Mars

Just started another painting, trying to do a cool shot of the surface of mars. I skipped the sketching stage and went straight in by blocking in the big shapes with simple values, then throwing on the color and texture. I think the piece still has a ways to go (conceptually and finish-wise), but once it's done I think I'll have something worth selling as a print.

Bette and Dot

I'm a huge American Horror Story fan, so I've started up some fanart of Bet and Dot. It's good portrait practice and I'm all over a chance to draw conjoined twins.

Value Study

 

I'v read in about a million different sources that you should do a value study before diving into a painting with color. Historically, values tend to be my greatest weakness. I've spent 12 hours working on an image just to stand back and realize everything's a dark grey, aside from a puddle of white near the bottom that draws your attention away from the focus. Basically  I'm trying to get my shit together.

I'm super jazzed about how this is turning out so far. I'm toying with the idea of using it on a business card once it's done, even though my hair is going to grow out  a lot faster than I can hand out cards. I don't actually have a business, and I'd have to leave my apartment to hand out business cards (very unlikely), but I've been told that I should have them, and I do like the idea of having a bunch of wallet sized cards with my face and contact info on them. Maybe I could use them to hit on people?

New Landscape

Started a new painting today! I mostly focused on color, which I'm pretty happy with. I'm starting to understand why painters can get really excited about selective use of greys.

Composition-wise it could use some work, the original sketch had a building half-way up the hill-thing, but I couldn't get it to look right. When I have trouble with something in a painting, I can never figure out if it means I should try harder or back up and try to think of something else, so we'll see what I do after a night's sleep.