Ethan Portrait - A challenging second

For my second picture a chose to tackle a portraits of my son. I found the drawing a real challenge to try and achieve a likeness. This painting was completed on a large stretched canvas. I was very pleased with the result.

Here is the completed painting,

Oasis Definalty Maybe - First painting

Not had a chance to do any more of my Edinburgh castle painting as its my sons first birthday so it's a busy week off work planning the party and doing house hold chores.

I hope to do some more painting tomorrow night but in the mean time I thought i would post my first painting attempt I did way back in January.

I have been a huge Oasis fan since 1994 so it seemed fitting to do the cover of my favourite album Definalty Mabe. It's a small piece but did take awhile, I have got slightly quicker now but now take ages todo large pieces!

Edinburgh Castle - More castle completed

Spent more time adding more of the castle. I now have to go over it adding more detail and definition. The windows need added, they were a right pain to paint round! Also need to add the grass patch, always feel better once all the white is gone.

Edinburgh Castle - Started the castle

After completing the sky , I finally started the actual Castle it's self.

Seems to be going quite well thus far. Its quite detailed but I quite enjoy doing detailed parts with my small brush.

Here is where I am at...

Edinburgh Castle - Sky now completed

Did the last of the sky tonight. I might revisit it after the castle is complete. I mainly spent time getting it blended better and adding more highlights.

I will start the castle tomorrow, the picture should hopefully start to come together once the castle is more complete, I always feel that large areas of white make it hard to gauge the end result.

Here is the completed sky...

GTA San Andreas - Felt tip pen art

I have decided to start a vector art style picture using standard felt tip pens. I hope to do this along side my Edinburgh castle image.

I spotted a large pack of 50 felt tips while searching for a paint colour and thought it would be cool to do some art with them.

I decided to do the cover of the Grand Theft Auto San Andreas game. I was going to do it on A3 paper but went for A4.

I will do this in between my painting projects. It can take awhile to set up paints so would be nice to have something I could quickly pick up and put down. Acrylics dry quickly, having a 1 year old toddler means I can't guarantee how long I will get to paint meaning paint get wasted.

Here is were I am at on the GTA painting, I will tackle it one panel at a time.

Edinburgh Castle - Yet more sunset

Spent more time last night on the sky getting the colours blended slightly better.

The pink is not as vibrant as I would have liked. I might look at some paints today after work at the hobby shop.

I reckon I only have another quick session on the sky after which I can make a start on the castle itself.

Edinburgh Castle - More sunset sky complete

Continued trying to get the sky looking better. It's coming along nicely but need to get the intensity and light better. It hard to try and get the colour vibrant with out looking washed out.

Going to continue on this evening and attempt to get the colours blended.

Edinburgh Castle - Sky started

Managed to make a start on the sky by getting some base colour on it. Found getting the pinky/purple difficult at first till I remembered I had the perfect colour in my paint box which I bought on holiday.

Trying to use my fan brush on the clouds. First time doing clouds and definatly finding them a challenge.

Here is where I am at...

Edinburgh Castle - Drawing

Now my Ayrton Senna painting is finished, it's time start something new.

After painting a couple of Formula 1 paintings, I am tackling something completely different in the form of Edinburgh's famous castle.

Tonight I finished doing the basic drawing of the castle. I plan to add more detail however its enough to get started.

Didn't take to long to draw which to be honest is a good thing. I get very impatient, wanting to start to lay down some colour!

Ayrton Senna Monaco - Completed

This is my latest finished piece, the great Ayrton Senna around the streets of Monaco. It's painted onto A3 Acrylic paper.

It's the longest I have ever spent on a piece due to the detail in the middle section. The sky also took along time however I think this was because I did that while in Spain on holiday. Acrylics were not the best in the heat as dry to quickly to blend easy.

I am happy with the end result. I near gave it up half way through but stuck with it. It's sometimes hard to see the result as half finished paintings often don't look the best!

Anyway, here is the finished result,

First post...

My name is Shaun and this is my blog about my painting hobby! I hope to post my work from the drawing stages through to the completed picture.

I started to paint in January after deciding to take up a new hobby. For once a new years resolution which stuck.

I was keen on art in school and have an a-level in art and design. I was close to pursuing a career in art but instead went the technical route as a Software Engineer.

So far I have stuck to painting in Acrylic. I would like to try some other mediums, mainly Watercolours. I like to try and paint different subjects, but formula 1 seems to be my most popular so far!