Matthias Chua: 2010

Don't you just love it when...

photoshop decides to freeze on you because you have too little startup disk space, and you lose hours of work because there's no way to recover the file if you didn't save :D............ :|
Well...I do have an earlier version saved but when something like this happens...it really puts you off painting..

I managed to screenshot the painting I was working on before I had to force quit PS...

I guess I should see this as a chance to do things even better second time round.

Chain of Mountains

Study of an Isaac Levitan piece. Not particularly accurate, but I learnt a lot from this.

Nina

We had a lovely Indian model today. Too bad I didn't do her any justice : \
My hand isn't as confident as it used to be...

Figure Study 10

Today's figure session. We had a really good caucasian model today. She held the pose for 40 - 50 mins sessions without breaks. D:

...

Figure Study 9

Thought I'd play around with a brush pen and markers at life drawing today.

Figure Study 8

Yesterday's figure drawing session...
I'm enjoying using the sanguine pencil though it takes some getting used to. The lead is hard, scratchy, and does not glide as well over the newsprint as charcoal, though it lends itself to more precise rendering.

Looking at the drawing under fluorescent lights at an angle produces a pretty sweet shimmering/ glowy effect where the greys of the newsprint take on a slight green tinge due to all the surrounding red.

Beep

Need to get back to doing hand studies...

Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na...

(yes i'm being a rusty rip-off with the border/frame thing haha)

Finished Batman : Arkham Asylum a week ago. Pretty much marathon-ed the whole game because it was soo good :D Rocksteady Studios did a brilliant job with it. The scarecrow sequences were the best parts of the game for me just because of the mood and atmosphere they were able to create

Resources

Movie Screencaps:
http://www.leavemethewhite.com/caps/
http://www.ffffilm.com/
FRAMEFILTER
http://screencaps.tumblr.com/
mise-en-scene (The art of cinematography, film design and editing)
the internet movie firearms database (great site to practice drawing guns and foreshortened limbs)
Blu-ray Movie Screenshots

General Photoblogs:
Old of Photos of Japan
Shorpy
1930s-40s in Color (Library of Congress Flickr Set)
The Field Museum Library Flickr Set
Gatag
Mongolia Culture Blog
Mugshots.com
Medical Museum Flickr Set (Probably NSFW...contains some disturbing medical images)
Black and WTF
Astronomy Picture of the Day
The World's Best Photos of eyjafjallajokull and lightning
LIFE photo archive
Early 1900s in Colour

Mechanical/Architectural:
Skyscraper City
The Field Museum Library Flickr Set (Architecture)
Airliners.net
Plane Pictures.net
the-blueprints.com
Prime Portal - The Military Enthusiast & Modeler's Reference Site
Akihabara News
Car Design News

Fashion/Costumes/Armour:
The Sartorialist
Hel-Looks
Lookbook.nu
Eiffel in Seoul
theones2watch
YesStyle (Asian Fashion)
models.com
asos.com
Cannibals Find
Fashion-era.com
Best-armour.com
myArmoury.com
Cat and Mice Armour

Art Collections:
Freeparking Flickr Set
Leifpeng's Flickr Set
J.C Leyendecker Flickr Set

Textures:
Mayang's Free Texture Library
Cgtextures.com
Zentextures.com
Lost and Taken

Anatomy/Figure:
Facity.com
Femalefaces.com
Muscular System
Wikipedia List of Muscles of the Human Body (great way to learn the names, and insertions and origins of muscles)
Fineart.sk
Danny Santos' Flickr Set (Portrait Photography)
Character Designs.com(NSFW)

DeviantArt Stock (NSFW):
Male:
http://felixdeon.deviantart.com/
http://artdibujar.deviantart.com/
http://binarystock.deviantart.com/
http://vishstudio.deviantart.com/
http://ahrum-stock.deviantart.com/
http://justmeina.deviantart.com/
http://cfstock.deviantart.com/
Female:
http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/ ( Has some stock photos of males too)
http://lockstock.deviantart.com/
http://senshistock.deviantart.com/
http://gesastock.deviantart.com/
http://valentine-fov-stock.deviantart.com/
http://reference-poses.deviantart.com/
Animals:
http://kittykitty5150.deviantart.com/
http://tasastock.deviantart.com/
http://nylak-stock.deviantart.com/

Just thought I'd share some links to various resources/refs I use for my personal studies. This is also an easier way for me to access them as well.

I will be updating this page in the future with more links as I find them.
All work is copyrighted to their respective owners...I'd probably be careful about directly referencing images in your own work. I just use these for studies or general reference. Some may allow you to use their images directly in your own work(dA stock accounts) if you credit them for the reference.

