LePardine

2012-01-19T13:09:00.000-08:00

Most of these were 5 mins and 10. This one was 5 mins, acrylic on board

2012-01-19T13:05:00.000-08:00

S'more figure. The black and whites were done yesterday; the model was Adair. Some color figure done a few weeks ago of the amazing Stacy Walker. What presence on stage! And a small portrait of the charismatic Mr. Quantae Love; I will get to some really nice ones of you in the future, Mr. Quantae! You are simply one of the best figure models in the industry! And a big thanks for Mr. Ron V for guiding me in all this.

2012-01-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

These have been done in a figure drawing class and Bob Kato's class at Disney Consumer Products. And yes, they were painted the back of a crescent board~I hate waste..They were about 5-10 minute poses in acrylic. I am still having trouble with my warms and cools so that is why I will be working in black and white for awhile. I am in a large learning curve with both digital techniques and traditional and infact, feel like the girl in Matrix when she plugs into a program to learn to fly helicopters; I come home wiped and overwhelmed almost everyday!

2012-01-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

2012-01-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

Ron at work told me to try to turn the figure with just black and white. These are 5 to 10 minute poses, acrylic on board. Our model had a great silohuette and the poses had lots of attitude. She was a great inspiration in the spirit of The Matrix character.

2012-01-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

This one was actually done before the last post. 30 minute demo for my dad who wants to learn to paint people. Acrylic in sketchbook; water color paper.

2012-01-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

I was giving my dad a demo on how I start a portrait. 15 minutes, acrylic on water paper.

2011-12-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

A bit overworked~
but finished. A couple of days before X-mas, my daughter passes me strept throat. I'm just now finishing up with my last dose of antibiotics which makes my hands shake and puts me in a fog and really messes with my decision making when painting. (I also get cranky) It is hard to paint this way, since usually I know exactly how I'm going to paint a picture; what I wish to say and how to do it. It's like I've jumped into another's head and have no idea on how to start. In 48 hours I will be myself again.

I moved the left eye up and made it smaller, but in the process, lost the sparkle of the original eye. The unevenness was driving me crazy; so now it is more correct but not as interesting...oh well..most times that happens..

I flew home from the Bay Area yesterday and had a decision to make. I only had room in my suitcase to either: pack my clothes or pack my paints. I left my clothes with my Mother In Law. Hubby and daughter stayed and man oh man, is it peaceful. I really look forward to this once in a year solitude!

2011-12-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

Working on: 'bout 80% done. Hafta rework the eye on the left and make the chin much smaller and clean up the silohuette. One hour, acrylic on canvas paper.

2011-12-04T17:31:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy these days. I have been trying to work on my own projects but inbetween being a mom and wife I just have no personal time. I did these at work during lunch. They are 5 to 10 minutes each on newsprint. It's a great switch from the vector stuff that I am doing; very freeing.

2011-11-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

A return back to digital. Gonna step away from the traditional and catch up with the digital. Been so freakin' busy these days, hard to find time to work on anything personal. The ugly/beautiful and savage LePardine. This is the underpainting for now. I may change the lips since they are looking a little Botoxy. And I'll probably come back and soften her face so she looks less harsh and starved...Have a Great Turkey Day, everyone!

2011-11-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

2011-10-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

I will be out of town this weekend so I probably won't get time to paint. I am also taking instruction from master portrait painter, Sean Keecham and so must wipe my slate clean of all methods I use in order to paint and adopt his. In order to step forward I will take steps backward and start at the very beginning~only dealing with shadow and shadow colors and transitional midtones..

Sometimes I "doodle" at work and here are some sketches to keep the hand loose...

2011-10-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

From Titanic. Okay~this is not one of my favorite movies and I have a lot of problems with it. From the cartoon like characters, sappy dialogue and a downer of a plot, it did have some positives. The costumes are incredible as well as the special effects. One of the problems I noticed was that as I was speeding thru the shots, there were very little variation of camera angles, colors or mood. Because of this, even with the sound turned off, the movie did not elicit much emotion from me or engage me to care much about the characters.

2011-10-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

From a pic off my husband's FB. I wish I knew who took the photo which inspired this painting because it is beautiful and I did not do it justice. If I knew the name of the photographer I could give them credit and a kudos for having a terrific eye. I actually did this last Saturday but am just getting around to posting it.

2011-10-09T17:39:00.000-07:00

Limited Color Palette
Ron at work suggested that I try a limited palette. This was done at work during lunch break.

Hardly anytime to paint this weekend! :(

2011-10-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

A little overworked. Speed painting 101, because now I have to make lunch and run kids to the dentist...will try to finish the other painting...

