Work in progress... new painting! Flip the painting, discover the errors!

Hello!
Here is my last painting in progress....
Why flipping the panting upside down?
I would probably never be able to finish a painting if i would turn it upside down. I do it all the the time.
It forces me to perceive the composition in a different way,  I can use brush stroke with a different angle BUT most importantly I am most likely to find mistake that I wouldnt spot otherwise! Sometimes actually the list of things that need to be fixed is pretty long!! Like in this case :)
I have a busy start of the week ahead, with many projects overlapping but I ll try to finish this before next weekend!

Have a a great weekend everyone!

Wednesday portrait class.

Here are the portrait from yesterday head drawing class.

Morning 2 hours :

And afternoon 2 hours :

And here is small portrait of me done by a class mate of mine, thanks Matt! love it!

Underworld...Illustration from sketchbook. Pencil, ink and watercolor.

Underworld

ink, watercolors and colored pencils.

Here you can see the previous versions of this illustration:

http://lauradallagata.blogspot.com/2015/03/underworld-work-in-progress.html

and

http://lauradallagata.blogspot.com/2015/03/underworld-ink-pen-watercolor-and.html

I liked the black and white waves approach but I wanted to go for a "cleaner" less aggressive sea scape, and I think I got it here.

I enjoyed layering colored pencils on top of the watercolors...the final effect is pretty neat.
The final step will be to it even better on a larger and better quality paper .But I ll stick at this style. 

First illustration after the holidays... actually I am suffering the holidays  blues today :) 

Happy Saturday everyone!

Enjoy the sunshine outside.

Aloha!!! sketches from our last day in Hawaii! Dear Maui, Mahalo for the amazing holiday! See you soon :)

Aloha!  

Last breakfast here in Maui for us....we had 5 beautiful days... ready to leave now (not really!)

Today I am posting some sketches from yesterday and the day before.

We spent the day yesterday around our resort, relax, pool, a dip in the ocean, lunch with friends and a show in the evening. A perfect last day.

I finally tried the famous HAWAIIAN SHAVE ICE...which basically is a not-so good- italian style granita (!). 

Original granita siciliana beats Hawaiian shave ice 10-0.

Anyway here I am trying it!

Sketch of people working hard on their tan.....tough job!!!!

And a couple of sketches from the day before yesterday when we went to Lahaina, there was this place in the old square where apparently have the best shave ice, the queue of people was WOW!! never ending. ....maybe that was a good one! Next time we ll try it!

After lunch in Lahaina we sat down for coffee, very cool coffee place. The name was Cafe' Cafe'.
And of course there was a lot of cool people sitting there, sipping coffee and chatting. I managed to do a quick sketch of a girl.

Last sketch a palm :)

They are every where here. Also in San Francisco we have palms actually, but it s not just the same!!:)


Aloha Hawaii!!! and Mahalo fore reading my travel blog!

Sandwich Islands, a view from the sky! Travel sketch!

Early wake up for us today . ( I mean we are waking up early every day anyway, due to the 3 hours time difference!)

But today we had a one our helicopter booked starting at 7.30. 

Apparently the best time to flight since it get cloudy later on in the day.

It was such an amazing experience!!! Totally something to do if you come on holiday over here, the view from the top is breathtaking. 

Volcanos, huge green gorges and canyon.... never seen something so beautiful...

Jurassic Park was also shot here, just to get an idea of the landscape!

Here is a tiny watercolor map of Hawaii Islands. 

Curiosity:

Hawaii Islands were discovered by James cook in 1776 and named Sandwich Island in honor or the then First Lord of the Admiralty John Montagu 4th Earl of Sandwich.  During hid life he held various military and political offices but is perhaps better known for the claim that he was the inventor of the SANDWICH! :)

 watercolor from my sketchbook

The Sandwich Isalnds

Hawaii Islands are quite far away from everything and everyone!!!!

Closest place to HAWAII : SAN FRANCISCO  2398 miles ( 3855km)

Los Angeles US to Hawaii : 2556 miles

Seattle to Hawaii  US : 2677 miles 

Anchorage US to Hawaii : 2777 miles

Tokyo  JP to Hawaii : 3927 miles

Auckland NZ to Hawaii : 4381 miles

Sidney AUS to Hawaii: 5064 miles

When back to the hotel I decided to do a quick sketch before lunch. We are staying at a beautiful resort, at the entrance there is a small lake with fishes, swan and flamingo. I really liked the flaming and I want to draw them.

Next to me in a big cage there was a parrot, screaming ALOHA, for the full half an hour I sat down there.

Flamingos at the Westin.

from my sketchbook.

pen and watercolor.

Some pictures from our helicopter tour!

The road to Hana. travel sketch !

ALOHA!!!


Approximately 600 curves and 54 bridges...this the road to Hana!
What a great trip !! Luckily enough hubby is an amazing driver :) The road was pretty terrible at times but very scenic all the way down and back.

We stopped on the way to have some of the best Banana bread I have EVER had......still warm,  just out of the oven...so YUMMY.
On the side of my sketch you can read the recipe if you are lucky enough to work out my hand writing!

In Hana we grabbed lunch in a local place...not great food i have to say, but the view was beautiful.

Have a good evening everyone!
more sketches from Maui tomorrow! :)

Sketching in Maui :)

We arrived in Maui last night .
5 and half hours flight from San Francisco and 3 hours time difference.
A totally different world.
One from where you DO NOT want to leave!!
 (The only reason to go back home is for our Mona!!miss her!)


We are staying in the west side of the Island, Kaanapali to be precise . Today we enjoyed a beautiful slow day: great weather, lovely food, each other. So beautiful and so relaxing!

I found time for few sketches, of course! Since my foot is still healing and  I cannot go into the water, I cannot walk on the beach ad I cannot stay on my feet for too long... sitting down and draw is the minimum I can do!

