Topic awaiting preservation: Speed Painting - Insects and Arachnids

That's right, I'm taking the liberty of resurrecting speed painting. With that said, go make something already!

The "rules" ... :

1. You have approximately 30 minutes (try to limit differences by 10 mins, give or take) to do a sketch/painting/model, digital or traditional of the supplied topic.

2. Time dedicated to scanning, uploading, saving, etc, is NOT counted towards the time it takes you to do your entry. Just the time you spent creating it.

3. You can submit as many entries as you want.

4. Much like the monthly sig competitions, the previous winner decides the next topic and the next winner of said topic.

5. Speed painting topics will last for approximately a week.

6. Have fun!

(Edited by synax on 01-12-2005 00:17)

I guess I'll start things off with Hoppy, the majestic leafhopper, in mid-hop.

Your basic pencil on some roughly textured paper that's older than I am. I did it holding the pencil between my thumb and index finger like someone would hold a toothbrush or something. Go figure.
~15 minutes.


Clicky



(Edited by synax on 01-12-2005 00:31)

My absolute favorite fly that's named after a month... The Mayfly.

Ink, ~10 minutes. Not really happy with it - it's pretty sloppy.


Click



(Edited by synax on 01-12-2005 02:09)

about 40 minutes total, felt tip pen in my sketch book -

Excellent idea, btw.

Thanks for bringing this back up

=)

a variety pack -



and a close-up -



(Edited by DL-44 on 01-13-2005 05:30)

Felt tipped pen, ~40 mins. Went a bit crazy and successfully ruined it. Oh well

are these just outta the brain, or are reffs used?

photo refs with mine.

I'm no entomologist.

now go paint something =)

Izz, paint that chrome fly that lives in your room?!

"He's dead Jim!"

Allrighty then, that takes some pressure off!

So uh....

you 2 gonna shut up and paint somethin?



Pierid Butterfly. Ink wash. 5-6 minutes -



Ant. Ink wash. about 30 minutes -

Damn you and your ink wash. I never could get the hang of it.
DL, what kind of brush did you use?
Or your general technique?

most of the brushes I have at the moment can be seen here -

http://www.ssww.com/store/product/sku=AB3617/
http://www.ssww.com/store/product/sku=AB3635/
http://www.ssww.com/product/?sku=AB3629/0&v=paint+brush&i=4

mainly I use the brushes found there because I work there and get a good discount

I generally work by simply building up layers...
- define the main shadow areas, in the broadest possible terms
- 2nd layer, pull it in a level, darken it up
- 3rd layer, get the key dark areas nice and dark
- 4th layer, add back some intermediate stages

etc..

in the cases of my butterfly, it was more like 2 layers...

in the case of the ant....maybe 12-15.

plus touch-ups, of course...



(Edited by DL-44 on 01-17-2005 02:42)

I've tried building up as you do, but I usually end up destroying the paper. Even with soaking and drying paper beforehand. Guess I'm too brutish for this method.

So far, the only way I can get anything near decent is with dipping ink, dipping water, then stroking. I get better results, but still not quite good enough.

The next time I'm at the arts and crafts store, I might have to spring for some good flat brushes. The only ones I have right now are way too stiff and more for ceramic work.

How does taklon compare to red sable and camel?

Thanks.

overall I like the taklon best, really. they seem to hold their shape better, which fits with the way I work. the sable is really over-hyped. from my experience, it's nothing special in and of itself, though I can't say that I've ever had really "good" brushes...

With this type or thing, I don't work very wet overall

I have a plastic tray (it's actually the lid to a disposable plastic container), and I pour a little ink into one end. the rest of the tray I use to pull out the ink and mix with varying amounts of water - the main portion of pure ink stays there...this direction gets drawn out real thin....this side only a little diluted.

depending how dark I need, I either dip straight into the ink, or wet the brush and pull out a splotch to the right value.

that way the paper doesn't take any undue abuse, and you don't go out of your mind trying to get the value right on paper after the fact.

obviously, there are times where you need to lay the water on heavy, and there are times you want to work wet on wet.

for these two peices, I uses really cheap crappy paper, so I had to let it dry in between layers or it may have torn or just muddled all up...

A mixing tray... damn. Why didn't I think of that?
Now all I've got to do is find the time to practice.

Well... it's been a real long time since I touched my tablet. (Mebbe 9 months?) So after a lot of inner conflict over whether or not to try to do something for this thread, my worse judgement got the best of me.... and I did.

You guys certainly went the more traditional route with your submissions. Mine is sloppy in comparison. Thought I'd spin my luck at getting a bit of light... didn't get where I wanted to go. Just kinda left me frustrated.
Small image... no need for a thumb: Bug
~25 minutes... PS-Wacom-Paintbrush

It's definately not like riding a bike.
Good to see a few folks still stickin' with this sort of thing. I was never much of a speed painter... always needed a lot of time to re-work stuffs a number of times before gettin it right, but there's some folks around here that can really thump out some goods in a short amount of time.

very nice.

not sure where you wanted to get with it, but I love where you got to.

=)

Such a massive turnout.

DL, head up the next topic. My suggestion, maybe something along the lines of "red things" or "balls" ...

If I use my wacom far enough away from my monitor the cursor doesnt vibrate which is damn annoying, but I may do something for the next topic, some red balls or something .. I actually did a sketch of an insect type thing but I don't have access to a scanner anymore
The cursor thing isnt that bad once I'm zoomed in enough I did manage to make myself a spray logo for CounterStike Source last night. "BrainWorms" written with worms ..

Steam account is "hughfitz" btw while I'm going on about CS. Well I guess this thread is over so ..
If anyone plays on Irish or UK(better ping to UK servers..) servers I wouldnt mind having a game sometime, I use All-Seeing eye, names always "BrainWorms".



(Edited by Hugh on 01-19-2005 15:33)

Oh, alrighty, how's about this one then:

http://www.ozoneasylum.com/24742

Feel free to work red balls into your work anywhere you'd like.

In fact, they could be quite fitting for this topic