Blast from the past

Warning: This post has some nudity in it. I hope Blogger doesn't shut me down because of it. lolz.

I rummaged thru my old stuff and managed to find some drawings that survived from my younger days. I thought it would be nice to post these in the meantime. These were probably the first two drawings I made in full color. I copied them off the marvel cards that used to circulate before. I made these two with watercolors back in 6th grade. The paper I used then was oslo paper... it feels like tissue now. :D Oh yeah... in those days I didn't know how to draw very well so I did these with the scaling technique(it involves drawing crosshatches on the original and then drawing each part on a per square basis). The cards were tiny and this drawing fill a whole paper. Imagine my shock when I saw someone doing portraits in Robinson's Galleria and he was doing scaling on the pictures...

The rats managed to get to these two... sides of the paper were already eaten away. :( atleast the subject is still intact. Cammy and Chun Li from street fighter. It was done in mixed mediums... water colors, colored pencisl and some parts in oil pastels. Now those were my creative days. lolz. These two were done in highschool freshman. That reminds me of Heidi... where in the blazes is that girl. My first muse... we used to hang out together and she was always very timid. lolz.

Done during Freshman in highschool too. It was when the Dragon Ball Z craze began. Left to right: Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks and Broli in his weakest form. Dragon Ball was nice for awhile until they started being too powerful and the plots became too redundant... I remember watching three episodes of the Perfect Cell charging up energy and telling his life story at the same time while our beloved Dragon Ball heroes watched and listened. lolz. Mixed media.

These were from the appearance of the Druuna series on the Heavy Metal comics. The originals were done by Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri. He's an italian(?) erotic artist. The comic series itself was extremely pornographic though... I did these in watercolors. I was in 2nd year highschool then... I remember coz that was also the first time I recieved love letters from a girl. Yup... imagine my shock. lolz.

These two I made in Sophomore Highschool. They were the last drawings I made in highschool before I stopped drawing. They were also the best ones in my opinion. The last 2 were copied from Image Comic's swimsuit edition. The one of Psylocke was from one of X-men Comic's R&R issues. I did these in watercolors. I had the last two laminated. This funny incident happened at school... I was in Home Economics class when I brought it out and all my classmates flocked to my seat and everyone was giving the Ooh's and Aah's when the teacher came in to ask what the commotion was about. She saw my drawings and looked at me with disdain as she was telling me that i should not bring "Pornographic Materials" in school. She confiscated them and I had to beg her in order to get them back. After two days she was convinced that they were my drawings and she gave it back to me... After that day, I had to hide in the CR everytime there was an art contest and the teachers would look everywhere for me. lolz. I hated competing. :D It added so much pressure on drawing and I always ended up staring blankly at my paper. Add to that the winners were always abstract works of art... far from my line coz i've always been strongest on the impressionist and realism techniques... I never liked abstracts... not that I can't appreciate it. :P

These were the only two paintings I made in College... somewhere around 4th year I think. The first pic was from an Ad for a bank... I just liked the colors. I did that one in water colors, on a now extinct paper. lolz. The second one was also from the Druuna collection by Seripieri. It was done on the same extinct paper... I wonder what happened to the manufacturer... You could use that paper on anything... Watercolors, Pastels, Charcoal... anything... it even gave a canvas like finish.

This I did about a few days ago. I made the stupid mistake of using a black paper for a snow scene. lolz. Nothing fancy... I did this doodle in less than 30 minutes. lolz.

Return to Innocence

With brush in hand, I stared at the paper

Fear was rising

But it is winter no longer

The colours I have chosen

I am born anew

Spring has come

It is time to paint...

I have taken my first step and though it is an unsteady one I am more determined to learn and master this art. I'm begining to find watercolours strangely appealing... I've never worked with a medium that has a life of it's own. It can be sublte one moment and strong the next... therein lies the challenge. One must learn to tame his medium in order to produce works of art and this is so true for watercolours.

This is the first "Real Painting" I made in nearly seven years. When I stopped painting I first thought of giving away my materials but some part of me held back. Instead I had kept most of it in a small box. Seven years later and my paints were still intact. I guess subconsciously I have always known that I will return to this... perhaps I just needed time to heal. This is definitely a number of firsts for me since not only is it my very first "true" work in water colours but it is also the first one I did with a limited palette. I used 8 colours starting with my base primaries and their complimentaries and an few other additions to darken the colours I chose.

