies, but this sounds like an equipment problem indeed. Actually, I like that softness in your work, only it's a bit inconsistent at times (as MonkeYoakum pointed out). Again, probably due to low dpi/jpeg compression which you can't always control.

Dirty C

May 31st, 2008, 01:06 PM

How is it I've never looked in here before? Weird.

Dude your acrylic work is awesome, it really is. And I LOVE the little bug robots. Course I love drawing bug robots, but I just *love* what you've done with them, I really do.

Top marks sir!

Vulgar`

May 31st, 2008, 01:47 PM

Insectoid bliss.

William b. Hand

May 31st, 2008, 08:29 PM

MonkeYoakum - Thank you for such a detailed explanation! I'm glad you just focused on the coloured version, since the greenish one is the rough, unfinished one. I appreciate the advice, and I think I see what you mean. Hopefully my future pics (and any other versions of this one) will remedy the current oddities that you've described. Sooo much to learn, yet. Oh, awesome -- you like the hips? Cool beans. :) Thanks for saying so!

yoitisi - Yeah, it seems like it might even be a combination of equipment and me. I should clarify... when I was talking about using hard edged round brushes on the thumbnails, I was referring to the thumbnails of the little critters a coupluv pages back -- not the more recent marine life pics. I used the same thing on this image, but still found myself using the "unsharp mask" to try and crispen things up.

Dirty C - Thanks! Doesn't surprise me at all that you haven't happened by before, really... There are so damn many sketchbooks, and it can take so much time to look at even just one. Robot bugs are friggin great, aren't they? I should, and will, do more of them - as should everybody. :) I'll have to check out your s.book, but don't have the time right now, so -- it'll be later. Thanks for stoppin' by!

Vulgar' - He he. It's interesting... this critter reminded someone else of a lobster, and you read it as insectoid, whilst I see heavy influences of bird and fish. Regardless, I'm glad you find it blissful!

So, here's a pic where I was just playing around with making some custom brushes (which I really haven't done before), and toying with tech. It isn't the beginning of a finished pic or anything... just messin' around... But, I didn't wanna comment again without posting an image. :P

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/TECHSHOP.jpg

JörgenGiftmördaren

May 31st, 2008, 09:10 PM

mr. hand you quite blow me away

KidApe

June 1st, 2008, 12:03 AM

Oh man I'm just in pure awe after viewing your airbrushed artworks. So imaginative and breathtaking. I made a new folder in my inspiration folder with your name on it=D

MonkeYoakum

June 1st, 2008, 12:06 AM

Nice edges on that plane ;) See you in two weeks!

GRMC

June 1st, 2008, 01:44 AM

crapyyy acrylic works, creatures. what a great render. techs R also stunning too.

good luck to u...................................

William b. Hand

June 1st, 2008, 06:31 AM

JörgenGiftmördaren - Wow, well - I am quite flattered!

KidApe - Thank you! Glad you dig my stuff!

MonkeYoakum - He he, thanks. It's a very different approach, to be sure. Hopefully I'll learn to blend them successfully. 2 weeks? What happens in 2 weeks?

GRMC - Thankyyy thanky! Glad you like.

More tech toying. This stuff will take me quite some time to really get a handle on, I can tell... but, I Loooove tech stuff, and it's bothered me how undeveloped my skills at imagining and rendering it are. So, hopefully I will improve. This thing is a real mess, but I think it's worth posting anyhow. Won't be turning it into a finished pic... this is practice, practice, practice stuff.

• JUMBO •
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/jumboa.jpg

Crazydude

June 1st, 2008, 06:39 AM

you got some awesome form on the jumbo jet! keep posting more! i want to se more from you;)

HunterKiller_

June 1st, 2008, 06:55 AM

Whoa, I've never seen any industrial designs from you before.

They look fantastic. Moar!

maxetormer

June 1st, 2008, 07:49 AM

as ever great work, I'm all kinds of inspired every time I look around here

llothcat

June 3rd, 2008, 01:12 AM

you know, I always have difficulty with tech...that "image hose" brush a great idea for how to handle it.

