The New Artist's Thread (Warning: Large Image Size)

[thestrangequark]

When I was a little girl I learned to draw horses by looking at my sister's toy models.

I like your T Rex, too. I've never painted with acrylics before, and I'm curious as to how they compare with oils. Do you find the consistency of the paint varies with the pigment? With my oils, I add a little white to almost everything, not to brighten things, but because white has a thicker, creamier consistency than any of the other colors and lends itself well to my technique (which involves piling a lot of paint on the canvass). I've found that each pigment has a slightly different consistency, which can make for some challenges. Is it the same with acrylics?

 

[TedShatner10]

K'Ehleyr, you're better at trees than me.

 

[think]

 

[K'Ehleyr]

TSQ you are obviously naturally talented. Your paintings are fabulous and your ideas brilliant. The only oils I've used are oil pastels which I find difficult. I just love acrylics because you can just go mad with them and cover up any mistakes which you can't with oil pastels or watercolours.

As for adding white ~ according to my tutor we are not allowed! You can scratch out to create highights. And black is forbidden ~ you must mix colours instead! When I'm at home I dive straight into them!

Re: the left handed bit ~ I just find it easy to draw/paint on the right hand side of the paper than the left. And forget that if I start on the right I smudge it when I go to the left!

Ted, thank you about the trees. I think it may become my genre
Whilst doing this course I tried doing trees in watercolour ~ total fail. So went back to pencil. You have to 'feel like the tree' I'm off to the golf course where I work tomorrow to take photos and sketch the course.

Think ~ they're fabulous. Oils or acrylics? I really should know by now! I think you're from my school of painting ~ there is no such thing as too much paint on a canvas

 

[think]

Oil, i use acrylics mixed with watercolors to make a washy permanent image like here...

this last one is the oil as it is now the square on the canvas is a piece of foam styrofoam that was that pre-shaped in square form and is just about finished still the rest of the canvas is needing work much work.

 

[TedShatner10]

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Had the plan...

Have started, but my colours are wrong. They don't look as bad on paper as on-line. And I'm quite pleased with the background.
All I have to do now is the stick trees ~ easy

she says...

 

[thestrangequark]

TSQ you are obviously naturally talented. Your paintings are fabulous and your ideas brilliant. The only oils I've used are oil pastels which I find difficult. I just love acrylics because you can just go mad with them and cover up any mistakes which you can't with oil pastels or watercolours.

I enjoy oil pastels, though I've not really worked with them in years -- they're a completely different thing to oil paints, though! With oils you can always change things as well.

As for adding white ~ according to my tutor we are not allowed! You can scratch out to create highights. And black is forbidden ~ you must mix colours instead! When I'm at home I dive straight into them!

Scratch to make highlights? I guess it's the different media, but I'd be completely lost without white! Although, I've never really worked with acrylics, so it may be different. I suppose perhaps she disallows them because, at least with oils, once you've put black or white on the canvass there's no going back.

Re: the left handed bit ~ I just find it easy to draw/paint on the right hand side of the paper than the left. And forget that if I start on the right I smudge it when I go to the left!

I never really though about that. I do go from left to right to avoid smudging, though.

Here is a tree I painted for my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas:

 

[K'Ehleyr]

That is stunning. TSQ if I didn't like you and admire you I'd hate you

Oh I get what you mean with the oil pastels, we were told how to use blending sticks but that just makes it worse. and with no covering up. That is why I love acrylics.
With acrylics and oil pastels we were taught how to 'scratch out'. Taking the paint off with acrylics is far easier and much fun.

The left to right thing is I basically start in the middle and go to the right. The smudging is what we are told 'a happy accident!'

You have such fantastic ideas, I really hope your talent is appreciated with money so you no longer have to live on beans.
If I had some I would so purchased a TSQ original. You will not be hungry for long. Do you have a link for facebook that I could post?

Ted ~ Oh you can do eyes and faces so well. What are you like on caricatures? I'm just looking at trying to make money out of our ability!

Think ~ I adore the last one ~ so much paint . I'm wondering whether to combine mediums. I have the background for my golf thing but don't want to ruin it. Pondering on ink or as TSQ uses, a sharpie.

 

[thestrangequark]

That is stunning. TSQ if I didn't like you and admire you I'd hate you

I showed it to my roommate and she said, "What is it?" I said, "A tree." She started tilting her head this way and that, narrowing her eyes, scratching her chin. I said, "It's abstract," and she said, "OH!"

Oh I get what you mean with the oil pastels, we were told how to use blending sticks but that just makes it worse. and with no covering up. That is why I love acrylics.
With acrylics and oil pastels we were taught how to 'scratch out'. Taking the paint off with acrylics is far easier and much fun.