There is plenty of room for improvement though as the colours are too luminous than what I was aiming for. I need to train my eye to pick out the right colour mixes. So guess my journey begins...

Look To The French

Watercolour Painting
by Jean-Louis Morelle
Published by New Holland Publishers

Perhaps it's their school curriculum or the land itself that breeds painters. For whatever reason France just seems to give birth to good if not great painters. This is perhaps the 2nd book I found that gives great instruction on the subject of watercolor.

I've only just begun to read it myself and I can't help but recommend it to watercolor enthusiasts. It starts off with a precious topic that most art books tend to overlook. An in-depth instruction and explanation of color theory in pigments and light waves. Which then proceeds to color mixing. Don't know much about water color papers? The author sites examples of them and even gives the properties of some. Two of the papers present in this book can be found in National Bookstore Outlets (I'm a Filipino and this is our ... well... national bookstore. :P). One is made by Montval and the other by Arches (140 Php? will post weight later). The middle of the book deals with detailed techniques in both wet and dry methods.

The most interesting part and perhaps the one that I liked best would have to be the step-by-step pages where the artists (this part of the book seems to be a collaborative work) show their works and then a step-by-step, complete with commentary on how they did it.

This is a very helpful book on watercolor but like all things in the art of painting... the only way you truly learn and improve is thru practice.

The Red Dragon of Mousillon

In all his glorious unpaintedness :P. I've always liked this model. With the exception of the tip of his lance which isn't very convincing and neither is it impressive. The very curve of the tip suggest that the strain upon impact will be on the middle of the lance's pole which might actually cause it to break. Of course that's just me being overly analytical. Perhaps I truly am anal. :D

I also considered putting this pic here so as to show the size of the figures that I paint. So yes that's how small they are... and yes I can never be a hand model. :P

So what's the master plan with this guy? He is the Grail Knight on a Pegasus that I keep using during my games. I liked this figure ever since I saw the one that won a golden daemon award during games day some years back. I like his helm and the tabard which is actually adorned with dragon scales. I'm thinking I'll paint him with red, black and some leather colors for earthtones. The pegasus will likely be a creamy brown. Then I will also do my first OSL with him, I'll do it on his eyes and reflect it from out of his helm... to sort of signify the the eyes inside are glowing with a green light. Goodluck to me. lolz.

"The Red Dragon as he is known for no one has seen his face, is a grail guardian within the corrupted land of Mousillon. Many a time have travelers been endangered within the forsaken lands and saved by The Red Dragon. He appears out of nowhere to assist those that are in dire need, striding upon his great pegasus mount, eyes gleaming and lance ready. His name has become legend to the commoners in the villages surrounding the duchy of Mousillon. Rumor has it that weapons used by evil men have been stopped short before reaching him. Truly he must be protected by The Lady. He has also been known to aid bretonian armies fighting for a just cause when the battles occur close to the lands of Mousillon."

Feeling Blue?

I finally made my first work in water color yesterday. I think I finished it in around 2 hours. Nothing fancy really... I just worked on the tonal sketch for the real painting that I'm planning on making.

It's a good feeling when you pick up something you haven't done in ages and start going thru it all over again. The last time I made a real painting was after I broke up with my first girlfriend and that was nearly 8 years ago. I made it in anger coz she burned my figure drawing book after we broke up. I would liken myself then, to a firefly with anger, hatred and hurt as my fuel... when the painting was done... I felt burned out. It was the last time I picked up a brush and sat infront of my easel. Oddly enough it was the only painting I had framed and the only paintng that hangs on my room's wall. It's still there as a reminder of who and how I was those days. Conflicting reminders... that I could do anything if I set my mind to it... that anger and hate are negative feelings that one should never dwell upon...

Those days have long gone and my ex and I have reconciled and moved on with our lives. Now it's time for me to go back to what makes me happy... painting. I picked watercolors this time around because I've never been good at it. In part I owe my renewed motivation and confidence to the Warhammer Hobby. Painting those miniatures have been both a learning experience and "a journey into the self" for me. I look at my very first figure and compare it with my present works and I can see clearly how far I've come. It's true that with determination and perseverance one will eventually achieve one's goals... no matter how many times you may fail and get frustrated. :D So now I choose watercolors because it's the medium in which I am weakest and if I can get better at it then I can easily improve on the rest.

I tried making the real painting but decided to redo it. Apparently making the tonal sketch is easier than doing it in full color. :D Still have to learn a lot about color theory I guess...