I’ve been doing other things rather than updating this blog. It’s a shame really. I do art. I do photography. I don’t get it uploaded. My laptop is a mess and I’ll really like to just start over with my file system. It needs a clean up.
Anyway, this post is a start of many to come. 
Created in GIMP, my old tablet small square tablet was used. Three figures drawn. It’s nice to just doddle away in GIMP. It needs a color layer!
Here’s some more digital works. This time I used reference from RedditGetsDrawn.
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.
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. 
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.
It’s been a long time since I’ve uploaded pencil drawings. Everything has been digital. During my time in Wellington I got a new clutch pencil and did a bunch of pencil drawings. I’ve photographed the works and here they are. These ar drawings from photos on Reddit Gets Drawn.
Enjoy.
I got myself a new visual diary from Gordan Harris - A5 landscape style. I haven’t got a new journal since my birthday day, and I lost that during my time in Auckland.
Married couple. Classical pose. Multi figures are easier to draw than a single figure due to the ability of lining up points of interest. I like the flower in her hand. 
Viking child. Majority of these pencil works are of children. They are good subjects, and I don’t draw them enough. Slayer!
And the result. I’ve been treating my drawings similar to digital works – with building up the line first, then tone, then color. Since I have a new clutch pencil I plan on drawing more. Every night before I sleep there is no reason why I can’t get a character drawing done!
I had to draw this outfit. It’s amazing.
Sadly I haven’t got the line version of of this, which i was super happy with. But still, the tone version is alright. Nice to be able to draw the full body. I need to practice those legs/feet.
And color. I used my Derwent colored pencils that I’ve had forever. They rarely get used as I don’t like the lack of detail they give. 
These are some of my best photos of artwork I’ve done. Taking the photo in direct sunlight seems the best. I convert to black and white, and change the levels. I like how you can see the texture of the paper. I like how the girl is wearing an animal hat – similar to mine!
Another sword based reference. This time a teenager in his room weilding a sword. Full battle armor would be great – but the swords a fantastic accessory.
For the drawing I zoomed in and cut off the bottom of his legs. The drawing pad I’ve been working with is only a5 size (landscape stype) so it forces me to work smaller than usual. It’s important to work in a range of sizes – and I have been working the long landscape format for a long time so great to try something different.
Portrait in the mirror. Wedding practice time. I’m impressed by the hair style and makeup so had to draw it.
There was a request to remove the cellphone, so I did. This one is very simple, nothing happening in the background.
Another awesome hat related reference. The rain in the background also helps to make it an interesting photograph.
Problems with drawing her chest- – just couldn’t get it work. It really is a challenge without the nipple.Struggled with the arm as well — as you can see the line has been repeated several times.
I believe this person is Indian. He requested to get drawn with his son. Both look not very unhappy. Again sorry that I only have the color version of this work – I did have a line and grayscale tone version but sadly my SD card in my camera corrupted and I lost the works
Currently taking a break from the painting and watching a few videos on youtube. Attempting to write this blog post as well, though it’s slow and I’m not that motivated for it. Talking about my frustrations about writing it may help me write it. Currently I’m watching:
Spent the day yesterday on RedditGetsDrawn drawing as many photos. I aimed for twenty, but fell short. I’ve also watched a bunch of
Here are the works:
I choose to draw this as the photo was clear, there is an interesting background. The navy outfit cat tattoo were also bonuses.
Line. The two figures in the center of the page. I’ve generally kept the same angle on all of these RedditGetsDrawn works. For the background I’ve kept it general the same with the trees being more spiky than the reference photo, I like these quick graffiti type movements. On the girls I made sure to include the cat tattoo. Mum should get a tattoo of her Black Cat.
Tone. Looking at this now I realized that I’ve left out the boats – I’ve included boat in other works and they are quick to create – just a dark horozontil flick. I made a clear contrast between the figures.
Woman on a baloney
Why did I choose to paint this? Well for a start it’s a full figure, the photo is not blurry. It could do with stronger tones, but at least it’s not washed out. The balcony in the background gives me a base to work from.
Woman on a baloney. I took some design liberty with this
Tone added. I love the background I created in this. I haven’t worked with tiled floors before, it’s a cool effect. Certainly extended the scene from what was happening in the reference photo.