2011-10-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

Did this underpainting at work. Established the tone, mood, lighting in 25 minutes. The rest should be cake.

2011-10-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

Sneak Peak for Next Week!

This is how I start, big bold strokes, values, color. I had some left over color on the palette and I hate wasting, so I knocked out this underpainting. See you next week! :)

2011-10-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

A day late, but worth the wait..

The figure on the right should have been about 25% bigger, but the mosaic of colors turned out so nice I did not resize it. Autumn colors, Siennas, yellow oxides mixed with purples, lavendars.

For those of you new to my blog, welcome! I am studying filmshots from different movies. How do you tell the story with warm and cool colors? By layout, composition, camera angle, lighting, emotion? What was the director thinking? Was it successful? Was it not?

These are all acrylic studies, some no bigger than a postcard, some smaller, in a pocket sized sketchbook. They can take anywhere from 20 mins to 3 hours (esp. if there are more than 2 figures or I am having a bad day). Ultimately, I will be taking this paint style to Photoshop using quick, colorful, casual and energetic and emotive brushstrokes to story telling illustrations. And ultimately, ultimately will take this to large canvas, original work inspired by those of the Golden Age of Illustration, the large kind of work you don't see anymore.

2011-10-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

October Gorgeousness:

So many good color harmonies in this one, could give love to it all day...Will attempt to get another one out today!

This horse in this film is just beautiful to look at. Been wanting to do this shot for a long time..

2011-09-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

Despite a busy weekend, I managed to get these out. Painted in my new sketchbook, which has crap for paper, but I will fill this and trade out for one with better paper; hopefully. I love the New World shot colors; the charcoal black and greys are actually a base mix of Thalo Green and Alizarine Crimson and variations of red oxide, light blue violet, thalo blue, dioxe purple, burnt umber, cerulean blue and titanium white. Was able to get some wonderful color harmonies against a saturated green backdrop.

2011-09-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

Struggling to find a good paper book to paint in:
The Hidalgo shot is a sketchbook I found at an art sale at Swain's yesterday and the blue shot is done on a watercolor sketchbook from Japan. The watercolor surface with acrylics drove me crazy, but it's worth revisiting again because the paper is so thick and strong. It's really hard to find the kind of book that I need: it has to be proportioned so that it accommodates a wide screen format with extra room on the side for a color pallette, (has to be small and light enough to carry in my backpack) pages have to be thick enough to support acrylic paint and I would prefer a tooth to the surface, not as rough as the watercolor paper which absorbs too much. The best surface is the Strathmore Bristol Vellum surface but that comes in a pad. It seems whenever I switch papers, it's like learning to paint all over again!

2011-09-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

STRONG TO THE FINISH
This is the last entry in my Color Journal Sketchbook. The book is now complete; one of the most impressive collection of work in a sketchbook I have ever done. I will now leap to a new one, a Multi-Drawing Book for Water color and multi-media from Japan which has more tooth to the surface. It is more of a binder than a book and much lighter to carry. This was actually finished on Saturday, but I am just now getting around to posting it.

2011-09-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Where Have I Been?
Okay~about a month ago I had so many obligations and responsibilities and did not get a chance to paint; let alone think about it. Then the next weekend comes around and my daughter won't stop talking while I try to work. Also the heat melts my brain. Labor Day comes around and I think: Wow! Three days to paint! And BAM! my daughter comes home from school and gives me her cold. We are laid out for 2 of the 3 day weekend. Monday we go to the beach and there goes the weekend. This weekend, my daughter does something to the computer and it won't leave a high magnification mode and makes it really difficult to navigate the computer (which holds all my screen shots!) when finally her friend's mother said try turning off the Universal Access toggle. The Universal what? We found it under the Apple Icon, System Preferences and suddenly I am back in business!!

Thru this forced Hiatus, I found myself back to square one; like I'm starting all over again. This one's done on Strathmore Vellum pad, again from The New World. And this one's for my Dad. Sorry I gave away the Sheik painting, Pop, if I knew you liked it so much, I would have given it to you!

2011-08-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

NEW WORLD DRAMA

Chief Powhatan and friend discuss the fate of the smelly Englishman, John Smith in a bizarre and frightening scene.

Okay~I struggled with this one. High contrast, no saturated colors, it was an exercise in purples and oranges. It was hard to make the color harmonies interesting and not go flat. Or maybe it was just one of those days when painting is an uphill battle...Also I am coming to the end of this book so part of the scans are now out of focus...

