"The Gorge" completed

Based this on an interesting photo I came across. Too light in the foreground but I can't be bothered dealing with it at the moment...

"Wanaka" really completed this time

Made a couple of minor changes after seeing the picture on screen and decided it looked a little 2-dimensional...

"Wanaka" completed

This is the painting that on first attempt turned into the Antarctic scene last week :P

"Ice-Age Wanaka" completed (?)

Believe it or not, this painting started out based on a Wanaka photo... I got as far as laying down the sky and water, then realised how cool the mountains looked in stark white. So I decided to turn them into icy Antarctic mountains and went from there. There is more sky than is visible here - I had to crop it due to the photo not being quite square-on. I also think the white in the fore-ground works better in real life then in the photo, where it just takes attention away. Maybe it would be a problem in a frame?

"Mt Cook" completed

The reference pic had a road running down the middle, but i thought a gully was more appropriate. The mountain in the distance came out ok, but in some ways I wish I'd stopped earlier than I did :P Still pretty happy with the result though. Might need to check to see if the shadows on the right hand side are are pale as they look here - I don't think so, but if they are then I'll darken them a bit to balance the composition out more.

"St Bathans Range" finishing touches applied

Darkened the reflections and added a ripple to the water to break things up a little.

"St Bathan's Range" nearly completed

Nearly finished this week's reference pic (whereas Maf hadn't done last week's one last time I looked :P Guess he's been pretty busy tho). Wanna darken up the reflection a bit to make the painting a little less top-heavy, and then look for some places to lift paint for more contrast. Quite like the feel of it so far though, especially since I felt like it was going to be a disaster half-way through!

"Lake Wanaka" completed

Based on a stormy photo I took back in March of Lake Wanaka. Tried to make it moody without making it too dark.

"Hound Dog" completed

This pic is based on this week's reference pic that both me and my brother have painted - his choice this week. Quite a change of pace for me... I've tried to describe the dog's coat with a lot of dry brush work, which meant being much more fast and loose than I would generally allow myself to be. Quite a fun exercise :)

PDL Mustang final version

After seeing my brother's awesome composition from the same reference pic (see cavematty.com), I made a few changes last night to try to make the car feel more gritty and agressive, as well as enhance the contrasts to give the picture more life (I did this by lifting some paint in strategic places, and adding blue/purple washes to others). Here's the result:

PDL Mustang finished (bar a couple of adjustments)

Finished the pic last night in between watching Rockstar Supernova. Some sweet performances last night - Magni was great as always, Storm was cool in a very different way, and Josh did a very epic-sounding arrangement of a Nirvana song. I was most impressed by Ryan though - he came on stage with his usual pained look, then started doing a version of "Losing My Religion" that startde out exactly like Tori Amos's version... until he kicked it up in intensity and produced a pretty phenomenal version - really raw and powerful. Not sure if I'd wanna hear a 2 hour concert all in that style, but I loved that song in isolation - seeing him in a new light and wish I hadn't missed his version of Iris on the first show (one of my favourite songs despite the redundant cover of it by Ronan Keating). Felt sorry for Lukas - don't like his voice, but usually enjoy his stage presence, however last night he just paced back and forward, spending half his time staring at the drum kit with his back to the audience. Turns out he was preoccupied by forgetting the lyrics :O

Oh yeah, the painting... as I'm going to post it I've spotted a couple of minor things to improve... in particular, the shadow line down the front of the spoiler is crooked and off-center, so gonna try to adjust that without munting up the painting totally, plus there are a couple of other things that could be given a little more depth/detail to emphasise contours etc.

PDL Mustang

Decided to try to paint a race car for the first time - I've sketched them before but never painted them. I've challenged my brother to have a go at the same reference pic, so I'll post a link to his attempt too once he posts his version. Here's the progress so far - looking pretty flat but I think I've got the proportions pretty much right so far, which is at least half the battle :P