Other media.

I find that I will discuss something that seems almost taboo. This weekend I photographed my last pro bono wedding. What I've found over the years is that photography can be both a creative outlet, and a valuable learning tool for:

- composition
- observational skills
- decision making
- color and the effects of light (value, temperature, and the use of light in composition)

For most people with a standard use digital camera, these topics can be explored and learned at family functions, weddings, social events, etc., when one would not normally think of studying. Everyone will be expecting you to take pictures. Might as well learn about composition and light while you're there, your family and friends none the wiser.

Getting to know the functions, limitations, and application of your camera is useful, but basic lessons in composition and value can be conducted with standard automatic settings. I've been conducting trial and error studies, reading, and looking at other work off and on for several years, and I find that the understanding I gather from studing light in photography feeds into fine arts, and studying fine arts feeds into photography.

Here are a very small selection of some photos I took at the wedding this weekend. I use a Canon EOS 30D as my digital camera for anyone who's interested, and all are straight off the camera, with no computer editing or photoshop work of any kind (I use basic internal and moderate customized settings):














For those who haven't tried, I feel that composition is the best place to start. You are limited to a set output ratio, so within that frame find the best composition you can for whatever subject you're using. Digital cameras provide instant feedback, which is great. As a next step, black and white settings can be used to study tonal range and value structure, without the complication of color. Thirdly, whether your camera has temperature settings or not, understanding the type and quality of the light your subject is in, how this affects color and color relationships, and the ultimate value range are all great things to study. Having this understanding of light will carry over into painting with some practice and observation.

I am not a proponent of painting from photos. I am a proponent of learning from them. So have fun, and take your studies with you to the park or on vacation.

If you know me, and you would like to see the rest of these photos they will be on my facebook.
Thanks for visiting.

Figure Drawings

Hello readers!

Well, we're about a third of the way through the fall semester, and I can hardly believe it! It still really feels like we just started! School's going pretty well so far this week though, and I'm getting really excited about alot of the things I'm working on. I have some more involved projects that I'll start posting about in the future, as soon as they get far enough along. For now though, I've got some quick studies that I've been working on. Some of my fellow PAFA students are running a figure drawing session Thursday nights where all the students at the Academy can come and draw from the model for a small fee. I've been going to that regularly and helping out with it a bit, and I've gotten a few decent drawings out of it. Here are two drawings I've done from that session from the past two weeks. Both are done with a gray-scale set of nupastels on a heavy sheet of printmaking paper.




Working in pastels can be really fun; I particularly enjoy it, because it relates so well to painting. I've found that I feel much more comfortable making big decisions and totally reworking the drawing when necessary when I'm using pastels as opposed to another drawing medium like charcoal. It's always good to try new things and experiment with different media to find what works best for you.

Hard lessons to live by.

Lesson 1. Draw every day.
I find this lesson comes up over and over and over again. And despite any excuse I can come up with regarding my job, my family, my regular studies can not hold a candle to the truth that when I do not draw, the number of days in between make it incredibly difficult to get back into the groove. Travelling for a wedding? Guests from out of town? Eleven-hour workday with 1.5 hr commute? No excuse. Get creative. 15 mins to draw before passing out is enough to retain a little bit of sharpness. How about on the train? I'd rather sleep, but I could also use this time for drawing.

And it will only benefit in the long run.

A transparent attempt to appear substantial

I'm gonna go for quantity over quality here. I still think I can't go wrong with more eyecandy.

Here's some more from about a year ago...not connected with school. These were just for fun.
























This was for school. I'm posting this just cuz I found the picture and it was a really damn cool project. Build the box and then draw it. It was autobiographical. In other words, everything in that box is either from my life or is representative of something from it. Some people bought their boxes and then got to spend their time on more valuable pursuits...like drawing it. Not me. I'm no sissy. I bought planks of wood and did the rest on my porch with hand tools. Come to think of it, I never got to finish that drawing...I wonder why?

A lamentable lack of substance

I wanted to post something much more substantial than this but, I simply haven't had the time to put it together. So, I am gonna give you what you want. Pictures. Yeah another boring retrospective. This time it's figure drawings. So here ya' go.


2005 or so.


2006



2007

Portrait Study

Well, it's another tough, jam-packed week at school so far...art school has such ups and downs to it. There are many classes which are going wonderfully, and I feel like I'm making great leaps and strides...but just as soon as that happens, I'll feel like I'm hitting a brick wall with another project and I just can't seem to get anywhere with it.

Anyway, on a lighter note, here's a little portrait study I did in Al Gury's portrait class last week.



I actually really let myself have fun with it, and for once, I felt like the whole process came along quite smoothly. I did the whole painting in the one three hour class session--the goal of the class right now is to do alot of quick little studies so that we begin to understand the most basic things about portraiture and the difficulties of capturing a likeness. Obviously it's not as well-finished as I personally like my paintings to be, but for what it is I think it was relatively succesful. I do think it's good sometimes to really vary your process and try to make yourself work differently than you normally do. For me, since I love to work painstakingly slowly, this means working much quicker and cranking out little studies and exercises. I'm hoping to try and do more of these in my other classes as time allows.

Out in the wild.

So to speak.
On 9.13.08, a group of us (you may see adjoining posts on this blog) ventured into the outdoors for a bit of landscape painting. Not only was this a well spent afternoon, but also a reminder for some basic painting lessons. I began the day with a limited color palette, however quickly realized that I should have focused on a monochrome value study, as I was not ready to add the complexities of color. Here again, the importance of laying in the appropriate shape and value of each area was a lesson for the day. Working under constantly changing light conditions adds to the equation, however I believe this can be accommodated by maintaining relationships and practicing observation skills.

A photo of two of our setups is included to the left, in which a portion of my block-in can be discerned.

Overall, for anyone studying painting I highly recommend regular work out-of-doors, as it can only serve to hone observational skills and decision making.