Painting Garden of Giants
Monday 2 October 2006
The last summer has been really harsh to me. Instead of vacations I've been trapped in intensive work and constant hassle, leaving so little place for artistic matters. A too long period without touching a brush make me unavoidably drift towards a sort of depressive mood, and this is not good.
Going back to painting was hard at first, but at very first only. The pleasure to melt fresh colors, the smell of paint, the soft movement of my wrist caressing the canvas, all those sensations where recalled like a deep breath of vivid air.
Tears of Joy in the Garden of Giants, oil paint version, had been standing there in my room for a long time. Since I made another painting in between, I guess I hadn't touched it up for 6 months. Actually it was entirely covered, but in most places it was still the dry layer, rough and tern. There is still a lot to do with this wide painting, and I'm not in a hurry.
I've almost repainted the whole glass dome, trying to fix some architectural distortions here and then. Although it was really easy digitally, the glow effect on the dome is really hard to achieve with oil paint, and even though it looks great now I'm not fully satisfied.
Then I switched to the first character's features. Here face has been reworked, mostly a second (or third) paint layer, then a lot of detailing. I added grain texture, cracks and artifacts on her skin that is supposed to be something between plant bark and soft female skin.
I also started to paint the tears, shining in the bright light.
The plant's shoulder, here back, some plants where detailed here and then.
The light in this painting comes from upper left, rear to front. Colors in the light have brighter, warmer tones, while in the shadow they are colder (grey, blue tones). I think it has something to do with diffraction, but I'm not sure why the transition between a lit surface and a cast shadow gets tinted with a more saturated tone.
A surface that is lit from behind in such way that the light shines through will have a very saturated tint. To obtain this tint it's necessary to clean up your brushes properly, then to tame primary colors only, with a fair amount of yellow in it to get some warmth.
In comparison, surfaces on which light falls directly before bouncing toward our eye, are much less saturated ( see the branch on the shoulder compared to the translucent leaves?)
Also, to achieve glossiness with paint, a surface must always leave a gap for a brighter color ( that means: never paint a surface with pure white ). The white spot is called specular spot; it is the result of the light source itself reflecting on a highly glossy surface.
By looking at how light reacts on casual objects you get to observe such a variety of effects. Sometimes, facing a unpredictable result, you have to search for physical reasons. There always physical reasons for everything.
However, what's great with painting as opposed to photographing for instance, is that you have a the freedom to cheat, by exaggerating an effect to emphasize another for instance.
Anyway, I could go on and on, but I consider that before I can teach anything, I still have so much to learn...
Going back to painting was hard at first, but at very first only. The pleasure to melt fresh colors, the smell of paint, the soft movement of my wrist caressing the canvas, all those sensations where recalled like a deep breath of vivid air.
Tears of Joy in the Garden of Giants, oil paint version, had been standing there in my room for a long time. Since I made another painting in between, I guess I hadn't touched it up for 6 months. Actually it was entirely covered, but in most places it was still the dry layer, rough and tern. There is still a lot to do with this wide painting, and I'm not in a hurry.
I've almost repainted the whole glass dome, trying to fix some architectural distortions here and then. Although it was really easy digitally, the glow effect on the dome is really hard to achieve with oil paint, and even though it looks great now I'm not fully satisfied.
Then I switched to the first character's features. Here face has been reworked, mostly a second (or third) paint layer, then a lot of detailing. I added grain texture, cracks and artifacts on her skin that is supposed to be something between plant bark and soft female skin.
I also started to paint the tears, shining in the bright light.
The plant's shoulder, here back, some plants where detailed here and then.
I feel like a 3D renderer
While I paint I keep thinking about the light rules all the time.The light in this painting comes from upper left, rear to front. Colors in the light have brighter, warmer tones, while in the shadow they are colder (grey, blue tones). I think it has something to do with diffraction, but I'm not sure why the transition between a lit surface and a cast shadow gets tinted with a more saturated tone.
A surface that is lit from behind in such way that the light shines through will have a very saturated tint. To obtain this tint it's necessary to clean up your brushes properly, then to tame primary colors only, with a fair amount of yellow in it to get some warmth.
In comparison, surfaces on which light falls directly before bouncing toward our eye, are much less saturated ( see the branch on the shoulder compared to the translucent leaves?)
Also, to achieve glossiness with paint, a surface must always leave a gap for a brighter color ( that means: never paint a surface with pure white ). The white spot is called specular spot; it is the result of the light source itself reflecting on a highly glossy surface.
By looking at how light reacts on casual objects you get to observe such a variety of effects. Sometimes, facing a unpredictable result, you have to search for physical reasons. There always physical reasons for everything.
However, what's great with painting as opposed to photographing for instance, is that you have a the freedom to cheat, by exaggerating an effect to emphasize another for instance.
Anyway, I could go on and on, but I consider that before I can teach anything, I still have so much to learn...
Gizmobies painting reworked
Tuesday 29 August 2006
According to Jon Phillips, Gizmobies's CEO, the first month's sells went very well, and he said that I had been the best selling designer "on a per-design basis", but the fourth overall. He was very enthusiastic about my paintings and convinced me to arrange new designs for September 1st.
Jon thought that my painting entitled MosFete would look nice on Gizmobies, but since it's a very early piece of mine the actual painting is full of enormous mistakes. Someone on DeviantArt said once that the girl looked like she had been violently punched in the face. Ouch. And I was forced to agree, and since it's definitely not my kind to snap women I was feeling really bad about that.
So I grabbed my Wacom and started to touch the girl up. I also drew a large extra part of empty background to fill up the iPods' front side printable area. I don't think the girl is that perfect now, but at least she doesn't look punched anymore.
New painting preview
Friday 14 April 2006
Croquis préliminaire et une vue de mon prochain tableau. Là, sur le chevalet, la toile semble pleine; je suis allé très vite, il m'aura fallu 2 ou 3 séances frénétiques pour couvrir tout le blanc. Les finitions seront certainement bien plus longues.