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Post by Rǽdmund on Feb 26, 2015 11:05:46 GMT
So, I got those paintings done. Had the presentation today. Pictures: imgur.com/a/rqAOLThe pictures could use some editing, but my Photoshop died on me and I don't feel like learning to use any other programs right now. I'd talk about the paintings themselves, but I've already had to do that way too much, plus I'm pretty much exhausted, so please ask if you want to know something specific.  |
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Post by Fródwine on Feb 26, 2015 11:48:00 GMT
These pictures are remarkably imaginative, like glances of another (quite unsettling) dimension. What techniques did you use to create them?
Was the audience pleased by your presentation? Judging by the pictures I reckon they must have been indeed.
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Post by Rǽdmund on Feb 26, 2015 12:12:21 GMT
These pictures are remarkably imaginative, like glances of another (quite unsettling) dimension. What techniques did you use to create them? Thanks! My main inspiration for anything painting-related is John Blanche, whose works are often quite bizarre and dark. I usually start with washes to get the right tone for the background, after which I block in the characters/objects and layer highlights on them. Finally I add glazes and drybrushing to give the picture a hazy or foggy feel. The only exception to this formula was picture number 5, for which I limited myself to layering and drybrushing as well as using only black and white. Was the audience pleased by your presentation? Judging by the pictures I reckon they must have been indeed. Difficult to say - the audience consists of a few teachers and a bunch of other students who generally don't want to be there in the first place. It went well for me regardless, since I managed to stay somewhat coherent in my ramblings and forgot none of the important bits despite having bit of a fear of public speaking. Tomorrow I'll have my work evaluated, then it's just a case of clearing my backlog and I'm out of this institution.  |
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Post by Rǽdwulf on Feb 26, 2015 14:08:26 GMT
These are really inspiring, Raeda! A question about your functioning: To you plan each piece like an architect or do you start from scratch and see where you get from there? Oh, the second one seems to have some WH40k vibe to my eyes...  |
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Post by Rǽdmund on Feb 26, 2015 15:24:58 GMT
These are really inspiring, Raeda! A question about your functioning: To you plan each piece like an architect or do you start from scratch and see where you get from there? Oh, the second one seems to have some WH40k vibe to my eyes... Thanks! I mostly make it up as I go along - occasionally I may sketch a character or two, but generally I'm too impatient for planning. 40K was definitely an inspiration for that piece! I didn't want to go full 40K on a work I'd possibly have to explain, otherwise that one would have ended up a honest fanart piece. |
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Post by Ingbrand on Feb 26, 2015 20:12:56 GMT
Thanks for sharing your paintings with us.
I don´t know what to say actually about my feelings while i was viewing them.
They all are transporting quite dark vibes for me.
The black and white one is my favourite at the moment.
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Post by Hróðbeorht on Mar 1, 2015 11:57:50 GMT
Very interesting work, Ræda! Otherwordly and a bit unsettling. I think y favourite is the third one. |
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Post by Rǽdmund on Mar 1, 2015 15:11:24 GMT
Likewise, Hrotha! That one was actually not only the first of this batch, but my first test of acrylic on canvas (my previous experience with acrylics being limited to miniature painting). Karma made sure what was intended to be a quick slapdash test of a new medium actually turned out better than the "proper" paintings. |
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Post by Æþelfrið on Mar 3, 2015 1:31:24 GMT
Impressive work, Ræda! You sound so cynical about the presentation, your school and your explanation. To me this looks like accomplished pieces. Do you have more on the internet?
Srsly, I'm familiar with John Blanche and I can really see his inspiration at work in the second and third pieces. Also, what Fróda said.
I like the third one best as well. The colours, the figure, they're perfect. If that was your first experiment with acrylic on canvas, your miniatures must be badass!
These are definitely great works. I hope you'll get over the cynicism and continue creating things like these!
