[spooge demon]

I have been doing a lot of oil sketches instead of digital stuff lately. It is a lot of fun.



These 4 heads are 20 minutes each study. Painting from life forces you to think carefully about what you are doing, and limiting the time pushes the issue even more. I just wanted to get the main info down, but ya know, I like these better than if I had toyed with it for longer. So lesson, be careful about your first shapes and block-in, make it correct from the start, and look before you paint.

Try the same excercise if you can. Spend as much time looking and thinking as you do scrubbing paint around.

Here is one of those things I do out around the area. This sketch is pretty accurate, that is what was coming through my eyeballs, and that is all I was after. hehe thats the background I painted the knight sketch on!

[MaLoRuM]

ooohhhh...ahhhh....
what type of surface are you painting these on? traditional canvas or a pad of canvas paper? just outta curiosity...

[palladia mors]

incredible stuff!!!! the oil sketches are absolutely marvellous! woohoo, I'm going to do oils too soon....haven't done them for a while, so it's about time. you got me inspired spooge. thanks for that!

[Collosimo]

Hey cool to see your oil paintings.. I think you have got some nice skintones there..

The one on the bottom left has a blurry kind of profile, silouette actually.. as sketches, then I'm guessing that you are supposed to get down basic proportions, anatomy, description of form, values, colours and lighting..

The silouette of the bottom left guy seems a little undefined and doesn't become clear like a skethc should... was this intentional..?

maybe I'm being picky, maybe not... I'm sure you get sick of praise..

[Elijah]

Yeah these really work. I would say that your oil sketches seem much more oppropiate than your photoshop sketches. You can get so much more emotion in a brush stroke than you can with a wacom. I really enjoy this and wish to see more of your traditional work

[Joachim]

yeah, they look very nice spooge. Actually I've started to do a lot of traditional painting myself lately. Though, I don't do oil, to smelly for my small apartment...gotta get myself a greasy studio. But, it's still possible to get a good result with acrylics I guess, though it has not happened to me yet -but, I find it really peacful and rewarding to sit and paint on canvas, instead of getting my eyes red by the monitor.

but, what I was gonna ask...are these painted wet on wet or do you let base layer dry first ? they look very wet, I like the feeling. Infact, I think you've putten all the nescessary elemnts down, which I guess would make it easy to go further in detail...but I like it this way...it gives a nice "snap", whatever that means

[ May 14, 2001: Message edited by: Joachim ]

[sear]

kickin' ass and packin' class.
i love the 4 heads.


ps: joachim: you can of course get interesting paintings while using acrylics... it dries quickly and doesn't make my family wear gasmasks.

[ May 14, 2001: Message edited by: sear ]

[micke]

You have no idea how inspiring these studies are! I really like the way you work in planes.Fantastic! If you have more of these please post them. In a rush right know, gotta go back to work...

[Sedone]

Yes, I think the key word here is "inspiring". Thanks for showing them.

[Gecko]

inspiring as hell that is.
Janne and I spent a morning oil painting landscapes, and we're gonna do many more trips this summer.
thanks for the inspiration, going out painting is a hassle but definitely worth it.

(klaivu, you better get yourself an alarm clock)

[Blakk]

Sketches are OK nothing I havent seen 1000 times before.
Looks like Helen Van Ick. I think that's her name. She paints on cable TV and does sketches like this in like 5 minutes.
I like the work of The Demon but I think that some of you guys get impressed a little to easily

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[micke]

nevermind..

[ May 14, 2001: Message edited by: micke ]

[Bishop_Six]

Blakk: None of us have said that there has never been or there will never be a better painter than Craig. We're all inspired by him because he IS a good painter and we like his work. If you have nothing constructive to say and you just wanna sit here and make personal attacks against people, then why don't you get your ass the hell out of here. We have enough people like that as it is.

[Lunatique]

I say we implement a ban/suspend function. If over 90% of the people in a thread cast votes, that person is suspended from the forum for 3 days. If someone is suspended for 3 times, he/she is automatically banned from the forum.

Well, just an idea.

[NukleoN]

Hey stop the witchhunt...what, nobody can say they are not particularly impressed? Clearly, most of us are...you can't ban someone because they say something you don't like. Stop the witchhunt already...

Craig I like your work...alot!

