ILLU5020 - Making An Impression

Acrylic/ Oil Painting

Ewan McClure

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The context provided by the scene in this piece makes the objects present in it more believable despite the clear brush marks and rough strokes on the objects themselves.

George Clausen

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The negative space of the canvas blends into the sky with faded brush strokes to ease the transition.

The choice of contrasting colours give these paintings a believable sense of life to them, while the sketchy nature of their extremities betray the nature of the work. Details are present where they are needed to provide context.

Fairly abstract brush strokes manage to capture a sense of this tree, the effect is greater from a distance, as the individual brush marks become less defined and the image as a whole takes form.

Acrylics

Candlestick Studies

Still Life Of Apples & A Book

I tried to emulate the rough brush marks as a way to describe forms which I feel has worked well enough on the pages of the book, but there isn't enough contrast on the apples for the effect to work as well.

Distance Painting Process - Dagger Painting

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I've been advised previously to stand back and look at a painting from a distance to judge and understand the piece better. So, with this in mind I decided to paint an entire image at arms length. I'm quite happy with how the jawline has managed to define itself among the chaos.

This painting seems to work better at greater distances, which should only be natural given how it was produced, perhaps a larger scale could be a point of improvement in a similar painting in the future.

Acrylic Process - Korra​

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This was definitely a hard-learned lesson on planning out which parts of a painting to do first. If I was smart about it, I would've started with the parts in which are overlapped by other layers first as to avoid having to touch up areas as much, or even at all in some cases.

Working with a partial ground covering the canvas showed the clear and distinct effect that it had on the layers painted atop it.

Watercolour Painting

Alan Lee

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The bright white of the paper really shines through in the river

The use of aerial perspective in these two adds to the scale of their settings.

Watercolours seem to be the medium of choice for depicting scenes of nature, or grand vistas. A very appropriate medium for Lord Of The Rings artwork.

Brian Sanders

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The break-out elements in these paintings are really playful additions that, I feel, help elevate these pieces of work.

The fog effect on the trees in the background with the early morning light just beginning to cut through the boughs adds a magnificent sense of atmosphere to this painting.

Watercolours

Thumbnail Paintings Of Trees Under Fog

This was a fun experiment, building up layers of cool colour washes to emulate fog density.

Monochromatic Aerial Perspective Attemp

With lighter washes of the same colour fading towards the back of the scene I created, albeit a rather sudden and dramatic, aerial perspective elements to suggest a sense of distance.

I desperately need to develop the patience required to work with watercolours, or get something to dry them quicker...

Layer Process - Desert Stones

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Working on three separate scenes along side each other allowed me to work on one whilst the other two dried. This also allowed me to try some variations with a very direct visual comparison.

I'll have to look into alternative methods of masking and fastening my watercolour pieces, as so far gum strip and my current masking tape have caused quite a few issues with tearing. Also my set of watercolours definitely need an upgrade, as my current set have a chalky quality to them. I've been told that water colour paints are one of the few art supplies that suffer greatly at lower price points.