Aerial vehicle

Aerial vehicle design, oil on A4 illustration board.

Midsummer glimpses

While on a trip to summer cottage during Midsummer, I painted some quick impressions of the landscapes that went by. Watercolor on sketchbook.

Rubens study

An acrylic study of Peter Paul Rubens' selfportrait with his wife Isabella, detail, rearrangement focused on faces. I read that Rubens usually had a silver gray underpainting on which he drew the outlines with burnt sienna. The rest is typical Flemish layer painting technique. I wanted to understand his trademark use of lush, vibrant colors which he is famous for.

I also now understand better why the masters seldom showed unfinished pieces to anyone except for other artists because until the final detailing stage the painting usually looks pretty dreadful, and people may not understand the process. And because the faces are center of focus they need  lots of work hours to paint until they look correct which is crucial for the painting's success.

Painting studies

 

Rembrandt selfportrait study, detail, acrylics on a5 sketchbook.

 

Arnold Böcklin selfportrait study, detail, acrylics on a5 sketchbook. 

Trying to figure out how the masters painted, to raise the skill level.

Pastel drawing

Sanguine pastel and  white chalk on tinted paper. Augustine's jewel of wisdom, depicting his sharp-witted thinking. No reference used, just imagination. I'm striving to master imaginative realism. The academicians of 1900s, after their intense practice of life studies, plein air paintings, master copies and color theory, could illuminate classic literature and historical events with just value drawings like this in hand.

Excavator

Watercolor sketch, plein air.

Sitting figure

Sitting figure with a cow skull. Oil and acrylic on board 29x 41 cm. 3 days. This is based on a similar life study drawing with sanguine pastel. I wanted to see if I could now render a more realistic result without copying from photograph. I did a preparatory color study prior starting. At first stages the figure was very dark in color so I wanted to test Delacroix's famous quote "Give me a piece of mud and I'll paint a light skin with it, just let me decide the surroundings." Well what do you know, darkening the background later with a mix of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue did make the skin look white.

Daily study

 

L. Ball photo study.

Plein air sketches

 

 Some plein air studies on watercolor sketchbook. Jean Leon Gérôme said to his students that one must paint observational studies every day to learn to mix colors as accurately as possible.

  

Doodles

 

oil pastel sketches

Rodent

Selected sketches

 

Bouguereau  study

 

Géromê study

 

Géromê study 

 

Géromê study 

 

Géromê study (left one only)

 

random doodle

 

leg study

 

Rafaello study

 

Rafaello study

 

Character design

 

Character design

"I don't know what to draw" is no excuse. One can always draw his or her arms, self-portraits, anatomy, and study old masters of different eras, as professional artists have to constantly improve and keep up the skills.

Doodles part 2

Drawing is thinking. Instead of forcing it, I start by scribbling light random lines of basic geometrical shapes and then let the mind fill the rest of what they could imply. Later I just refine the selected characters for further uses in comic or illustration. Drawing is like gymnastics, if you don't practice on a daily basis, raising the bar little by little, the muscles will wither.

Pocket sketching part 1

It's summer job time again which means plethora of pocket sketchbooking to keep me sane. Just mindless brainstorming without prejudices which usually produces surprisingly weird stuff, which is awesome. This is my fourth moleskine pocket sketchbook going on since 2009. A loyal companion that book is, always there to remind me to draw.

Self-portrait (updated September 23)

Academic self-portrait, Flemish layer painting technique, oil on canvas 46x54cm. Left: preliminary study. Carbone and chalk on tinted paper.

Edit September 23: Finished after four month break, on September 4, I took a more critical look and checked  the proportions from mirror, turned the piece upside down, sideways and evaluated, measured by eye sight again and again, squinted eyes and refined until every millimetre seemed right. The Rubens study I did this summer gave me the information  to refine this further from previous stage too.
Historically, for artists, painting a self-portait is not just an effective form of practicing skills and one's eyes, but a much more intense way of self-examination than just looking at mirror.

Color sketch (nude)

 

guache

 

 

This would be the last page from my moleskine sketchbook. I used one croquis drawing for reference and made a quick acrylic sketch from it.