2011-08-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

New World

This is truly one of my favorite films, very introspective and spiritual. I love this segment of the story; it is very sensual and tender. I always cry when I watch it. I love Terence Malick's statement about the intensity of emotion and complexity of relationships and his portrayal of the beauty and power of nature. Not a film for everyone, however, it puts my husband to sleep.

Lots of beautiful color harmonies here, purples mixed with yellows and oranges, purples in the shadows, lots of muted colors.

2011-07-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

Before there was painting, pen and digital, there was the pencil, for me. It is my favorite tool even to this day and I don't get to do it even that often anymore. My favorite pencil is Prisma and these are done with "Steel" color. Goes on like lead but you can't erase and it does not smear. These are drawings from a great black and white book I bought from the Swap meet a few weeks ago called A Pictorial History of the American Theatre 100 Years 1860 1960 by Daniel Blum. Great pictures of the actors back then and the costumes are incredible. These are folds and clothing studies.

2011-07-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

This shot was in the same scene as the previous. I just love the colors. For a friend.

2011-07-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

BACK FROM THE CON:

THANK YOU for all those who were kind enough to look at my color journal. The response was really good. And especially thank you to the folks at Riot Games who saw me at the end of the day, even tho my name was at the end of your list, past the "cut off" time. You were kind enough to sit down with me, and take the time to have a look. I was not expecting to do any portfolio reviews, swallowed my nervousness, after watching you view other portfolios on iPads, iPhones, beautiful book portfolios, and here I was, marching in with an old fashion book, a female among the tide of young male Photoshoppers...it must of have been an surprise and it must have been refreshing. And those sitting next to me, eyeing the competition were awfully nice too..

Done on Strathmore Bristol Vellum for another friend. Acrylic. It was heaven to finally incorporate such cool reds as Quinacridone Violet, Deep Magenta, Quinacridone Blue Violet; fun to explore with the turbined guy on the left. Another best.

2011-07-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

And one for me in my color journal. I really struggled with this. I think I have been just hot and tired lately and it shows. The heat kills me..

2011-07-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Smaller than usual, acrylic, 3"x4 1/2" on Strathmore Bristol Vellum for a friend. I don't usually give paintings away, but have been getting a lot of requests from friends. This paper is much more porous, really showcases the brushstrokes well. Glides, rather than skitters accross the surface. Scanned dark, yet another bad scan!

2011-07-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

Goat study for the Eohippus on LePardine's shoulders. It came out so nice I decided to post it.

2011-07-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

Late night shenanigans...

2011-07-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ruff Stuff:

Inspired from the photo I took last weekend of the figures coming out of the shadows (see last week's post) I came up with this. Will have LePardine and companions coming out of dappled sunlight from a conifer forest. Want to show the relationships between the characters and looking for that strong silohuette, numero uno. The creature on LePardine's shoulders is a Eohippus, the Dawn Horse.

I've included a single unobstructed view of my character, LePardine so you can see the nice silohuette working here...

2011-07-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

One of the best entries...and horrible scan. The skin tones are wonderful in the original.

2011-07-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

Zoo Drawings!

On a rare trip I actually got out of the house, treated myself to a visit to the zoo with my daughter and a friend. Because I am such a fan of Natural History and I like to draw inventive animal figures, sketching at the zoo was cake. The variety of shapes, silohuettes, and the rhythm of anatomy is just astounding. I have not drawn at the zoo in years. I was focused on strange lesser known animals and am just floored at what I did not know existed in the world of mammals. Ever hear of a muntjac, an agouti, a babirusa, or a chevrotain? (And who the heck names these creatures??) These creatures will be models for the World of LePardine, as she lives in the Ice Age World of Mammals.

My challenge while drawing in public was trying to ignore rude children and the ignorant and disrespectful behaviors of both parents and children. I come quietly, draw quietly, and leave quietly; I don't yell and scream at the poor, hot jag pacing fanatically in it's cage and maybe this is one of the reasons I don't go to the zoo much. Also I have a big problem with blood sugar levels; my line is fluid and accurate in the morning and quickly disintegrates as the day goes on. Thus, I can count on 2 solid hours of real good work while out in the field sketching.

Drawn with a ball point pen in my color journal. My favorite tool? A Hello Kitty fine point which has dependable and fluid ink.

2011-07-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

I also liked the way the figures are coming out of the shadows.

These were taken with an old Samsung phone which I only use to take quick shots. At the time we could not get any reception with ATT but the camera phone takes great photos. I was happy with the features on the phone except I could not call anyone!

