Impressionic waterfall

I recently revisit the artwork of Tibor Nagy on Pinterest. He has a very interesting impressionistic style where the whole painting is out of focus, with the key focal point being given a certain amount of focus. I like it. The style speaks to me. I therefore tried to copy his style by copying one of his paintings. The result is presented below. I did not achieve his level of impressionism, but I did go more loose than my usual painting style. Overall the result is satisfactory… I can hear the water roar!

Tibor Nagy’s waterfall

Waterfall

My large screen iPad Pro with Apple Pencil is a real blessing! I use ProCreate to digitally paint on the almost almost canvas size display. I paint from reference images and usually start off using a split screen before I would go over to casting the image onto the TV or computer screens.

I am not 100% satisfied with this attempt, but decided to still post it. It is as if it appears “chalky” rather than “oily”. I aim to make all my digital paintings appear like oil paintings. I do not follow a special digital technique on ProCreate, but try to paint in the exact same style as I would using oil. For example, I do not use layers. There is off course some differences, but I try to stay as close as possible to my oil technique to avoid “brush confusion” when I switch over to oil.

Back to the painting: I found the image on Pinterest. I am reasonably satisfied with it as I can hear the waterfall roar!

Rapids and rocks

Since I grew up in the mountains in the Western Cape of South Africa (not too far from Cape Town), I have an obsession with mountains, rapids, rocks and rockpools. The last while I have spent more and more time painting these topics. Here is one I did today using a photo I found on Pinterest as reference on my iPad Pro and ProCreate. I am quite satisfied with the result.

… and some more clouds…

Some more clouds painted on my iPad Pro using ProCreate. The timelapse video is posted here.

Snowy mountain value study

Her is a recent study I performed on my iPad Pro using ProCreate. The aim was to capture the contrast of the rocks and snow in this value study. The timelapse video is posted here.

Rock study

I just love rocks. I grew up in the mountains and jumped from rock to rock in the river. The shadings and play of the colour values on the rocks is something that fascinates me. Here is a digital painting I made on my iPad Pro. I am trying to include the video of the painting process. Find the link here.

Note that I never use the reference image as a “stencil” but that I visually use the reference as a guideline for the painting.

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.