After all the previous doodles, in December I decided I wanted to do some that were a little more complex/ challenging (something I hadn't been able to handle for a while). I also wanted to do something different with the background. Me and my bright ideas... The contorted clouds in this one seemed to take forever. But I like the result very ( Read more... )

This was a more recent effort (February). It is definitely a study, not a finished painting. Though I don't consider it entirely successful, it did teach me some useful things.


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I did this painting last August, just hadn't gotten around to scanning and posting it. I was camping on the south McKenzie for a long enough stint that I could spend a few hours doing a real plein aire painting. I had been pondering for a while that one's programmed instinct is to depict water as blue--but the river up there isn't blue at all. ( Read more... )

For those who are interested in such things, here is a list of all the paint colors, brushes, and other tools I used for the movie poster painting.

This picture of my palette on finishing day shows most of the main colors I was using:

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8/23 Today I aimed to finish the painting so it would be ready to show in a video interview the next day. My hand was steadier than in the previous session, but still not as steady as I would wish; touching up the gas giant rings was a challenge. I painted fine dividing lines in phthalo blue, then phthalo glazes on the back side of the ring to ( Read more... )

8/19 Well, T. loved the painting--in fact, he said he was blown away and would be willing to put it on Kickstarter as it is. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering how much he liked the rough pencil sketches. He asked if I could finish it by 8/24, and I said that should be doable ( Read more... )

8/18 Today would normally be a writing day, but I needed to spend all day on the painting in order to have something I was willing to show T. the next day ( Read more... )

8/17 Before putting on any wet paint, I tried sanding out the red blotch with some 400 grit sandpaper. I couldn’t remove it completely, but lightened it enough that I could cover it with gesso ( Read more... )

8/16 Second painting session: definite progress! But man, acrylics remain the very devil. Thanks to my job and recent years' exploration, I know so much more about them than I ever did before, their properties, their pigments, and yet I sometimes still feel completely at sea in rendering with them. Definitely a love-hate relationship at this ( Read more... )

A few months ago my coworker B. asked if I would like to do some promo artwork for a short indie film he is acting in. They planned a Kickstarter fundraiser, and wanted some concept art to help get people interested: "some rough sketches of some of the visuals from the film, sort of like Ralph McQuarrie’s sketches for Star Wars: simple, like the ( Read more... )