2011-07-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

Exploring Color
I took these on the way home yesterday. A colorist's dream. On Highway 101 there was this place called Gilroy Gardens and we stopped to buy a pot. I am always on the look out for anything visual; anything that resonates with what I am learning. If I can't stop to paint I take a photo.

The top photo is unaltered. I love the way the light blue highlight came out; it is one of my favorite colors these days and you will see a lot of it in my paintings. It looks like I messed with it in Photoshop but I did not.

In the second shot from the top there is a photo of the violet pots. Top left pot has a reflection of two pots~this is my favorite part of the photo. It's just a reflection but it looks so cool I could not have done a better job painting it myself.

2011-07-11T12:08:00.000-07:00

Took a trip to the Bay Area and back. Painted these at the Mother-In-Law's house. Both hardly took time at all. You can see the casualness of the brushstrokes, confidence building. I'm getting to a point where I know where to stop and how to address the over all picture in a consistent manner. I work the entire image then focus on the areas I want to suggest a little more selective detail. But it takes experience, I'm finding, restraining oneself to a level that the painting reads well and does not need to have anymore done with it and still looks good. Do not over bake, do not overcook, so to speak; put the brush down; you are done; etc.

2011-07-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

Underpainting...

2011-07-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Chuck, Arnel, Michael, John, Helen, Kelly, Ravenstone, and Miller, thank you for signing up as followers. You guys rock! I am filled with gratitude! Keep drawing, painting, creating and reach for stars!

Kim

2011-07-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

Spent way too much time on this. Another bad scan; the original looks so much better. You have to have good drawing skills for this one. Viggo's chiseled face was so much fun to paint!

2011-07-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

Beginnings.

10 minute block in from remaining pallette. Still even looser. Will try to get back tomorrow. Gotta help with dinner now..

2011-07-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

Return to this great looking fellow. I'm going to try to get more shots of him; he's just delicious to paint. Feeling more confident; color mixing really coming along and I am learning to trust myself more; dragging the brush now!

Roughly 5 1/2" x 4" on thick moleskin paper (bound sketch book), acrylic. Had started blocking this one in a few days ago, finished it today. A little over an hour total. Pure joy.

2011-06-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

More from Hidalgo. Loved, loved this woman's costume. I'm a sucker for that turn of the century look. Loved the peacock feathers below the shoulders and her playful green jeweled necklace which hung at her throat. Too bad the light was so low you did not get to see much of the dress...wah! Spent way too much time on the upward shot, difficult angle. She was more attractive in the shot, but I did get her expression and I would rather get the expression than the likeness...

2011-06-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

First pass: 25 minutes, big bold brush strokes.
One hour later...

And so help me, I so want to start another; reaching for the masking tape...

2011-06-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, painted like ka-rap..today I could do no wrong. I'm going to blame it on...hormones. A revisit to Hidalgo~finally got a program which will allow me to take DVD snap shots!! Yeah! Don't have to rely on poorly chosen screenshots from the internet anymore! This is how I envision LePardine will be painted~both traditionally as well as digitally.

Another leap actually in achievement; one of the best entries so far.

2011-06-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Photoshop is so fun. Stretched the drawing just slightly to elongate the face. Methinx I like this version better...

2011-06-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Husband, child, gone for a few hours tonight. Solitude. Heaven.

Drawing overlay from a thumbnail sketch (bottom left).

2011-06-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

WIP:

Almost, almost done. Will be heading out of town this weekend, so I will have to back to this next week. Now for a frame...

2011-05-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

One more from "Mongol". Desaturated palette. Love, love, love the lighting in this one.

2011-05-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

Thru a good twist of events, everyone left today and I got a rare few hours alone. From the movie, "Mongol". A pretty unsaturated palette, few cadmiums, grey sky; in the peace and quiet, actually got to hear myself think uninterrupted, got to linger and love this one little. 2 hours +

2011-05-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

This was actually done yesterday. Lots of saturated cadmiums in this one. Had gone to Chinatown with my dad and his sister the day before, maybe influenced by the trip?

