Currently working on a painting that I had thought up last year. It’s still a bit rough at the moment, but the main idea has pretty much been painted out using my Surface Pro 5.
So I had bought a used Surface Pro so that I could paint on the go but rarely used it because it couldn’t keep up with the settings I use on my desktop. The canvas size was too large I found out. When I halved the size to around 2500 to 3500 the Surface is actually quite capable. I can’t believe that was all I need to do so that I could use it…
Current painting I’m working on at the moment. I’m actually almost done, but it’s gotten rather late and I need to eat and rest a bit. So I’ll finish it tomorrow. Bummer. Though I guess that will give me some time to rest my eyes from the painting. Perhaps some things will be improved because of it.
It surprisingly didn’t take me too long to paint Shining Gundam and Domon, along with their reflections and snow. Checking mountains in parts of Japan, there are actually quite a lot of types of shapes. Including the pointy ones that are common where I’m currently at. So I just modified them a bit.
Shining Gundam was the main focus and what took the longest for this segment of the painting. The main form and base colors were easy to choose From there I tried to make out the form to showcase the most prominent forms. But since I wanted to emphasize that the Gundam is far away, I made sure to use more muted colors and as little value changes as I thought were needed. Then came the snow. I felt a bit bad about covering some areas with snow and water, but I feel that really ties it all together. As for the reflections I used the same techniques as with the torii, but I made sure to add highlights to create waves moving away from Shining Gundam as it rises up.
There were a couple of ideas about where to place Domon. Walking in the frozen ground, atop a small boat or standing on the torii. But ultimately I came upon the idea to have him leaping towards it. This I feel really fits the fantastical elements of G Gundam after all.
I made two versions, one where it’s all quiet and peaceful and another where snow is falling. Although I do like the snow, I think it looks better where it isn’t present.
I’m currently working on a new painting before I try to make one or two for Valentines. I’ve actually been planning to make a painting of this sort for… damn. A couple of years now. I’m surprised it took me this long to finally give it a shot. The background is mostly done. I’m actually quite a bit ahead of this but I quite like the atmosphere of where the painting is at this point. Although I can render the painting further, I wonder if that will detract from the focal subjects. So for now, I will leave it mostly as it is.
This is the reference photo of the background, modified to have snow of course:
I just did an image search to find the original creator and it seems to be from a photo manipulator that put different assets together to create this. I found it strange that the pine trees and mountains looked somewhat Western. Now I know why.
With that in mind, I will go back and edit a couple of the trees so that they fit Japanese ones. Among other changes. I wonder if there is a place in Japan that will actually fit this scenery?
The Toori is actually painted already, along with the reflection. I’m surprised at how easy it was to emulate. You guys will have to wait till next time to be the judges though. Luckily I won’t have to edit that part of the painting.
This is going to be the background for a future piece. But I decided to take a bit of detour and come back to it a little later. I’ll decide then if I want to polish it a bit more (the background) or not. I am still thinking of the composition of the actual subjects though, so I might have to edit this background quite a bit. We’ll see.
Was having a bit of hard time coming up with something to paint or draw today, but I eventually did get an idea of what I could work on. But I will showcase that next week. For now here is the background. First time working on a wet reflective surface. Really want to learn how to do them in all mediums.
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