Work... and Gah!

A recent study of a skull. Oil on Wood.

Realized after I finished the painting that I accidentally left the overhead lights on, specifically fluorescents. Normally when I work on a still life, I only use natural light for a number of reasons. The two light sources, each with a different color temperature caused my shadows to be less predictable. If I had realized the overheads were on, I could have accommodated a little more. 

Digital Sketch

Block In

Almost finished... I will add a retouch varnish to this painting soon. I created this piece as a gift for a very generous artist that I had the pleasure to meet. 

A random digital painting of a futuristic soldier.

I never do this sort of work, but figured I might as well give it a try. A friend from my undergrad Jose Borges, http://whatzitoya.tumblr.com, was the inspiration for me to try this sort of stuff. 

A figure Study...

I tried to do this painting with a limited palette of Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Venetian Red and Titanium White. I wanted to see if I could model the form / figure with warm and cool relationships. 

I will continue to with this idea for future studies. 

I also attempted a plein-air painting today. My first one ever! 

Things seem kind of hunky-dory outside. Than when I took it inside...

Bam! It looks like hell. I will need to do more plein-air's in the near future. It will be nice to also paint when the temperature gets above 50 degrees outside. I will be more prepared :) 

Although the studies have been fun and informative, my main focus has been on the series that I previously mentioned in an earlier post. This past week I started  to transfer the digital sketches onto the panels I created. These are blocked in for drawing and a general value structure. 

I will then eventually go in and refine each component in a dead layer. This value structure will allow for me to glaze in the colors thinly over a period of time. I'm not sure if this is going to work, but I'll just have to see what happens. 

As always, comments and critiques are always welcome! Thank for taking the time to look through my blog.