Tysoe's Art Blog

Well this has been a good week. A couple of years ago I was really disappointed when an amazing Best Santa Fe II easel was advertised on craigslist for $200.  That’s over $1000 retail and brand new condition. At the time I was broke and simply couldn’t afford it. This time a Craftech Grand Easel turned up on Craigslist for $200. I had just bought the flooring a couple of days earlier which took care of my disposable income for the last month. But just in case, I contacted the seller and asked them to get back to me next month if they still had it.

Anyway, to cut a long story short they did have it 🙂 Here it is in the studio, had a hard time getting it through the door, this thing is BIG.

The amazing thing was that when I got there to pick it up, there was a matching painting table with storage drawer and flip top laminate glass palette, brush holding cups etc. The lady selling the easel asked if I wanted it.. Absolutely!  So I ended up with the easel and a free paint table.

So now I have all the furniture I could want for the studio. Feels a bit like winning the lottery. Not that I ever won the lottery but still 🙂

The easel and paint table are made by Craftech, pieces from their Grand Artisan Studio series of furniture. Looks fantastic in the studio and goes with the new floor very well 🙂

Last week I purchased some AC3 rated Laminate flooring, AC3 being the highest rated for residential purposes. Finally got to work on laying it down. The stuff is amazingly tough and dulled two circular saw blades. Took about 8 hours to do the underlayment and cut and hammer in the flooring.

Still have to seal the expansion gap with Silicone sealer then hide the gab with baseboard. And add a transition from the floor to the door threshold. I think it already looks pretty good 🙂

It’s been a while since I posted up here. My wife and I recently bought a new house after many years or renting so I haven’t had much time or space to feel comfortable with painting.  I have a Tandem Garage that has the back end converted into a shed which will soon be my studio.

Anyway, I did move some of my stuff in there and continued my Skil Lorien character painting which you can see below.

Probably give it a final pass in a few weeks time. After it’s up on the wall a while, things start nagging at me till I have to take it down and rework it.

Ok so it’s no longer May, and back then there was a Creature feature at Wet Canvas where artists in the fantasy forum were invited to produce a image of a Naga.  A Naga is a creature from myth and legend. It has a human upper torso with a snake’s body below the waist. I originally sketched out a few quick rough ideas in my sketchbook and came up with a rough drawing. Soon after I drew the composition on canvas, roughed out an underpainting and then got a bit stuck.

As usual I focused on the creature but didn’t have much of a clue regarding what to do for a background. Anyway, over a month later I sat down and started painting and here’s a current work in progress photo. I’m actually quite pleased how this is turning out.

18″ x 24″ Oil on Canvas

You can see the original rough drawing for this painting below.

I started this particular painting early on when I first picked up the brush again. Originally I got it into a sepia underpainting stage but once I got to painting the colour I destroyed it. In the end after a couple of days work I went back with a cloth and wiped all the new paint off.  It’s been hanging on the wall all these month and I haven’t had the confidence to touch it.

Anyway, I picked it up and started over. I don’t think it’s quite finished yet but it is a vast improvement.

16″x20″ Oil on Canvas

I have to say the camera didn’t quite capture the painting that well, the values seem bunched on either end without much transition in the middle.

My biggest problem with this painting right now is the composition. I did tweak it from the original. I changed the hand and tried to lead a few things towards Braveheart the pug. I also gave her the most detail and tried to lead the viewer in but the girls face attracts too much attention.

I really like how I painted Braveheart which is by far the part that I am most pleased with.

Here’s a new Dungeons And Dragons Painting of my wifes character in a new World of Greyhawk campaign. This is old school pen and paper gaming, not computer games.

Anyway, meet Rina the Rogue. She’s about 4′ tall, and in the painting is offering a Orc a tin tankard of Ale whilst a dagger is hidden discreetly behind her back.

18×24 Oil on Canvas

It’s been a couple of weeks since I did the basic underpainting in the previous post. Things progressed quite well since then.

Oil on 16×20 museum series panel

Overall I think it gives a good impression of Faina’s personality and hopefully her husband will like it.
I went for a classic portrait, though it is somewhat formal I put her off center, and smaller than she might have been to make it formal. Since she was a short lady but with a strong and determined personality I put her back and tried to place the height to communicate this somewhat.

The lighting is strong, I’m hoping this will enable her to stand out in the somewhat dark living room I have been told the painting will be hung in.

I haven’t produced much the last couple of months. The family here had a bit of a crisis when my wifes mother was rushed to ER with liver failure. Needless to say we all supported her the best we could through her battle.

Unfortunately during those 6 weeks she developed a lung infection and eventually passed away. There aren’t very many photo’s of her and so I decided to pick up my paintbrushes and oils and started on a new portrait.

This is just the preliminary underpainting I use to get my self acquainted with the subject, most of which will be painted over.

I used iron oxide red and burnt umber to put in the basic forms and values. I prefer to leave the skin tones paler so that when the light shines through the layers of paint it reflects back giving you some of that living glow often found in classic oil portraits.

The finished painting will be a gift for Dennis Poirier, Faina’s husband.

Here’s first mini I sculpted last week that I like and am using in one of my games. SkilGallen, a dextrous two blade ranger and crack shot with his bow. Light armour relying on agility and reflexes when stealth is no longer an option.

I used 20 guage steel wire for the arnmature (skeleton)
ProCreate epoxy putty for sculpting.
Magnetic Button for the base
Artists quality Acrylic paints (I don’t have paints designed for miniatures yet)

Back on the Dungeons & Dragons theme. For a while we played with a GM who was starting his own miniature business and was practicing by making hundreds of miniatures that he brought to his games.

Miniatures are small figurines 28mm high for regular humans. They are used to represent the players and other characters in the story that unfolds during the game.

I thought I’d have a go since it looked like fun and despite the thousands you can buy, I can never find anything that looks like the character in my head.

Above are my first attempts  in various stages, aprox actual size on a 21″ monitor. The first one I used Super Sculpey clay which has to be baked in the oven. It proved quite tricky to work with. I do like the feel and colour but it seemed better suited for larger projects.

Some research told me that I wasn’t using the right material and should be using a 2 part epoxy putty that when mixed gives you 1-2 hours work time before it cures to a solid state. The second miniature on the left is my first almost complete miniature which I created in one 90 minute session.

The remaining three are in various stages as I decided to build them up in layers, starting with the wire armature, adding bone like skelleton, fleshing out, and then clothing. This gives you a solid base to build each layer on, instead of pushing the putty out of shape the whole time. I’m starting to get the hang of it, though I really need to figure out the best tools for smoothing. Seems to be a common problem and I expect I’ll learn that and doing 3-4mm  faces will come with more practice.