Monday, December 15, 2008


I am thrilled to share with you some more watercolor and gouache painting tips with my first DVD release coming out Dec.22, 2008! It's been a real pleasure working with the folks over at The Gnomon Workshop in Los Angeles, Ca. I am planning more in the series, including on site sketching, mood sketches, time of day studies and how to approach master studies down the road.

Watercolor & Gouache DVD

26 comments:

Andreas Schuster said...

nice, i´m looking forward to this.
the preview looks fun for sure!

Erik van Elven said...

Woohoo! Super zeg.
I'm at work now but I'll order it as soon as I get home. Do you mind if I ask some questions after I watched it?

Shane Pierce said...

awesome man! thanks - what a great Christmas gift :)

LuisNCT said...

how can you be so good?

Unknown said...

Congratulations! I looks like it is going to be a good one.

E.Tiemens said...

Yes, any questions that come up I will be more than happy to answer regarding the painting DVD.

I am really interested in getting more folks who paint digitally to try traditional mediums, such as watercolor and gouache. It really is a journey that is not predictable but very rewarding!

-Erik Tiemens

Anonymous said...

This looks fantastic and I anxious to see the follow-ups as well.

Derek said...

Just finished watching and thank you so much for sharing this. I have so far to go (so many drawings and paintings) to understand that intent and purpose don't have to be met by slavish copying, careful delineation and 'staying inside the lines'. So many moments and reminders... lost edges, temp shifts, and all manner of fearlessness. Thanks, Erik.

Shane Pierce said...

Just finished watching as well. Awesome work - thanks for taking time to share your thoughts! I love those tiny thumbnails and of course the final"sketch" painting was great. Love the limited palette - I'm going to try some of that, very inspiring.
Thanks

Unknown said...

wow... very exciting. I look forward to watching those dvds

Celso Mathias said...

Fantastic work!
MY BLOG:http://famous-icons.blogspot.com/

Regards

Celso mathias( Brazil)

C.B. Canga said...

man that's awesome

enb said...

magnificent

ThinkBaker said...

I cannot wait for this! I'm so excited!

thanks!
-b

Marco Bucci said...

Hey Erik,
Bought the DVD a few days ago, and it's excellent! Apart from learning that I've been pronouncing your last name incorrectly for years, it was great to see you manipulate values and compositions. I particularly enjoyed the section where you worked up 3-4 thumbnails at once. I never would have thought to do that.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I'm very happy to be able to order your DVD. I can't wait to check it out.

E.Tiemens said...

Thanks Marco for picking up the DVD and Mike for ordering! Everyone's feedback is much appreciated. It is such a vast topic to cover and the complexity yet fun working with gouache & watercolor is not to be missed.

Happy New Year!!

Cheers,

Erik

Nick Marshall said...

Erik, the dvd looks amazing, i am so happy to see a dvd from you! I am a huge fan of your work, but just lurk here silently. I am completely broke after christmas, but as soon the funds start to grow again i will be making a purchase!
Can you give any info about when the future dvds will be released? I would buy them just to watch you paint, the tuition is just a huge bonus ;)

Thanks
Nick

Anonymous said...

Erik,
Just ordered your DVD (I presume it will work in the UK)…. You have such a fresh approach to using gouache and I hope I will be able to learn a lot of painting tips for my own work. Will leave a comment once I have viewed and digested it.

Gracia said...

Incredible painting! great colours and great everything! Congratulations in your new dvd with gnomon!! :D

Anonymous said...

Hello, Erik!
I could not help seeing all your works at this site. They are really great! No exception.
Just let you know... Russians like you :-)

Parka said...

Love the texture on this painting. The mood's pretty dark. Nice.

Anonymous said...

Erik,

I received the DVD and watched it over three nights. I loved it. It's just amazing to watch a subject emerge in bits and pieces, and I appreciated your little insights into your process.

No pressure (well a little), but I'll buy any DVD you make, as soon as you make it :-)

Thanks...

E.Tiemens said...

Thanks Mike!

It was really enjoyable making the dvd and it illustrates how I like to approach small scale, limited palette sketch paintings. The best part of working rapidly and small is that your are not too invested into a painting if it doesn't work out. You can think of it as non digital 'speed painting'. On another note I am finding there is a whole generation of photographers and concept artists who are getting more interested in tradtional chemical based film and actual pigment based art materials. There is something you can't quite duplicate with pixels.
I am also interested in seeing more hybrid work. Like attaching a twin lens camera's view finder to a digital camera or scanning in an almost completed oil/gouache paitnings and working over those digitally. So many possiblities. It is cool to see a resurgence in wet plate photography from the 1800's. Perhaps some concept artists will mix their own pigments with recycled tech trash. Food for thought!

Thanks again for encouraging words regarding the DVD.

-Erik

forrestmaready said...

Hi Erik-
Thanks for sharing you sketches with us. I'm a digital artist who's been playing with gouache and acrylic lately and your blog was perfect timing.

I'm curious, when you're doing those digital thumbnails, what do you do to control your palette. Obviously it's easy with analog, but digital is difficult to mix and slosh around. Perhaps there's not a good way, but wondering if you had any tips.

Thanks again

E.Tiemens said...

Hi Forrestmaready,

I would say that is an interesting question to think about regarding palette choices and how you mix colors digitally. I use the program Painter X for most of my digital painting and there is a wet in to wet mixing palette. Also you can select colors from your painting in progress with the eyedropper tool. By making selections as you go along you pick colors and tones that are all ready harmonized. You can also digitize a photo or older paintings and make 12 color steps or so and use that as a palette. Blending tools are another great way to get those subtle broken colors/grays.

The main thing is to experiment so it becomes second nature.

All the best,

Erik