Getting more comfortable with my gouache set

I have been trying to paint more with gouache and watercolor these past few months. At first to get rid of my gouache paints sitting around for 5 years, but now I've had time to get more comfortable with thinning out my gouache to act like watercolor. It's a little more time consuming since I had to trial-and-error most of the way since there aren't many tutorials on how to paint this way. I'm still on the fence in purchasing opaque gouache or transparent tube watercolors when I run out of certain colors but a few more doodles should give me the answer I'm searching for. In the mean time, here are some studies done from some of my favorite artists.

Sketches at Workshop

A Day of Painting

Trophy Hunter

Box Troll Baby??

My Cintiq 13HD + Ergotron LX Setup

So I finally bit the bullet and bought a Cintiq recently after a few years using an Intuos 4 Medium and I'm happy to say that I made a decent investment. The screen was good, better than my 4 years old laptop (which I was able to sell today!), but still not as warm and vivid as my Retina Ipad. But the one thing that really was annoying were the horrible positions the Cintiq 13 stand only offered, thereby putting a lot of stress on my wrist for the next month. It was unbearable pain that I couldn't stand for another day so I opted to invest in an desk Ergotron, but since I had just invested in a new computer/monitor/tablet, my budget was very, very nil.

I did some research for "Desk Arm Cintiq 13HD" and found this website:

http://www.fantasio.info/2013/09/cintiq-13hd-and-ergotron-arm-few-month.html

It had a great idea but I wasn't entirely convinced so I kept researching. I came about a website that posted pictures of an artist drilling holes through the Cintiq stand - metal covering and the rubber stand - and attaching that to a quick release Ergotron Mount.

http://imgur.com/DeVQi7q

It was a pretty good idea, definitely more simple than the DIY easel clamp, but I definitely questioned the strength of the attachment since the entire device relies on the insert in the back of the Cintiq not designed for a vesa mount of any kind.

I saw another commenter post a similar design but rather than drilling holes, he/she used double sided adhesive to stick to the back of the Cintiq. I couldn't help but worry of the same problem the drill solution had. So I decided to go with the easel clamp solution since it felt the most secure and in the end, best resale value if I ever needed to upgrade.

Since I was on a very cheap budget, I had to settle for the minimal supplies as best I could and use what I had on hand, even though the original idea was fairly cheap to begin with. So I opted to skip the IKEA handle, rubber hose clips, and rubber stand at the bottom, mostly because I couldn't find the rubber hose clips locally and I didn't want to order it if I really didn't need it. I chose to reuse the base that the easel came with and did a little more hacking/sawing than Oliver Wetter initially did. I also took the extra wood from the remaining base and nailed in place a proper backing to the easel clamp so the Ergotron holes would fit all four corners for a more secure attachment.

I had to figure out a solution for some grip on the tablet because unlike Oliver's video when he tilted to portrait mode, mine did not stay put. After narrowing down a few solutions, I decided to either velcro strip, foam, or double-sided tape the thing. I initially wanted to velcro strip the top and bottom of the tablet on the very edge but deducted that perhaps that thin strip would not hold the 4 lb tablet in place. I would have probably needed to use all four entire strips in order to hold the equivalent weight with little real estate to work with. Tape worked, but I definitely had trouble getting the tape to stick longer than 2 seconds without falling off. Foam solution was the only sensible solution left, but since I was cheap, I decided to look for foam around the apartment I could use. I instead ran into my old DIY project supplies and felt a foamy sponge would do the trick - hence the sponge listed in my supplies list below. I can now tilt the tablet to portrait mode and paint with a little more relief.

In the end I think I spent a little less than what Oliver spent and I think it still does the job - $8 dollars compared to $19-31 that Oliver estimated, not including the desk arm.

HP Brand Ergotron LX Arm - [Amazon] $93
Mini Easel - [Dickblick] $8
2x Black Markers\Sharpie - Leftover from art class [Dickblick] $0
4x Screws - Leftover from Portrait Frames [Aaron Brothers] $0
Sponge - Leftover from previous DIY project [Walgreens] $0

Oh and I re-stuffed my mouse wrist pad with unpaired old socks so money saved again! :)

To Angel Island and Back Again...to Off the Grid

My coworkers and I took the day off from work and toured Angel Island in San Francisco, my neck of the woods - finally! We took a ferry boat from the Pier, walking to the top of the deck to enjoy the great sunny weather we had. We docked on the island fairly quickly and purchased some light snacks to begin the day and off we went to hike.

To the top we aimed, but little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. It nearly took us 2 1/2 hours to get to the top before having to hike back down in time to make our 2 o'clock ride back the city. Not all of us got to the top but I did! Pretty amazing to see San Francisco from that view, I just wish we had more time to paint on the island.