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Post by Rǽdmund on Mar 3, 2015 6:37:05 GMT
Impressive work, Ræda! You sound so cynical about the presentation, your school and your explanation. To me this looks like accomplished pieces. Do you have more on the internet? He, I'm not actually as cynical as I sound - it's a habit of expression.  I used to be rather cynical, mind you, but I've mostly gotten over it. Too unproductive. I still love playing the grumpy bear, though. I have a DeviantArt account with a few older works and photographs (link: skepticalhedgehog.deviantart.com/ ), but hardly anything I'd be particularly proud of. I'm currently working on a set of tiny, under A4-sized acrylic paintings, which I am so far quite happy with. Once I get things here wrapped up and move back home I can get some photographs of them. |
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Post by Fródwine on Mar 3, 2015 10:33:47 GMT
I can not really pick a favourite one. There is something to all of them. Although what looks like some kind of Warp Spider feels a bit off to me in the second picture, I am absorbed by its background. It has a strong post-apocalyptic feel to it and reminds me of many things, from The End through to Yuggoth. The fifth picture allows for many different associations as well. At one point the mouth looked to me like a disturbing version of Stonehenge that guards a daunting force that reminded me not only of the Eye of Sauron but also of the abyss Nietzsche warns of which may ultimately gaze into you. As observer of these pictures I can relate to the shadowy figure engulfed in a demonic hailstorm in the lower right corner of fourth one. He looks like a person that has a vision of something inconceivable and in doing so the reality he has lived in breaks asunder. And as the others have already stated, the third picture is really remarkable as well. I absolutely love the tension it holds. I have to admit that the entity's head puts me off because the collar and especially the tube feel awkwardly specific to me, but as a whole the figure is just great. On the front it looks smooth and calm but its back bursts with egracious hands tearing apart the borders between the environment and this creature. This sharp contrast is stunning. It is as if the entity itself is a quiet object, silently howering through a turbulent, gusty space. Yet in its back object and space violently collide generating deafening shrieks while entangling. The whole picture feels like what one might describe as silent scream. Now I am wondering if any of the audience members expressed concern about the state of your mental health. |
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Post by Rǽdmund on Mar 3, 2015 21:11:11 GMT
Gotta say, Froda, you re quite the wordsmith (in all the positive meanings of the word)! I'll formulate a proper response to your (frankly excellent) observations as soon as I can. Now I am wondering if any of the audience members expressed concern about the state of your mental health. I think I got some worried looks from the back seats, but nobody said anything out loud. |
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Post by Fródwine on Mar 3, 2015 22:05:06 GMT
Gotta say, Froda, you re quite the wordsmith (in all the positive meanings of the word)! I'll formulate a proper response to your (frankly excellent) observations as soon as I can. That is far too much praise for such a small contribution. You make me blush. And no need to hurry. Take as much time as you need. I feel bad when people make haste only because of me. (Except if I myself am hard pressed for time and desperately need someone else's assistance to keep going, that is. ) Allow me to explicitly thank you for sharing these pictures with us. Not only are they fascinating to look at but they have also given me the opportunity to set my wits to art again after quite some time. Even though it takes a little bit of effort I quite enjoy stirring my gray matter by thinking about works like these. The ability to associate and see certain aspects in different things actually saved me back in school when I was still attaining art classes. Our teacher did not just want us to create some pieces of art, we also had to explain what we meant to express through them. Usually I started of with a rough idea and came up with a rather simple concept for an art peace. (My artisanal skills were and still are quite limited.) However, when I had finally created these objects my mind fortunately started developing all kinds of, sometimes quite sophisticated, ideas about them. So basically I put the cart behind the horse. I did not so much turned an idea into a work of art but made it first and interpreted it afterwards. I guess that made me appear as a much more skilled artist than I actually was.  I think I got some worried looks from the back seats, but nobody said anything out loud. The infamous awkward silence accompanied by bewildered looks. |
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Post by Rǽdmund on Mar 7, 2015 14:57:51 GMT
