Winnie the Pooh

Wow! Can't believe it's been so long since I last posted a blog entry!

Just finished my Winnie the Pooh painting a couple of days ago. Will post Goofy when I have a keyboard close by.

DIsneyland!!!

Going to Disneyland tomorrow! It was a last minute decision but I was starting to feel I was wasting my vacation.

Since I'm going to be gone for a few days I decided to work on a couple of my paintings tonight.

I thought I had an earlier incarnation of this Winnie the Pooh, but it's gone missing. The outline was done using a grid. No direct tracing this time. My goal is to be able to paint just by sight. I started off with a pale green background then added the outline of the subject. The background is disappearing around the edges of the bear and I'm not sure how I'll get it back without it looking over painted. Probably lots of glazing.

Goofy has a hat! I took a close look at it when I was done and decided it looks creepy. I think it's the empty mouth or maybe the pupils are wonky. I definitely don't feel a nostalgic warmth for this one right now!

And here is all my paintings in one place, except the first Mickey.

When I get back from California I hope I can finish these two. I'm doing an online oil portrait painting course right now from www.paintbasket.com I hope I can make some good progress on that. The instructor seems quite thorough.

Finally painted something!

It's been a long time since I've posted on here. Where has the time gone?

In April I took a one-on-one class for 4 hours to learn the Bob Ross way of painting. It was very exhausting, learning the different techniques for different parts of the painting I worked on. Unfortunately, I've since forgetten them, but I do have his videos to refresh my mind. This is the painting from that classs...

Soon after the class, feeling all fired up and wanting to create the masterpieces sitting inside my head, I bought a Bob Ross paint set. It cost an arm and a leg! And it's still unopened in my living room. Soon!



Today is the last day of a week off. This week I spent doing some painting that I've been meaning to do for a long time.

The Mickey is very messy and I will redo it someday. The Donald is good, but the background, which went through many colours, needs to be redone at some point. And my newest is Goofy, but that won't be done this set of days off. Hopefully next days off.

iPad Art: Mouse revistited

This is a repeat from my earlier mouse painting, but this time on my iPad. I didn't use a picture as a tracing object; I created a sketch which was the basis for the painting. I had many different layers throughout, but merged them when it was warranted.

I'm not too happy with the face colour; it's a bit to beige for my taste. I think a pinker shade would look better. The eyes were inspired by an older incarnation of him I saw online.

I like the glow around his head. I created a busier background with a few butterflies but settled on this simple one and only a single butterfly.

I might do another version on canvas with acrylics in the next little while. It shouldn't be too hard now that I'm familiar with the subject matter!

I might tinker with this one a bit to add more 3D texture to it (shadows and highlights).

Protesting SOPA and PIPA

I've changed the colour scheme of my blog to black since I don't know how to blackout my entire site. If SOPA were to become law in the US, my blog and my URL could be blocked by the government because I have painted a picture of Mickey Mouse. The painting isn't for sale, it's not even good quality, but the subject is copyrighted. I'm not sure what PIPA is, but I am inferring it is similar to SOPA, except it is originating in the Senate while SOPA originates in the House.

Here's my painting again just to make a point...

Keep the internet free!

iPad Art: Me without crazy hair

And this is me without crazy hair...

iPad Art: Me with Crazzzzyyyy Hair

I need a hair cut. This is what I feel like...

Many, many different layers. I built it up slowly in an effort to achieve photo-realism. It's not there yet, but it was a good exercise in using shading and highlights to add depth. The next one will be better.

iPad Art: Pear

This is from a painting exercise on an art tutorial website. Things I would do differently: Add more colour variation and texture to the wall and surface the pear is sitting on, Make the shadow more realistic.

This was done in ArtRage. 4 layers.

Update: Started to add more texture and colour variation the the wall. It's starting to look better.

iPad Art: Gnome

Used one of the gnomes sitting on my TV as a subject. Used Brushes for this one. There a some things I like in this program such as the ability to use a slider to turn a colour selection darker or lighter. Much easier than ArtRage.

This was done in multiple layers. I had the gnome in 4 layers then realized there was a maximum number of layers available in this program, so once I was done with the gnome they were merged together. The final picture is 5 layers.

I just realized he looks like he is not connected to the ground. I should (will) add a cast shadow to see if that will ground him.

iPad Art: Red Sky

I've seen similar pictures and thought I'd try it on my iPad. Done with ArtRage for the iPad. 6 layers, four for the sky, one for the tree and one for the ground.