2011-05-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

2011-05-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

The King's Speech

Was watching the movie and came upon this great face during the last part of the film. This older gentleman had such character, he seemed almost like a caricature. I did not capture how weathered he was, but I loved the colors~I used my new Quinacridone Blue Violet for the darkest skin tones in shadow. It worked perfectly for this; while not an exciting color right out of the tube, it is desaturated enough to give me a more "muddier" skin tone. (For those of you not familiar with painting with acrylics, it is hard to control it's brilliance.) I also used a new brush~Grumbacher Gainsborough 1271 flat #4 bristle brush, which is scary to use because you have no control. I loaded the brush with paint and went for it. I actually had to repaint the face all over again, since I did not like the first try. But because this brush was so bristly (I think it's a canvas brush), it gave me a wonderful random performance, yeah, you probably think I did the brushwork on purpose...I got lucky. This, I think, is my best entry in my color journal as yet! :)

2011-05-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

More from the King's Speech~
Helena Bonham Carter as Your Royal Highness~ quoth: "I don't have a hubby, we don't 'pop', and you will have to come to us!" to Geoffrey Rush, as Lionel Logue.

Struggling with the lowkey, unsaturated pallette. There are not a lot of cadmiums, just Orange Cad hue, and Red cad light. I think I had hit a high with the Vincent Price painting and feel like I am starting all over again. Been hit with a bit of melancholia and I mention this because it comes with the territory of being a creative, but fortunately for me it never lasts for very long.

On a better note, I ordered several tubes of paint from Dick Blick catalog, which had a 49% off sale! Don't know if it is still going on, but I made out like a bandit! Bought a new color, Quinacridone Blue Violet, which I can't wait to take it for a spin hopefully soon!

And a warning to those who want to try my paints when they see me whip out my pallette~I let my daughter use them and she switched the Titanium White tube cap with the Burnt Umber~my white is now contaminated with brown; my brown now looks like mocha...Grrr I am very protective about my tools!

2011-05-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

I've just finished a run of nearly 2 months constant work, no weekends and I feel burned out~and it shows in these works. I finally got to sit down and watch a movie The King's Speech. I loved the cool colors in this film, the thalos, blue and green and the cool flesh tones.

2011-05-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

Horses Taught Me to Draw

Some rough sketches for a project I am working on. I grew up drawing horses. I read every horse story for girls there was, Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, etc. My parents bought me Breyer horses for my birthday and Christmas. I drew them from all angles and so drawing horses come as natural as breathing to me. For a long time, I wondered why I could not draw the figure like I could draw animals and sometimes when I get a block, I will draw a horse to get my brain flowing again. I will forever have this Visual Imprint of a 3 dimensional model horse in my brain. People ask me all the time, How do you learn to draw animals so well? If you want to really learn, you sculpt the animal. I have been working on a sabor tooth cat sculpt which will give me that Visual Imprint.

2011-05-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

I picked this pic because it offered weird color choices. The hair is diox purple, thalo blue and burnt sienna; a terrific color combo which gave me a striking contrast to the warm desaturated olive background. No saturated colors anywhere, all neutrals. Love neutrals. Real quick~20 minutes, if that. Small, maybe 3" x 2 1/2" in my moleskine Color Journal, acrylic. It's a Happy Mother's day gift for myself!

2011-04-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

Practicing restraint~I could have gone on and on with this one. I could have easily over done it, but forced myself to stop when everything I wanted to say was there. It's all there..Quickie~fastest yet...20 minutes? Vincent Price~I love Vincent Price, such a classy actor. A+++ for brushwork, yes now we are getting somewhere, good values, good warms, cools, good neutrals.

2011-04-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

It's truly depressing on how crappy these scans are this weekend...the colors in this painting are beautiful; some of the most sophisticated I've done in my color journal. The trick is to do as many different color and lighting variations as I can. These are Nagel colors; almost all colors are mixed from a color base of Thalo green and Aliz Crimson. Lovely greys and crisp blacks. What I missed is the weariness and sorrow on her face...She looks a lot like my paternal grandmother.

I was working from a bad jpeg and the colors were very uneventful and desaturated. But the good thing was that it was totally open to color interpretation and thus I was free to explore what type of neutrals I wanted. Because of it's lack of focus on saturated color, I punched up the cool reds under the chin, which totally made an otherwise dull pic into a more livelier one.

2011-04-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

Been really, really busy, had some time today, busted this out. I was rusty; took me over an hour and I struggled but the highlighted area on the scalp came out better than I imagined. The colors mixed well, my favorite part of the painting. I miss traditional painting and it's randomness. Been doing a lot of digital work lately and I love that too.

Moleskin color journal, acrylic on paper, roughly 5" x 4".

2011-03-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Pirates of the Carribean~
This one will be the last post in this series for a few weeks...I've got real work to attend to for now. Back to sunlight and to the beach! I love beachy scenes! Wonderful opportunity to paint a wonderful medley of earthtones in the clothes and to play with brush strokes. Used a tiny filbert brush for skirt. Never saw this movie. Rush job; unfinished, being called away to...responsibilities now..sigh...

