My most beautiful Katie has bestowed a son upon our family, so welcome young Lachlan to our neck of CrazyTown. And yes, I do indeed intend to continue taking embarrassingly memorably photos of the little tyke for many years to come. He’ll thank me, one day.

Unfortunately I never actually had time to do it, and only managed to get this past Sunday to work on it. It’s close to what I was aiming for, though the right hand side is a little off balance for me. There’s some dicky fix ups visible too, but hopefully only if you’re looking for them (of course, I see them screaming out at me. Artist’s curse @;-)

Other Side of the Fence - Acrylic on Canvas

I’ll get a photo up of the Koi fish work soon. It’s been hanging on the wall for a good while now, but yet to actually finish the lily pads and sign it.

So I’ve already talked about ConceptArt.Org’s awesome tutorials in the past, but there’s a brand spankin’ new one that just looks jawesome.

ZhangLu with Jason Manley have just launched Digital Painting – Female Caucausian Portraits, and from first impressions on the forums, it’s mind-blowingly awesome. US$20 too. I’m making a conscience effort to hold out until next pay to grab it (at which point, no doubt, El Coro’s Portrait Painting tutorial will be released, filling me with glee and artful knowledge but nom’ing on noodles all the same @:-) but everyone should totally buy it now. Or even Jason Chan’s Style Exploration, where he steps through the creation of a buff dude in 4 different styles. I’m not entirely sure if he’s going to traverse the video frame like he does in the trailer, but hey, even if he does, he’ll do it while making your MIND EXPLODE WITH MAD SKILLZ!

And that’s gotta be worth the price of admission. And neural disintegration.

Thought I’d give a quicky quick lil’ update on my art happenings. I’ve been diving back into the world of colour in the form of acrylic paint. I believe Shaun Barber’s Oil Painting video has given me quite a good nudge while teaching me a world of things I didn’t know, which I’m keen to apply and try.

First up is a koi fish painting that Katie wanted to compliment the 50″ plasma in the living room. This was started quite early this year,  and ended up going on the wall due to Katie’s demands. It being on the wall gives it a feeling of finality, almost more than signing it, so it has been mentally difficult for me to pull it down and work on it more. That said, not a great deal has been done to it recently apart from a colour change of the koi and a revamping of it’s background to a more saturated colour. I do apologise for the laptop webcam photos, but alas, this is all I have in my kit at the moment.

Koi - Work in Progress

Needing a break from my focus on the koi, I did a study of a mushroom landscape from the Art of World of Warcraft book, which I can’t currently get a decent picture of due to lighting (may post it later before I paint over it). Once that was done, I thought I’d tackle a still life. The first thing I saw in my room was my R2D2, and thought it would be a decent enough challenge. It also is currently a work in progress, though I currently have the paint waiting upon the palette. It’s being created on a canvas that Katie never got around to finish, and promised she never would, hence the blue background. Who knows…I may fill in the missed blue bits and keep it that way. It is but a study, after all.

R2 D2 Still Life - Work in Progress

So, there you have it.

Click for larger image.

Pretty simple black and white made with Artweaver. I did do hair and eyes, and a bit more stubble, but felt that it was overworked. Think it’s a good place to start to get the motor cranking again.

Too many toys and not enough knowledge, so I think I’ve realised. Greg Manchess and his recent tutorial series with Massive Black on his work “Above the Timberline” (Youtube video preview) is an amazing inspiration, and has shown me that I’ve always been a self driven artist that hasn’t taken a lot of instruction, though absolutely absorbed any that has been delivered to me. I still rate my best period of learning to be from David Z during my days at QANTM as it was the real base knowledge that I needed, and stuff that I wouldn’t get out of a Fine Arts degree (a lesson I wish I learnt before it had to happen. Such is life).

I’m definitely trying to pull art back in to my life’s focus, if only just to fulfill the need.  Being successful at it would be awesome, however if I can simply bring it back to being my escape and to experience the enjoyment (and the enjoyment of frustration, so it would seem), then I can be happy at that.

And, once again, here’s a post without any art. @:-P I’ll make a concerted effort to get something digital down until I get a fresh camera.

No work on the site today, so still it it’s rough state. However I put some time aside to play with the Derwent Inktense pencil set that Mum and Dad gave me for Christmas (thanks!), and I’ve been quite impressed with the intensity of colour. I look forward to fiddling with these some more, and I’ll post up what I can when I can. My scanner died a little while ago, so I’ll source one soon.

Stay tuned, weary traveller, for your journey is not in vain. You just may need to grab a cocktail at the bar and socialise with the other patrons til the show starts.