The Speed of a Lost Weekend

Somehow it's the end of the third week in April, and I've yet to make a post.  This would be fine if I knew where the previous two weekends had gone, but I'm honestly not sure.  Last weekend we had visitors down from Chicago, and had some delicious barbeque, but the one before?  No clue.  Clearly I was busy or I'd have posted something, and it has been a busy month (only partly with regards to art though), so that doesn't surprise me one bit.

Never mind, I'll make a post today, which is Easter by the way, or write most of it today and post tomorrow.  Either way works, as long as there's a post out.  And the subject of this post is, as you may have noticed from the title, speedpaints.

Time Taken: 25 Minutes
Software: ArtRage 4

So this one is clearly just a quick sketch.  I saw an image on pinterest, and as I often do I decided to paint it based on just the thumbnail.  Usually when I do this I pin the reference in order to call it out in one of these posts, but I neglected to.  This is the first of three occasions in this post that I do that, which is a bit ridiculous.  That said, I have tracked the image down and pinned it now, and you can see it here. Despite finding it I couldn't find anyone to give credit to.  It's just one of those photos floating around the net.  Google reverse image search has been known to help with that on occasion, but this time it came up blank.  Sorry about that.

Anyway, it's just a quick sketch, and I've now forgotten what I was trying to learn or accomplish with the two colours on white.  I quite like the look of it though, but since I've also forgotten exactly what I did to create it I guess it was generally a waste of time as I can't replicate the look.  That's what happens when I leave it three and a half months between doing a piece and posting about it I guess (Note to self, get the sketches from last year posted soon so you can catch up with this year too, doofus).

Time Taken:  15 Minutes
Software: ArtRage 4

As with the last one this was done in a hurry from the thumbnail of a pin on Pinterest.  This time, while I didn't immediately pin it I did know exactly where it was from, so tracking it down again to share it was pretty easy. Bear in mind this was based on the thumbnail of the image, not the full thing, so while it's a bit naff it's also not completely awful under the circumstances.  Maybe?  Oh, suit yourself.  If you're curious, the guy in the photo is Jordan Gavaris, who plays Felix in the show Orphan Black.  I like Orphan Black, a lot, so expect to see mention of it on this blog again sooner or later.

Time Taken: 90 Minutes
Software: ArtRage 4

This is my favourite of all the speedpaints this time around, because it's bacon.  If you're American you may be wondering what sort of freakish bacon it is - it's British style back bacon, which is completely delicious and a pain in the rear to track down in the US.  I did though, and that's it sizzling away.  This one was painted with the oil tool set to thick and wet, which worked OK, and seemed to work well for the subject, even though it took a bit longer than the equivalent would using my usual settings.

Time Taken: 40 Minutes
Software: ArtRage 4

So like the first two this is based on a Pinterest Pin (what?  Pinterest is an awesome source of reference).  Unlike those two I wasn't looking at the pin when I painted it.  I'd seen the pin on my phone a couple of hours before on my Phone, and had a go at painting something a bit like it without going back to it for reference.  

Obviously I wasn't going for an exact match (I could obviously remember the dress being orange for one thing), and I quite like the result, even if it's a bit rough and ready.  Oh, and as you can see above I remembered to grab work in progress on this one.

Time Taken: 50 Minutes
Software: ArtRage 4

Remember the competition I was entering with the image from the last post?  Well, this time the competition was about cats.  Since I'd voted for cats as the subject I felt duty bound to paint a cat, but I was up to my eyeballs doing other things (this was when I was drawing those Robots for my Son's birthday).  SO I decided to submit a speedpaint of one of our cats (we have two).  This is Cameron.  Unlike the previous two submissions to the monthly ArtRage competition this one got an honorable mention.  Is it ironic that the one that took ages didn't get a nod and this 50 minute piece did?  I don't know, I'll be sure and ask Alanis Morissette next time I see her.  Speaking of whom, do you think she'd make a good subject for a painting one day?  Never know, might happen.

Remembered to grab in progress images of that one too.

Time Taken: 30 Minutes
Software: Photoshop CC

So I just got CC at home and wanted to play around with the new(ish) brush tools and such - the sort of things I never get time to experiment with at work.  After a few minutes of the usual abstract mess of painting one colour over another with each brush in turn I started something a little more representational.  It's not based on anything, and I'll happily admit that it's a bit awful (her mouth in particular is a bit of a mess), but I can't help but think it ended up looking a bit like Natalia Tena, who played Tonks in the Harry potter movies and Osha in Game of Thrones.  Not a lot like her, just a little bit around the eyes or something - particularly as Osha.

And that's it for now.  Yes, I'm aware that six speedpaints in three and a half months is a bit pants, but I've been a bit busy with other art (much of which has already been covered on the blog) and work.  I wasn't as busy this last week, but I had issues with one of my monitors (my new graphics card wasn't compatible with it, so I had to track down an adaptor).  Working again now, although Alanis could tell you if it's ironic or not that the first thing I did after getting it working wasn't based on reference (that usually hangs out on my right hand screen).  Going to be busy for a few more weeks yet, but then, hopefully, I'll get enough of a break to do some more speedpainting and scanning and actual art study - something else that's suffered from everything else going on.

Okay, more soon (I hope), but until then, happy Easter Monday I suppose (since it now is, unless you don't do Easter, which doesn't change the fact that it's Easter Monday, but probably changes whether you give a toss that it is.  Edit: Okay, so it's Tuesday instead of Monday - I got busy and forgot to post last night).