color

Mar 13, 2013

Circling Wellington building painting

Will Digital Painting, Pencil Development color, Cuba Street, GIMP, grayscale, hastings, line, pencil, Tone, wellington

Slow on the digital painting recently. I’ve been filling up my sketchbook with pencil drawings. This morning though I went to Lower Hutt Starbucks and finished a cityscape work and started a painting from life. Here’s the result. Great to get something uploaded since it’s been several days.

Here goes -

wellybuild-ref

This is the reference I used. On the left is a sketch from Hastings, center is a building which is visible from parliament and the right is a pencil line sketch of an area on Cuba Street. I started merging together my pencil drawings into digital paintings towards the end of last year and it’s been great to get back into it again, I’ve really only been working on RedditGetsDrawn works so fun to do some work that involved just the environment - no characters!

Line work. The center building was the first area to complete in line. I went and did the grayscale tone for the building as well before deciding it needed more detail and bringing in the reference on the left and right. Fills up the page.

I wanted to make sure that the three pieces worked together without feeling out of place, where they line up is important. Overlapping and such is not a problem.
wellybuild-tone

And gray-scale tone. I used a range of brushes in this work in order to give a variety in texture. Make sure to balance those lights and dark throughout the piece. Looking back

Color. Wanted to keep with colors I was familiar with, but added in a brown to experiment with. This is working well with the reds. The right side of the page has evolved since color has been added, no longer is it a pillar but instead it’s a building structure. These things happen.

Mar 8, 2013

Color explored with RedditGetsDrawn Paintings

Will Digital Painting, draw, RedditGetsDrawn color, digital, environmental, figure, GIMP

Here’s some more digital works. This time I used reference from RedditGetsDrawn.
mouth-line

Portrait photo reference. I usually go for photos that have more of the body but this one was interesting with the tape covering her mouth. The background was plain, with only the vertical tiles. I added in quick flicks. I wanted to work different here – created a map top down view rather than a perspective looking over the ocean to the hills in the distance.

The tone changed the map idea with more of a focus on perspective - the normal way I do these scenes. I’ve used range of brushes. Normally I stick with the one brush in the whole painting but adding more adds texture and variety to the piece.

Color. Went with a orange for the skin. Since I’ve been using a range of tones with the color I feel I can explore other colors without having problems of the colors not working together – like in washes. Using the range of tones allows for clarity and flow within the color – and spreads throughout the whole painting.

PIGGY-LINE

This was a great reference of these two people. When I was little my uncle would give me piggy back rides. Extremely large scale for the figure sitting on the others shoulder.

Grayscale tone. Much of the work is flattened out – the ground area doesn’t contain the texture that the line version had. Minimal focus on the face details - leaving out eyes/nose/mouth.

A range of saturation was used in the figure. Previously I had only worked with adjusting values. I love the brush for the leaves. TODAY.LINE

Figure on the left. I used a photo I took in Wellington for the environment I often just use my imagination. Working from reference will be helpful. Especially using my own photographs.

Mixing up the colors with a blue for the figure. Pink was used in the building, not sure how I feel about it – doesn’t fit the flow of the painting. Maybe a nice brown would have worked better. Fun times with the green, covering the majority of the painting. The hills and sky in the distance are painted blue.

Mar 6, 2013

Badly Painted Microsoft Paint Works

Will Digital Painting, RedditGetsDrawn character, color, ms paint, portrait, redditgetsdrawnbadly

Slow recently on the blogging. I’m not that motivated to upload my photographs to my photography blog here due to the slow connection and continued timeouts. I need to head to the library and see how the connection is there. When I was in PakiPaki I had a decent connection that allowed me to queue 5 or so photos without a timeout. In Wellington I uploaded 200 no problems. I really need a fast and reliable upload speed.

Anyway, I shouldn’t talk about uploading photography – let’s talk art. During my trip to Hawkes Bay I took my A5 landscape notebook, clutch pencil and Fallout 3 art book. Together these allowed me to work from reference anywhere. This is especially handy in the car where I don’t have my laptop for reference (no smartphone, but really should invest in one). I also used the clutch pencil and a5 pad to draw street scenes – Hastings and Napier CBD. Sadly I lost my clutch pencil on one of my final nights in Hastings. I’m off to Wellington tomorrow so will likely buy another from the French Art Shop (I tend to not draw if I don’t have one).

I often draw from photo reference thanks to Reddit and the subreddit RedditGetsDrawn. There is another similar related subreddit known as RedditGetsDrawnBadly . Here people can post photos and they will be drawn badly. Microsoft Paint is recommended. I decided to give it a shot and open Microsoft Paint and produce paintings with the similar technique as I do with digital paintings in GIMP.

