The Griffin - Acrylic on A4 studio canvas - Full size image here
This particular piece I painted over the last few days specifically with Steemit in mind. I paint as a hobby, and very few people have any interest in a hobby painter's work, so it quite nice to get a public viewing on Steemit. As I said, I studied painting in evening classes in order to learn a new hobby. A large part of the class is learning about materials and procedures, bits and pieces of techniques to get to an acceptable end result. Contrary to popular belief most artists meticulously plan their work and in particular tend to follow a particular tradition of style. One of those traditions, at least in western art, is the use of the golden mean to help you layout a pleasing composition. Other than that, the technique a particular artist will use will depend on time, inspiration, and materials to hand. Your first teacher tends also to have a disproportionate influence. My own teacher taught different techniques, but was pretty consistent on the idea that you have to plan and prepare your work to some extent. This is the sequence I followed in preparing my picture of a griffin for this Steemit post.
(1) Working on an A4 canvas, water soluble pencil and ink is used to mark out the canvas in a traditional "golden mean" pattern. In general a figure that lays along, or follows these proportions, is more visually pleasing to the viewer.
(2) This is a painting rather than a drawing and I want to carve out the space to be occupied by the body of the griffin, rather than build out the body as I probably would if I was drawing other than for canvas preparation.
(3) The general space to be occupied by the griffin is maturing. I am now thinking more about colour, and what to do about background. I am wondering whether some plant foliage should be included, or perhaps a mountainous landscape.
(4) Exploring the space of the griffin's body, and thinking about what kind of tail it should have.
(5) Inside my mind's eye, I now have a pretty good idea of how the griffin will look.
(6) Thinking of drawing in some foliage of some kind, but I have in mind a strong blue background. I am not clear at this moment, so I add some experimental brush strokes to see how things might develop.
(7) I think things are looking good, but still uncertain about the background. Build up the griffins body detail a little more. Should I make the griffin's tail, feather or fur.
(8) Those wings need more work, and I start to layer on thin white paint to both hide the underlying golden mean proportion guid, and give some texture to work with.
(9) Filling in detail, and marking out areas that need to be worked on as I go over to a thicker acrylic
(10) The main structure and appearance of the griffin is decided upon. But I am still wondering about the background. Bluing in the area as a fist step.
(11) Experimenting a bit with the texture of the paint, and quite indecisive about the background.
(12) I have marked out areas where I could put some background detail. But after some thought decided on a straightforward dark blue background with some degree of shadowing. So the rest of the work mainly involves building up on what I have done, and putting a more clear emphasis on the light furiness of the tail.
(13) Blued up the picture, and added shadow to give a sense of depth to the picture. Now is also the point at which I must decide whether to add more detail to give a more realistic 3D image, or leave it with a "medieval" look. In the end I decided to leave it at this "painterly" stage, rather than try for a more photorealistic effect.
I hope you found this first of my "Painted for Steemit" post interesting.
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It looks like a paper sculpture. You are gifted!
Thank you.
Oh my! Paint me something to be associated with me. I know how much you love me. Give @smalltalk an identity that can be recognized anywhere 😊
Did I forget to talk about how amazing this is?
Keep working! And sharing with us!
It is very kind of you to take the time to post such a positive comment.
Yay! So I'll be getting a painting of me soon?
I find that every steps after the 3rd look better than the final result. What was the intent of all those lines that just melted away into a static background ?
Originally I intended to have a scenic garden background, but then opted for a simple blue shaded area to highlight the figure.
Breathtaking
Thanks for your kind comment on my recently post.
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ColdMonkey mines Gridcoin through generating voluntary BOINC computations for science...
This absolutely amazing how you created this Griffin!! Very well done my friend!! I too post about the making of my art as well! I would love to hear your thoughts if you get a chance! Upvoted and Followed! 🙏🙏
Thank you. I have already seen and voted upon some of your work. very interesting. I was particularly taken with your use of UV fluorescent pigments.
Thank you so much! I will continue to check out your works my friend! 👍👍
I love the progress images! This content will be posted on Twitter @Steemit.
Thank you very much for your kind comment. I hope to produce something similar over the next few days. This one has been far more effective than I expected.
I especially like the Fibonacci-spirals as a base for the ratio of this painting. And the step-by step construction is also very interesting. Resteemed, shared!
Thank you very much for your kind comment. The use of such spirals is traditional in the "classic" or traditional style. Images structured around the spiral tend to be pleasing to the eye.
This is absolutely fascinating, and I Resteemed as well! I'm an artist as well as a writer, but nothing along these lines. I love how you've provided steps in your process. Awesome. My specialty is drawing/painting old buildings and houses in black and white - charcoal, pencil, ink, etc. My mathematical/architectural processes take over at that point - the creative ones come back after I've done all the angles and perspective, lol. I just love this!
I understand what you mean. Although I often work from photographs, converting to a canvas often demands changing the perspective. Particularly in a street scene where brush size might quickly distort expected detail. Part of my reluctance to paint a background to the Griffin was small canvas size requiring too much detail to make perspective work well.
This deserves more votes.
Thanks for the positive comment. It encourages me to produce more "steemit specials."
I think explaining, showing process is the best way to go around a Steemit post. People like to learn about stuff..
As this one as had a good reception, I shall be producing more along the same lines.
Really impressive work - i've bookmarked and gonna try it with my tablet maybe next weekend :)
I am trying to learn to paint digitally, I received Corel Painter at Christmas, but find the transition difficult. Nevertheless the principle ought to remain the same.
Better that you started with traditional methods.
If you like to have the same feel as traditional paintaing, I'd suggest ArtRage
If you want to go crazy on programmable paintbrushes, I'd suggest BlackInk - it's very interesting!
Thanks I will look into that.
Truely amazing. Your skill is seriously profound.
I love the depth of the wings shading, plus bold tones on the rear. Do you sell your pieces, or are they for personal enjoyment and love of it? Neither is wrong btw, just curious.
Following regardless, this is wonderful.
It is only a hobby. Learnt to draw and paint in evening classes at a local art college. The vast majority of my work is on A4 studio canvas, which is both cheap and a convenient size for a small flat. The finished works always end up in a charity shop eventually.
This is really great. Resteemed!
Thanks for the positive comment. And in particular for resteeming my post.
This is truly amazing monkey well done upped!