Nuytsia: Digital painting

Caricatures are great for exercising observation and hand-eye coordination but I only do them for fun. My real love is the Australian landscape.

Tonight I was flipping through some old photos and found one of a WA Christmas Tree (Nuytsia floribunda). It was essentially and abstract rush of bright oranges against near-neutral blues and greens. I had to do something with it.

Here's the result of about an hour and a half's painting in Photoshop.

 (Nuytsia - digital painting. Original 1800 x 1200px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

I think I need to try it in oils now.

Tony Abbott: Digital caricature

Following on from my Julia Gillard caricature, and with the federal election now in full swing, I thought I'd better post an updated Tony Abbott caricature.

(Tony Abbott - digital. Original 1200 x 1200px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

See my first Tony Abbott caricature

Twilight in the Bay: Oil

Here's one I did a couple of weeks ago.

 (Twilight in the Bay. 70x37cm oil on panel © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

You can get a little background on this painting in the following articles:

Perfect plein air afternoon
Preliminary sketch

Army Art 2010

Army Art is an annual charity art exhibition featuring the original works of invited artists from around WA.

This year's exhibition will be held at Leeuwin Barracks, Riverside Road, East Fremantle on Saturday and Sunday, 15th & 16th of August. All exhibited work will be for sale and part proceeds will benefit the Recreation & Sport Network.

I will have several pieces there and am looking forward to catching up with lots of artist friends I haven't seen since leaving Perth over six years ago.

Herefords: Oil painting

Along with all the digital fun I've been having, I have been doing a little oil painting lately.

Here's the step-by-step process of my latest painting based on a digital painting I did a couple of weeks ago...

 (Herefords- digital painting. 700x500px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

This is the digital painting that served as a starting point. Since the computer is nowhere near my painting room, I used an earlier oil painting as a reference whilst painting and only occasionally looked back at the digital picture to see if I was heading in the right direction.

A quick layout of the major shapes and undertones (shadow tones). The paint was thinned a little with turps and whisked on with a pastry brush.

Starting with the sky and working down the painting and from background to foreground, I begin working over the painting with thicker paint. I'm still focussing mainly on shadow tones though I've added a subtle highlight to the distant hills.

After all the major shadow tones have been reworked, I apply heavier layers of local colours.

 (Herefords. 25x35cm oil on panel © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

Once I had the bulk of the painting "feeling" about right, I scraped out the areas where the cattle had to go using a small, dry filbert brush. Then the beasts were added using the same process - undertone, midtone, highlight. Once they were in place, I worked back over other areas, softening some detail and adjusting colours until I declared it finished.

In many ways the finished painting is quite conceptual compared to the near-literal interpretations of scenes that I usually paint. The primary focus throughout was to keep the majority of colours controlled in such a way that the "red" herefords almost glow in the evening sunlight.

Note: The photography on some of these is a bit sad. Sorry.

Julia Gillard: Digital caricature

Looking around the web I found very few caricatures of our new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Those I did find focussed very heavily, and unsurprisingly, on her red hair and somewhat prominent proboscis.

For several weeks I've been attempting to capture her in a caricature without going for the obvious profile shot with the exaggerated nose as the focal point. Despite what this news story might imply, there's more to Ms Gillard than her nose.

Here's my latest attempt...

 (Julia Gillard - digital. Original 1200x1350px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

Here's a slightly revised version. Play 'spot the difference' if you like...

 (Julia Gillard 2 - digital. Original 1200x1350px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

SEE ALSO:
Kevin Rudd caricature 
Tony Abbott caricature
Tony Abbott caricature - original

Bones: Digital caricature

Following from my previous sketch and mono caricatures of Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz (Bones & Booth), I spent this evening adding colour to my "Bones" caricature.

 (Emily "Bones" Deschanel - digital. 800x880px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

For this caricature, I added colour over the previous greyscale image. I thought this might be faster than colouring from scratch but now I'm not so sure. I spent a lot of time fighting the "dirtiness" of the grey. Next time I have a greyscale image, I think I'll only use it as a reference.

Image made completely in Photoshop CS using a Wacom Graphire4 (4x5") tablet.

Bones & Booth: Digital caricature

I did a caricature of David Boreanaz (Agent Booth) a few nights ago and one of Emily Deschanel (Temperance "Bones" Brennan) last night. Here they are as a "couple".

The styles differ very slightly as I'm still coming to terms with both caricaturing and digital painting but I think they're recognisable.

 (Bones & Booth - digital sketch. 900x850px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

Sketching Bones

Once again it's time for something different.

This time it's a quick digital sketch of Emily Deschanel, better known as "Bones".

 (Deschanel "Bones" - digital sketch. 1000x1000px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

Stirling Evening

Here's one I did a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to photographing.

This is based on a plein air piece I posted back in May which I imaginatively titled "Driveway with trees" and a digital painting I did the following week which I more cleverly titled "Driveway with trees - digital painting".

(Stirling Evening, 40x60cm oil on panel. © 2010, Andy Dolphin) 
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At 60cm wide, this one is quite a bit bigger than the plein air piece and took considerably longer! As with the small painting, I used a fairly limited palette on this one to ensure colour unity throughout - though it wasn't as limited as the four colours I used in the plein air painting.

Digital sketch: Herefords

I bashed out this little digital sketch tonight in Photoshop. It's based on a section of an oil painting I did a few months ago.

My daughter informs me the cattle are Herefords.

 (Herefords- digital painting. 700x500px . © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

I'm hoping to do a 25x35cm (10"x14") oil painting of it this weekend. This was a dry run.