Alright, finally! I can not really pick a favourite one. There is something to all of them. Although what looks like some kind of Warp Spider feels a bit off to me in the second picture, I am absorbed by its background. It has a strong post-apocalyptic feel to it and reminds me of many things, from The End through to Yuggoth. The background on that one easily took the most time, so I'm glad you like it! That thing has so many glazes I couldn't remember them all if I tried. I worked on that piece for approximately two months, on-off. I also had to rush the character in this image quite a bit, so it's not quite to the same level as the background, sadly. I agree that it does look somewhat awkward. Though I have to say I'm curious where you got the warp spider from - as far as I'm concerned, the only eldar-inspired thing in it is the rune on his shoulder. I was going for something mechanicus-esque, with a bit of tyranid for the weapon. I didn't even realize you could look at it like that, but now that you mention it, the teeth do indeed resemble an arcane stone circle. Your observations make me see an entire new side to my works, gives me some fresh perspective and ideas. I was mostly just going for a "standard" cosmic, eldritch abomination, I really didn't give this picture much thought. It was the last one I started, and by that point I was rather pressured by my deadlines already. Now I'm going to have to ask you to elaborate on this one - I'm not sure what exactly you mean by this shadowy figure, as I didn't knowingly paint him. I meant for the lower right corner to encompass the shoulder and the neck of the demonic figure encompassing most of the picture. As such, I'm very interested to hear more in your interpretation of this image in particular, since it seems to me we see it rather differently. "Demonic hailstorm" was, however, exactly what I was going for as the general mood of this image. That, on the other hand, is a scarily accurate - I often struggle to put my thoughts into words, but luckily you've just done that for me. I wanted to depict an bizarre yet calm figure in a violent, hazardous environment. The fact he is able to stand calmly in such an hostile environment serves to make him all the more otherworldly. Rest assured it was my pleasure. Heh, sounds familiar. I often start with a very flimsy concept or none at all and then develop it as I'm working. It's not uncommon for me to change concepts two or three times on any given painting - for example, the first painting in the album was originally going to be titled A rider of the solar winds and obviously looked very, very different. Where we differ, however, is that I find it hard to develop a concept after I've stopped working on it. |
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Post by Fródwine on Mar 8, 2015 12:27:01 GMT
The background on that one easily took the most time, so I'm glad you like it! That thing has so many glazes I couldn't remember them all if I tried. I worked on that piece for approximately two months, on-off. Your dedication is impressive. I have my doubts as to whether I could work on such a picture for such a long time. The all too slow progress would probably drive me insane. Admittedly, on the whole the figure does not look much like a Warp Spider. However, what struck me and reminded me of one was its stoop and its overall bulky appearance. The rune and the massive firearm increased the impression. To be honest, the red robe actually made me think of the red wizard from Magicka. I reckon what keeps me from associating it with a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus is apart from its posture the lack of appendages. His weapon would certainly need to be more spiky for me to draw a connection to Tyranids. What I keep pondering is what he might be doing there seemingly alone in this wasteland. I am under the impression that he is cleansing the area from something rather thoroughly. Maybe he is there to make sure that this world is void of absolutely any form of life. The person I see in this picture is standing in a way that the observer looks at his back and left side. He is standing still but has his left arm raised a little bit lower than shoulder height and looking at the central manifestation. However, there is not really a head to recognise. Where it should be the person is visually connected to the appearance in front of him. The head I am recognising is the glowing black sphere in the centre of the image. It is attached to an extremely long neck and belongs to a thoroughly bizarre creature. Left and right to where the neck is dissolving there are large wings or claws that reach out of what looks like something organic like a throat or an intestine. The spiky tentacles add to the sensation that this red entity is in fact alive or at least moving. The way it strecthes it gives the impression of a tunnel while by being open towards the person and the observer it also looks like a giant wave about to break. All together this invokes the idea of the person being about to be overwhelmed, even taken away. In front of him there is a creature reaching for him from a rampant space which is ready to suck him in as a devouring tunnel or engulfing him as a sprawling wave and it looks as if it has already managed to seize his head. There is some contrast added to the whole scenery by the tranquility of the person himself. Despite this nightmarish appearance and seeming imminent danger he stays there calm and upright, awaiting his fate. Having said all this, I am sure there is a lot more left to see in the picture. One of the to me more plausible definitions of good art I know is the ability of an artist to transfer a certain notion through his work to the observer. According to this definition you are apparently a skilled artist then. I reckon what enables me to see so many things in certain works is my ability to, as the Germans say, go from the hundreth to the thousandth. In other words the ability to go from general to particular. At times it is a blessing at other times it is a curse. For instance when I describe something, I tend to go into detail very much, sometimes to the point of shifting focus too far away from what is actually important. That is probably also the reason why I easily lose track of what I am saying when talking to people. While speaking about certain topics my mind keeps coming up with new aspects to talk about so I quickly start going astray if I do not watch out. |
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I used to be rather cynical, mind you, but I've mostly gotten over it. Too unproductive. I still love playing the grumpy bear, though. 