WHY THIS WORKS:
The background is the most saturated with color and the lightest value, which is a contrast to the figures who are mostly dark neutrals with sparks of diluted saturated color. In most of the pictures I have worked on, the figures tend to be the most saturated and lit up with light and the background is dark and desaturated.

2011-03-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

NEW BLOGGER!
John Quinn got me blogging (March 2006!) and so I continue to carry the torch. My friend KC will be posting photography from a disposable camera every week! Visit his site~see my list of blogs to the right and thank you for taking a peek. kcdurkin-kcdurkin.blogspot.com

2011-03-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

This one was a tough one. No real center of focus, no saturated colors; infact, I think this film was shot kinda dark. I concentrated on the soft neutrals, practicing a several figures in the background sort of thing, an opportunity to abstract the colors into harmonious color. Faces were so small, I could not get the apprehensive expressions. And to top things off, the tape rips off part of the painting! Gotta find a better tape. Also I found this still on the internet. Why does not anyone take better screen shots to promote a movie?? I'll stop whining now!

2011-03-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

The Fearsome Maugua from The Last of the Mohicans
I loved this film. Here the local colors are Thalo green (also predominate in background) and Red Oxide (flesh). The other natives in the background are color derivatives from Maugua, maybe a little more thalo to dilute the red oxide or tinted with a little more titanium white. Took a little more time to mix a more harmonized color pallette on the right.

Pretty quick; maybe 30 mins. Unfortunately, the darks scanned as black; there is no true "black" in this picture. The darkest flesh tones are burnt umber + thalo green + maybe a touch of red oxide.

2011-03-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

Change of pace~from the film "Hildago"

A return back to my beloved earth colors and bright sunlight! Got a little more abstract on this one and this is the direction I want to turn to more often. Love the new brushes! Black people are so frickin' fun to paint~so many colors found in the faces, purples, blacks, oranges, blues etc, and this man was gorgeous to paint, was killed off too early in the movie for me. Beautiful character to watch.

Roughly 4" x 3" on paper (in my Color Journal sketch book), acrylic.

2011-03-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

Scheming to take the Crown (boy, does this movie make us gals look bad!)

These are the steps~
When I begin, the painting actually looks terrible. It's amazing what I end up with, tho. I'm thinking about the neutrals and how I can use them to make the more pure colors pop, which is hard to control with acrylics. This one took roughly an hour because there are two figures. Natural light from a window~one of my favorite light conditions. I'm also thinking about how to organize the brush strokes and just what brush to use for the best effect.

A little melancholia today; being a creative it comes with the territory. Painting or creating helps lift the cloud a little...

2011-03-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

Small break this weekend, had 40 minutes to bang this out, took 5 min to set up paints, 30 minutes to slap color on, 5 min to clean up, then head out to Cal State Fullerton to see Kim Dwinell's Grad Show on Surfsidegirls.com! Beautiful watercolor art! So proud of you, Other Kim!!

I managed to catch Eric Bana's Oh man, what have I got myself into? expression. I have not painted this type of lighting before where there is no direct strong sunlight, but am eager to begin painting all types of light. Also I hate rushing so much that I can't even do a better job with the color palette on the right. Need to spend more time on the mixing neutrals. The last 2 weeks have been rush here, rush there, need time to take a breath and be more deliberate! OK, I'll stop whining now!

2011-03-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

I believe this is when Ann triumphantly returns to court to entice King Henry the 8th into marriage...and dumping his Spanish wife.

I concentrated on nuetrals or "mud colors" and punched it up with a lighter value and saturated color accents. I had once asked fantasy artist guru, Greg Manchess, how you handle something with this much detail and he said to "mass it." So I created several neutral grays into one general shape, then added the color accents~I treated the whole as a color abstract.

Okay, boys and girls, I have to go and make some money...will continue this series when I get a break! Thank you all for checkin' in!

2011-03-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

Eric Bana as King Henry the 8th. He has this glazed look in this screen shot. It may be that he has just gotten rid of his first wife to acquire Ann Boleyn and has just realized what he is in for when he learns that Ann will do anything to be Queen...but I could have it wrong since it's been awhile since I've seen the movie. My biggest complaint about this film was that they had spent money on the gorgeous costumes, great location...and had just about no reflective lighting so that everything got dark and dropped into mud...it sucked a lot of the pleasure of viewing the film for me...

This one took about 30 minutes.

2011-03-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

And painted just now...

