Smellykitty's Acrylic Blob (Daily)

**smellykitty** · November 14th, 2006

I love my acrylics but I work far too slow! I'm hoping I can find better ways to paint faster and render accurately. I guess I'll start with things I hate..I hate rocks so here is my first sketch. Two hours *must go down in time!*

I really hate rocks, and water..dang

SketchBook: The Daily Acrylic
underwater blob
blob
Art: blob zombie
Blob Monster

**jcaffoe** · November 14th, 2006

this looks really nice, I like the range of colors, but I think you could play with texture a bit more, especially on the closer rocks.

keep plugging away, the more you paint the more you learn the shortcuts

**smellykitty** · November 14th, 2006

thanks! I'll be sure to keep making these

**morningbloom915** · November 14th, 2006

The color in that is gorgeous. I agree with tiger on playing with the texture. The rocks look a little too smooth, and it makes the foreground look like its missing detail. The color range is absolutely stunning, and I like the composition. I think the rock in the middle throws the composition off just a bit, but I still like it.

**smellykitty** · November 15th, 2006

my photo reference had a rock in the middle..but its rock was powerful looking. mines just a blob!

here is another one. Im still trying to learn to paint fast, while being accurate and retaining a style. this one was an hour and half and taken from a book called The Rut =3

yeah I know..lame to just take it from a photo. But I dont think I can paint from my head with this speed yet...need more practice first! so I am going to try to do one every day with my two hour limit. I might do one or two more nature ones before trying a human @o@ and then finally doing something from my head

**Ryan DeMita** · November 15th, 2006

hey bro (edit:girl or sis?lol), i saw your post in the lounge on your critque on self. bullshit.
these paintings are great! i appriciate anyone who does traditional work. good use of color in these as well. speed is good for the wacom, but i dont see any reason to try to improve speed with oils unless you are working very small with a simple reference. they are slow and meant to take time. you might be able to acheive speed with water color or just drawing. i say dont limit yourself yet. if it takes you 15 hours to make a damn convincing rock then do it.

welcome to CA
very good start here. keep at it. id love to see some drawings as well.
take care
-ryan

**smellykitty** · November 15th, 2006

awww thanks XD that means a lot

oils can be relaxing huh!! but acrylics can be a race against the clock

I totally understand, the wacom is faster!! I sometimes make a digital sketch in five minutes for my large scale traditional paintings...but..its hard to explain what I am trying to do here! my rant that you read is apart of it. =3

I wanted to make a manga, still sorta do one day. So I picked up a few books and one of the best ones said a good comic artist can draw anything. After all, you have to draw characters and their environments, blank backgrounds dont work. But I dont feel.....confident...if I were to draw houses and streets and all the misc. appliances in modern life. Nature comes up a lot in my paintings, but some aspects of nature stump me. In a painting I am working on now, Ive repainted the water five times now! A week of work x_x and it feels so..wasted!

so I guess thats sorta why I want to do this. If I can paint fast, and relatively accurate, I can make hundreds of studies before I make a bigger better paintings. And since im working in my choice of medium, I get a lot of practice before tackling the big boy!

oh yeah..I am not a bro! >;0

**Seedling** · November 18th, 2006

Good for you for taking on subjects that you don't like! And for learning to paint fast in an analog medium. Ryan is aparently inexperienced on the oils and acrylic speedpainting front. ;-) But it does take time and repetition to build up both speed and accuracy, and, indeed, starting with simle subjects helps. Anyway. . . follow your nose. Push yourself and post your failures and have a good laugh.

**Ryan DeMita** · November 18th, 2006

update asap! lol.
when i saw you're SB i was reminded of someones work, but i could remember their name. it was definately seedling's SB!! strange. check it out though, its an adventure through oil painting!

seedlings definately right, i dont know a damn thing about speed painting. or painting in general.err. or any type of medium used to make art

i guess my point is if it takes you time to paint something really great i guess id rather see that than quick half realized works. i dont know if thats appropriate for traditional mediums or not but the above two images are inspiring regardless of the time it took you. i know i've spent days on drawings that havent turned out nearly as nice as a 15 minute sketch. similiar to painting, however i've always felt more confortable doing quick water colors than oils.

definately check out seedlings work. there is someone else on here who's sb has alot of speedy oils, mostly figures (not mentler) but damn i cant remember who..
seedling, any help?

take care
ryan

(edit: manga/comic book artist are..for lack of a better word..the shit) i guess draw untill you're fingers fall off would be the key there.atleast everyone i know who wants to be a comic book or editorial illustrator draws more than humanly capable and has a great understanding of the figure.)

**Seedling** · November 20th, 2006

Aww, thanks Ryan. :-) I'm sorry, I can't remember a specific artist who paints figures quickly, but my memory is like a . . . what's that thing you strain pasta in?

Hmm, in my last post, I wasn't even able to spell "simple".

Kitty, I've found that setting a time limit and painting daily has really taught me to nail colors and shapes fast. It takes some total bloopers and a lot of days of painting, but it works.

**smellykitty** · November 20th, 2006

hola guys! =D

sorry no updates here...ive been working on my mutant kitties instead and finishing up all my end of the year projects. I havent been working on my mutant kitties for long and my whole class already likes it better than my painting Ive been working on for a month....so typical!

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82357

and yeah, it totally sucks when a sketch is better than something you work on for hours. that happens all the time, doesn't? these days I treat my sketch like a bible!

I'll be sure to check our your artworks and all =3

**deliciouspeter** · November 28th, 2006

Speed: If the paint drying is an issue, get a high wattage lightbulb with a clip so you can aim it at your painting easily. I have two in my studio and they really help when I'm trying to compress steps.