[Rinaldo]

Wow, those are very nice Craig. I love the colours=)

[nori]

wow awesome Spooge. I wonder if you start out with a simple line sketch first before painting. I'm pertty sure you don't when using photoshop. I know I would be completely lost without my lines .

[BlackPool]

Hello, Spooge,

I feel basically the same as everyone else, but I have a question: When you were doing these, I understand that you intended from the start that these would be rough. Now if you were going to sit down and do a more finished piece, would you consider still taking this aproach for your first step and then finish it out by smoothing it over and adding whatever was needed along the way?

[Akolyte]

George Lucas, bottom right

Very inspriring, I'm going to go outside and paint now.

[ToastyKen]

Bishop and Lunatique, I'd like to defend Blakk here.. he just said he thinks these paintings aren't all that special. That's hardly a "personal attack". I sure hope this doesn't turn into a forum where the members can't stand any dissenting voice and screams for excommunication whenever someone say something negative about Craig's work.

I came to this forum as an admirer of Craig's work, but I think empty praise is as worthless as empty attacks. Bishop, you tell Blakk to go away if he has "nothing constructive to say". Well, one could easily argue that the couple dozen "Great work, spooge!" posts that accompany each of Craig's paintings aren't very constructive either. "I like the <suchandsuch> you did in that painting," would be more constructive.

That said, I really have no problem with a "great work" post. It's not constructive, but it is supportive and expresses that the poster liked the painting. Fair enough. And when someone said, "I don't like it or think it's that special," that should be equally valid. Not everyone has to like all of Craig's work. (And, in fact, Blakk even says that he likes Craig's work in general.. How can you construe that as a personal attack?)

I don't mean to flame you, btw. I think a reaction against negativity is perfectly understandable, since negativity can be uncomfortable and difficult to take, but I think we'll all be better off if we accept both praise and criticism.

Fwiw, my personal opinion is that these paintings are certainly nothing I haven't seen before from other great painters, but they're still brilliant and far greater than anything I hope to accomplish any time soon. I'm glad Craig is playing with different media, and I'm very grateful someone of his talent is willing to show us his sketches and inspire us. It just doesn't mean that we have to really love everything he does.

[Magpie]

Wonderful.

[KOryH]

Hey Spooge,
Those sketches look like the ones I did in Richard Bunkle and/or Steve Houston's Head painting Classes. Man those guys were inspirational in my youth. Now you are carring the mantle. Thanks for all you great work. keep em' coming

[Gimbal8]

Master Mullins, your art kung fu is most impressive. The wisdom you dispense here at the Sijun temple are greatly appreciated. [bows]

[Lunatique]

It's not that you can't say anything negative, but it's how you say it. It's all in the attitude. I visit another forum, and unlike what happens often here, I have yet to see any hostile/negative/scarstic/mean posts there yet. People are always curteous and polite, even with crticisms.

The other forum:
http://pub54.ezboard.com/bcartoonandillustrationparadise66133

If you are not particularly impressed with someone's work posted, then don't say ANYTHING. If that person doesn't get any posts about their work, he/she'll know that no one is impressed. Ever heard, "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything?" If Blakk had something to say about the colors/composition/value of Spooge's work posted, that's fine. But just popping in here to say he's not impressed is just being mean.

Sorry Spooge, didn't mean to get all political in your thread. BTW, do you use color-neutral lights to light your model? Lovely brush work.

[ May 14, 2001: Message edited by: Lunatique ]

[Frost]

Those heads are awesome Craig. Simplified to the extreme, but the angles and shapes make it all clear... great simplification. Can I be your apprentice?

[::Dino::]

Definately inspiring...I love the way you broke down the planes and values. Great work spooge

[v1510nAry]

great nice to see your branching out, see what ya can really do

[Morbid Guy]

I really like these head studies Spooge, it's nice to see this quick traditional
work you are doing, please post more.

[dr . bang]

Blakk, perhaps you can show us some of your work?

Do you know how talented some one need to be to paint a picture like that? The problem is that you watch more pictures than you draw.


Craig, ignore him, i felt like he offend me more than you.

[poxen]

wow! lovely!
very inspiring.
I have just started to paint with oil to, its real fun. My "special work" in school was a portrait in oil. Its on display now, but i will shoot it tomorrow so i can post it here. i hope you reply..