Chris_Grisham

June 3rd, 2008, 01:45 AM

Sweet Jombo there. I love the design... i think you should work on it a bit more and see how far it can go... wouldn't that be some good practice? Hehe, anyway man keep it up it's lookin good.

Quinn Simoes

June 3rd, 2008, 01:50 AM

Nice work on the tech paintings, really cool bug designs too.

PaulGanguly

June 3rd, 2008, 02:34 AM

You and I are NEIGHBORS?! Check your PM's!

Niveli

June 3rd, 2008, 02:41 AM

how freaky but so amazing work!!!:^^:

PaulGanguly

June 13th, 2008, 02:25 PM

Hello?

Did you check your private message inbox?

Arteater

June 13th, 2008, 02:51 PM

damn great work William, sorry I haven't been around D.S.G. much

Mitze

June 13th, 2008, 05:27 PM

I checked out loads of peoples sketchbooks on DSG but your,and i can't explain why, I never looked in on. Great stuff i love your Airbrushed Acrylic work. and for such a great organic looking painter your new tech stuff especally the jumbo rocks.Great work 5 star.

MonkeYoakum

June 15th, 2008, 10:16 AM

Ah nothing, I just went to Florida for two weeks with the family, damn Orlando is bloody muggy. Darn near unbearable but I survived. I like the rendering style on that last one, but my eye gets confused by the dark brown on the body of the plane and I kind of loose the overall shape. Very different style from you, what giveS?

William b. Hand

June 16th, 2008, 06:51 PM

Crazydude - Thanks! Will post more as am able ;).

HunterKiller - Yup... Haven't done much ID before. Thank you!

Maxetormer - Much Thanks!

llothcat - It seems that the key to the 'image hose' is to set the brush's orientation to respond directionally. Then you start to learn how to put it roughly how you want it just by touching down.

Chris_Grisham - Thanks! Mmm... I doubt that jumbo'll go anywhere further than what it is right now. I'm trying to establish an base approach to ID, and getting carried away with details and perfections... that's for later. Glad you like it though!

Quinn Simoes - Thanx! I am still fond of my bugs. :)

PaulGanguly - Indeed we are neighbors! Check your PM's for a longer response.

Niveli - Danke! "Freaky"? You think? ;)

Arteater - Thanks! DSG is there when you need it, dude. :D

Mitze - Glad you finally made it to my humble little thread! I hope you come back from time to time. :) Thanks for liking my tech dabblings -- You are right that I tend to do the organic stuff more, so it's somewhat foreign to me, but I hope to change that. Cheers!

MonkeYoakum - Florida, eh? Glad you survived it :P. There is plenty about that pic to be confused about, I think... Will improve!! Yes.. a rather different style for me. As I said before, I'm a huge fan of tech aesthetic ( AestheTech? ), but have not really done much. So... I'm trying to do some. Very challenging. I also wanna be able to do environments, so one of these days some of those're gunna creep into this thread as well. :P

So, okay... I'll be posting numerous acrylics on here over the next 2 weeks. They're for my upcoming show. See whatchya think:

"THE BAD IDEA" • Acrylic on Canvasboard • 16" x 20"
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/THEBADIDEAb.jpg

Carnifex

June 16th, 2008, 07:13 PM

dude i love it. how long does it usually take you to create such a piece. and how do you start? do you just brush in some black shapes and then go in with lighter tones,gradually building it up? (do you work wet on wet or does it work differently with airbrush?)

William b. Hand

June 16th, 2008, 07:56 PM

Carnifex - Thanks!

• Hmm... How long, huh? That's a toughie. I think I worked on this for 2 or 3 days, but it can really vary.

• In the past, I've been working on black board with white (or otherwise opaque) paint.

• I'm trying out canvasboard now, which means a white start. To at least get the antiseptic white out of the picture, I'm taking a big brush and painting on a wash -- This gives me some noise to get ideas from.

