Now for some 3d stuff........

I started playing with Bryce software in the early 90's, there was a great community called 3d commune, where we used to share our artwork and get comments and ratings, and I learned a whole lot from the guys there!!!

I used to do landscapes and some surreal stuff, really loved playing with the 3d world, camera, lights, materials, textures......wow I really got lost in the virtual world....

I also created some materials, mostly waters to use in my scenes, possibilities were (nearly) endless....
Unfortunately the site was closed at one point, but still have some contacts.
One of them is a German engineer, Hubert, a very nice person, who did some outstanding abstract works, he shared with us some of his files to play with, and with those files I discovered a whole new world. He has the mathematical mind that I don't have. Kudos to my friend!!

Here are some of my works inspired by his artwork. Unfortunately, all of my old works are gone for good, as the external hd where I stored them broke.... :( (that was a real tragedy, as I also stored all my watercolor step by step, all my reference photos and so on....) There could be a chance to having it restored, but it would cost about € 700, and at the moment my budget doesn't allow me such expense...

Abstract water

Abstract water 5

Carlito's way

Flow of silver and gold

Green reflections





Hope you enjoy, will post more.

FAA sale

I'm so pleased about this, a very nice good morning!!!

http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=717035f7a7a5ef80a32f642b7c2b32aa

Spring is coming!!!

Just a few shots I did on my terrace, it seems that winter is fading away at last, and the first signs of spring are in my vases. This puts me in a positive mood and I feel good energy flowing. I thought I'd share with you....

This is the very first flower on my tiny peach tree, love the transparency of the petals and the long harmonious stamens!

This is a pot with mixed crassulacee and muscari

This is another pot with muscari, love them, they are also called the fairies flowers, a pity they just bloom once.....

A close-up, might paint them.....

This "guest" jumped out of the closet where I keep my gardening stuff.....not really fond of it but it's part of the "game",
I've always lived downtown where the moste extreme wildlife form was some ant....it was really hard for me to get used to the variety of insects you may have as guests even inside home......terrifying at times, but must learn to live with it......

This is chives, i really use it a lot in my cooking. At the end of the season I cut it back and freeze it, so I can use it during winter.

My strawberry vase, it always gives me lots of fruit throughout the season, I mostly freeze them and when I have enough, I make some yummy jam :)

The very first violet of the season, they may be white or violet, they are so pretty but they tend to invade all pots, so during summertine I pull out most of the leaves. I had the chance to see how they do their work, if water touches their seed capsules, they just explode like bombs sending seeds everywhere. very interesting!

Melissa in a roses pot, this plant too tends to be invasive, but I keep it under control using the leaves to make a delicious liquor that my friends appreciate so much!

The very first blossom of my Pierre de Ronsard. Usually the first bloom of roses is always destroyed by cetonias (rose-chafers). The only rose that is not affected is the red one, it seems they prefer yellow, pink and white.....









Soon I will be planting the veggies; green beans from seeds and tomatoes give me the best results. Basil, paisley, rosemary, sage, thyme  and marjoran do well, I tried cucumbers but I think that having them in a pot is not good, and eggplants, but I only got 3 of them in all the season.....Salad won't grow, my terrace is facing south so too much sun......carrots vere another negative experiment......will have to think about some more veggies that can do well in pots......

Garza papel paper

I had a chance to test one of the 2 samples I received from Garza Papel, and more precisely the one weighing 180 grs 14 x 20 cm.

The paper arrived fairly quickly, and very nicely packed.
This is handmade paper, manufactured with 100% recycled cotton.









I'm not used to painting on such a small size and wanted to achieve no masterpiece. I also never used that paper weight before, I always use 300 grs because it has more strength and has less buckling after you wet it over and over.

What I noticed apart from the extreme whiteness, is the tooth, a very different texture compared to Arches' that I normally use.
The photo here shows some blue hue due to the morning light.

This is how the paper looked like after applying the first wash, nearly no buckling at all.
The feel whilst using the brush was of softness, yet a good roughness to help particular brush strokes.

