Speed painting and stuff

[amberdreams]

Today I went to an expressive portraits, speed painting in acrylics workshop - it was a lot of fun and TOTALLy outside of my comfort zone... but then so was the watercolour essentials workshop on Saturday. So what, you may well ask, IS my comfort zone? Heh heh. I'll tell you my comfort zone, folks. It's snuggled on my sofa, asleep.

Back to today though...

I had a vague idea that I might be able to do something for one of the upcoming challenges, and my lovely friend Lois, who runs the workshop, messaged me to ask if I had any references I wanted her to print for me, so I pinged her off four photos of - you guessed it - Jensen and Jared.

For my first painting, I tried Jared. We had to pick a piece of mounting board to paint on, and like my other workshop with Lois, the idea was to have a mid tone background colour you could then use, and the painting would start with a pale yellow to pick out all the highlights. Then the other colours could be added and the darks last. There's no drawing, except with the paint brush.

This was the result, with the reference pic.

Larger without the reference.

I did my usual trick of first making his nose too long, then when I corrected that, ending up with his mouth and chin too large. However, it isn't too bad and looks kind of cool - I like the colours, and though you can't see from the photo, there's actually a lot of gold in there and so the painting has a nice sheen to it when the light hits it.

Then I tried Jensen singing, from a reference by somer. This was less successful (in my oppinion, anyway!) and I haven't got a decent photo of it yet, because I forgot to take one in the art studio in daylight. If I can get a photo tomorrow I'll add it, but in the meantime, onto my third attempt. There was this very bright red mounting board so I thought, hell, why not, and grabbed it for my final, last ditch effort.

Again, riddled with errors but I did have a lot of fun with this - I loved the colours and went a bit nuts with the iridescent paint - which again, you can't really see in the photos. you'll just have to take my word for it, they are there!
With reference

Close up without the reference.


And finally - I took a photo this evening of all three paintings together


Now I have three A2 sized paintings I have NO idea what to do with! LOL Any suggestions???

Comments

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

Ooh, these are very good. The one of Jared is just awesome. I do think that Jensen's face looks a bit thin, but it's still an amazing picture and when I saw them all together like that the muse whispered, 'Oh, look at Jared...standing in the shadows at a concert...pining after rock star Jensen...wonder what their story is?' :)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Mmm I think he looks thin because I've elongated his face (my usual trick)... Love the rockstar pining idea! Hee!

I could maybe do something with that for the J2RB - but I'd have to paint rock star Jensen singing again as that one really isn't good at all. *muses...unless I fiddled with them all digitally...*

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

Doooood, I say keep on keepin' on! Your confident, dynamic marks will only keep getting more accurate with practice. I adore the colors you're using; you have no fear of adding blue and green and violet to hair and skintones to make them rich and interesting! What ground are you painting on? (Golden brand acrylics are gorgeous, btw. I don't know which brand you're indulging in, but fyi, Golden makes good paint. :D)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!
Ah, Golden, yes - I have some tiny pots of their interference paint but their main colours are so expensive, I haven't ventured there (yet). Yesterday we had a selection of brands but I think the ones I used were Amsterdam, Windsor & Newton professional, Pebeo and some other tubes that may have been Golden. Lois uses all sorts of colours and the point of this workshop was to loosen up and not be trying for realism. This is one of hers from another workshop.

We were painting on normal coloured mounting board! It actually made a really good surface - I think I'm going to get myself some more in various colours to play with.

[locknkey.livejournal.com]

Golden are my faves. In fact, after a recent commission I decided I'll never skimp again. :)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you arted! Do you post your pics on LJ? If so I've totally missed that, sorry.

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

the shadows on jared's face are fantastic, and his hair is just gorgeous. and i love the colors you used for the second jensen, on the red board. the green and blue in his hair is really neat.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!
The Jensen pic has quite a lot of iridescent gold and turquoise in it - here's a photo from a different angle that shows the iridescent paint a bit.

[kalliel]

I love all the colors to these! And they're so free and emphatically expressive. <3333 Gorgeous speedpaints!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Yay! Lois will be very happy you think they are free and expressive - that was what the workshop was about! She's a good teacher. :D

[finchandsparrow.livejournal.com]

Your use of colour is so lovely and alive!!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Lois (the tutor) uses paint like that and it's very inspiring. :D

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

So darn cool! I especially like the Jared one with the golden highlights, and the red back Jensen one is so striking! Keep on keeping on - these are awesome!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I've just ordered myself some coloured board to do a few more experimental paintings - though I'm still looking for ideas on what to do with them after they are finished. LOL!

[be-my-precious.livejournal.com]

you are seriously talented!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Aw thanks!

[hugemind.livejournal.com]

Oh, these look so awesome!! With the gold and iridescent paints they must be super-cool to see in RL. ♥

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

The shiny is rather nice at the right angle! :D

[locknkey.livejournal.com]

These are fantastic and from what I understand you didn't work on them for weeks, so really, really good. I think I'd know who you were referencing, but the paintings have their own dynamic and clearly you have your own style. I'm super impressed especially with the use of color. Being fearless in experimenting is everything and I think it paid off here in spades. Jared conveys such a feeling of angst and sadness. The contrast for Jensen gives it such a feeling of confidence and swagger. Love them!!!!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!! And no, not weeks - it was Jared in the morning after Lois did her demo, then two Jensens in the afternoon. I can't seem to replicate that kind of speed and looseness at home though. I think I need more practice with my friend Lois looking over my shoulder and forcing me to go for it.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I love that no matter what it is, you'll try it, comfort zone or not. I would be mortified to try and do anything like that in front of PEOPLE! lol. I love Jared's one, the use of the colour of the backboard and the darks being added in last really gives it an intriguing finish and quality :) Well done hun, all awesome but Jared's my fave I think.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Well it wasn't really in front of people because we were all in the same boat experimenting, so I bet you'd be fine with that. Glad you like Jared!

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

Nope, I am a total and utter wuss of the highest wussy order, lol.

[mekare]

Thank you again for sharing your workshop experiences here. I can totally understand the attraction of iridescent paint LOL. And I really like all three of the portraits, but Jensen's is epcecially striking because of that lovely red-green colour contrast.