The title says it all really. I’ll add some colours in photoshop to get the aesthetic right before painting. It’s going to be a similar colour scheme to the last one in terms of a limited palette. Will update with finished piece. Enjoy!
This is the first attempt I’ve made to paint using gouache for about three years. I’m going to be self deprecating here and say it’s a very amateurish outcome. I wasn’t confident in my brush movement, I wasn’t very sure what brush to even use, and the dark reds should be darker. I’m going to try this one again and perhaps use stencils and a paint roller to apply the block colours, while applying the outlines with a brush. Again, I’ll keep you posted. I’m giving this one away, so if you follow my Facebook or Instagram page you can be in with a chance to win. Go here for my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mattwalkerart and here for IG https://www.instagram.com/mattwalkerart/ and just follow the instructions. Cheers Matt.
This was originally going to be a quick study of a cafe scene, but is now instead a prep piece for an actual traditional acrylic painting I’m going to do. I’m not super good at using traditional media so I wanted to do something that would be relatively simple to execute. I’ll post up the acrylic piece when I’ve done it (hopefully on Friday). Enjoy!
Very quick piece this one because I’ve been non-stop today – felt like it was needed though as I’ve not posted for a couple days. I tried not to dwell too long on this one, not because I’m lazy (though of course I am) but because I wanted to keep things rough and loose… I am sure there’s an innuendo in there somewhere, but you can unpack it yourself. Still feels a little amateurish – not so much from the execution and speed, but more stylistically – I feel like I could’ve pushed and stretched and… well, just done more. It doesn’t seem enough somehow to slightly exaggerate and simplify things. Need to keep pushing and testing things. Enough for tonight. Enjoy!
I quite like the composition of this one as I think the balance between light and dark helps lead the eye. As I mentioned before, I’m trying to incorporate the new style in to some character work, it’s early days yet and the character here isn’t as refined as I’d like but it was only a quick piece. Enjoy!
I’m attempting to transition the new style I’ve been using into some character work. This piece is somewhat influenced by Riccardo Guasco, an Italian artist who lives in Wales; “he researches the lightness of form and color of the heat and he does it with a few colors and simple lines. He loves old posters of the 30s, Picasso, Depero, Feininger, Russian suprematism, cubism and heroic cycling of old times.” – https://www.clermont-filmfest.org/en/the-international-jury-welcomes-great-painter-riccardo-guasco/ – I’ve only just discovered this guy and I’m blown away by his skill, his work output is prolific as well.
The cubed style of the illustration above reminds me of the old Hanna Barbera cartoons that I watched so much as a kid, and is perhaps why it fills me with nostalgia. Who didn’t love The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat, and Yogi Bear?
Started today with a two hour photo study before cracking on with some work. This was a pretty straight forward study to complete, very few details, simple values etc… and is based upon a photo taken in Valencia. If I can i’ll try to do a study every day but I’m getting more and more freelance work (which is good), so you’ll have to forgive me if can’t deliver on this. I’m also considering doing some ink illustrations – probably in the same vein as the image above – because people keep asking me for originals, which I can’t provide because the majority of my work is created digitally, so expect an update on those soon.
There is a place where I live that has an old sandstone wall that skirts the estate of a golf course and hotel. The hotel, an 18th century Georgian manor, was home to a man named Charles Waterton who was a famous naturalist and is reputed to have inspired Charles Darwin’s endeavours. Waterton explored the farthest reaches of the globe and had a keen interest in the natural world, collecting samples and even allegedly riding a Camen. When he returned home he built the wall as a way to protect and observe the local wildlife and thus created what is thought to be the worlds first nature reserve. The illustration above is inspired by the many cyclists that ride the estates outskirts, and is a scene I see frequently when I go running. Enjoy!
This is a study piece completed in the same vein as the great concept artist Ian McQue (he followed me on Instagram by the way – mad, I know!), and done in preparation for some paid work I’ve got on. The ink drawings on the right are quick 10 minute sketches that I meshed together to create the digital piece on the left. I worked very loosely with this one, using only seven or so layers in Photoshop, which is a break from the norm because I usually use about 80. I’m just dipping my toe into this style of work because it’s nice to try something a little different every now and then as it inspires growth. Anyway, hope you like it, and maybe i’ll do some more of these. Cheers!
P.s. I’ve just this second noticed that the houses remind me of David Winter Cottages. For those of you not familiar with DWC, they are small clay(?) sculptures of cottages and villages scenes that were very popular with geriatric men who wanted to pretend they were Lemuel Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels.
This was a fun one to do. The previous illustration I posted felt like it was missing something and I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. I was originally going to have a large troll (this is set in Norway after all) standing just to the left hand side of the house with his nads out, totally oblivious. I messed around and decided to make it a snow scene and it seemed natural to have something huge frozen in the ice. I might do another two of these “frozen dinosaur” scenes just to make a trilogy. Stay tuned.
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