-matt

...

Thought I'd post this up too... Our second composition assignment for class I completed some time ago lol :/

Figure Study 7

This week's figure drawing session

edit : bonus drawing. Something older that I never took a picture of. This is a portrait of my friend Jake who posed for us one time for our life drawing session. I was trying out a sanguine pencil on newsprint.

Figure Study 6

A study from our figure drawing sessions over the weekend.
I've been really inspired by the figure drawings of Jaime Jones and Craig Mullins recently. Trying to get that raw, gestural quality of their charcoal studies into my own work.
I kept thinking to myself...how would Jaime do it...

Doodle 2

Another quick doodle tonight...
Tried adding quick colours with multiply layers. Obviously I'm pretty bad at this way of working haha

Figure Study 5

Bleh...can't be bothered rendering this out fully. I should be working on assignments

-------------------------------------------------

Yes, I understand the exposure combo idea, been around quite a while. People even did it before digital. Much more difficult I would guess. As far as using it for study, I suppose it is better than photos with crushed areas. Exposure limitations in photography are ONE of the reasons to work from life, though. The other, probably more important, is to prevent you from copying shapes and to internalize the forms you perceive and feel and try to describe them. Photos, unless you are really advanced, are the best way to stop yourself from growing, and they are addictive because it's easy bang for the buck and it takes very little time or effort to get good at duplicating them (relatively speaking). And if anyone quotes me on that without taking the context of all that I am saying I will hunt you down with a rusty axe. 'Mullins hates luci-jockies!' I did quite a bit of photo copying early on and it is great for learning to control your media.

Working from life can be pretty overwhelming if you are starting from scratch. It might sound strange, but working from photos are the very beginning might be a good idea, until you can control things enough to duplicate the photo, then move to life, and don't whine about the hit your art seems to take. Yes, it won't look as "photo real" as your photo stuff and you might not get as many “wowas” from people who don’t know what is going on but you are moving into a much bigger world.

The best idea is to work from casts of human forms. Why not a still life? Because the standards that are required for pulling off a convincing rendering of a human form are greater than for a can or flowers. The viewer is not as easily forgiving. And the casts don't move, they have no reflectivity, no maddening variations in warm and cool skin tones, do it at home, etc. A great place to start. You can buy them on the webJ

So before you think about using better photos, work from life more. If you have the time and resources to screw around with compositing exposures, you have the time to sit there and look.

Once you have a few thousand hours from life, you will look at photos and use them in a very different, and I feel better, way.

I hope that answers your question, it is just my opinion, and I don’t mean that in an offhand gee shucks kind of way. There are a lot of ways to learn and do art. Anyone could legitimately disagree with everything I have said here and be correct in his or her way.

There are a lot of pros around here, they have any opinions they would like to share?

- Craig Mullins via Sijun Forums

I should start listening to Mr. Mullins

Blarrggh

Something quick tonight

HeliCrash

Another insomnia speedpaint
Experimenting with using photographic elements and textures

woof

Insomnia speedpaint

Figure Study 4

Ref from http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/

Figure Study 3

Been in a huge art slump recently D:

edit: + plein air water lily fail

Work in Progress

RIP Satoshi Kon

Rest in Peace

Happy Elephants

Pen & ink study after Heinrich Kley. Didn't manage to capture the sensitivity and energy in his lines. First time attempting a study with dip pen and ink. There's a big blob of ink I spilled right in the middle but I covered it up with acrylic paint. Luckily I can't be seen in the scan...phew
...

Zal...

Here's a quick sketch painting I did of a friend of mine yesterday while we were out sketching. I used watercolour and white gouache, an ink brush pen and water.
We also finally managed to see the John S. Sargent painting here in Singapore! It was an awesome experience. We spent a tonne of time staring at Sargent's painting, trying to analyze his composition, values, brushwork etc. :D

Doodle 1 wide + telephoto

Just a doodle today. Something else for class. Marshall wanted us to draw an object with two contrasting proximities, utilizing a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens.

Figure Study 2

Here's a little study I did today, it's kinda unfinished (hands & feet :X) haha. But I thought I'd share it anyway, just to keep myself in the habit of updating this thing.

Figure Study + Dad

Ballpoint pen & watercolour in toned sketchbook.

Done from life at our life drawing sessions.
Click link on the side to find out more :) >>>

Something done for class. The assignment was to take a portrait with short-loop light.
This is my dad just after he woke up from a nap haha.

Test? Dirty dishes...

Unfinished study I did awhile back

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