Academic Work

I've been wanting to try some very academic graphite drawing for a while now.  I don't think I've ever been satisfied with the way that I draw with a pencil, but I think I'm starting to get there.  Somewhere around the second session on this, I realized that I could use the HB pencil to push around and blend the 2B and 4B - so that was pretty cool.  There is definitely more to do here, and we'll see where next week takes me, I really just want to see how far I can push this one.  A little detail below. Obviously the hair and the jewelry need a bunch more work, and I'll keep fiddling with the flesh as well.

And as a kicker, a little 20 minute oil study in Raw Umber and Titanium White.  I picked up Jeff Watts' awesome DVD on gesture work last month for my birthday, and have been itching to get my paints back out ever since.  I really love his philosophy on approaching the work - which seems to be fairly intuitive.  I especially needed to hear the bit about using MORE paint, it really does make a difference.  Go figure.  Anyways, the study is about 8x10 on canvas board, Gamsol was the medium, and a #2 round hog bristle was the brush.

Pieces

 

Something a bit different.  A few pieces of larger images that I can't quite show all of.  Soon though. Soon.  More MTG sample work in the next post.

Thumbthing

The good, the bad, the mystic...

Every gunslinger worth his salt needs a magic magenta winchester...

This also ended up looking a little more like me than I wanted...well me minus about 75 pounds...

I should really stop by more often...

Some WIP-ery on the Bard/Self-Portrait.

Photocopy of the drawing mounted to MDF board.

C'mon baby light ma faiyah...

Pretty sure the background is set at this point.  Now it's time for the important bits...

Bard. Me. Me Bard...

A little progress post.

Another piece from The Hobbit, as well as the "How do I work?" category.  I feel like I'm getting closer to figuring things out.  The beasty from the last post definitely got me thinking in more step-by-step terms, a set process to work through, if you will.  But I'm still not totally sold on a few issues.  I may just be hard-headed at this point...

This is Bard, and as I'm not sure if my Mom has finished reading the book yet, I'll leave it at that.

A little sharpie thumbnail, was digging this.  Lots of energy.

Learning from mistakes.  This is a terrible drawing, I debated not posting it.  I may yet remove it.  But it serves a purpose for the moment - this is out of my head, going off of the sketch above, and it is useless.  It solves no compositional problems, it's stiff, inaccurate, and just plain bad.  Now I think I may leave it up, just to shame myself into never drawing like this again...

My faithful assistant, getting ready to give some critique...

"Something looks a little off..."

"There.  I fixed it."

I had a lot of reference for this one, so I'm not gonna post all of them, but in summary:  I did pose using a stick and a curtain rod for the bow and arrow, and I definitely took a picture of one of our stew pots to get ideas on reflected metal... So here is the drawing thus far:

Well, that's not quite how the drawing stands, I finished most of it up (I think) before I sat down to post this.  Originally, I wasn't going to make this a self-portrait, but then I figured I might as well go for it, as I haven't done one in a while, Bard is a pretty cool character, and I didn't feel like looking up another face to plop on my figure.  I also haven't worked this realistically in a while, we'll see where this goes.  I'm not sure if I want to continue working with this much realism, but I have a feeling it may be good for me to really crank out some polished pieces.  Plan from here is to get a copy made of this drawing (it's 20x30, I just wanted to do something big) then mount the copy to masonite, seal it in, and then paint.  I'll make another brief post when I've got the painting surface ready.

One last note, I should have done a quick reread before I started drawing.  It's a thrush that comes to Bard, not a raven.  Ah well, at least I'll have a self-portrait out of it.  And another thing that this particular piece is teaching me, is that there is ALWAYS so much more to learn.  And after chewing on that a bit, I find it incredibly refreshing.

Carry On Carrion

Finished Piece for the Art Order Challenge, Mutation Nation.

This was good fun, yet another visit to the category of "how do I like to approach painting?"  A little bit of Manchess towards the end of this one provided some much needed incentive, and a nice reminder to stop thinking so much and just paint.

Seems Appropriate...

Shhhhhhh-kuuuuuh...

A little more labored than Kenobi, and at times I feel like it may have bordered on clumsy...probably because I forgot that this is just an EXERCISE.  Something one does to get better, or stay fit, not something one does to create a masterpiece.  Though I think I like it now a little more than I initially did...

I suppose one should never underestimate the power of the Dark Side...

Alright, enough Geekery, the shiny black was interesting to paint, especially since I don't use black paint, and it was fun to splash a bunch of hot red around as well.

Another couple of hours in oils.  Any feedback is always welcome.

"This is not the painting you're looking for..."

Because even after 33 years, Alec Guinness is still Bad A.

Greg Manchess, who is the man, created a painting of C3PO for Spectrum 16 that is absolutely amazing and got me jazzed to splash some paint around in a distinctly Star Wars manner.  Donato Giancola, who is also the man, had a great bit of advice about painting from a photo:  approach it as though you are painting from life and you have a model who is really good at holding long poses.  That proved useful here, picking and choosing what to include, determining what was important and how to show it, and in general not being a slave to the photo but working "with" it.

Also, I'll be damned if he didn't just post a painting he did of Old Ben Kenobi as well.  Awesome, just awesome.  And I've got a long ways to go.  Goes without saying, though I'll say it anyway, that I'm incredibly excited about being able to study under these two masters this summer.

Oils and around two hours or so of sloshing some fat juicy paint around.

Edit:  New photo, slightly better light.  At least there's much better contrast in the top half of the image.

Me Three.

So, welcome. If you're here I suppose you're interested, or perhaps curious, or you were intending to find something else entirely. Any of the above will suffice.

I teach High School Art. That still surprises me sometimes. But I have fun, and the kids keep life interesting.

I would also like to illustrate. I'm working on that one, and we'll see where it goes.

In general, my thoughts are that I'll keep most of my thoughts to myself here, and let the art do the talking. So since this is an introduction, this is me...times three.

All are in acrylics and a couple of hours each. The black and whites were enjoyable. Color is a cruel mistress. And the crazy face was a blast.

'Til next time.