'Comic Book Portraits' - Grant 479

Trying more new things with this one. So I'm not too familiar with comics, so why not throw in something I don't know anything about with some graffiti. That part was actually really fun, and it's on my list of things I'd love to learn. The rest... umm, I don't know how happy I am with it. It's much better than it started out, I kept making the lines thicker, and that's really helped.

'Comic Book Portraits' - Grant 833

This is a bit different for my 'comic books,' but I want to try a whole bunch of different styles, so it's about tie I ventured out. I found a neat fan-made poster for Green Lantern (which, unfortunately, I can't find again for you) with the code in the background, all in different shade of green. It looked pretty cool, so I did a take on it in Air Force Blue.

This one changed a bit from when I saw the poster it was based on to the final version - I didn't get the photo I wanted and had to improvise, and originally I was going to have a bunch of Grant's nicknames - there are two on our platoon, but decided to go for full hero-mode on this one, so I put the Air Force motto in the background instead.

B&W Garter - getting the technique now

Here's my second try at using charcoal and oil paint. I learned quite a bit from the Horses experiment a couple of days ago. I did fewer layers, and after the first two I simply put down a layer of glazing medium and then drew into that (instead of the other way around). Much of the detail and most the actual lines stayed in the paint. I then scratched out some of the charcoal, which added more detail. You can see it in the close-up:

I'm really happy with how it turned out because you get enough information to really read the different textures, like the lace, but it has all the softness of the charcoal mixed with oil paint of the first painting.


This painting is for sale on Etsy.

Lantern Festival

I've had the photo this is based on in mind for something for a long time now. Coincidentally, I've also wanted to try out pastels on black paper ever since I started rewatching Batman: The Animated Series and found out that was how they did the backgrounds.

This was fun just to to work on colour and composition, rather than to strictly follow the photo or work on a portrait. I simplified the background and emphasized the diagonal running top right to bottom left in order to get more movement in the piece. I used stronger, more vibrant colours for those lanterns, but in more contrasting colours to make them pop, and finished them to higher degree then the peripheral lanterns, which I also covered in blue in order to mute the colours that were already there. The one thing I'm not sure of is if I just get another soft white pastel (what always happens to them?) and highlight the light in the middle of the lantern more.

Little Black and Whites of Saskatchewan

These little paintings were more experiments with charcoal and oil, and with being a bit more abstract. I may work some of them into much larger paintings with more detail, but for here's a little bit of prairie for you:

B&W Horses - an experiment

I love the look of charcoal and oil paint, so I decided it was time to try it out for myself. I found an old mangled photo yesterday, and it was the perfect subject, a fountain I'd snapped a picture of years ago and kept around just in case. This is the finished (at this point, we'll see I suppose) product.

This was the first layer. I painted over the charcoal with some flake white diluted with lots of solvent. I took photos along the way so I could look back and figure out what to do differently next time.

I like this stage best, with the lighter background and sharper drawing, but unfortunately the charcoal would never stay like this and has to be painted over to stay on the canvas. However, I did experiment with drawing on top of a wet glaze, and the charcoal came out fairly defined and stayed put, so I'm going to try that a little earlier next painting (as in the second layer rather than the forth, like this painting), and I think I'll get better results in the end. Even though this is a painting it looks very much like how I sketch, layering vine charcoal and then compressed charcoal for depth, contrast, and definition. That's probably why I like it so much.

'Comic Book Portraits' - Van Der Linde

I'm afraid that I don't have the patience to make these portraits. It started out looking like the right person, but with all the thick lines, it really just got away from me. But to books look pretty cool, so I'm still happy with it. The style is based on Roy Lichtenstein's Pop Art. I even attempted some Ben Day dots, which are a pain in the ass, so I'm glad they turned out well. But I'm not doing them again until I'm famous and can afford minions to do them for me.