I love drawing the people around me....I jsut wish they wold keep the same pose for at least 5 minutes!!

These couples in front of me were constantly moving, GRRRRR!! 

This other guy next to me was much better though, thank you Sir!!! :) However he didnt like me staring at him for too long....

Our bedroom view!! not bad :)

When i woke today and I looked out of the balcony I was just speachless...amazing colors,  spectacular light...no wonder why everyone loves Hawaii.

Early night today and looking forward to another beautiful day tomorrow!! 

ciao!!!

Back to painting....and it feels SO VERY GOOD.

I started yesterday a new painting commission and I am SO VERY HAPPY :)


There is something that makes painting completely different from drawing or sketching or making digital art...I dont know what it is really...it just makes me feel more alive than ever.

This is the initial sketch on canvas.  I am now letting it dry for a few days before keep working on it.
Another girl with big eyes, YES!!!

We are actually off to Maui this evening  :)  For a 5days BabyMoon!
Since my foot is not yet well I will have more time for sketching and drawing while hubby will be busy surfing.
Sketchbook and watercolors are packed and I am ready to go! Hopefully I ll post something from there.
Mona cannot come with us, that is the only bad news :(
will miss this puppy!

Underworld, ink pen, watercolor and colored pencils.

Good morning!
Just back from a nice early morning walk with Mona! It's so nice to back on your own feet!
Still painful at times but being able to do and go where you want any time you want it is such an amazing feeling.

Today I am posting my Underworld Illustration, still a work in progress since I am not yet sure about the final piece!
I have a couple of ideas in mind...I am getting there...but the only way to get there for me is through trying different styles.

Ink pen, watercolor, colored pencil.

from my sketchbook.

Here is a version all in watercolor, but i prefer to have the water in different style...

watercolor and pen from my sketchbook

Here is the digital version I posted few days ago:

http://lauradallagata.blogspot.com/2015/03/underworld-work-in-progress.html

Starting a new oil painting today and working again on this illustration next week!!

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Wednesday morning portrait. LA VIKINGA !

Back to school :)
This was the portrait I did during this morning class, around 2hours.

red and white carbothello pencil on toned paper.

Magazine Cover Project finale: My design of AMy Winehouse for Rolling Stones.

Tough choice... but the best cover design according to my Concept and Technique teacher was this one!  So here is my cover!

 Next project design is a product illustration....let's think about that now!:)

Least but not last :) with colored pencil, watercolor and ink pen: Amy Winehouse

Here is the last Amy Winehouse of my series of drawing, click here if you want to see them all, also they are for sale!So if you are interested in any of them just dropped me an email!

Thank you!!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1082766835082253.1073741829.223763607649251&type=1

Colored pencil, watercolor, ink pen.

Amy Winehouse 

from my sketchbook

Next step on this Amy's project is choosing one out of the many drawings and make a cover for the Rolling Stones Magazine with it.

But first I ll enjoy a nice back to oil painting week!! :)

On card board: You know I' m no good.

I liked the effect ink and white on toned paper from the other day drawing. But Then I didnt want to risk putting the white on my real paper ( just in case it would ruin it!) so some digital layers made the trick for me.

http://lauradallagata.blogspot.com/2015/03/once-again-experimenting-with-amy.html

Today I thought I might as well try to draw Amy on piece of card board then, why not?

Here it is!

watercolor, ink pen and pastel on card board.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Amy, black ink and a touch of red.

The foot is healing and the energies are coming back :)
This was a very creative day indeed !
I managed to do three more version of Amy and I have realized I could go on for ever but is time to change project and maybe also to change playlist !!

Posting them once a day for the next three days, enjoy it!

black ink pen and watercolor on paper

from my sketchbook

Have  nice Saturday everyone!

Once again ...experimenting with AMY WINEHOUSE! On toned paper.

Ink and digital.

Today I woke up in a Amy Winehouse mood. Which means listening to RDIO  Amy's station and drawing her all day long. Experimenting again with different technique till I don't find my favorite.

I really love working with black ink pen (Micron is my favorite brand).

Simple black ink on toned paper with a touch of white can have such a powerful effect! Amazing :)

At first I drew Amy, white gel ink and black pen ink on toned paper:

Then I imported the photo into Illustrator and added a final digital touch:

If you are wondering about my foot it is getting better! That is actually the best news of today:) 

Underworld, work in progress.

Same beautiful weather outside, same bad foot for me. Nothing has changed....
Today I worked a little bit with Illustrator on the Underworld illustration I started few weeks ago
See the previous work here:

http://lauradallagata.blogspot.com/2015/02/work-in-progress-underworld.html...not sure which direction I am going now though...
Maybe I need to rethink few things...!!! It happens :) art is created on the go! :)

For now here it is:

Underworld 

work in progress

vector illustration

Portrait assignment, Andrew.

Hello friends!
Apologies for not posting anything at all in last week but I spent most of my time lying on the couch or on the bed with my left foot up  :(
I have been suffering a bad bacterial infection, thankfully is slowly getting better and hopefully I ll be able to put my foot down by the weekend.

Health aside everything else is good :)
The weather has been totally amazing, sunny and around 20C ( which make my not moving situation even more annoying!!) For once I would be happy with rain and fog. But I just checked the weather forecast...no signs of rain ahead!


For my head drawing class of today I was meant to draw to the portrait of one of my classmate.

Here is Andrew.

And my very peculiar drawing position....

I normally draw or paint standing.
I love to be able to walk around my easel, check the work from far away, then again from closer....basically I like to move around the piece.

I have to admit it took me some time to get used to the sitting position...but no choice there!:) Cant' wait to be able to stand again!

A friend just texted me from class, someone has drew me :)