When I was in high school I used oil pastels a lot, and I just used a paper towel to blend. If I recall my technique correctly, I used to put the color on, wipe it off with a paper towel, lay another color over it, wipe that off, and so on, sometimes using many layers, and that looked pretty cool. I don't have any of my oil pastel artwork around to scan, though.

The left to right thing is I basically start in the middle and go to the right. The smudging is what we are told 'a happy accident!'

Sometimes those "accidents" are the most inspiring thing. For example, I never sketch first when I paint, though people often say you should. I may have an idea of what I want to make a picture of, but I learned a lot time ago that what comes out on the paper is never exactly what was in my head, so I can't get too precious about those ideas. Instead, I choose a base color (for me that's usually grey, since it's my favorite color--even if technically it's not a color), I mix it with a lot of thinner, and I paint the entire canvass. Then I have all these brush strokes and I find the picture in them, like looking for shapes in clouds.

You have such fantastic ideas, I really hope your talent is appreciated with money so you no longer have to live on beans.
If I had some I would so purchased a TSQ original. You will not be hungry for long. Do you have a link for facebook that I could post?

Aw, you're so sweet. I'm on facebook, there's also a link to my Etsy site in my signature. I've not done a lot of business yet, but I'm trying! I also haven't got it set up to ship internationally yet, but I will after the holidays!

I have the background for my golf thing but don't want to ruin it. Pondering on ink or as TSQ uses, a sharpie.

Don't be afraid, just do it! You might mess it up, but then you can always make another!

 

[think]

Think ~ I adore the last one ~ so much paint . I'm wondering whether to combine mediums. I have the background for my golf thing but don't want to ruin it. Pondering on ink or as TSQ uses, a sharpie.

I am of the school that we already know and have done everything we are going to do already, so doing it is just a lesson in the obvious. You, I am sure, know what to do and what to use to get what you want ,,, strange take that last sentence out of context and well anyway, I will be looking to see what you do..

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Oh TSQ some people just don't understand or appreciate
I also tend to start with the object and forget the background! I know now! I prefer not to sketch first but to just see what happens ~ happy accidents included!
I just have to practice more with different mediums.

This is the finished Hole One and to be honest I'm a bit tree'd out now. Will have to find another subject to have a go at.

Think ~ it's just confidence and I'm enjoying the learning process. Hopefully it will come

 

[thestrangequark]

^Subjects are more fun than backgrounds for me too. I don't think I shared all of these yet, they're my Christmas gifts as I couldn't afford to buy any this year:

For mom:

For Little Sister:

For Grandmother:

For Best Friend:

As you can see, I use a lot of black and white!!!

 

[sojourner]

The one for your little sister is kind of creepy. I don't like how the eyes follow you.

 

[thestrangequark]

OMG!! They totally do! LOL! I was listening to Tom Waits' entire discography on shuffle while I painted it, which goes a long way towards explaining how the picture turned out! She'll love it. She likes creepy things. Plus, I like the juxtaposition of the image with the quotation. It's difficult to read because the photograph is a little blurry, but the quote is, "When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully."

 

[Sephiroth]

when all seems lost, and darkness and fear close in upon you, when you are all alone and you sense your own mortality, remember that there is all ways a light from within, and no matter how dark the world is in front of you, your light can beat back the darkness and defeat all those who wish to harm you

 

[Me-Ike]

TSQ, I adore your art (although admittedly, the flowers for eyes theme creeps me out somewhat ). But I love your technique, your compositions, your colors. Especially the blending of art with science is marvellous and, if you'll excuse the tangent, reminds me somewhat of George Eliot who often would do something similar.
I also wanted to ask: you said you only used a sharpie and a ballpoint pen for the steampunk pictures? How did you manage to make the background look so uniform?

I have also been drawing for the holidays. Little cards to surprise my family with.

The first one was to get back into drawing and is for my grandparents.

The second picture ist for my mother and accordingly cutesy.

Lat but not least the card for my brother and his wife. My brother has been playing too much Batman lately and now only signs his e-mails with "I am Batman". He also intends to read more of the comics now as he finds himself unfamiliar with some of the villains. I thought I'd educate him.

 

[O'Dib]

I love how you completely have the different line density down as a shading method. Reminds me of old-school Italian comics. I think, however, that you show work on having solid black portions.

 

[TedShatner10]

Nice doodlings Me-Ike, especially the one with the Adam West style Batman (which suited to the tone of your drawings).

I'm still working on my T-Rex:

 

[Me-Ike]

^Thank you, O'Dib! But dammit, stop honing in on my Kryptonite.

To fill out first drafts in itself is not something I do boldly, I am too much afraid of ruining the picture. Solid black would probably make me faint. So yes, you're right.

Edit: Thanks, Ted!
I like your T-Rex. It's an uncommon perspective, those are hard to get right.