Still Life, Winter Landscape

Its been awhile since I have posted anything. But Once again I bring some recent work
of mine. The hardest part of the winter break is over, Christmas. I will now be producing more work and posting it all to my viewers. I hope you enjoy.


This is my most recent study, done as of tonight. I spent on average 3 hours on this piece.
I am happy with its current level of progress and will be finishing it up within the next few days.

(9x12 oil on canvas)



This is a landscape painting done a week ago at my friend Jane Winter's house. I have never painting in the snow before. I will say this, its quite a challenge. One that I would like to attempt again.

(9x12 oil on panel)

Merry Christmas!

I apologize for the horrible picture quality, but Merry Christmas to my fellow bloggers and visitors! May you all have a blessed and peaceful Christmas. See you all in January!

"Testimony"

A small preview of the book, entitled "Testimony", that I'm currently finishing up. These are images four, five, and twenty-two from a total of twenty-two images painted in watercolor. Each image is 7 and 7/16" by 10 and 3/16".



Sculpture Session II

Here is a four foot sculpture that I am working on in one of my classes. This is my progress after two sessions with the model.



Charcoal Figure Drawings







More Studio Work and More Studies

This is an assortment of a bunch of stuff I'm working on in my studio as well as some class work.

These are just some studies I've been working on in the cast hall while sitting in on Peter Van Dyck's interior painting class...


This is a still life painting that I'm working on in my studio...


Quick 2 hour still life study...I've been trying to work on capturing the color of the light...

This is the final stage of my first painting from Scott Noel's class...it was a four week pose.

This is my second painting from Scott Noel's class...this is just after one 3 hour block-in.

This is an interior with still life that I'm doing on the 4th floor as a homework project for Scott Noel's class. It's actually pretty large--28'' x 40''. It's the largest painting I've done since last year and the biggest project that I'm working on this semester. This is just after one 3 hour block-in session.

This is a small graphite study that I'm doing in my drawing studio class...it's actually just a preporatory drawing...hopefully I'll be starting to work in silverpoint soon on the final drawing.

This is a very small study of a crumpled up paper towel still life that I'm doing in front of the windows on the 10th floor...I'm going to be starting a larger painting of the same subject soon.

Study of the same subject by night...

Trompe l'oeil painting that I started in the cast hall...it took me several tries to get an arrangment that I was happy with.


This is the final set-up...it's not finished yet, but at least it's getting there...

Interior first pass and charcoal 40 min



Sorry for the cell phone pics again. I will try to get some better pictures next week with the family camera, mine is still broken. Starting to get somewhere with these paintings though.


Four Foot Sculpture II

I decided to take the Large Scale Figurative Sculpture class again.

Last year, I regarded my sculpture simply as a study. I tended to put more emphasis on the anatomical issues, rather than the life and movement of the piece. Although I learned a great deal, the sculpture turned out rather stiff.

Last Year's Sculpture

This year I plan to concentrate on movement and aesthetic appeal of my sculpture. If I see my work as more than just a study, hopefully it will look and feel more like a solid sculpture.

Step one (after finishing the armature) is the bulk up stage. This is my progress after one session.


For obvious reasons, the model cannot hold this pose, so I greatly exaggerated the twists and turns of the model's body. It will be interesting to see how well I can turn a simple pose into a more energetic and graceful image.





Interiors and portrait sketches in oil, charcoal figure sketches





Camera is broken again. Back to cell phone pics. Sorry about the quality. Pictures are in reverse chronological order...today's stuff is on top.







Starting off the year...

With sculpture and still life. I'm finding that having an anatomy reference handy is helping me with figure open studio to make sense of what I'm seeing in the model. That, and everything in the cast hall.

Also to start out the year, setting up a fairly complex still life that I hope to keep simple.


That's all for now...

Charcoal Figure Drawings






Studio work and various studies

Hello folks!

Well, I think it's high time for a new post from me. I have just finished my fourth week as a third year student at PAFA, and the time just seems to be flying by! I now have a studio at school, and I've been working hard to get a lot of projects up and running. At this point, I am still mainly working on smaller pieces, studies and that kind of thing, but I've got a ton of ideas for more major projects which I'm hoping to start soon.

First, a picture of me in the really huge mirror in my studio...I meant to take more pictures of my studio, but I keep forgetting...I'll try and post some soon though.



This is my life painting from Scott Noel's class...I've been working on it for two weeks, and I have two more weeks on it. We've been focusing on the "inside/outside" problem...dealing with the issues of depicting a space with light and atmosphere, and contrasting the bright sunlight outside with the dark interior silhouettes.


This is a still life I was working on, trying to explore these same issues. I set up the still life in front of the window, looking out onto the convention center. Only I didn't key the painting right intially, so the still life doesn't hold together as a shape against the window.


I decided to try painting the same set up again approaching it differently. I began by massing in the shape very tonally, trying to really hold a clear silhouette of the objects against the window. This shot was taken after about 30 minutes of blocking in.


More in progress photos...




This is the "final" stage of the painting...there's probably more I want to do with it...but I was mainly looking at it as an exercise, so I'm not sure how much farther I'll bother to take it. But anyway it's very interesting to contrast it with the first attempt. This second one took less than four hours...it's amazing how quickly things can come together if you just get the bigger issues right.


I've been doing alot of quick interior studies in the cast hall...these are two I'm working on now...both at varying stages. Again, I'm trying to stay very concious of my shapes and the design of the painting. I'm particularly excited about the second one...I like how simplified I've been able to start it and I'm really interested in the idea of making the floor one of the main compositional interests...



Here's a still life that I've started in my studio...this is just after one or two sessions...so still pretty early on...


A rough block-in for a portrait study of a friend who agreed to sit for me...this is just about an hour of work I think...


A study of skulls in the glass cabinet in the cast hall...this one to two hours of painting...again I like how simplified it is.


This is the trompe l'oeil painting that I've been devoting much of my time to over the past few weeks...this is what it looked like probably in the second week of school or so...the ribbon and key are the only areas that I'd really started to define...the rest are still at the rough block-in stage...

Then I really got down to business and spent about a week just painting the cracks...also I worked on the lettering on the paper...

This is the stage it's at now...relatively close to finish though there are still alot of little things I want to do with it. With trompe l'oeil even the picky little "details" can be pretty major and important...

Finally, here's a close up of the paper, so you can really see the detail I've put into the writing and cracks...I really enjoy working this way, but it sure is painstaking and time consuming!


Well, as I think you can see, I've got alot going on already and I hope to start even more projects very soon! Ha, now I just need to work on finishing some things...Till next time!