... and a couple more digital comps

Digital Sketch-city3
Digital Sketch-industrial1
digital, iPad Brushes app

Still comping with the old iPad. Playing with tonal values in the skyscraper and flat values in the industrial.510,511

Three digital comps

Digital Sketch-hill

Digital Sketch-city1

Digital Sketch-city2

Digital Sketch-hill
Digital Sketch-city1
Digital Sketch-city2
digital, iPad Brushes app

Here are 3 more digital value comps. I am frustrated with the resolution of the these. I am not sure if it is the Brushes app, which is the second version, or my old iPad. What has happened is the resolution just went kaput! I noticed it while doing these and became annoyed that they now have those jagged edges especially noticeable in the diagonals and smaller details. So disappointed!
It only shows up in the second Brushes version and not the first version which I still have.
Yep, I need new tools.

Other than that I enjoyed doing these three. They seemed to just fall out of me onto the digital 'canvas'.
The hill is based on a local hill here in San Pedro but done from memory and modified. The two cityscapes were done from my imagination.507,508,509

Digital Palm Studies

Palm Studies
digital, iPad Brushes app

Here are some quick studies I did a while ago from life. These things are everywhere!
I didn't need color for these since I was recording the infinite variety of shapes you can find in what would seem a simple singular form.
From fully bearded to spruced up and downright willowy.504

Digital Value Sketch Nocturne

Digital Value Sketch Nocturne
digital, iPad Brushes app

One benefit of the digital medium is the ability to duplicate an image and do other versions from it. I turned this one into a nocturne. See previous post for the day version.

Still really simple without much embellishment, details or textures.503

Digital Value Sketch

Digital value sketch
digital, iPad Brushes app

With the approaching rain storm it was turning cloudy here today in Southern California so I thought I would post a digital value thumb for a change. This is in the same spirit as the marker sketches. It was done on my iPad in the brushes app. I still find it a bit clumsy because the stylus is not very good.
Simple. Black/white with (roughly) two gray values. Four values total.502

Digital Sketches

sketches
digital, SketchBook Express app

Here's some quick iPad gestural sketches done in the SketchBook Express app. I have been working at it more recently so I'm getting a little more comfortable with it. Previously I would work on it then not touch it for a long time, never really getting the hang of the medium. I still don't have a good stylus though. I have tried 2 or 3 and they don't feel as natural to me as pen or pencil on paper. I am still getting used to the way they drag across glass, that tactile sense.

As I work on multiple projects, like my upcoming summer show at Art-A-Fair, I am finding that working on the iPad is a great way to take a break from them briefly while still keeping my head in the game and just letting it flow. If I don't like one, DELETE.
These were done from life. The top one he was watching a TV mounted to the wall at a laundra-mat, the others folding clothes.
It can be hard to work from life and still find some kind of action instead of stationary or posed figures. The Laundra-mat proved to be a good place because even though they are moving they are doing the same repetitive motions, making gestural drawings easier to do because I don't have to get it all at once or remember the action entirely.299,300,301

Digital Value Study

"Street Corner"
digital, Brushes app

Busy, not a lot to post so here is a was-supposed-to-be-quick digital value study.

More from the Brushes app which is still frustrating me, sometimes with what I can't do, so this one is a little uneven. I am going back and forth between cursing the medium and just trying to get down what I do know how to do. Damn.
I just want to be able to do location studies for paintings. Maybe I'll have to wait for a better app which means a newer iPad. My iPad 1 won't update any further and I can't download much in the way of newer apps.298

Night Rain in Digital

"18th St. Rain Nocturne"
Digital, 2013

I've had my share of struggles with the digital medium. I know I only have the most basic tool (iPad) and app (Brushes) for this but one way to help figure it out is to redo one of my own oil paintings.

I look at tutorials and other digital paintings but redoing one of your own slows down the learning curve.

Now I am only reinterpreting it through a different medium. I was involved in the original decision making so I am not also trying to figure that out. It is a more simplified version with not as much of the orange throughout, the colors are not woven together as well, but I do have more mileage under my belt in oils and it was still a valuable learning excercise.252

The oil painting version here.

iPad Landscape Study

"Landscape Shape Study"
Digital, Brushes App

I am still working on various pieces so without much (traditional medium) work ready to post I figured I had better get something up on the blog.

This is practice, exercising my design muscles, done on my iPad with the Brushes App. Drawn relatively quick focusing on the design of the big shapes and simple composition as well as the distribution of soft edges.

I also managed to get some quality of light into it by adding some texture of the vegetation.
I like it when simple drawings 'spill out' easily. Enough said.202

iPad Thumbnails 1

Here is a page of value thumbnails done on my iPad with the Brushes app.

I really had to resist the temptation to get into too much detail since the point was the big shapes of composition.

I put in just enough to make it interesting and give me some textural differences.
The moment I began to get too picky I stopped.

Although it won't replace the traditional mediums I use I like the idea of having another medium to work in.
One advantage is it's easy to pick up and go right to work.183

Click on image for larger view

iPad Painting

"The Lookout" (in progress 1)

"The Lookout" (in progress 2)

"The Lookout" (in progress 3)

In addition to the oils, several watercolors and a commissioned piece, I have been working on a large watercolor recently. It's bigger than I typically work in watercolor so I am presented with a different set of challenges to overcome. Although it hasn't won every skirmish we are at a stand off right now, a stare down, the art version of OK Corral. When I am victorious and the dust settles I'll post it.
For now...

I recently got an iPad and picked up the Brushes app which is basic enough I won't be overwhelmed learning the digital medium. So here is one of the first few experimental digital paintings. Of course I need to keep it pretty simple in the beginning.

I will use it primarily to experiment, have fun, do quick location studies when I'm out and about and stuck waiting. Maybe I will use it for compositional studies too... who knows. First I have to learn how to use the thing, it is both fun and frustrating.
Working in other mediums is good though. It has a way of feeding and strengthening my work. Especially when struggles ensue. At times of struggle it is a way of stepping back from the fray and relaxing without losing any momentum.

One advantage of digital is not having to photograph it. In fact what is up on the screen is more faithful to the actual work. I am usually disappointed in some way in the photos of my non-digital art work.

There is always something that isn't right. Color, more often than not, is the culprit. Other times it is the texture of an oil painting catching those pesky little highlights which read like little white specks... drives me crazy since it is time consuming eliminating them all.

Another advantage is saving progress shots. I don't have to grab the camera and mess with lighting to take a progress shot, just save it.

I'll post a final shot of this digital when it is complete. Not much more to do. Just some little tweaks here and there.177

Click on images for larger view