After being silent for just over a week I come back again with a new painting that I’ve been slaving over over that period of time.

Inspired by Canadian Astronaught and local hero, Chris Hadfield, I thought it was a no brainer that I had to paint a picture of him. Since December he’s been giving such good support to the space program and has painted his own image of a better world by giving interviews and taking his own pictures through photographs from above.

I decided to paint two images of Chris. One, of him as a normal human being, gazing out of a window ‘awe’ struck with his camera in his ISS uniform. But also, in the window, a reflection of a sophisticated man who has achieved great things in his lifetime. As well, I decided to take one of his photographs of the earth and use it as a reference for this painting itself too.

There were many challenges in this painting. I wanted to paint original images of him – but I still needed to use stock photo’s that I could find to capture his likeness. The image of the left is slightly out of focus, and I found it quite tricky to overcome. However, the biggest challenge of all was the 2nd face to the right. Here he is painted in a reflection, fading into the darkness of space… while being highly illuminated by the light of the sun. As well, figuring out how to give texture to the Earth and the clouds took a bit of time and practice to figure out and accomplish.

Man is pushing the boundries of exploration and wonder – and I try to do the same by pushing my own talents and capabilities. I hope that people look at my work and are as inspired by it as they are when recognizing all of the talent and achievements that a man like Chris hadfield has done.

Oil Painting

As I said before, today is the last highlighter bird drawing I will be doing for a while. I’ve done six new ones now and am going to turn my attention to a new project. No worries though, I will be back with more highlighter art at a later point in time.

Anyways, this here is a Fischer’s Lovebird. I specifically chose it because I think it compliments the last drawing I did – or at least the colours do quite well. If you look back on my set of drawings, the earliest had a blue theme, then red, and now it’s yellow and green.

Highlighter Art

Again, working on these Highlighter Artworks, I chose to do the Sun Canure Parrot today.

I was very attracted to the colours it would allow me to use. The yellow is a very nice colour to blend into orange and green. It also allowed me to produce a good ‘soft’ texture that seems to be characteristic within the birds fur-look. I think I was quite successful in this. Of course, there are always limitations here and there that you try to work past. There are a few area’s in the feathers that look like drawings instead of blended wings. Sometimes you can’t get a nice even blend without going overboard. Sometimes you have to stop before you add too much and have it begin to detract from your drawing. But with each new drawing you learn more, invent more, and learn how to make a better drawing.

Highlighter Art

Continuing on again with the Highlighter Artwork that I’ve been creating this week, now I’ve done a Rainbow Lorikeet. While I was still able to finish it within a day, I’ve got to say that this one became quite frustrating. While I was able to get a nice range with the green, I find that it just wasn’t as fun to draw as some of the other colours. I really felt like I got the blue bang on, and the red looks good too – but the green was just frustrating. You be the judge of whether or not I did a good enough job with it.

Highlighter Art

Continuing on with this weeks Highlighter Artwork theme… here is a Toucan Bird.

You may be thinking “Gee, it sure isn’t that colourful”… no, it’s not, but I thought that the nose would be a great opportunity to make some nice blends, and I felt like figuring out how to show the body without just making it flat black. But not only that, I also figured out a new technique to make my highlighters ‘lighter’ in tone than they should be able to do. This entire project is about overcoming obstacles… Each one is new and has it’s own life about it.

And I really enjoyed drawing this one… so, I’m happy.

Highlighter Art

Moving along nicely with these new highlighter drawings, this time it’s of a Mandarin Duck. I felt like challenging myself with something tough to do.  A lot of people really liked my Parrot, so I wanted to see if I could one up it. This one certainly was a handful. While the cheeks were definately a tangled hard mess to deal with, I actually think the toughest part to make any sense out of is it’s back wings. When you look closely at these ducks you’ll notice that they have the weirdest types of feathres on their back… Unlike normal feathers, these ones look like butterfly wings. Google it and look for yourself. No clue how to draw ‘that’ with highlighters, but I did my best. It’d be different with paint of course, but hey, this is the difference and the reason why I’m using highlighters instead of paint. I’m finding the limitations of these mediums, and I’m trying to see if I can break them and actually achieve what I’m trying to do. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Last time it was figuring out how to do the colour Red. I thought I was stuck for a full day pondering it. I figured it out. This time I got stuck on those feathers… because they are transparent and reflect multiple colours all at once through eachother. That, and there is only so much space to represent that illusion.

Well, here it is (I’ve edited out the background to make the duck stand out more naturally as it does on the actual page in person).

Highlighter Art