“Nudes are the greatest to paint. Everything you can find in a landscape or a still life or anything else is there: darkness and light, character dimension, texture. I painted heads too, of course.”

John Hurt

Daz|Studio render

This is one I’ve been wanting to paint for ages but other pieces just keep coming first! the problem with working so much on my preliminary renders is that I keep getting ideas, making new renders and getting excited about them.. so I’m going to showcase a few renders that got lost by the wayside. at the moment I am getting used to the new reality render engine for daz so I don’t have any new material and the painting I’m working on is in a difficult place, so I don’t want to post it right now!

when the weather is really bad (as it has been here) my pain is much worse. I compensate for painting time by rendering and getting new ideas for painting so that when I am well enough I can head into the studio and go for it! I seem to be very obsessed with crouching figures at the moment..

Daz|Studio products used
Figure: Victoria 4 *free*
Character: Eve
Hair: Eve
Lighting: Studiolight Pro
Morphs: Morphs++ NGM for V4

“I love nudity. I’m always nude. When I was a little girl my mother would always have to dress me because I was quite good at taking my clothes off.”

Gabrielle Richens

Daz|Studio render

Sometimes I will have an idea rattling around in my head for a long time. in the case of this one it’s been years! for some reason every time I sketched it out it just wasn’t right. I’ve tried a couple of times with paintings like rage but I’ve never gotten close to the motion in my head.

Last week I was inspired to try some new takes. this is the result. I don’t know if it’s exactly what I wanted, but I do know that it is looking really good and fitting in well with my current explorations into action. I’m looking forward to painting it up!

BTW, if you see any renders you really love, you can always contact me about commissioning it as a painting! I can tailor the size to suit your space and budget (within practical limits of course!) – check here for my past renders and stay tuned for more..

Daz|Studio products used

Daz Studio Advanced

Figure: Victoria 4 *free*
Lighting: Studiolight Pro
Morphs: Morphs++ NGM for V4

“I never had any qualms about posing nude. The human body was always an attractive figure to me, that is, if it was in healthy shape, and young.”

Dorothy Stratten

it’s an interesting concept. ‘how big do we want our breasts to be’ has come under attack, literally, for it’s controversial nature but I think it makes an excellent point. There is so much focus on the idea that bigger is better, that all we need is enhancement to be as sexy as possible. if my email is anything to go by anyway! I see so many ridiculous morphs in 3D art that make these sculptures seem practically normal. these concepts are often created by men with infantile mammalian fantasies. it’s interesting that this sculpture was created by a male, I think it’s really interesting and well executed. it’s a shame they’ve felt the need to censor the sculptures.

I like to wear clothes. And what… you don’t?

Lorenzo the Cat

Extend - 5x7 Oils on Canvas

1. many places provide cheap canvasses. these are a mixed bag. take a look at the thickness, the composition and the stretchers. whatever you do, get 100% cotton, if the canvasses are a cotton/poly blend they will warp and age badly. if they don’t state their composition you can bet they aren’t cotton!
2. there are some companies that create excellent inexpensive canvasses, it pays to shop around and the key for these is the stretchers – often the thin stretchers on less expensive canvasses will warp, but the double wide ones not only look better but are more stable as well! plus you can save on framing.
3. if the gesso is a little thin, or toothy you can fix that yourself by adding more or sanding it down – companies will save money by providing less ground or by not refining the surface as much.
4. use natural earth pigments wherever possible. pigments such as sepia and umber are very common and cheap so they are inexpensive to produce in paints (no this isn’t why I use those colors.. well, not the entire reason!)
5. buy a limited palette and blend your own colors. not only will you get better results but you can save on the more expensive real pigments by buying them in bulk
6. use hues instead. if you have a family or you are just lazy about hazmat safety (me on both counts!) while painting you can get reasonable substitutes for the pure pigments. I have both types and while the pure pigment is often brighter I’m not sure it is worth paying double the price and having to constantly worry about heavy metals. it is pretty hard to distinguish the two in a painting in the end
7. buy the best for the colors you use the most, you can substitute student quality or a lesser brand for tiny touches- no need to go out and buy a whole new tube of the best quality for one painting or a small accent.
8. invest in some generic tube squeezers. my grocery store has them near the toothpaste – you will be amazed at how much you can get from that seemingly empty tube!
9. duct tape fixes tube leaks.
10. save your old student quality paints for playing, experimenting and random events. you never know when someone will want to borrow them. in fact, save everything – you just never know.
11. wrap your palette in recycled plastic bags or use lunch wrap to save that unused paint for another day.
12. buy really good brushes and take good care of them or buy cheap brushes and don’t worry as much. personally, I take the middle road and buy medium quality brushes because sometimes I take good care of them and other times I forget. this way I don’t mind so much.
13. online companies like moo create wonderful supplies like business cards and exhibition postcards with different images for each card. Vistaprint often has free offers on their newsletter.
14. check online art supply stores like dick blick and jerry’s artarama and sign up for their newsletters. keep an eye out for their sales and get a bargain!
15. the most important tip I can give is to assess your 6 monthly expenditure on supplies, your output of art during that time and use those numbers to factor into your art pricing. ideally you want to make back your art supply expenses on one sale. keep track of those numbers and it will help you keep your pricing current and appropriate.

I’m not against half naked girls – not as often as I’d like to be.

Benny Hill

Interlaced - 12x12 Oils on Canvas

But it’s not about saving bucks. It’s about volume of paint and the potential for juicy creativity. Expensive paints bring out your resident miser. Cheaper paints, used discretionally, are more likely to be lathered on in abundance and bravura.

Fact is, for some of us, inexpensive materials bring out the magic of playfulness.

[From In praise of inexpensive materials]

I love reading Robert Genn’s letters, they have a range of interesting observations, views, tips and ideas spanning the whole gamut of being an artist. I felt a need to write about this one in particular as it’s a subject very close to my heart. especially right now as I’ve been considering buying some new pencils currently on sale. my husband’s comment is, yes but you’d never use them- they cost so much you would want to save them for best.

this is so true of everything for me. I hate spending money (yet, ironically, I love shopping) especially if it’s on something that’s important. when I started painting again I went to a place called art shed which had enormous tubes of paint for under $5 and inexpensive 100% cotton canvasses. knowing that I hadn’t paid that much meant that I could play with paint and if they didn’t work out it wasn’t a real loss. I was free to experiment. in a way, my main style has come from my inner miser, I didn’t have much left in a tube but I wanted to make it count. it was heavily dilute and very thinly applied and I realized by accident that I could create really cool effects with it that thin.

I finally splashed out on real professional quality oils only a couple of years ago (after a large sale) because I wanted to try windsor and newton water miscible oils. my studio is in my house and Liam can’t stand the smell of turpentine. on top of that we wanted to start a family and I didn’t want harsh chemicals around (much better for the cats as well!). I do love these paints, they are wonderful quality and the clean up is very easy. but it took a very long time to get out of the saving mindset. I put the paint on very thinly (even for me!) and I tried to make it go as far as possible. The funny thing is, the tubes are not as robust and splitting. the lids are breaking too – so I have to keep using them as much as possible and not worry so much. the threat of losing the entire batch is freeing me up to play once again.

I still buy art shed canvasses, they have a range and I buy their upper range now rather than the cheapest. it’s still affordable enough that I don’t feel too bad if the painting goes badly – at least not about the cost! I also use one of their easels, which, as far as I can tell, is just as good as any other. the trick is knowing where to cut the costs.