Practice, Practice, Practice

Painting from the masters is my second favourite way to gain insights as a painter (favourite of course being direct study from real life). So here's a few recent ones. From the top: After Jeremy Lipking, after J.C. Leyendecker, after Morgan Weistling, and finally, after John Singer Sargent.

Monster Under The Bed

Wish I had one of these when I was a kid!
For Drawergeeks.

Last Week's Head Study

This 'yin-yang' type of lighting made for a good challenge. Instead of the traditional line-and-mass block in, I started with the eye socket on the right, and just branched out from there. I haven't approached a study like that before, so I felt like I learned something here.

Speed Dump

Something I don't do enough of. These are just random, fast concept stuff (i.e. moving the brush around until something interesting comes out). Played around with a few palettes, but mostly was determined to control values.

Plein Air In The Mountains

Took a little trip last weekend to the west coast of Canada. Absolutely breathtaking, and my first chance to paint plein air in the mountains. The painting on top is oil...had to work quickly because my paint actually started to freeze out there (I froze too)! The smaller sketches are from life, but done on the Nintendo DS, while looking out the window.
BTW, I've been posting some of my DS sketches in the Colors! Gallery
where you can also view playbacks of each one.