2011-03-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

These were done for Nathan Fowkes color workshop.
This is what I learned:
Warm temperatures vs. cool
Saturated color vs. Nuetrals

These are posted in the order I painted them; the top one being the first, ending with the two Boleyn sisters at the bottom. They are roughly 4"x 3", small, acrylic, scans not capturing the power of the originals of course. (Could you tell that husband and child were out of town when I did these?) I also bought better brushes and are getting to know them intimately~what I like and what lends itself to my personal taste and style.

Nathan says that "Great colorists are not born; you develop great color by practice and more practice." He has done a small painting a day for several years, starting with copying every single painting from a western book of paintings and he is simply one of the best colorists I know. (I prefer taking screenshots of movies particularly period films in which there are great examples of natural light and costume. By doing this, I can also get an understanding of how the story is staged, lit, how the director thinks). I also took note that he has two sets of some of the same colors~so that one set gets mixed and muddied and he still has a reservoir of clean saturated color to grab from and he has two containers to rinse his brushes, so he can get a cleaner rinse the second time. (He used gouache in class) He is also very picky about how saturated with water his brushes are. I have never seen anyone who does any of these things. Along with a masterful understanding of color, he has a great feel for brush stroke, two powerful advantages. (See his blog: http://nathanfowkes-sketch.blogspot.com) He told me, Kim, if you do a small painting a day, you will be a great colorist too. Nathan, you just handed me the Keys to the Kingdom. I highly recommend for any artist to take his color workshop. Thank you, Nathan, for sharing your knowledge!

2011-03-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

2011-03-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

No, I have not dropped off the face of the planet...just have a small break this weekend; was getting down because I have not had the time to jump on my own projects. Was going thru some drawings and found these. I had done these during a lunch break at MGA a while ago which had inspired me to make a sculpt (older post). I like bits and parts of these drawings and the central drawing is a young animal as you can see how thin the stomach area is. In a very youthful cat developing into maturity, (and this is prominent in humans as well), drawing a lean abdominal area instantly gives us the visual clue that this is a young animal. To emphasize and de-age the animal even more, I could have exaggerated the size of the paws to make it into an adolescent. I like this drawing because the lines really feel right; anatomy and muscles are working.

2011-03-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

KUDOS!
Several years ago, I met Kim Dwinell at Disney Feature Film. She was like me, tiny, lively, a bright flame of energy. In our emails, she refers to me as "The Other Other Kim" (O.O.K), while I affectionately call her "The Other Kim". Flash forward a few years and she says we should think about creating our own graphic novel, thus concepts for LePardine were penned and Other Other Kim creates "Surfsidegirls.com". Check it out! She is much more on her way than I am, but I will get there. I am so proud of you, O. K., can't wait to read more and buy the novel!

2011-01-28T16:05:00.000-08:00

Getting there....

BTW, I just registered for Nathan Fowkes color class on Feb. 12. I'm really excited! It's at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art for a one day workshop, 12-8. It took this workshop from one of the best in the industry to get this little winter cave bear to come out of her den!

2011-01-22T08:24:00.000-08:00

Back to LePardine

2011-01-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

Eye Candy

2011-01-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

Was in Orange County this weekend and went to a pet store. Saw these hybrid mixes, 2 kittens (adorable!) that were descendants of the Highland Desert Lynx and one kitten who was a Bengal, with Jungle Fishing Cat Dna. The shop proprietor said it took about 10 generations to achieve these animals and the first 2 went for (get this!) $899 a piece! Not shown are the spots, one looked like a Snow Leopard with a half tail (pictured), her sibling, a spotted lion cub. The ear curls were a genetic result of another species of house cat. I was transfixed. I would never be able to get this close to a wild species so these had to do...The Bengals love water and will go after anything in a fishtank and both breeds of cats are very friendly, can be trained like a dog, and must be supervised because they will gleefully shred apart your house. They grow slightly larger than a cat, and have slightly longer back legs than your average house cat. All were highly active, galloping around the enclosure sounding like miniature ponies.

2011-01-08T10:33:00.001-08:00

2011-01-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

I did this one in 2010. I made this picture up in my head. Comments are welcome.
-Sienna

2011-01-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

Clean line, fixed forward foot, shortened glove, redrew eyes. May redraw eyes again...

2011-01-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

First "clean ruff". Need to tie down some slight proportion issues, but this she is well on her way. Will get back to LePardine sometime this weekend, I hope.

2010-12-30T12:31:00.000-08:00

HOME ALONE FOR THE HOLIDAYS and lovin' it

I've always wanted to do a anime based illustration. Here is a rough done by ball point pen. Solitude...I am so much more productive when I be alone..I wait all year for this time...