• No "wet on wet" here. The paint is essentially dry the moment it hits the surface. So... It ends up being a continuing back-and-forth between lights and darks. I do need to keep in mind that there is a difference between whether the dark goes down first, or the lights, and the hues of the paint shift warm or cool depending.

• Things can get pretty dicey, and part of the process is realizing that once an effect or detail is destroyed, I might have to come up with a different effect or detail that serves the same purpose. This is really a constant, and lovely little bits often sprout only to be accidentally demolished. :[

• I happen to have taken a quick snap of this in an earlier stage, so you can see how I started. I just kinda painted out the main creature first... knowing that it might transform significantly later on.

• I sorta liked the bunnipillar, but it also felt heavily influenced by the edges of the canvas, and I didn't totally believe in it anyways... So, it did disappear into darkness for a long while, but eventually its ghost found a new host.

• You can see that the forehead and chin of the main creature changed quite a bit, and the original forehead line turned into a fissure in that background form.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/wbhandny/THEBADIDEAwipcomparison.jpg

Azuma, Hironori

June 17th, 2008, 12:00 PM

I'm sure you've heard it before but your coloring and rendering style is very akin to Zdizlaw Bekinski... A lot of it is of course very different in subject matter and I definitely like the variety of creatures you've done. Your rendering skills and consistency are quite inspiring. Thank you very much for expressing your thoughts on my thread. I'll be checking up on this thread also as there are many good reasons to keep an eye on it.

Quinn Simoes

June 17th, 2008, 12:43 PM

Love this latest work, so much great detail to look at and the creature design is beautiful.

Really like this painting allot!

Quinn

MonkeYoakum

June 17th, 2008, 06:45 PM

Love that, I think I like the orriginal monster more, but the detail is so awesome for the size. What is your technique like with acrylic, lots of washes? Love to see works like this keep them coming!

Niveli

June 24th, 2008, 09:07 AM

me?:) i dont hawe any private msg

Nightblue

June 24th, 2008, 09:24 AM

Wow! Thanks for posting the early stage wip. I really like the subtle color shift in this one. The textures are sweet, too.

Basics aside, I need lots of work regarding creating visual hotspots while keeping the painting not so busy overall. Seeing your work inspires me a lot.

UCT

June 24th, 2008, 09:42 AM

Dude, please finish off #172 if you have the time.

"THREATENED ALIEN"

I might put it on canvas like your avatar. Looks like it should be a progrock album cover. INSANE!!!

William b. Hand

June 25th, 2008, 01:48 AM

Azuma, Hironori - Thank you! Glad you like my stuffs. Yes... of course... Beksiñski has been a hero since a Polish friend of mine brought a book of his work back to me about 16 years ago. I'm nowhere close to his level, but I do appreciate you commenting on his influence. :)

Quinn Simoes - Thanx, Quinn! That guy was fun to do. :teeth:

MonkeYoakum - Thanks! Hmm... Yeah, it's always a risk to show in-progress shots, because sometimes people prefer them to the final. :P
As far as using washes goes... no, I'm using an airbrush for these acrylic paintings.

Niveli - Hehe... Not you, silly. I was talking to the person before you, who happens to actually live on my street. :D

Nightblue - You're welcome! That colour shift was actually just a by-product of the crappy snapshot. I dunno if I'm a good inspiration if you're trying to avoid busy paintings, but thanks anyways! :P

UCT - Thank you! Yeah, I might go back into that one, but it'll be after I'm done with this show, and then some. I'm still fond of it, and would like to make it work properly, so it's good to hear some support for it!

So, here're a couple of my latest.
I'd probably go into them a bit further, if I had my druthers, but I gotta really crank for the next few days and just don't have the time for druthers.
Less monstery than usual for me, and -- whoah -- vaguely human subjects?!!

Now, I know the anatomy of the humans is... err... less than actual. I still like 'em. It's been interesting to see the influences of Leonardo DaVinci and Maxfield Parrish creeping into the works this week. Well, see whatchya think:

YET TO BE TITLED • Acrylic on Canvasboard • 16"x20"
and THE NURSEMAID • Acrylic on Canvasboard • 12"x16"...