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...
Starting off the year...
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!
Charcoal Still Life
Here is a charcoal still life that I am working on for one of my classes. I just happened upon this scene and hardly altered a thing. I started this drawing using a wipe out technique. I covered the entire canvas using vine charcoal to create one gray tone. I pulled out the light areas with a chamois and added the dark areas with compressed charcoal.
I find this technique very useful. It helps me to stay loose and to section my drawing into large masses of light and dark. I intend to keep working this image by varying my marks and refining some of the detail.
Illustration, Life Painting, and Still Life
Its already 5 weeks into the semester here at PAFA. Time is flying by with so much still to do.
Its a real shame how time seems to pass right by when your enjoying something. Sigh.....but we must not waste the time we still have left. Here are three primary things I am working on at the moment.
Here is the Illustration I have been working on, still once again in progress. The purple background no longer worked for what I am going for, so I decided to remove it. To me this Illustration should have been done by now, but I have been fighting several problems. The first big issue was a poor drawing underneath. I was hoping to take this painting with mostly glazes, but that turned out to be a bad idea due to the amount of time it would take to finish. So with the Advice of Dave Golas, I made my attempt to his it with more opaque paint. In doing so, I lost track of the planes and the painting went to mud. At this stage I changed my background, and took my time evaluating the planes of the Hand. This should be a lot less of a hassle.
This painting SHOULD be done by next week. I am excited to get back to work on it. This needs to be finished for the Boston Comic Convention. I need at least one pieces to show to the other artists there. I will not screw myself over again, this is part of my career.
Here is the Life Painting I have been working on in Renee Foulks Class. This is my Third week into this painting. I feel it as been taking a turn for the better. It is a difficult pose not to mention the lighting in the room is all natural. So this planes of the form do not pop so well. This exercise is all about subtly. Which is something I am striving to learn. Even though this pose is like pulling teeth, I am learning.
Here is another thumbnail for Advanced Still Life. I am pretty sure I like this a lot better than the last one I posted. I intend to go with this for my final Painting. It should be interesting painting on something scaled like this. I am so used to standered sized panels or canvas.
Portrait in oil from life and a master copy in oil
Can anyone name the painting this came from?
These are for Head Structure with Professor Connors
This one was for my class with Alex Kanevsky
Drawings, Figure Paintings, and Illustration
Here is this weeks recent work. I only have a few anatomy sketches, a Life Painting in progress, and the Illustration I am working on for my portfolio. With the addition of my two liberal Arts classes this year, my work has lowered in amount, but quality of quantity I guess.
Here is my illustration in progress. I tried to tighten it up a bit, but in the process I lost to much detail so I went back in and did a bit of drawing with the paint. In the next stage I will be painting a lot more opaque. I have been using the method of several of my favorite illustrators, Donato Giancola, Dan Dos Santos, and David Palumbo. Each of these artists start with a strong drawing beneath their painting, then glaze over it. My drawing was not at the level it needed to be before I started the painting. So to fix my issues, I will be going back in and re establishing my values using opaque paint.
Here is a short study done in Foulks Class.
This is my thumbnail for a still life I will be working on for the next 5 weeks in Advanced Still Life. I threw in a bunch of glass bottles, metal, and cloth for these are weaknesses of mine I want to conquer.
Anatomy Sketch
Anatomy Study
Pretty (Weird) Works
Hey all, just posting some works in progress from my studio. Right now, my main focus has been on producing drawings. A lot of drawings. Granted some are much better than others, but hey, they're ideas on paper. They're going to be valuable assets for my paintings. Speaking of paintings, I even started two. Drawing strictly from my mind is much more forgiving than painting from the gutter that I call a mind, but, hey, I'm learning and having fun. What more could I ask for? Until next time.
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