Goodbye Blogger

Hello, my one reader! I'm sorry I was not true to my word. Let me redirect you to www.audraesch.com where I have my new blog. There you will find my latest and greatest posts and hopefully a lot of great drawing tutorials. Thanks for stopping by!

No More Slacking!

I am a slacker! When it comes to blogging that is, but not when it comes to painting. Now, I realize that I am basically posting this for myself except for the occasional random internet surfer who happens upon my blog since none of my friends really truly read my blog. I would blame my lack of blogging for this but I don't think anyone read it even when I did blog except perhaps Chav, but it looks as though he has not blogged in quite a while either. Nevertheless! I do care about that random internet surfer because my new motto is "Create and Deliver Value"! So my blog is one way to deliver. Other ways I am delivering is my website, Facebook, and Deviantart. Deviantart is probably my better bet, but on that site I need to spend more time looking at other people's art and leaving comments which takes diligence and time. One problem though is that I delay doing this because I use the excuse that I want to wait until I get a good many more pieces uploaded before I start chatting up the Deviants but that's just a staller. Really, it is because I am a big chicken. I am afraid people will think my stuff is crap. I know it's not crap but I want it to be up there with the best. I know it's not there now though I have improved immensely since the last time I wrote. I should not be concerned. I must do the best I can, creating and delivering! For this post I will post my latest watercolor and my latest oil and will try to catch up once a week. Actually no! I will commit to posting once a week!

I'm Not a Slacker

Wow, it's been two whole months since I last blogged! I didn't realize that it had been sooo long. I want to personally apologize to my friend Chav because I know he checks my blog religiously. Well, I will spare everyone and only give a brief excuse: I have been busy working and painting. I have a couple of paintings in between this one and the last one but I don't really feel like going back and blogging about them. I should blog at the time of my excitement (not that I wasn't excited about them, I have just moved on and the latest painting is always my favorite). However, you can see the new ones at www.audraesch.com if you're feeling extra spry and want to do a little more clicking, (I promise it will be worth the effort).
On to my latest painting. This one is of my friend Debbie, (yes I made her dress up in a china doll dress, but she looked really good in it). Even though I was planning on painting her on a bigger canvas, I painted it on a 9x12 because it was Sunday evening and I was just itching to paint something and finish it. (I will paint a bigger one though, I think.) I like my stuff better when I'm in that kind of mood because the less controlled brush strokes give it a texture that I normally wouldn't have. Let me know what you think.

More portraits

Here is my latest. Sorry it's been a while, I've been working my day job. Anyway, the lady is painted from an old black and white photo and the dog is a portrait of Lucy, one of my dad's dogs. Hope you enjoy.

My True Love

I have found my favorite brush and technique. It's called oil on canvas with a flat brush. After all that digital painting, my soul craved for something tangible. I think this was the most satisfying painting I have done in my life. I started out with a flesh colored canvas already dry and used basically two colors: indigo blue and burnt sienna. It took me 12 hours to paint on a 16x20 canvas. The one unfortunate thing is is that I copied a photo from a 2005 Harper's Bazaar magazine, but I had no time to think, I just had to paint (I did change her skirt to a long skirt to make it feel more period). However, I feel truly inspired to continue in this style of painting. I didn't want it to look like anyone else's work as I have felt in the past, I simply enjoyed painting however it decided to come out. Now I want to do a whole series of paintings like this so I am going to con my friends into dressing up in period clothing. Hey, if anyone reads this and would like to volunteer, by all means send me a note.

Being critical

This is what I've been working on this weekend. I'm applying the techniques I used in the last portrait study and I like it so far but I still have a problem comparing my style to others and liking theirs better. Some of my favorite comic book artists are Marko Djurdjevic, Jo Chen and Alex Ross of course. The first two seem to have more texture whereas everything I do tends to be smooth which is a little bit more like Alex Ross. However, Alex does his with gouache which I think takes greater skill than my digital work. I guess the way I'm doing it now lends itself to that look. Anyway, I'm hoping I can get to the same skill level as the professionals which is where I need to be to get the work I want. (I try to aim high :))

Another portrait study

I'm on a quest to find my favorite brush and techniques in Photoshop. I've been obsessed lately and even dream about brush strokes and study them whenever I see a painting I like. Here is another that I did today. I started out with the soft round brush again and laid in the basic shadows and contours of the face, then went over with some sort of sponge brush (it's in the middle of the brush selection). I like how this turned out. I chose the original photograph because of the lighting and the hairstyle. I think she's a little more attractive now if I do say so myself.