This couple just got married and are out on a boat. This is the line 
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More paintings from reference on Reddit. It’s been a busy few days with these.
These girls are having fun on a beach scene. I partially like the left post, the leg on the side is difference makes for an interesting shape of the figure.
Tone added. Dark highlights in the hair, shorts, and land in the distance. The white eyes look demon like.
And the video:‘
Alright, onto the. next:
As GIMP was crashing I hit print scene in order to capture what I had done. I then reopened this image and just traced over it quickly. I keep my paintings under 20mins and the majority of that time is tone so losing a few lines is never a big problem.
The line is finished. This is one of my favorite line works I have done recently. Comparing it to the developed tonal version – the linework has far more happening.
Tone. Her top is my favorite area. The water in the background is somewhat interesting as well. I’m not sure how I feel about her skin tones. There is something about it that’s not working.
The video:
The request for this next one was a Left for Dead character. So zombies. I generally don’t take notice of these requests but just paint what I see. I want to createa world for the character though
Line applied. I struggled a with the head angle, as you can see the line work for it is a mess. I just drew the face twice, I could of rubbed out areas but I’ve been taught to use the eraser for effects only and not for fixing mistakes. I’m going over it with tone anyway. In the reference photo she has a dog in the background, I moved this dog to her shoulder. Kind of like a pirate and parrot. But Zombie Hunter and Dog.
Tone. Background could have more in it? Maybe dark spikes poking out. Used elements from the reference in this – such as the clock, and tiled panels on the floor.
Five people in this. Having lots of people is generally helpful as it can help with measuring one another. In the reference they \were on a boat so I kept true to that with creating land in the distance and water drifting into the foreground.
Tone. I’m especially happy with the tone of the clothes on the left sitting figure, that mid gray and dark works together well. Instead of making the far left figure clothing white it may have been better to go with a darker tone – give some balance to the piece.
And onto the Steampunk wedding: 
Fantastic reference photo to work from. I especially enjoyed the clothing. The scenery around the figures was helpful, but sadly I lost the majority of the detail during the drawing and painting process. I’m still happy with this work.
And tone. As you can see one of the only areas of the environment that was kept was the pillars, the rest has been transformed into a lake and land in the distance.
And the video:
Thanks for visiting. Till next time.
Continued with more digital painting today. I’ve been on such a roll it’s just worth getting plenty done. Recently I uploaded portrait and figure drawings I had done several years ago. I decided to take one of these into GIMP and digitize. Since I need more figure works to use in my environment works I decided against a portrait – though I may come back to some of the portraits later.
Here’s the painting - 
Line. Overall I’m happy with the line – especially from the elbows down, the level of detail is working. The arms are a bit strange – even on the reference not alot was happening with them and seems to be dark to hide features.
Grayscale tone added. The portrait looks great, I attempted to fix the arms somewhat by adding in a range of tone to them… I’m still not sure about them though. The chest and below has quite a steam punk feel to it.
Color added. With the color layer I did something I had never done before in GIMP – used masks. With the mask I hid everything and then revealed it by painting. This allowed me to easily change the colors and have more control over the painting. I used this feature before in Photoshop… but that would of been a long time ago. I need to get into the practice of using layer masks for all my layer – line, gray scale, and color.
Long walk today to St Lukes but afterwards I opened up GIMP and imported pencil works to work on.
I choose to work on two works – the first, a figure drawing I did during my time in Wellington last. Seems like such a long time ago now.
The line was created on the same layer as the drawing sadly. Normally I’m good at creating a new layer first – but this time I messed up. It’s alright. I normally don’t use the line for much but rather develop the painted layer further. I decided to draw the light and dark separates inside the figure rather than just tracing around. This makes it easier for the next stage….
Black and white tone added. My favorite area is the top half, but I guess the bottom is interesting as well, how it fades into the background. Maybe some more dark in the bottom/right could help the contrast?
ok, onto the second painting I did today - 
The reference for this was a drawing I did during my time in Napier visiting my Grandfather. It was one of my more successful drawings during the time. As you can see I didn’t make the same mistake as the previous work and it’s on a new layer. The detail is somewhat lower than some of the previous environmental works I have done. I had considered adding the right page drawing onto it – at one point I began scaling this image down in order to make room. I decided against it in the end, though I could mix other line drawings into this in the future and repaint.
