Super Sad continues

After a few days break I got a chance today to work on this painting a bit more and I worked all over the entire canvas. I will bet a chance to rework it again live from the model later on this week.

Martians Go Home

Today I'm posting two more penciled pages from the first issue of martians Go Home. So far it seems I've really had to pull all the stops out here between drawing old cars and now cowboys and horses. I have to say goggle is great for reference on all of this stuff, better than having to do it like I did in the older days where I would have had to spend time in a library, book store or hope I had a book or something in my morgue that I could use.

I also drew everything straight, I didn't use any projectors to trace down the cars, or use the blue-line technique here. I want this to just be me and the pencil and whatever distortions come in are then more my style and take on things. This is something I always admired about gene Colan's work. He used photos but didn't trace them, he drew from them and thus made them his own, warped them through his "artist's eye". So I'd sketch the shapes I'd want, find a pick of the car close to it and then draw it in the exact angle or shape I wanted. It's more fun too and more of a challenge. Art isn't about being easy, if you want to continue to improve you must always put a little more weight on the bar, and that will mean sometimes you fail and have to erase, and fight for that drawing, and when you win--well man, that's the best thing ever.

Martians Go Home

It's been a while since I posted anything on my current comic project so here are a few pages from the first issue of Martians Go Home. I'll be halfway through the first issue by this weekend and by next weekend I should be done with all of the pencils and then be on the inking wagon.

I'll be uploading a few more pages next week.

Super Sad continues 2

I worked again live from the model yesterday morning on the painting and then more on the background after she left. Now I'll work from photos I took and develop the background more until the model returns next week.

The background is in flux and though it will have a dark stormy sky, I'm not sure if I will add anything else in yet, I'll wait and see how I feel as this goes. I'm trying something a bit different here as I am letting this painting grow organically, I intentionally cropped the legs to give the figure a weird heaviness, yet also a incomplete and powerless feeling.

Super Sad continues

I'm working on the first large Super sad painting this week, this is from the first two sets where I roughed in the figure from the live model. I'll keep updating this as I go along.

The Old and the New

Yesterday the Dirty Palette Club took it on the road again. This time we set up near Drexel University in a nice park nearby the train yards with a great view of the city, the old power plant and the new very futuristic Amtrak building.

This was what I got in about 3-1/2 hours or better painting in the beautiful afternoon sun.
11 x 14 in oil on a Blick canvas.

Portrait Class Week 6 Final

yesterday was the final class for my summer portrait class with Al Gury. I had a great time in this class and can really say I did learn somethings and felt I made weekly progress. Al's a great teacher and so affable, he makes the class a very relaxing experience even if I am ragging at myself in my head over my work. the painting above is the final painting from the morning half of the class. there are so many little things that bug me about this, drawing, edges, etc., but I am happy I was able to keep it loose. the hardest things about doing these portraits for me is the one week break in between sessions. I'm also not so sharp in the mornings sometimes and feel I don't get cooking till the afternoon. I was seriously tempted to wipe it all out yesterday but Al wouldn't let me.
This is the second portrait and I'm far less happy with this as far as drawing goes. This model was a pain to draw, I never got her down right, but I am happier with some edges and paint application--hey, you have to try and salvage something ...
Al gave us all a good final crit.

My classmate Lisa felt like many of us, weary from the battle as class neared the end.

Some of our homework, my friend Christina turned in some really nice portraits and a study.

The models Tim and Claire take a break.

My buddy Joel shows us all how to hold it down in thee nd and enjoy yourself.

My goal now is to still do at least one portrait a week, be it from life or a study so I can really drill in the things I have learned in clas and to keep the momentum going.

Claire Sitting

This is the painting from my weekly meeting of my painting group the Dirty Palette Club. My friend Claire came up to pose for us this week and it was a lot of fun, though this was a tough painting because of the angle and the shadow side of her face. I wiped this out 2 times before I got what I wanted--still I got something and lost something--but that's how it goes, I wanted to keep this looser like a study, 11 x 14 in oil. Claire will also be modeling for some of my Super Sad paintings.