Second class session

Started of a little slow tonight, so I focused on the hair after some instruction from Michelle and I started to layer it as told. It seems to be working but I need to build it up softer.
I filled in more black parts of the picture to give me something to work with and to give me more confidence for doing the softer parts of the picture.

Also got some great tips in terms of cleaning the brush and to get in the habit of priming the brush as I work through the night. I also need to get a plastic syringe so that I can clean the head by pulling and pushing metho through the head.

Attempting Hair and Wrinkle Textures tonight

First Attempt

Thought I would give myself a challenge and have a crack at hair and wrinkle textures, I downloaded a sample from one of the airbrush sites that had the lines and the reference texture next to them.

The first one I did, I tried to use the method as explained from the airbrush site, not real happy with the result but it's a result and was hard to try and match up the reference lines of someone else.

The second one was a better attempt, but, for me it lacked style as shown in the reference picture.  I tried going in close to get the fine lines but they just came out too sharp compared to the reference picture. 

The third I attempted it using my own experience and focused on what I saw and what strokes I needed to do so I could reproduce it, not happy with it but I felt a lot more comfortable doing it my way.

Both the wrinkle and hair textures I attempted were doing it with the same mindset for both, the authors way, a mix of the author and mine and finally mine.  

Second Attempt

While not stunning I did learn a number of things tonight:

1.       I really don't like using other peoples mark up as I don't know what they had in mind when they did the mark up.

2.       I gained better control over smaller strokes.

3.       I played around with a ½ reduced black paint, which I found gave me great control over the intensity of the line or shade I was doing.

4.       I LOVE working in my studio with the way I have set it up, I find working in class that there just isn't enough light  for me to see exactly what is going on with the paint.

Third Attempt

Overall all it was a good night of experimenting and practice all rolled into one.

Audrey session 5 - complete

Finally completed her tonight, I was surprised how fast I did the lips then the left eye, had to get some advice from the teacher on it, the the result is pretty amazing.
I played around with the hair some more to try and give it some body and make it pop, but it proved to be a little more difficult than the way it was explained to me, will give hair texture some more attention when I do the next class assignment Frank Sinatra.

Idea for a painting.

On the way home tonight, I had an idea for a painting and figured I would describe it and maybe one day be able to paint it..
It's in the shape of a tree trunk with branches that are in the shape of my tattoo.

With the two major orbs are represented inside a glass spheres;
The yin yan, the black would be a sphere of fire that is leaving a trail of fire with a blue water dot in the center.  The white circle is a sphere of water leaving a tail of water, with the dot as a little ball of fire. This is occurring within the glass sphere which is being held by a branch that looks like 3 fingers.

The wheel of life is also 3 spheres with tails, I haven't figured out how to represent birth, life and death; but the colours white, blue and black.

Each of the star signs will also be in orbs, the colour of the appropriate star sign and a symbol of that star sign.
I am not sure about the outer two orbs, but I am sure something will arise that makes it mine.

Session 4 Audrey

Focused on getting the ear done tonight, happy with it now. Was a real challenge getting all the shapes done the way it is on the reference.  I finished the windows and started to do some light shading on her neck line and also the left hand side of her face.

Played a bit with the hair trying to add some dimention to it as it still looks to flat for me, not sure how to give it some body so that it looks 3d. Might have another look at the photo I found on the web and see if I can re-create it to add that extra style to the art work.