Crankin' out the turkeys.

[Anuran]

"Crankin' out the turkeys." That phrase is in the book "Alla Prima:Everything I know about painting" by Richard Schmid. It pretty much sums up what I have been doing over the past couple of weeks. I have one month left before school starts. I started doing these simple still life paintings two weeks ago and aside from a few total disasters, which I painted over, I have either saved them or taken pictures...Anyway I would be happy to receive any comments or critiques on these and there are more on the way. I will post the disasters as well from here on out. I am aware that the banana's have problems, I struggled with them twice but I am a glutton for punishment and I am trying them again today.

Further, Biggjoee5790 I am holding up my end of the bargain now it's your turn.

[Blackhawk]

Anuran, nice job.

My favorite is the apple.

My guess on the bananas without seeing them, work on your drawing in regards to the shadow and light shapes inside the banana. I think some of the wonkiness may be coming from the foreshortening not being drawn in correctly.

Also, recheck the edges as well. It looks like the entire banana is getting the same edge treatment. Possibly fixing the edges may help that back portion recede a bit from the viewing plane.

[Elwell]

Keep crankin'.

[JParrilla]

Good goin my man.. very nice work. And yes I never break a promise.. Ill be up VERY shortly Keep up the good work.. by the way Ive heard many great things about the Alla Prima book.. I dont paint yet but how is the book?

[dose]

I love that phrase.

There's a lot of nice stuff going on in these. My main crit would be to watch your edges. In "Alla Prima" Schmid details an excellent way to identify soft and hard edges using squinting.

[Santon]

I like the orange...the blue splotchiness in the top-left quad in direct contrast to the orange orange makes me weak in the knees.

kudos.

I know what you mean about turkeys... sometimes I think I'd paint better with my feet and blindfolded

[Anuran]

Blackhawk- Thanks man, I tried to fix some of those problems this time around. You're right about the edge treatment. It is definitely something I need to pay more attention to.

Tristan- I will. Let me take this opportunity to tell you that I almost always find your posts to be very informative and helpful both here and on RP.

biggjoee5790- get a move on slacker. To reiterate what I said in the IM, I found this book to be extraordinarily helpful to me, at my current stage of development. That's the thing, the teaching not only has to be accurate but also articulated in a way that resonates with you at that particular time. This is why it pays to keep revisiting things that did not connect with you the first time. Anyway, my point is if those books didn't do it for you now they might later.

Dose- Thank you very much for the crit. and I agree wholeheartedly with you. I am certainly going to try and improve them.

Santon- Thanks man, you'll be able to see the way I've been setting these up better in this next set. I always put a drape behind them, usually in a complimentary color. I have just about run out of vegetables though so, soon I will need to expand my subject matter and change the setups.


I don't like this set as much as the last but, I learned alot from them which is more important to me. Although, I am doing these fast (fast for me which is somewhere between 2 and 3 hours) I would like to be able to resolve the focal point alot more.









gouache + watercolor test

[Anuran]

Thought I would throw these up here as well because I'm starting to itch for school to start up again. They are not recent and none of them are finished. These are all from the end of last semester. Damn, I'm excited for school to start up again.

[Anuran]

The most recent one...I scraped down one other attempt this week and the third I left at my friends house. I am a little sad to say that out of three days of painting I only have one thing to post.

[the_allejo05]

Anuran, nice work..good drawing..i take it you study at an academy... there is a lot of emphasis on seeing things flatly and thats shows in your work..this is one part of the equation...I think a good dosis of perspective will make your work a bit more 3d..so you start breaking up the picture plane..
i think your eye helps you in seeing anatomy,but know to take your work more serious..start studyng bones,muscles,muscles insertions..so your mind sees it.. I like your study of the eggplant,but you shouldnt be afraid to feel the the surface of what your are painting (this is the natural sensitivity of an artist, that sadly most academics loose).for instance try to feel the weight of the vegetable, the softness of leaves, use thicker paint in light areas..start by putting the darkerst, and stablishing the lightest, up your tones a bit..dont try to match exactly what you see..it will look flat regardless,u alwasy have to put things lighter and darker than they are.
Also start looking a lot at master drawings, copy a few engravings..this will help you give more roundness to your paintings..most if not all the masters could draw with pen and thats a good medium to learn to draw.besides chalk..

[Anuran]

Well, this is overdue...

[Anuran]

[Anuran]

As usual, please take the time to point out the areas that you see problems in. I always appreciate the advice. Thanks.

From memory

Life studies for a 15 week pose


Another Memory drawing


More studies for the 15 week pose





2 hour life ptg


In progress self portrait.

[The Pariano]

Hey you have some nice stuff here. Your brush strokes are lovely and you do well with thin and thick paint. It seems your faces are a bit over simplified. I do this a lot and blame it on not having time but it really is one of the things that you should get right. Your drawings have nice structure to them.

[Anuran]

You're absolutely right Chris, about the faces. I'm taking a portrait class right now in order to try and solve that problem. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it.

[Anuran]

[Jasper_]

Hey man, I don't really have much critique to give, except that I'd like to see some stronger, brighter colors in your figure work. Otherwise I really like what your doing, keep it up.

You may get more responses if you started this thread in the 'sketchbooks' section, there are a lot more people that go through that area of the forums than the 'fine arts' area.

[JParrilla]

great improvement my man.. keep at it!

[Anuran]

[Anuran]

[Anuran]

[donalfall]

Very strong work. Impressive.

[davi]

fantastic stuff!

[Eugie]

Awesome life studies, you make me want to take a sculpting class, and God knows I need it.

[Not_Deadman]

Damn, i really like how your structure and render your drawings. The paintings are pretty awesome too. I can't critique much, but keep on studying and drawing!

[Anuran]

Donalfall, Davi, Eugie and Not Deadman- Thank you all very much!

So our semester is over. I'm already looking forward to the next semester. I'll be kicking off classes next semester by taking a course with a Alex Kanevsky. I am very excited about that.

Here's some stuff from the end of the last one.
The final of the self portrait. It won a special notice in our spring prizes.


This is from a workshop I took with Vincent Desiderio. Another fantastic painter. He was a dynamo. He never stopped talking and consequently I did less painting than I might have otherwise. It was worth every minute.


Some rough self portrait drawings.

[Eugie]

Wow it must have been tough for the female model to hold that pose for a long time in the 2nd painting, I really love the 2nd to last one those are some awesome shadows.

[LisandroG]

Great studies, I would suggest more gestural drawings, and sculpting will always benefit your drawing....keep up the good work!

[Anuran]

[Rostas]

Hey Anuran,great stuff,great paintings and progress too,the realism and finesse is strong in your drawings so keep at it and you'll blow the rooftop(or you're already sky-high XD),nothing to comment rather than drawing more cheers m8!