I painted the traditional one last week as a demo for the Art Department at PDI (aka, Pacific Data Images, which is DreamWorks Animation's sister facility in the San Francisco Bay-Area.)
I was asked to demonstrate how I paint traditionally...specifically my matte painting/illustration technique. Something I haven't done in almost 10 years! Needless to say I was a little nervous. Let's face it...it's hard enough to make a good looking painting on a good day. But to do it when you're out of practice...in front of an audience... Nerve wracking.
Originally, they asked me do a plien air (outdoor) painting demo. But as my traditional technique is definitely an indoor studio technique, I opted for a compromise: an indoor plein air painting. So I brought up a landscape image on a big plasma screen, and did a plein air painting from that. I figured, if you can't bring the studio to the mountain...bring the mountain to the studio!
I would be lying if I said it went off without a hitch. As I said, it's been almost 10 years since I've painted this way, and it was an uphill slog the entire way. But I'm a professional, so I stuck it out! I actually think it made for a better demo than if it went smoothly.
Anyway, for what it's worth, the paintings below are the result. The top one is the actual acrylic painting I did for the demo. The one below, was a warm-up painting I did digitally on my Cintiq.
Both are based on a beautiful photo I found on the web (I couldn't find the photographer's name, but it came from a flickr page called "Winky in the UK". Thanks Winky...awesome photo!)
Oh...and a big howdy to the PDI Art Dept gang! Thanks for having me up there. I had a great time, and I hope you all enjoyed watching me sweat this one out! (^-^)
Acrylic
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOLMKPkdZWZF1v_zDRUfQ7V2ejtVZTMN6Jf9EyIfquXY4g3IWV_dc0Qkfojlc5h7KE5DAAzQUzOtTaLX2bmCNRkwKZ1yluUEyC0mGByxjAIcJ_6DJPQHpxJOqFPyPfgERz2MaQkRVP6BI/s320/Demo+Painting+Acrylic.jpg)
Digital
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2_BlfhsUJWC9Obeown5bh1n7IpJBmpqPUUH_3Y7M7Fe1ovXXqWXWdMLXtG4Jx3vBaKXWOTYTlC-tmeQhoDmPE0CDNQOYJ_pyBjhdG1WoLW6IrKhPHbfaE4JAXTwvTGOgcjBiU37_UdeY/s320/Demo+Painting+Digital.jpg)