Aaron Doyle's 2D dinosaur art

[Aaron Doyle]

Hi everyone.  I've been away for a long time, but I'm hoping to be more active on the boards.  I searched through the forums and apparently I never made a thread for my sketches and paintings on the new boards.  Lately I've been wrapping up some 2D work to update my portfolio.  I've also been getting back into traditional media and having fun making a mess.



This was an experiment with oil paint.  As sad as it may sound, I've been a professional artist for 10 years and never once used oils before this.  A lot of people scared me off the medium, but I find it to be very forgiving and the pigments are so vibrant even on the cheap paints I started out with.

[Halichoeres]

I've never painted with oils. You find it more forgiving than acrylics, for example?

[Aaron Doyle]

I've never painted with oils. You find it more forgiving than acrylics, for example?

Yes.  Most of the traditional painting I've done has been with acrylic and gouache,  neither of which really allow for much mixing or shifting of paint once its down.  I like to blend and mix on the canvas and you have a very limited window to do that with other media.  Oils dry very slowly which allows for a lot of blending and tweaking, but you have to be careful to not muddy the colors doing so.  That may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your technique.  If you build up colors layer by layer that drying time is probably a hindrance.  I've never been the best at preplanning or premixing color so it works well for me, but I know a lot of artists who have gone to great lengths to avoid ever using oils because they want those layers to dry fast.

[Halichoeres]

I've never painted with oils. You find it more forgiving than acrylics, for example?

Yes.  Most of the traditional painting I've done has been with acrylic and gouache,  neither of which really allow for much mixing or shifting of paint once its down.  I like to blend and mix on the canvas and you have a very limited window to do that with other media.  Oils dry very slowly which allows for a lot of blending and tweaking, but you have to be careful to not muddy the colors doing so.  That may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your technique.  If you build up colors layer by layer that drying time is probably a hindrance.  I've never been the best at preplanning or premixing color so it works well for me, but I know a lot of artists who have gone to great lengths to avoid ever using oils because they want those layers to dry fast.

That's good to know, thanks! I'll have to give it a shot.

[Lanthanotus]

Looks very nice and dimensional, you gonno do more in oil?

I only ever used oil once but the painting's theme and general color selction wasn't the best to bring up the positives of oil colors against acrylics.

[Aaron Doyle]

Looks very nice and dimensional, you gonno do more in oil?

I only ever used oil once but the painting's theme and general color selction wasn't the best to bring up the positives of oil colors against acrylics.

Thanks!  I plan on doing more work in oils as soon as I get some time.



Here is a Styracosaurus.  This one is digital.  I used my ZBrush model as a base and did the paintover work in Photoshop.

[BlueKrono]

It's cool to see someone still working with traditional media - almost everything you see nowadays is digital, from card illustrations to board games to advertisement art. While yours is better than most, I have to say I love that oil. I'm one of those that shy away from oil paints myself. I do my mixing on the palette and incorporate lots of quick-drying layers. Acrylic, or better yet, tempera! I have mad respect for anyone that can paint with oil. You clearly know what you're doing.

[ceratopsian]

I have zero ability to draw or paint.  But as a "consumer" or admirer of other people's work (and an occasional purchaser), I love seeing someone still working in traditional media.

[BlueKrono]

I think it may be something of an appreciation for the old school, like preferring real animatronics in movies rather than cgi.

[Aaron Doyle]

This one is more of a sketch.  It was done with acrylic on watercolor paper.  It's sort of a generic dromaeosaur, although I used a clay sculpture of velociraptor I've been working on for lighting reference.

[ZoPteryx]

Lovely work, very expressive! 

[ceratopsian]

It's effective.

[Tyto_Theropod]

Beautiful work, Aaron. My favourite is the Dromaeosaur, but that's more to do with m fondness for the group than he art itself. I like that rather cheeky expression it sees to have.

[Mamasaurus]

Beautiful work! I always love seeing traditional media.  With three young children, I don't have the time for the setup and clean up, so digital paint is a real lifesaver, but I always enjoy seeing other's paintings.

My favorite is the dromeaosaur. I like the softness of its feathers, and I really like the brilliant blue.

[Reptilia]

Lovely paintings, that dromaeosaur looks alive.

[Aaron Doyle]

This is a Compsognathus sketch I did last Dinovember.  His plumage was fun to render.

[Neosodon]

Looks soft and fluffy.