**smellykitty** · December 11th, 2006

Originally Posted by deliciouspeter

Speed: If the paint drying is an issue, get a high wattage lightbulb with a clip so you can aim it at your painting easily. I have two in my studio and they really help when I'm trying to compress steps.

huh? does heat slow down the acrylic drying process?

heres an update, trying to get back into the swing of things

**smellykitty** · December 12th, 2006

doodle, tetsuo as an elf!

**Seedling** · December 12th, 2006

Originally Posted by smellykitty

huh? does heat slow down the acrylic drying process?

Nice foliage! Keep going!

Heat and air will dry acrylic. A blow-drier can also be helpful.

Do note, however, that too much heat will soften dry acrylic. So you heat or blow-dry the surface to evaporate the water, and then let it cool off to properly harden.

**smellykitty** · December 12th, 2006

thanks seedling

here is my first attempt at a speed painted person - it looks nothing like the model though..oi! oh well, another day I'll get it. and yes I know, the eyes are wonky. thats what I get for not being careful when I draw out the face

**smellykitty** · December 13th, 2006

todays painting went much better! although it didnt have any dramatic lighting

**carlosranna** · December 14th, 2006

Hey, i really like this second portrait! Also liked the deer a lot.

I don´t know the product´s name in english, but there are some acrylics medium that will give you a litle more time to mix and apply your paints than just water. You can also use some kind of temperas, like gouache (opaque watercolor...). It has some things that relates to the acrilycs and some that relates to oils in the way to use then. I really enjoy these! Well, i just realized you might have to change your thread name tought, hehe...

Keep it up! You´re doing a great job so far!

=]

**smellykitty** · December 14th, 2006

you know...I've never used temperas before O.O; thanks! You've got me curious now

**smellykitty** · December 15th, 2006

I felt like drawing little pen doodles today - dont know why. So I just grabbed my rain forest photography book and went at. I have no clue where these are going..maybe its practice before I start drawing landscapes from real life - havent quite done that before. And then I can paint the landscapes..woot!

yes I am horrible with pen

**smellykitty** · December 29th, 2006

I tried making some other acrylic doodles..but I didnt like them..so you get this stupid insect instead! hes adorned with glitter

**Lee W** · December 29th, 2006

very nice sketchbook

I like how that insect came out, the landscape thumbs looks good too

**Adam.Katsaros** · January 7th, 2007

hi, cant see anything I dont like here. I really like the colors you pick/mix, esspecially for your mutant Kitties!!

Is there anyway in perticular you pick your colors or do you just go with the flow?

Also I had an idea that might help you speed paint, maybe do 2-3 paintings at once. Line em up and jump from one to the next (use indiviual brushes for each maybe?), that way you could get 2-3 done in the same time? Just a thought really.

Keep doing what your doing with colors and you will always get a good comment from me.

**MUNIZ** · January 7th, 2007

I like what you've got going on. It's nice to see some traditional media still being used once in a while. Also Wyoming, my home state is full of antelope, that one makes me homesick! VERY NICE!!! Thanks for stopping by my SB.

Later

**smellykitty** · January 7th, 2007

thanks for the comments! I just go with the flow when I pick colors, though I have found I almost never use saturated colors - my mutant kitty painting was a poor attempt at that, and even then its very colorful compared to how really saturated those cats really were.

sorry for not posting anything for a while o.o; I kept getting frustrated and there were so many things I wanted to do and I wasnt sure where to begin. I kept starting and never finishing drawings, paintings or sketches! I sorta want to continue practice painting with my acrylics, but at the same time I wanted to work on my portfolio for the video game industry - as well as make some insect inspired paintings. I'm sorta all over the place!

I'll try working on more than one painting at a time, hopefully it will help

anyhoot, here are two watercolor sketches of insects. I'm planning on making a couple more before using them as reference for a larger acrylic painting.

**4rt-r41d** · January 7th, 2007

Those watercolour sketches are fantastic, i absolutly love them.
this sketchbook is comming along amazingly.
i would love to see some full gesture people sketches/paintings thou
keep at it!

**MUNIZ** · January 8th, 2007

Those last water colors kick ass. I know what you mean about being all over the place. I don't know if I want to work digital one minute, paint the next or sculpt. You have be to versatile to get your foot in the door it feels like. Great Stuff!!

**Adam.Katsaros** · January 8th, 2007

The insects are cool. I really like the line wieght of the first (the flea?), were the lines done with a brush?

I don't mind looking at unfinished stuff, if you dont want to post it here why not make a work in progress sketchbook? Or just post em here but really small so people can't critise the hell outer ya.

I really like your insects, would love to see a page of thumbnails focusing only on the large shapes and bulks of your insect subjects- esspecially if done in water color!!!

**Jove** · January 8th, 2007

Great stuff, the insects look a little flat, try pushing the values more and don't rely so much on the line art. The portrait are nice but you seem to enlarge the eyes, especially in the second one, her right (our left) eye is bigger then the left and placed lower as well.

I just love the jungle line arts, the only one that seems a little stiff is the "SWAMP 01" I'd suggest loosening up a little and try not to simplify to much. It looks like you basically decided on three different surfaces and systematically placed them, I'd love to see you do the whole thing as if you didn't see any patterns or shapes, just let the lines describe the whole scene and mood rather then the individual objects. And you know your not horrible with a pen, lose the attitude and start playing around.

Overall I'd love to see you experimenting more and try being loser and less restrictive with your work, have fun, it's a sketchbook, not a gallery

**smellykitty** · January 9th, 2007

thanks for the advice! fun, yes. I get really strict on myself

and then I feel I'm not strict enough! heres something different today, I wanna paint my favorite characters but I am never happy with their faces. so here are some random head studies and horribly drawn Tetsuo's

I think I'll draw Kaneda tomorow..and insects!