Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Set design paintings
This has been a very productive week. In addition to the winery illustration I did earlier this week, I have spent the last two days painting a set design for the Wizard of Oz. I got to work along side a handful of my students which was a real pleasure. I didn't have my camera with me, so there are no photos, but next time I get down to the school I will take some photos to post online.Labels: paintings
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Jungle Illustration
I painted this jungle illustration for a babies quilt. It was done in acrylic paint on fabric.
 Labels: illustrations, paintings
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Further Analysis of Painting
After staring at it for a bit, I think the problem with my last Abstract Realism painting is value contrast. There is too much going on at the same value level. I am sure that there are other things wrong as well, but value contrast is the first thing that stands out as problematic to me. That said, I went ahead and lightened up a section and added some more texture. I pasted the updated version below. Any thoughts?
 Labels: abstract, paintings, sketches
Abstract Realism - Take 2
This is my second sketch of this abstract realism style I am trying to develop. I don't think it was as successful as the first one, but I made some interesting discoveries along the way. There is a certain vocabulary that is developing that may get me somewhere in the end. One thing that I have learned from art history is that if you obsess over one thing long enough, great things happen. So we'll see...maybe sketch 100 or 1000 will yield the "A Ha!" moment. Below are the stages along the way.
I always begin with an ink sketch because it helps initial image fight through the layers of paint and stay visible in the end. My initial concept here was to show the struggle between man and nature, but as you will see in the end I had to abandon that idea.
After the initial ink sketch I start to block out the general color map. Here I started to obliterate the horseshoe a bit to show that man cannot ultimately control nature.
This is my improvisational phase. I just work intuitively to map out the language of the piece.
By the time I got to this nearly finished state I decided that I hated the result and almost threw it out. But I always tell my students that there are no mistakes in art, so I decided to take my own advice and keep working. There is always a discovery to be made.
This is the final result. As I said, I was not happy with the previous results so I painted over teh horseshoe and got an interesting result. I like that I can see the under layers peeking through, this is something that will be useful in the future. Basically I think this painting was not overly successful, but I made some useful discoveries in the process. Let me know what you all think.Labels: abstract, paintings, sketches
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
St Michael the Archangel
This icon is by no means painted in the traditional Byzantine style. I used a post-impressionist technique to give the icon a more contemporary feel. I painted this icon in Acrylic paint on a small wooden panel.
Labels: icons, paintings
Monday, March 2, 2009
Abstract Realism - Take 1
This is the first sketch I have done for a new body of work that I am calling abstract realism. Its a metaphysical painting. I have included photos of the stages along the way. I don't normally do that, but I saw someone else do that and I thought it was a cool idea. This is just my first sketch, I am still developing the visual vocabulary.
Here I went over the ink outline with the first layer of paint to start blocking out a color map.
At this stage I begin to improvise and paint intuitively.
Here I begin to react to the original improvisational painting by adding value contrast. I still am very improvisational at this point though.
This is the final stage of the sketch for the most part. I continue adding detail and value contrast. I begin to work more methodically again at this point. The horse has become almost obliterated, which is the point. I am trying to show the underlying spirit and life of all living things, so I only want a hint of the form left. Hence my abstract realism. Let me know what you all think.Labels: abstract, paintings, sketches
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