Ian’s 100-Day Art Challenge: Faces, People, and Places

[Ian Coltman]

Day 56 | Illustration concept study 1

A quick digital assemblage of earlier studies.

The girl with the shush expression delivers a more effective emotional tension with the circumstance than the umbrella gal, IMO.

I think she will take the lead role as the illustration development moves forward.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 57 | Body Language Color Study – reference: Monika

Continuing experiments with the CMYK watercolor color palette… also trying to get some practice in with hands before I reattempt the hush girl.

I’m going to do another one with a red as the fifth color.

[Drawer12345]

I love your studies and you can see the progress. I think I’m going try this challenge out

[Ian Coltman]

Day 58 | Ballpoint Study: Peter Paul Rubens.  Prometheus Bound

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Ian Coltman.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Ian Coltman.

[Ian Coltman]

Hey thanks, Drawer 12345!

I’m thrilled if I inspired you in any way to attempt the challenge for yourself!

It is helping me immensely, and I hope it will do the same for you.

[erikdennes]

This is great work.  Very Inspiring.  I especially love the pen and watercolor.  I think I might have to try some myself.

[Ian Coltman]

Thank you so much Erik! I’ll stop by and see what you’re up to!

[Ian Coltman]

Days 59-60 | Body Language Color Study 2 – reference: Lillias

Started this one with the two figures on Friday, and wasn’t pleased with the ballpoint lay-in.

Came back to it late Saturday night with a few beers in me, and added the hand, and the black Pigma punch strokes. Then I went with the base CMYK watercolor palette (Cerulean Blue, Quin Magenta, Lemon Yellow, and Paynes Gray) and tried the addition of Quin Rose for a deeper red.

Untethered by any attitude of preciousness toward the underlying sketch, I wound up turning this into a playground of sorts.. and I think I learned a few things in the process.

 

[Bryan Mccabe]

Nice work. I really like your style and dark subject matter.

[Ian Coltman]

Hi Bryan, Thanks for the comment! I’ll have to check out what you are doing!

[Ian Coltman]

Days 61-62 | Hands Study – reference: NMA image catalog

The family had a serious medical emergency over the weekend, so this was probably more therapy than practice… I did get a chance to work a little more in the green hues and I’m ready to try some additional variations on my base CMYK palette.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 63 | The Box – reference: Monika

My wife’s uncle Doug, and a close friend of mine, passed away today after suffering a severe stroke on Sunday. I have not slept much this week and the artwork suffered. .. so I am taking a 3-day mulligan and resuming today.

I bought some Daniel Smith watercolor tubes to cheer myself up. I have been using Cotman brand yellows from an older tube set. I am realizing that cheap grade watercolors have a substantially accelerated burn rate and often complicate color mixing because of inferior pigment density.

Anyways… this sketch was an experiment with a new CMYK combo using Cerulean Blue, Permanent Violet, Cad Yellow Light, and Paynes gray. I also incorporated a Daniel Smith Irridescent Electric Blue which contains reflective mica grains that seem to provide a deep blue-tinted gold leaf effect.

 

[Ian Coltman]

Day 64 | Tracey – reference: Tracey

Warming back up yesterday with ballpoint, Pigma, and the same leftover palette as the previous watercolor (Cerulean Blue, Permanent Violet, Cad Yellow Light, Paynes gray, Daniel Smith Irridescent Electric Blue.)

The Electric Blue appears to “bling” the shadows with glitter, it also offers a nice blue hue component during mixing. Glitter is not really a medium I’ve explored outside of projects with my daughter but I’m curious and interested in future applications.

[Joshua Jacobo]

These are very cool! I think you should work on bringing more gesture to these. They have such freshness and spontaneity, but there could be more rhythm tying them together. Have you done Vilppu’s courses?

[Ian Coltman]

Hi Joshua,

Thanks for the advice. It’s been a while since I did a Glenn Vilppu course, but I went back yesterday and found some of his instruction was resonating more clearly after some concentrated mileage.

I’ve been a bit overly seduced by the possibilities of watercolor lately and now recognize the benefit of addressing the figure/gesture more directly and getting a better feel for Vilppu’s “map, wrap, and trap” approach in subsequent studies.

 

Hey… thanks for setting up this challenge activity! I was reading George Leonard’s book Mastery when I discovered this thread, and the daily regiment has provided an effective vehicle for understanding and applying the ideas from the book.

Cheers!

[Author]

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