This is the finished test.
I really used lots of water and many washes.
As you may see, the paper got minor buckling, compared to the relatively light weight of the paper.







I must say I'm really satisfied, looking forward to trying the 300 grs sample.
Definitely will get some sheets when I run out of  my Arches stock. Not much price difference, slightly more pricey, but still affordable. And top quality.

Chris & Lily, new custom portrait step by step

So here is my latest portrait, dad and baby daughter that show joy and love.
The challenge here was the dad, and giving him a "manly" appearance compared to the radiosity and freshness of Lily.
So here we go.....

Here I began the background, working both wet into wet and wet into dry to get texture on the tiles.

Working on the tiles, adding dry brush strokes.

I used some wax resist here and there, for texture's sake

Working glaze after glaze, I added some indian yellow for warmth, and some white to mimic the veins of the stone.

Masking fluid off the grouts, and began giving shadows.

Let's start the faces with the underpainting of aureolin yellow and indian yellow. I first wet the area and when the shine from the paper begins to disappear, I apply the pigments. Paper still wet in this photo.

3rd wash of yellows. It's beginning to have tridimensionality.
Working on the faces requires lots of patience, no rush here!

I mixed my skin tones, I will use these colors from now on, varying the amount of this or that color to get the hue I need.

This is the first glaze of skintone, I avoid the highlight areas and work with lost and found edges.

This is the alien stage.....I added some translucent orange to Lily's face to give, well, translucency.... :)

Working on the skin.....I also added some grayed down UMB to the eyes.
The gray dots you see is masking fluid, to preserve light where the droplets will be.

Beginning to shape dad's eyes, using phtalo blue and indigo.
I also started to paint his hair.

Deepened the eyes' color, and slowly building up the skin....some more color where the hair will be.

In order to work on smaller areas, in addition to the glasses I always wear, I cannot do without this magnifying glass I bought many years ago to do miniature cross stitch........that's when my sight began to get worse...

now that I've been working more on the skin and eyes, it's time to tackle the mouths....and the droplets!!!!

Still working on the skin, Lily's fine hair, shadows and lips. Did Lily's eyelashes, that must give the impression of being wet. Working on the eyebrows.

Working on hair and lips. I slightly grayed down the teeth, because leaving them white would not give a naturale effect.

More work on the hair, darkened the angles of the mouth. The contour of the hair is too harsh so I will need to work more on this.

Working my way through, going darker on the shadows and on the hair.
I also gave a dark wash on the jaw, to give the impression of cut beard.

These are the colors I used for the "beard". They are mostly granulating colors, as I also need texture. In addition to this, once the color was applied to the area, I sprinkled over some fine jojoba beads in order to get even more texture.

Still working on the "beard" and hair

As the background was too similar to the skin tones, I decided to turn them greenish, to give more contrast and definition.
In order to achieve this, I glazed over them with cerulen blue, then sap green, and finally quin gold. Working on the droplets as well.

This is a particular of the skin

Now for the fun part, peeling off the masking tape..... :)

........et voilà!!!

Painting done!
Hope you found this demo useful.

In the meantime....

I'm close to the end of the double portrait, I'm fine tuning, but I wanted to share with you a couple of pics I took this morning, it's sunny again after so much rain, and I feel so happy, I hate having to paint with artificial light!!!!

Just for a change, I did a pencil drawing. It was fun, and reminded me of the times I went to school and used to draw all the time during the lessons.... :)

This is taken from a photo I took of some apples and pears, I usually love them more for decoration than for eating, so often they start to go bad and I have to rush and eat them....
So the pears in my photo were at this stage, with big brown marks on their skin, and I thought this was delightful to draw, something different from the perfect fruit you often see in still life.

So here it is

I think I will do it in watercolor as well, because I love the dramatic light and shadows in the photo!







Now off to prepare a new custom portrait, it's a double portrait, dad and baby daughter under the shower.
Yes, baby Lily again, and I will share the process with you.
The challenge here is to paint a man's face, we'll see.... :)