Gray-scale tone added. I used two brushes for this – the first a standard flat brush that offered no texture and the second a charcoal. I guess it’s good I’m trying new brushes, but maybe I should be making my own. I used the smooth brush on the Church and charcoal brush on the trees to give a contrast in the objects. For a long time I just kept with a single brush but looking at this I know it’s very important to create a range of textures using several different brushes.
You may notice there is no figure or other object to help show the scale. I added in some figure that I had recently painted.
Ok. I played around with this for awhile, experimenting with scale and location of the figure. In this mock up I added Annabels figure to the left and scaled it large – in other versions I had scaled her right down and added her higher (where her face is currently). This didn’t look right and it worked bigger as a larger figure. I also tried adding the nude to this side of the page also but wasn’t happy – mostly because of the strange angle of the arms (still not happy about those arms). Added the nude to the right seems to work better.
I am going to the Auckland library today, I’ll look for concept art books for some inspiration.
So it’s been sometime since I’ve done digital painting. I did plenty of it last year and felt I improved greatly. This year it’s my goal to produce even more paintings. With already almost a week into the new year I thought I’d better get onto it.
Sorted though my sketch book drawings I took them into GIMP and began a paint over process. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
This was one of my favorite drawings I did during my time in Napier. I had attempted to digital it in the past but was not in the mood. Having a holiday from the digital painting felt good, I felt refreshed.
Sadly I wasn’t able to use my favorite custom brushes in GIMP as they are only on my desktop, and I only have my laptop with me in Auckland. Once I’m home I’ll transfer the brushes onto the desktop.
My favorite area of this painting is the right side, with the large tree trunk I managed to create a interested texture (working 80% opacity). And the pole to the right of it worked out well. I created textures by using a range of difference marks – for example to create the hedge I used a dot action. This is something I want to explore further this year. 
I received a new camera for Xmas. Decided to upload the photos I take to FreshFigure.com/art: Stock Photography. These photos are licences under creative commons so feel free to do what you like with them, but I’d love to hear about it.
I used a several of the photos I had taken to do some figure and portrait studies. It had been sometime since I had worked like this and I think it’s always important to keep up with studies of people. The process is the same as always – red line, followed by gray scale tone. 
Here I added the figure and portrait to the Napier painted scene. I played around somewhat with scale and composition I’l keep working on it. I also did a quick color paint over – red for the skin, yellow clothes, and blue for the background. For my Mums portrait I worked different – adding the yellow into the mouth area. Adds somewhat of a horror effect – something out of Hannibal maybe?
That’s all for now. I now have no excuse to work on a digital painting everyday and upload it – I have plenty of reference photos and drawings to work from.
Almost forgot – I’ve recorded these paintings but have problems with Movie Maker on my laptop so unable to upload to youtube. Once I’m home (later this week) I’ll get them uploaded. I think it’s better that I just get paintings done even if I don’t get everything recorded than not paint.
Stay cool honey bun.
As a child where the Wild Things Was a favorite book. For this request on RedditGetsDrawn I was asked too draw this child with Wild Things. I did a quick google search for reference and found this reference that I choose to use.
Line. I had fun using the book illustration as reference – a different look to my usual street scene ones.
Grayscale. Huge contrast between the figure and background. Looking at this now I think that it could of done with more lights in the trees/sky. In the following stage – color, I fixed this by using a light blue.
Color. I used several large brushes in this which has given it a misty look.
It is Sunday morning. I havn’t done anything today. But here’s a blog post to get started. The place is tidy. It needs to be tidier though.
Yesterday I tidied. Though I went though some older posts and turned the drawings into digital works. 
It’s been a long time since I’ve done life drawing. I use to do it often. There are several life drawing classes I’m interested in doing next term – including Rogers week one block class. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are all 6 hours of life drawing. Dan and Catherine also have a life drawing class during the term – as a weekend class.
The JPG file. Quality is better than GIF but GIF has the advantage of creating animation. It would be nice to create GIF with JPG quality stills.
These drawings were all quick gestural works – breaking the figure down to cubes and basic shapes. I’ve explored these shapes and developed them further over several months. 
Gary Johnson. This was a warmup work – just wanted to get looser with the tablet. 
It’s been a long time since I’ve drawn/painted political figures. I would take my sketchbook into BackBenches and Sketch people.