What a great photo. It’s high res (this version is smaller than the full version) and contains the majority of the body. Love the contrast of red hair and green clothing.

Natural Paint brush. Looking back at this now I will use the pencil tool for future works. It’s smaller, tighter and allows for more detail. This is super important as a majority of detail is lost with gray-scale color tone layers. ivy.tone And grayscale tone added. I was surprised with how large the paint files were – 1200 by 900 pixels isn’t bad. It certainly allows me to do something with them in the future.

And color added. Limited colors (four in total) but a range of tones in the color. The green for the clothing is new, everything else has been used in previous works. Working in a new program and doing something different allows me room to experiment somewhat, I feel I tend to get stuck into the same trends at times with GIMP.

Full body pose reference. I’ll never turn down the chance to draw a full body, even if the quality isn’t the best. This allowed me to practice legs. The majority of the the character paintings I do are portraits. I work with arms and legs, but often legs are left out. guy.line

I’ve switched from the brush tool to the pencil tool. This feels like working on the line layer in GIMP. The only thing that’s missing – red. Less of a focus on the background (usually i create the hills in the distance/objects in foreground). For this I just created a basic scene using the reference in the photograph.

Grayscale. Keeping this simple. Black for the hair/sweatshirt. Skin is light gray. Didn’t bother with tones in the skin. Light and mid gray for the walls/step. Lastly, black and mid gray for the floor. Everything works together fine.

guy.color

Color. I went crazy with this is added new colors to everything. I kept with the colors I usually use (yellow for skin/red hair/blue background) but it’s not the same hex number. For the floor and steps I went with a purple. Like the last painting I used a range of tones in each color. This is noticeable in the blues and purples. atQ3RHz

I remember seeing this on RedditGetsDrawn. I didn’t draw it though. It’s too much of a closeup. I prefer medium or full view shots rather than extreme close up. I guess if the quality of the photograph was higher it would be alright. Damn this out of focus photography!

glass.line

This was done before I switched to the pencil tool. The line on this is very basic, I add information into the painting during the grayscale tone stage (normally it’s the otherwas around!).

Went with the mountains in the distance and water coming forward to the foreground style. This is the basics for the majority of my RedditGetsDrawn character works.

Color tone. Switch around with the colors. Instad of using the blue for the sky I used it in the ground (usually I used a green for the ground). For the mountains and sky a brown was used. I think this works well for the mountains but I’d like to use a different color for the sky – could either be the blue or mix it up and use green.

Loved the mouth location on this. Had to draw it, too cute.

This was the first painting of this series in Microsoft paint. I was still getting use to it and saved over my line layer with the color, so only the one image. I didn’t paint a gray-scale tone layer either. The usual yellow for the skin, and red in the hair/lips. For the shirt I went with a new brown. Blue in the background, but it’s just used as a fill and gives no location to the character.

I think I’m going to have to explore brown.

Feb 27, 2013

Hastings Imagine Painting

Will draw color, GIMP, imagine

Currently staying at a farm just out of Hastings. Slow on the digital painting, but getting plenty of Photography and Pencil Drawings done.

Here’s a digital painting I did from imagination. I had a kid observing me and giving me in instructions on what to add.
marns-line (Large)

I started with the figure, then added the floor. For the background I went with large circles as hills. I was told to add a cave into the mountains, this is visible on the left. There is a figure rising from the hill.
marns-tone (Large) Tone added. Much of the detailed areas in the line version are removed. Added though, is tone and shape.

Color. I explained how I use a restricted amount of colors – three here, and that I use a range of tones (3 usually) of the colors. This isn’t finished, yellow could be added.

Feb 16, 2013

Skull Girl painting from RedditGetsDrawn

Will Digital Painting, RedditGetsDrawn color, GIMP, paint

Currently in Wellington.I have my tablet with me but likely it won’t get much use – the weather in Wellington is beautiful. I plan on getting out and photographing and maybe drawing. Spent one night in the city and snapped off 100+ photos.

Anyway, here’s a painting before I left to Wellington -

Photo reference. I choose to paint this photo because of the makeup. She looks like a girl I went to The Learning Connexion with. The photo is OK, if it wasn’t for the makeup I would struggle with the tones in the skin. I like how the top of the hair is cut off – in December 2011 I did a series of drawings of Harry Potter characters with the top of their hair removed. I was working landscape instead of portrait and it can happen.

