More dunes

Here are some more dunes I sketched with my iPad Pro.

Another value study

I have not painted in oil for a long time. I therefore decided to first do a value study (a greyscale painting) before I jumped into full colours again. This painting is the result and I am quite satisfied. I decided to tone my canvas in a warm grey and the result was this rather warm painting of a cold theme.

I was amazed how easy it was to do this painting taken that I have not painted for months. I can only assume that the time I have spent painting on the iPad has kept my skills and technique in tune.

The painting was once again based on a painting of Mark Boedges. I am trying to copy his style and I am constantly motivated by his paintings.

Forest rocks

This is a long overdue post. The painting was made on my iPad Pro using ProCreate and my iPad Pencil. The aim was to get some realistic brushstrokes going on the iPad. I think I partially succeeded in this aim. It was once again based on a Mark Boedges painting.

As before, I used a limited palette of colours. This palette consists of a limited amount of colours with each colour range consisting of 9 values.

Dune study

I have threatened to paint some sand dunes for a long time and finally got round to it last night with an iPad painting using ProCreate. The colour you actually use feels contradictory to actual sand colour, but it is the blues and greys in the shadows that are drawing me. I plan to convert this digital painting to an oil one with the aim of painting some of our local dunes here in the UAE in due time.

Golden sunset in real paint

I converted my iPad painting (performed in ProCreate) of the “Golden sunset” to an oil painting over the weekend. I struggled to transfer the original photo to the painting until I turned to the digital iPad painting as reference. I realized that the abstraction into the digital painting was what I needed to be be able to abstract the image into oil. The conversion of complex objects, such as clouds, has always been difficult for me, but the initial digital painting may just be the key. In the digital painting I can try and undo and try again until I get it right, whereas the oil painting is somewhat unforgiving against mistakes.

I also used Winson&Newton’s Liquin in this painting. Liquin is a resin-like oil paint medium that dramatically decreases the setting and drying time of the paint to the point where it behaves like acrylics. I found this to be important to effectively paint the clouds, which are highly dependent on layering.

Overall I worked on the painting in 3 different sessions and, when I stood back with my cup of coffee, the coffee tasted really good!

Golden Sunset

I love clouds. No… I am fascinated by them. They are undefined, unstructured and simply beautiful. Every cloud is unique and there will never be another one like that one.

I recently went to the website Outdoorphoto and found the most incredible reference photos of South African clouds (the best ones around!). The painting I made was completed on my iPad Pro using ProCreate. It took me about 30 minutes to complete late one evening. I like it and it may develop into a full-scale oil painting.

Another one for my wife

I recently painted another painting for my wife. This is the second largest painting I have even painted (about 120cm by 60cm) and the scale is quite challenging given that my usual paintings are around a rather compact 17cm by 51cm. It is difficult to scale up and still achieve realism. Well, I think it worked. I would have liked a brighter feel to the painting, but I struggled to increase the hue, or lightness/brightness of the work.

Below is the painting. I painted with Windsor and Newton’s Winston oil paints. The bottom image is the reference painting I did on my iPad. It turned out to be a key to getting realism into the foreground and the middle ground (the rocks).

The painting makes me long back to my beloved mountains in the Western Cape in South Africa.

The final oil painting

The reference digital painting.

Ireland’s Connemara National Park

I recently came across a photo of the Connemara National Park in Ireland and decided to paint it. The image below is my test version of the painting and was done on my iPad Pro using ProCreate. I am resonably impressed with the result, especially the way the front, middle ground and distant ground have their own feel, but still merge. I will put more effort into the clouds in the oil painting.

Something for my wife

My interests in art differs somewhat from that of my wife and usually I am not really willing to paint her suggestions. She recently asked me to paint the painting below. I tried it and the outcome is not too bad. I tried to follow a heavy impressionistic approach and incorporated my recent cloud painting experience when painting the sky.

The painting was made using Winsor&Newton Winton oils on canvas board. The dimensions are about 40x60cm.

Mount Kazbegi at sunset

We are back in Abu Dhabi and are reflecting on our Georgian holiday. One of the things that stand out for me is Mount Kazbegi. As the highest peak in the Caucasians, it stands as a guardian over the town Stapandsminda. Having grown up in the mountains of the Western Cape in South Africa, I am fascinated by high mountains and that is probably why this peak has such a hold on me.

On our last evening at Stepandsminda we visited the Rooms Hotel, Kazbegi for a final round of their awesome brownies and apple pie. The clouds were rolling in and it was cold enough to sit under blankets out on the hotel’s deck. While sitting there I took an amazing photograph of the setting sun playing with the clouds around Mount Kazbegi. I used that photograph as the basis for this digital painting.

Please note that all paintings are performed freehand. I do not trace any pictures.