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!