Anyway, here’s the painting -
friday-skull-line I started with line. Adding line to the face to define the light areas from the dark For the shirt I created long strokes of lines in directions to give an impression of the checked shirt. I created a horizon line on the same level as the mouth and added water movement below this line. In the water I also added a boat shape. Above I created jagged shapes for the hills/land in the distance. I repeated this pattern on the left edge. This creates depth in the painting. On the right side I created a vertical pole and square shapes. I’m thinking this could be a building with the squares being windows.

Black and white tone. I used a dark gray for the hair, eyes, nose, and mouth area. Slightly lighter for the sky in the distance, and repeating this in the foreground . Water is created with a light tone. Darker for the boat. I modified the design slightly with the squares on the right – created squares on the bottom half of the screen.

friday-skull-color

Colors added. Similar to the previous few color paintings – working with 5 different colors and a range of different tones of each color. For the skin this is my usual yellow. The hair is a new yellow/orange. It’s not much different to the skin tone.

For the sky – blue as usual. The land mass in the distance is a dark turquoise with a lighter version in the foreground – tone from the distance is also used to give it the areas common elements. There is a balance of dark and light tones of this blue spread around the painting.

The red is used is the same as the same as the skirt I used in the dress of a girl earlier in the week, It’s different to the red I usually use, very exciting! This same red is used for the mouth – something different. I used a light tone on the top of the clothing and darker at the bottom. friday-skull-toncol

Color/black and white tone layers mixed together. Makes it feel complete.

Here’s an extra painting -

This was another from RedditGetsDrawn. I did the line and forgot to create a new layer for the tone layer, and never ended up finishing the tone layer. I like what I’ve done though. Figure is standing in the middle of the road. On the left side there are power-poles

Feb 13, 2013

Beautiful Red Dress Painting

Will Digital Painting, RedditGetsDrawn color, female, GIMP, photo reference, portrait, redditgetsdrawn

Today has been a bad day. I have an awful headache and feeling sick. I’ve managed to half finish a painting (just have the color to do). I am broke if anyone would care to donate. Web-hosting renew is happening at the start of March so somewhat worried. The ads on the sites aren’t making me anything, sites barely get any traffic, but I stopped worrying about low traffic years ago, I make the site, art, and write for myself.

If anyone wants art let me know, I’ll do it for cheap. I like working from photographs.

Another color painting from Tuesday. This one was for RedditGetsDrawn:
TUESAY-girl-ref Lovely photo, clear, and crisp. I would of preferred a full figure (don’t get to practice legs often). At least I get the waist and part of the arms. I took notice of the flower painting in the background. Bookshelf was ignored.

Line. I developed the flower painting multiply times and spread it around the work – in the background I also made the usual spiky pillars of land. For the figure I worked off the reference mostly but had to make up the elbow, It took several lines to make it right. Tone. For her dress I used a dot effect for the white highlights.Painting the figure is alright, but the area I enjoyed the most is the environment. It’s all imagination I really should be using reference photos for it. I used a reference photo for another work I did yesterday – a cityscape. I’ll upload this work later.

Alright, onto the color layer now -
Color. I used a new red for her dress and the land in the paintings on the wall. It is similar to the red in the reference photo dress. For the sky and water (in the painting on the wall) I used the blue I often use. The floor has a new blue - turquoise even. Something different to work with. Often when I start using new colors they develop into my other paintings. I need more color though, and to not fear introducing new ones into the paintings. I’ve done it here though! New color! For the land in the distance I used the usual green that I use in the paintings – this is usually used for the floor – I use it to create a water.Mix of the tone and color layer. As I said in the previous post – It feels finished.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. I aim to keep bringing you regular artwork.

Feb 13, 2013

Color painting of Kiki’s Delivery Service

Will digital anime, color, fan art, impression, kiki, ocean, sea, witch

Break from RedditGetsDrawn works for something a little different - Kiki’s Delivery Service. I watched this film in 2011. It’s rather perfect. If you haven’t seen it yet, please check it out.

This is a painting I did from a screenshot from the film: tuesday-kiki-ref

My mother has a Black Cat. I like how the reference photo also includes a black cat. I treated this reference the same as how I’ve been handling the RedditGetsDrawn works – red line, tone, and since I did it on the previous post – color. This is the view that I’ve been working with from RedditGetsDrawn so familiar setting for me.

Here’s the painting -

Line. I captured the figure. I changed the scene in the distance to a spiky, rugged land, rather than the city scape in the reference. I’ve been using this pattern in all my recent backgrounds. Coming into the foreground from the distance are lines that could be used for a water effect.

