Astro painting

[Milliways]

A very close friend of mine is a very well known artist and i show him all the pictures that i take of the heavens.. he painted this picture which has him (on the right) and the swami Sai Baba of india (on the left) inside the M42 nebula

Hope you all like it!

[barkis]

That's pretty cool. A bit of artistic licence with M42 though.

Still, it's a nice job.

Ron.

[mik]

Thats nice like that.

Mick.

[Tim]

I like that. When I get the time, I plan to paint, in oils, one of my pictures, probably a big colourful nebula, just to see how it looks on canvas.

One day eh?

[Milliways]

I honestly dont know how anyone paints or draws.. I can just about manage a stick man and thats it lol.

[barkis]

I honestly dont know how anyone paints or draws.. I can just about manage a stick man and thats it lol.

Yeah! Stick Men. Just look at the money Lowry's Stick Men fetch.

Ron.

[Tim]

There's not that much to it really, just put on the paper/card canvas what you see. Working from a photo is dead easy as the subject is already in 2D format for you, you just need to copy that to your board.

A couple of years ago I decided to paint my kids for a prezzie for the Mrs, and to learn how to use oil paints. The result is below. I suppose the only creative bit was deciding on the sepia tone to use in place of the greys from the black and white print out I copied from. It really is that easy, and for about £30 spent at Hobbycraft you could be producing your own pics in no time!

Cheers

TJ

you'll have to ignore the colour cast from the incandescent lighting my phone cam has picked up

[Beulah]

TJ, considering you painted those portraits from photographs, you have captured the liveliness of their faces extremely well. What technical ability!!! There be a lot of talent on this forum....

Got any other work? I love looking at people's work.

The opinion has long been held by artists that photographic study is a "poor" way to use as a source - but I have seen great work from photographic reference. I had to switch to using piccies when the live study opportunity wasn't available. The switch is hard....but is so much easier painting in the comfort of your own home...and really good quality photographs is a valid tool.

There has been recent revelation that the great artists also used photographic reference...secretly mind you.

How did you find using the oils? I used them for a while, but found them awkward despite being a superior medium (clean-up afterwards and smell of turps, lol)....I just use acrylics and gouache nowadays....

Did you do any live study beforehand?

LOL, I have tried doing live study of my own kids - they don't stay still for long!!

Painting a nebula is a great idea. Hmmm, I might blow the dust off me acrylics and prepare a canvas.........

[Tim]

Sam, acrylics would be great for a nebula I reckon. The oils, I quite enjoyed them, liking the fact that you can go back 24 hours later with a nudge and a smudge and make a change

You wont tell from the photo, but I painted these of my kids in the style of their personalities. My daughter is a fiercely independent young lady, with a free and wandering spirit, so the brush strokes used for her reflect that. My eldest is very thoughtful and considered, and the youngest just a barrel of fun.

I had actually gotten them all dressed up to take a photo of them, in their best clothes, which I was going to get blown up to a poster and framed. However, the first thing my youngest did was run headlong into a lake full of slime, up to his waist, so I opted for the painting instead. I'm not really much cop at live drawing.

The only other things I've done are somebody's puppy, as a wedding present, and a copy of a dodgy print a friend had that got wet. That was tricky as parts of the original were missing. I'll see if I can root the pics out and bung them in the lounge or something.

[Tim]

Ok, pics in lounge Sam.