[Ian Coltman]

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• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Ian Coltman.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Ian Coltman.

[Ian Coltman]

Hey Erik, nice to see you back at the race track… from the looks of your latest work, I don’t think you ever rolled out of fifth gear!

Thanks for the encouragement… I think we can probably both agree it was time for me to stop living vicariously in your landscapes and start creating my own. LOL. 🙂

I will make sure to check out the Pentallic paper since you recommend it.

Cheers!

 

[Ian Coltman]

Day 81 | Ink Experiment: Finger Wag – reference: Lillias

 

Got jars of Noodler’s Shah’s Rose Red ink and Yellow in the mail today and had to delay the Vilppu planes exercises to try them out.

First mixed 1 part Nightshade with 3 parts of yellow to achieve a sepia.

Then mixed  2 parts Navajo Turquoise with 2 parts Shah’s Rose to achieve a purple.

[Ian Coltman]

This one is really nice too Tom! I like the warm and cool.

[Ian Coltman]

Hey Jessica… It’s nice to see some new painters in the challenge! I think this is a nice start.

I’m really liking the chalice, book, and fruit.

I think that the shadow edges in the vase could be softened and rounded more to imply a matte finish on the object in contrast to the shiny chalice (even if it’s metallic in real life).

You may want to restore some of the detail in the zygomatic region and the temporal region of the skull by exaggerating contrasts between overlapping elements.

The flower coming from the vase seems implied – which is interesting – but I think you could do more with it.

Perhaps most importantly, there is a distinct temperature difference between your warm underpainting and your cooler areas of accumulation… and there is a consequence to that condition… you may want to consider warming up your gray where it’s advantageous.

one other thing… surfaces that are curling back in space (round or cylindrical objects like your cranium or vase) will have softer/blurrier edges than flat objects (the flat face of your apple)… so expressing those contrasting conditions should help.

 

Keep up the nice work and good luck with your challenge!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Ian Coltman.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 80 | Head Geometry Study – reference: NMA The Planes of the Head model (Vilppu layer)

Beaten back by the Rubens study, I decided to turn to a simpler subject to improve my pen stroke and my understanding of the head.

The NMA head plane model is very useful and nicely built… kudos to Joshua and company for their work on that!

I’m looking forward to continuing the study of Vilppu’s head geometry tomorrow.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 80 | Rubens Copy – reference: Rubens anatomical drawing

 

 

This is an attempt at one of Rubens’ anatomical studies. Some challenges you accept knowing that you will fail… the gel pen helped make sense of some of it.

 

[Ian Coltman]

Day 79 | Ink Portrait Experiments – reference: Taryn

 

 

Portraits sketched with 3 Ahabs using Navajo Turquoise, Apache Sunset, and Nightshade inks, and a white gel pen.

[Ian Coltman]

Hey Christopher… I admire your disciplined approach here.

Regarding the washes, I find that I have to dump the ink pretty generously and apply water quickly to get the most effective result. I recommend a medium-size round watercolor brush because other brush types such as hog bristle will not carry water nearly as effectively.

A decent quality tube of Paynes Gray watercolor might be a great economical way to practice washes if you don’t want to fully invest in watercolor paints right now. Better yet, add Quin Rose/Hookers green to warm up your neutrals.

[Ian Coltman]

Hey Erik, I appreciate your openness to critique. You really do really excellent work… and its fun to have something interesting around here to comment on… and I’m always open to your opinions on what I’m doing.

This painting presents another intriguing opportunity for investigation.

I’m in agreement with Christopher on matters of color but we perhaps diverge on the issue of scale. I think you have a workable if not strong composition as-is that would benefit from the establishment of “the moment” (primary focal point) through effective color keys and depth-of-field.

Assuming that if your preference for “the moment” is the city in the distance, you may use complementary accents and temperature zoning to isolate and enhance.

Here’s 10 minutes of color adjustment in photoshop using a complementary magenta to cast the town in the sunlight… notice how your painterly sweep from the bottom right now graduates into the color of the town in a manner that drives the viewer straight to it… really just amplifying the strategy that you already have in play.

Anyways, that’s probably my last photoshop image for you… I learned something from it… hopefully I’m not driving you crazy… but I am interested you fella’s opinions on this.

 

 

[Ian Coltman]

Thanks Brian!

 

Day 77-78 | Pen Skulls Study  – reference: Google Images

 

 

Skulls study done with my new Pilot Namiki Falcon.

I told you all about it… but the website erased my post… sorry.

[Ian Coltman]

Hey Erik, I like this idea… I’ve been considering a connected anatomy and memory theme for a possible next 100.

I also like this page better than the sight size stuff… there is more urgent movement both inside and coordinated between elements.

Not sure about the whole sight size thing is to my tastes… seems like some potential attitude and tempo gets lost in the perfectionism of it all… would you try it again or are you done with it?

[Ian Coltman]

That face is pretty cool! The palette looks very Zorn right now… is that on purpose?

I’d encourage you to get some of that tone distributed around the rest of the page… though that head is starting to outgrow the body a little bit as drawn… standard proportions call for three head units from chin to the sacrum.

[Ian Coltman]

Hi Christopher,

Thanks for your interest and advice! I’m still in mad science mode but all of your recommendations are on the list!

 

Day 76 | Dusk at the Woods Edge

 

  

 

I got my second Ahab today along with Apache Red ink.  This is watercolor combined with two fountain pens using Noodlers Nightshade and Apache Red which appears golden orange in lighter doses.

[Ian Coltman]

Day 75 | Kamala Harris Study  – reference: Google Images

Testing some watercolor hue integrations with the nightshade inks. Also trying to get a better feel for Senator Harris before drawing her into the spread from yesterday.

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