Tone applied. I used the same tone on the skin and the bird – the lightest area of the painting. Mid and slightly darker for the water area. Mid and darker than water for the sky. The land was very dark – but not as dark as the cat! It is a black cat after all so has to be the darkest! Other elements have been removed since the reference such as the birds (only the one bird).

This is the color layer only. I’m using two or three different tones for each color. In the past I’ve just done a quick wash of color over the tone layer. I’ll like to explore color further and experiment with a larger range of tones per color.This is a good start. I’ve used these colors all before, except for the blue in the dress. I had to create a new blue for it – I like to keep my colors quite restricted so was nervous! It helps the figure stand out against other areas in the painting.

Included this image which is a mix of the tone and color layer. Feels finished over the color layer which is missing the black. There are areas of the color layer that is missing color – such as the cat and broom. For future paintings like this I’ll use a color – best to fill in as much areas as possible. I do like some I’ve been giving the tonal paintings though! I’m going to leave this post with a quote from Vincent Van Gogh:

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

Feb 12, 2013

President of RedditGetsDrawn

Will digital color, GIMP, president, redditgetsdrawn

Just a short one today. I think It’s better that I keep with these short blog posts rather than large 10+ paintings that just overwhelm me when typing and I end up giving up on the typing and just publishing it.

So yesterday was a slow down in the painting I did 4 paintings in total but had problems with the computer and had the computer crash on me. Shame really, as I was happy with a few.

But one worked out OK, no video due to going over the 2000mb cap (added color and got distracted . Anyway, enjoy -

Reference photo. Reddit user Volume_Beat submitted this photo. Read the comments for it here. I noticed this photo straight away when scrolling through the photos – I had to paint it. It’s an interesting pose (hand and expression), background is unique (I’ve never seen another presidential photo like this. And multi figures!! The lighting is OK, I can get three different types of tone from his face which is better than most that have the one washed out tone. TUESAY-PRES-LINE (Large) Line. Added the president figure in first before working on the environment and second figure. For this work I changed some settings within GIMP – experimenting with the angle and aspect ratio of the brush – something I’ve never touched before. It doesn’t effect the line but the next stage…

Tone. I’m using my usual brush but have it rotating around depending on velcoticy. It’s made me want to explore the Paint Dynamics editor further. In the past I’ve used it only for pressure size and opactiy pressure. Plenty of other settings I need to experiment with as well.
Color. It’s been over a month since I’ve used color in my work so great to get back into it. Focusing on the black and white tone has taught me to increase my range of tones in the work. Moving back into color I’ll look into using a range of tones of colors rather than just the washes of color over the work. It allows the color work to stand out further.

Feb 4, 2013

mask

Will digital color, GIMP, grayscale, line, redditgetsdrawn

So I just did a dump of photos. I would of written more but my browser was going extremely slow and I just wanted to get something published.

Anyway, I’m still at my Mothers home, and this is a painting I did before I left to Hamilton: In the reference the guy in the mask was standing in front of a farm like setting. I always go for reference on RedditGets drawn that has an interesting background, it just gives a setting to put the characters into. If there is no background I like to make something up.

I loved drawing the gas mask. It reminds me of something out of Fallout or Metro. Anyway, Onto the tone. Tone. Again, making the character darker than the background. Helps in the contrast between the two subjects. For the background I did a scribble effect for the objects in the very back

Interesting to see color after spending so much time lately working without it. It’s done me good though, and I’m excited for the next time I start using color again in my works. I think my tones have really improved by giving this focused look into tonal studies.

Lastly, something I haven’t been doing when away – a video:

Feb 1, 2013

Grim Fandango

Will digital color, digital, games, GIMP, grayscale, male

I need to update this blog more often. I have many artworks to get uploaded. Maybe I need someone to write for me? If you are interested in any writing positions, please email me. I also need a theme makeover. Maybe connect the three blogs together. What other sites could I create?

Anyway, here is a painting I did before I left to Hamilton:

GIMF-LINE Another game related shot – this time Grim Fandango. I took some design liberty with this work and rearranged items – and leaving some characters out. Type is always fun to paint. Maybe I’ll

Tone. It’s interesting looking at this and comparing it to the work I just completed – my tones have really improved since I’ve done this painting marathon.

Color. I haven’t been working with color, instead focusing on graysale tones. Once I return to color I believe my tones will be stronger.

Anyway, I hope you like the painting. Till next time -

Rock on.

1 2

artcontrol.me

Artwork of William Mckee