2010-12-17T20:53:00.000-08:00

Check it out! New Blogger!

I met Michael LaRue thru my husband at Starbucks Coffee. I told him about the importance of blogging~and I must have been pretty persuasive because he listened to me! Not only that, but he brings a sketchbook with him everywhere he goes! Which leads me to my next rant: ALWAYS CARRY A SKETCHBOOK WITH YOU! I usually have 2 sometimes 3. I will carry one for just sketching with a pen and sometimes a small sketch tablet which can handle both pencil and watercolor. And yes, I do carry a small watercolor kit with me. DRAW EVERYDAY; anything that interests you. Michael is taking this to heart, which means he will improve tremendously for as long as he carries and uses that sketchbook. You go, Michael!

2010-12-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

Feed the Blog:
Been ultra busy with paid projects..trying to squeeze in some personal drawing time. For all you artists and budding artists out there, start a blog! I can't tell you how important this is to be out there on the internet! Most people don't want the obligation, and yes, you do have to feed your blog monthly! BUT you will improve and that will generate more jobs! Okay, enough with the lecture!

Onto notes for LePardine: the big cats, Sulee and Luna are so proportionately overwhelming, that I faced them away from the viewer, eyes closed or half closed so that you can focus on the main character, LePardine. We see only her direct look. When I sketched the layout, the cats were so overwhelming, it was important that the story was not about them...and I can see this becoming a challenge as I get more into the art. I've done enough character art to know which character will be the "star" and how to emphasize that on the pose, or gesture. My natural style of drawing is realistic and when I started in the animation industry, it was like learning to draw all over again. I learned the anatomy and the technical stuff first before the emoting thru the drawing so it threw me. But LePardine will be a mix of an animation style, traces of animae, esp. in the eyes and part realistic rendering. She was designed for painting and a quick brush style, traditional or digital. And she is fun, fun, fun to draw!

2010-11-24T16:30:00.000-08:00

Rough drawing of composition. Next will be the clean line drawing, then onto the paint! Been trying to post this but my internet access was down the last 24 hours. Arghh! Technology!

2010-11-16T11:27:00.000-08:00

Working On the color...will get the drawing squared away before the final paint...

2010-11-14T14:46:00.000-08:00

...Which was inspired by this ruff sketch with pen

2010-11-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

Working on this right now. It's for a contest called "Flight" and its due today at 5! I've decided to work a little bit different this time; with pen and ink for the concept sketch, and drawing/painting right on the wacom. Usually I just do the paint on the wacom but I will use the pen tool for most of the shapes, this time it's more freehand. Not a great piece of artwork; just more practice on technique.

2010-11-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

Some character exploration for Sulee and Luna. Playing with expressions and face shapes. Trying to get as much done as I can before the Holidays get here.

2010-10-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

In the Ruff:

One of the first definitive drawings of LePardine. I still need to put the second Snow Cat on the left. She will be reminiscent of an Anime style. Then I need to zero in on the type of light I want. I may go for a semi shadow with a strong back rim light...maybe. People are so impressed that I am so self motivated as busy as I am. But I ask them, how can you not? It's so much freakin' fun to draw, to create, to dream. Friends have been suggesting changing "LeoPardine" to "LePardine." What do you think? Remember this will eventually become a graphic novel for girls. Right now I am working on a Halloween costume for my daughter and I for a party this weekend...

2010-10-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

Pet

Finished. On to the next projects!

2010-10-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

Pet

I'm doing this for a friend who says that her friend's dog died. She was poisoned by someone. Her friend was going to go to an animal portrait artist who charged a lot of money, but I said let me do it. Pro Bono. It has been such a wet day that the paints (acrlylic) took their time in drying so I ended up painting wet on wet, which is something I don't normally do. I suppose that's how it feels to paint with oils and the underpainting looked like a wet oil.

I used to paint a lot of animals in miniature back in the day and then, it was the most striking work I did. (This is not a miniature.) Since then, I got married, had a child, and the ol eyesight is not what it used to be. Back then I really had no real responsibilities and was not interrupted every five minutes and I think I had had more sleep and a steadier hand. But at this age, I must admit, I make better decisions when creating and am more calm and relaxed and deliberate. Age does has its advantages. I will post this again when I am finished.

2010-10-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

Painting in Process:

Much better on this one. More to go, loving those purples and oranges again...

2010-10-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

Roccoco object from the Getty.

2010-10-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

More images from the Getty; same picture.

2010-10-12T15:12:00.001-07:00

OOps, hey, I forgot the Sorrolla!