Our hike back down was an adventure in and of itself, what without a map and all. Half of our group finished  getting to the bottom 15 minutes before the slower half - that's me - but we all took the long way around circling around the entire island. I saw some great plein air scenes but most were down at the base. I had hoped that through the hike, I was able to witness some leftover cannons to paint but I guess they took out all the military equipment long ago - at least from what I read at the information building, where we took a snapshot of a obsolete map thus our long adventure around the island.

We ended the tour with some beers and ice cream at the local cafe and I was able to sneak in a couple of sketches at the table looking across the pier. I didn't really have time to paint on location for this boat study so I had to take a quick photo with my horrible blackberry camera. You can kind of tell which photos were mine and those better quality photos taken by my coworker, Julie Ho - thanks for posting on Facebook so I could share on my blog!

After our lunch at Boudin, a few of us went to Off the Grid early to finally do what we planned to do for the day - paint! Found a seated location behind the Off the Grid event at Fort Mason and set up our gear for a quick study. The weather had already turned cold really quick so I was trying to knock in the mood as best I could with my shaking hands - I was smart for not bringing additional layers, even though I have lived in the Bay Area most of my life.

I need to practice more with the first couple stages of the painting using my gouache set. I'm not leaving enough white paper in places that I wanted or I try to tint a color and it goes darker than expected. Oh well, live and learn. I may have to purchase additional tubes of color since it was difficult to get that warm light that I wanted and/or even bringing along my tubes of gouache with my travel kit.

High Noon Light Across the Street in San Mateo

Quick Watercolor Study of One of my Student

I made a sketch of a student painting his mastercopy but I made little notes for myself, mostly color notes and where the light was coming from, so I could paint it later on. I also left the square where the student is looking at empty so I could photoshop in a reference picture - albeit some random reference picture at a lowered opacity - wish I had his that he was using.

Lost In Wreckage

Here is a moment that I liked but didn't quite fit the colorscript imagined, but it feels powerful as a standalone picture. I eventually went with a different version because it makes more sense as a whole film continuity but I preferred this one much more.

Bird Rider

Version 1

Version 2

Personal Project Update

I wasn't happy with how the story flows in my new personal project "From the Heart" so I'm rewriting the story at the moment, literally back to drawing (story)boards. Here is a quick rendered piece of the obsolete main character from the previous old story.

Mysterious Light

Daily Spitpaint: Chibi Ninja Wood Carving A Three Wing Creature

Daily Spitpaint: Super Cow

Daily Spitpaint: Flight Academy

Daily Spitpaint: House Robot(s) .... at the window

Daily Spitpaint: Hippo Crossing A River

Daily Spitpaint: Gun arms

Daily Spitpaint - Fruit Golem Hammer of Destruction

This Pig Was Due

Been trying to fill up my portfolio with new stuff so I went back to some old drawings and finished what I could. A looser painting then the others within that project but definitely showing more if that makes sense. Going to finish a couple more things with this character and finally get to move on to my new old project.

Cache Creek on Memorial Day

Parked myself in front of the valet drive through and thought I get some good reflective light practice in but each car kept leaving. I started with a Camry, shaped into a Porche, and then added some Corvette tail lights and out came this piece of junk.

"Gone in 60 Seconds"

I had a great conversation with a gentleman throughout the piece - good talk Boyd from Vallejo/Pittsburgh/Reno. Great guy and wonderful human being Boyd is. 

After our conversation, however, I didn't get much time for other pieces since the lighting was changing fast and it was just about time to leave so here were a couple more studies.

Goro Fujita Study

Big fan of Goro Fujita's 30 minute spit paints, his work can be found on the link below:

http://chapter-56.blogspot.com/

He did an awesome creature and lighting so I decided to do a study of it, just breaking down the basics to figure out my workflow. I don't seem to have a consistent streamline work process and it's slowing me down - I feel. Plus all the moving that's happening lately and more in the near future, I'm a little rusty. Anyway, here's my breakdown. I actually did a partial study at work using chalk pastels but ran out of time at lunch, a la digital version.

Happy Easter

Just some plein air practicing on the ipad. First weekend of April was free museum passes for bank members so I went to the local Legion of Honor museum and tried to sketch some stuff - what a horrible mistake that was. Way too many people walking in front of my targets and eventually gave up. These two first statues were my first 5 minutes at the museum and in front of the bathroom.

Did a couple of lighting pieces after work parked at the 24 hour fitness gym in Mountain View.

Legion of Honor 

Outside Mountain View 24hr Fitness 

Still hoping I got it

I wanted to do a charcoal drawing to see if I can still do it - haven't actually used charcoal since my fundamental years at Academy of Art. Took a reference photo from the internet and tried to use what I learned about "loose drawings" over the years and apply it to this piece. I only used a vine charcoal, kind of wish I included some white highlights but I got lazy.

ETC Desert Cafe

Happy Chinese New Year!

Ipad Sketches