Studies

Some more studies in oils for my life drawing class. About 45mn spent on each of them.

And a longer oil study from life that took many classes to do. This painting is 40"x30".

All are photos, as I don't have a scanner big enough for it =(

IlluxCon 2011

So this year I went to the IlluxCon convention for the first time. For those that don't know, it is a convention on fantasy and sci-fi illustrators. It is targeted towards artists, art directors, collectors and people that love the genre. The number of tickets for the convention is limited so that the experience remains intimate, which gives the opportunity for about everyone to discuss with the big names of the industry.

 It was an amazing experience. There were a lot of original oil paintings. I tought I liked the images I could see of them on internet or on posters. Let me say they reproduce poorly. Seeing those originals was mind blowing. I got to see paintings from Donato Giancola, Dan Dos Santos, Petar Meseldzija, Boris Vallejo; and I got to talk with the artists. I also discovered new artists I didn't know about like Sam Burley (which had a painting I absolutely fell in love with) and Didier Graffet (which was french, and I had a great time speaking my mother tongue with. He seemed happy about it too).

 The show is divided in various parts, first the main showcase which is up all throughout the show. Only top-level artists there. Then there are lectures on various subjects relevant for artists, and workshops with artists going on at the same time on friday and saturday (I had a 3h30 workshop on concept art for films with Bob Eggleton. It was amazing, The groups are limited to 10 people). On friday night there is a smaller show open to different kinds of artists, and the Illie award ceremony is on saturday night. On Sunday there is a sketching day with models. Througout the convention portfolio reviews with art directors are going on for which we have to sign in in advance. I got one with Zoe Robinson, art director of Fantasy Flight Games (she was amazingly kind).

 Without further prolonging this, here are the photos of the show (I only took photos of the main showcase):
 

The Showcase in general

Bob Eggleton, with whom I had a wonderful time at his workshop

Dan Dos Santos, who's red picture practically shined in real life. Dan Dos Santos can make pictures look better by using Lens Flare filters (which he demonstrated in the critcast lecture).

Didier Graffet. He had more giant sized paintings before, but I guess they were sold.

Donato Giancola, who won the illie award.

Jesper Ejsing. You'll probably recognize some magic cards among his paintings.

Petar Meseldzija. I think he's my favorite painter. It's hard to say though, there are so many amazing ones.

Sam Burley, who gave me a portfolio review. My beloved painting is the one you can see in full.

Ralph Horsely who does amazingly detailed acrylic paintings.

and Thomas Kuebler, who does realistic fantasy sculptures. Just look at the detail in that arm! Of course there were many more artists, but I think it's enough of a picture overload. I hope you enjoyed them :)

First oil drapery

A quick post to share an oil drapery study finished last week.



Tomorrow I'll be making a long post with a lot of photos on illuxcon 4, the convention where I went.

Cafe Istanbul

Quick ipad sketch on ArtRage as I was out, aprox.15mn




Sadly, people left as I was drawing =(
Maybe sometime I'll find the crop tool in artrage... If there is one.

Location:Cafe istanbul

Oil Portraits

A continuation of the last post, this time the oils. The two first ones are monochromatic portraits.





The next ones are done with the 'alla-prima' method. First I did a monochromatic underpainting with either Burnt Sienna or Terra Rosa, and after letting it dry overnight I started working on the rest, starting with the darks and then going to the lights. I have very little experience with oils, so all this was kind of new to me.









I enjoy oils, the possibilities they offer are amazing. However, I must admit that I do not enjoy the smells, nor dwelling with potentially hazardous liquids. And it's dirtying.
So in conclusion, I'd like to explore some more with these, but my main medium is unlikely to change from digital. I really enjoy the lack of mess.

New home and Charcoal Portraits

Back on internet... again. It feels like I spend half my life without internet easily accessible nowadays.

We finally got settled in our new apartment. Part of the furniture lost was replaced, and are still dealing with our insurances. In the meantime, the rest of my life keeps going, and I'm fully enjoying my life painting class. We spent about the first half of it doing portraits in charcoal and oils.

Here are the charcoals. Still don't have a scanner, so most of these are photographs. These are or 18"x24".














All done with models. There is definitely room for improvement but I'm practicing.

Flood

I have been silent for a while...again.

My apartment got floodedwhile I was away for a hollyday at my uncle's. It was pretty bad. So bad that the roof collapsed, and that most of my furniture was ruined. Some workers came in the house to evacuate the water in our absence, and while they found one of my cats and blocked it in the bathroom with furniture, they never saw the other one. They left the door open as they were working, and my cat being terribly scared of vacuums, he ran away. Luckily, after two days of crying and calling him he came back and seems happy to have constant food and clean litter. He lost some weight too.

We got moved to a new apartment since the other one is too damaged, and we get to move all our stuff to the thrid floor. At least, no water will fall from the roof in there. In the meantime, I don't have internet for a few days more, and have been too busy to draw much.

I've been drawing from my ipad in my psychology class. I'll post the rest when I figure out how to turn the pictures around on this.

Location:Panera