From painting beauties for the last 6 days, to painting a beast.
This is a gouache painting of Frankenstein’s monster from the Universal Studios classic film, staring Boris Karloff. I’m not sure I’m completely happy with the results of this because of the gouache paints. Especially after using watercolors for the last week. I really enjoyed using watercolors, but, I think I will stick with gouache for a few more this week.
Day 13 and here is the sixth vintage pinup style painting for this month. I think this will be the last one in this series. I’m not quite sure what tomorrow will bring subject wise. This is because I am still drawing and painting these on the same day that I’m posting them. I will admit that this is not a smart way to take on one of these challenges. I have also noticed that football season starting has not helped me with getting these done.
Another watercolor painting using the Zorn color palette that I have been using for most of the paintings this month.
Today we have a painting of the queen of the pinups, Bettie Page. Another watercolor painting using the Zorn color palette that I have been using for most of the paintings this month.
After yesterday’s painting of a retro pinup girl watercolor painting, I thought I would do another one with that same vibe. The photo reference I used for this painting caught my eye because it included one of my favorite cartoon characters, Cecil. He is one of the stars of The Beany & Cecil show. This cartoon originally ran from 1959-1962 and then made a brief return in the late 80’s by the creator of Ren & Stimpy. Needless to say, when I saw this photo I had a bit of a mind blown moment and quickly saved it and filed it away for possible use in the future.
I have to admit that today was the hardest so far for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. My original painting did not turn out the way I wanted and I decided to not post it. And I had no plans to start a new piece today after a long day at work. But, I thought I should try and give it a shot. The drawing of this piece was really fighting me. I didn’t know what type of paint I wanted to use on it after the questionable results I have been getting on previous paintings.
One thing I have been trying to pay attention to on social media is the number of followers some artists are getting on Instagram. I’ve found some representational oil painters who have over a hundred thousand followers and I was shocked. That is the highest I’ve been seeing for artists. I have also noticed that all the highest, I’ve seen, are oil painters and water color painters are not even close in followers. This is starting to make me think I need to focus on oil painting and stop using these other types of paints.
While I stayed with my same color palette so far, this time I decided to use water color paint for this day’s painting. But, I did run into a problem that made this painting a bit challenging. I used a spray fixative to seal the drawing and that made the water color paint bead up and made for a very streaky result.
Day 28…how sweet it is. I’ve been 28 for 28 for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. I can’t say that I have been doing my best work during this month but there are some pieces that I have been happy with. And this painting is one of them. I have been a fan of the movie, The Rocketeer since it came out. It came out right around that sweet spot of movies, for me, movies like the first Batman by Tim Burton, and Dick Tracy. All of them through my formative years of 1989-1991. I’m not sure most people feel as fondly as I do to those movies, but they are three of my favorites. All three are based on comic books and a comic strip, and that may have something to do with it. I feel that Dick Tracy and Batman are very visually exciting and faithful to the source material. But, most of all they are fun adventure movies. Something, that I feel is missing from movies. Some of the current super hero movies are on target. And Star Wars: Force Unleashed absolutely lived up to the fun adventure movie criteria. I do miss the fun of movies like the Indiana Jones movies, Back to the Future, Masters of the Universe and even Howard the Duck. I think today’s cinema is missing enjoyable fantasy and sci-fi movies too. It feels like movies are all about realism and current day topics. I wish there was more movies for people like me who want to turn off the real world and watch a movie about a guy who straps a rocket pack on his back and beats up some Nazis.
