Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sauropod Liveblogging 15: FINISHED (for now)


Here we are with the finished piece - well not quite, but it is as much as I am going to do today! 2:00 am and time for bed. That was a blast, a whole day - 15 hours of painting and blogging. All it needs now is a name: Rearing in the Rain. Umm... maybe. With that, I bid you goodnight.

Music: none, except for the sounds of snoring...

Sauropod Liveblogging 14: Rain Splashes


Dinos in the Rain. Does this work? I don't think it is too much, do you? Maybe need more rain shafts and perhaps blur out the forest more...

Music: I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas, Numb by Linkin Park, Stockholm Syndrome by Muse.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Sauropod Liveblogging 13: Rain


So here is an hour's experimenting with rain. Certainly makes the piece more moody...
Will be continuing with the rain, hopefully not adding too much...
Midnight here in the rainy city...

Music: All Apologies by Nirvana, Better Man by Pearl Jam, Vertigo by U2, Smile by Lily Allen

Sauropod Liveblogging 12: Scales


Scales now...just dots, but they work! 11pm here and craving food. Think I'll finish tonight? That's the plan. At some point we will be bringing the rain. Anyone know the best non-digital way to add the impression of rain?

I am back to listening to music: Tango Shoes by Bif Naked, Grey Street by Dave Matthews Band, 1234 by Feist

Sauropod Liveblogging 11: Spines


Spines were added to the back of the barosaur and need to be continued down his tail. Starting to slow down...need coffee and a kick in the pants!

But the Canucks WON!!! 2-1 against the Wild!

Sauropod Liveblogging 10: Details Details...


Details in the allosaur were added with pen, and its tail has been placed over the barosaur's tail. I like where this is going. Need to make the piece more menacing... Maybe I'll add some rain.

1-1 all tie right now in the game! Go Canucks Go!

Sauropod Liveblogging 9: Mud Puddles


So this time, we've added detail to the millions of mud puddles/footprints. They should be looking more 3-D (though you may need to enlarge the pic to see it.) Time for some dinosaur detail!

Vancouver 0 - 1 Minnesota : End of the 1st Period. COME ON VANCOUVER! SCORE!

Sauropod Liveblogging 8: Darkening

Here I have darkened the dinosaurs, and I am trying to figure out the shading and where the shadows fall... It's a rainy evening, and the last light seems to be coming from behind the mountains in the background. So the shadows should fall towards the "camera," right?

Let's try it!

Vancouver vs Minnesota: Puck drops now! Score 0 - 0.

Sauropod Liveblogging 7: Forest Detail


Added more detail to the background forest, which I am liking much more. I really love the moment where the painting starts to leave Glendon's Ugly Phase and starts to become nice to look at. I'm not quite there yet.

Time to delve into the dinosaur detail. My style tends to be bright and colourful, and I am trying to move away from that - so these animals will be becoming darker...

Vancouver Canucks hockey game starts in about an hour, so I'll be updating you on that as well!

Sauropod Liveblogging 6: More Mud and Deeper Colours


Defining and darkening the ground and the dinosaurs. Need to go in and do the forest details. Had lunch.

Sauropod Liveblogging 5: Mud


Let there be ground! So I've begun to do the muddy, water-soaked ground, as I plan to have it raining. Need some shadows and shading. Usually not my strangest aspect of painting, so I want to focus on it.

Music I am listening to right now: Baby Beluga by Raffi. Sung by Craig...please stop.

Sauropod Liveblogging 4: Dino Colours


So the dinosaurs get a base colour. I had to physically remove the red from my brush for the allosaur (who just has to be red! Why? I don't know!) Trying to get away from the norm...

I am listening to right now: Craig's voice on skype. He's begun his liveblogging, so check him out here.

Sauropod Liveblogging 3: Colours


Began the sky and the base colour for the forest. Think the ground will be am annoyance. Time to move onto the dinosaurs. And get food (already 2pm here in Vancouver!)

Music I am listening to right now: Beautiful Freak by The Eels, Tribute by Tenacious D

Sauropod Liveblogging 2: Background


It is quite hard to see on the pic (you can enlarge any of my pics for more details!), but I have added a bit of a background. Think I'm going to go with a skewed horizon, hopefully giving a frantic feel to the piece. Not sure it is working at all. Perhaps it is just killing the "circular" flow Glendon mentioned in a previous comment... Thought?

It's raining in Vancouver, and it might soon be raining in the Jurassic... Time to put paint to paper.

Music I am listening to right now: She's Not There by Santana, Acting Like a Fool by Matt Costa.

Sauropod Liveblogging 1: Pencils

And so we begin... with basic pencils on "canvas" paper. This is the point now where I need input on the anatomy of the animals. Did I get the proportions right?

See you back in an hour. Next is to finalize some sort of background...

Music I am listening to right now: Cuts Like a Knife by Brian Adams, Shot Through the Heart by Bon Jovi. Hmm. Big Rock theme here...

Sauropod Liveblogging 0: the Ideas Stage


Welcome to ART Evolved's Sauropod Liveblogging Extravaganza! My painted piece begins here, but Rachel's is completed and Mo is right in the middle of his, so check them out. Check here for links to all the ART Evolvers' liveblogging!

My plan is to restore the American Museum of Natural History in New York's famous mount of the giant sauropod Barosaurus rearing-up to protect her baby from an attacking Allosaurus. This scene has been restored many times before, but it is still a favorite of mine and will be a real challenge. From the thumbnail sketches above, I think I'll be choosing the arrangement in the middle with the barosaur facing us and the allosaur in the bottom left quadrant. Just need to decide on the medium: acrylics or watercolours?

Reference photos I took in early 2007:
Barosaur front view

Allosaur in front of the barosaur and baby

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Livebogging 2: This Time with Friends

The end of October brings Halloween, one of my favorite holidays of the year (still trying to decide on a costume). It also brings the opening of a new Time Capsule at ART Evolved - this one labeled "Sauropods!"

With two weeks to go, it is about time for another experiment in art that is liveblogging! With lessons learned through my first experience liveblogging the Anomalocaris, Liveblogging 2 will take place this weekend - October 17 and 18th! Be sure to come by and comment on the creation of my Sauropod piece!

But that's not all! This time around, fellow ART Evolved bloggers will be joining me in this Liveblogging Fest all weekend! Six to ten artists, all creating art LIVE and posting work-in-progesses LIVE all weekend! But where will you be able to find these amazingly talented artist's blogs?

Why here on ART Evolved! We will compile a single comprehensive post containing all the links to every participating blogger involved in the ART Evolved LIVEBLOGGING FEST!!!

Check them out!!!