Artwork by Sean Erik O'Connor.

„Ach Gott! die Kunst ist lang! / Und kurz ist unser Leben.“ Goethe

Gallery (Traditional)

Some of my paintings in acrylic, pastel and colored pencil and pen. Click on a painting to enlarge. All works are Copyright © 1986-2024 by Sean Erik O'Connor. All Rights Reserved except those works which are noted as being licensed under the Creative Commons license CC BY-ND 4.0

See my more of my paintings on ArtStation

Tech Girl

Color pastel drawing of Chinese girl in Kweilin.

Girl in Kweilin I by Sean Erik O'Connor
is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Girl in Kweilin II by Sean Erik O'Connor
is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Irish Girl

Princess Caroline

Sayuri

Michiko

Teacher

Student

Spiral City by the Sea by Sean Erik O'Connor
is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Japanese Girl Profile

Hinterlands by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Calculator Case Still Life by Sean Erik O'Connor
is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Still Life Hardware by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Orchid Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Volcano by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Widgets

Squirrel Eating by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Physics Doodle

OriginalWorks/SelfPortraitCollege-Pencil-SeanErikOConnor.jpg

Self-Portrait by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Phantasy Maui ocean.

Palo Alto Tree and Flower Study by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Memory of Summer by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Octopoid I by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Yoicks by Sean Erik O'Connor is
licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

Traditional Painting Techniques

I'm self-taught. On these pages, let me share some advice I've learned from experience and from various artists. There's surely a lot of terrible advice on how to draw and paint out there!

I paint in acrylics on canvas. Here's my outdoor easel sitting in my indoor studio with a white daylight LED floodlight, and a computer with my reference photographs.

I also paint in pastels, draw in colored pencils and graphite pencil.

I'm currently working on a painting of an orbital. I've calculated the wireframe model and perspective view in Mathematica using homogeneous coordinates and matrix algebra.

Draftsmanship

Good draftsmanship is the foundation of your artistic skill. Carry a sketchpad and pencil everywhere you go. Draw freehand from life and from imagination every day to train your hand and eye. Do lots of thumbnail sketches.

Absolute basics which you must master:

Perspective geometry Successful Drawing, Andrew Loomis
Figure drawing Figure Drawing for All It's Worth, Andrew Loomis
More figure drawing Drawing the Head and Hands, Andrew Loomis
Anatomy for artists Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist, Stephen Rogers Peck

Practice!

Brushwork Technique

You need to master the basics of brushwork technique, including washes, drybrush, etc. I've found this book to be good: Brushwork Essentials

Color Mixing

I found it best to make my own color chart from a limited palette of acrylic colors. The color chart has pure colors across the top. There are exercises in mixing various browns, greens and blues for landscapes. For flesh tones, I use a slight modification of Portrait Painter Howard Sanden's palette. After mixing the basic flesh tones, adjust the tint with the different primary colors.