Sunday Painting Results

The image on your left is what the painting looked like after the first session with only the lights/darks mapped. The painting on the right is is what it looked like today. Although I don’t like this painting, I’ve learned a lot so far about background and how each color affects the ones touching it.

Ted helped clarify a lot of the color theory with this, my problem isn’t yellow+blue=green. My problem is still trying to figure out how to tone down lights or darks~working with reading the temperature of a subject against the background colors. Everything he suggested sounded wrong but on the canvas it worked!

Not sure where to go with this painting now. This was painted from life, sadly I will miss the last session~so this painting is as done as it gets. It still needs several hours of work and even then I am just not sure. My inclination is to wipe the entire thing out and wait til the next pose.

For the next class I have to work on a canvas. I normally use Raymar panels with Clausen’s #13, portrait linen~but Ted wants to see me use things that are springy. We’ll see how “springy” goes in two weeks.

Evening Moon Rise (warning disturbing subject matter)

I spent the evening listening to music and watching the moon rise, the colors of the sky were glorious from ceruleans to a beautiful deep ultramarine blue.

Right now the sky is that blue that is so deep and dark that it’s almost black.

Bodies, The Exhibition hosted a sketch night on Monday at the Dome in in Rosslyn Va. Robert Liberace gave a demonstration and a lecture on anatomy. Afterwards we were free to wander the exhibit and draw until the event closed at 9pm.

Rob opened his demo with a discussion about how Michaelangelo, DaVinci and the great renaissance artists studied anatomy by dissecting bodies. He mentioned that studying anatomy will help one become a better artist. It’s clear that serious study of art will absolutely require me to learn more anatomy than I do now.

I went to the lower level and drew a quick sketch of a body that was simply standing. I was particularly interested in accurately drawing the grain of his muscle tissue as it covered his ribs and abdomen. I also drew his shoulders and arms.

I had plenty of time and I was tired of standing so I plopped down fairly close and drew just his hand from the wrist down. The structure of his hand was amazing. I liked it so much that I went to a part of the sketch book I had prepped for silverpoint and did a study that really looked at the tendons and ligaments of his hand.

But I have a lot of problems with the entire concept of the display because the bodies used were not donated to science. From what I’ve read (Post Gazette Article) the source of the bodies were from unclaimed prisoner’s bodies. Apparently in the People’s Republic of China, if you die in prison and your body is unclaimed, they can use it however they want. Although the subject matter is fascinating, but it seems pretty macabre that I am considering spending money to see a person’s body who never consented to it. It strikes me as unethical.

So although I want to go back and really work on that hand I am not sure I can. Does that make sense?

Duane Keiser’s Found: Project

The founder of the Painting A Day Movement, Richmond artist Duane Keiser, has started an interesting experiment, called Found:

In his blog, A Painting a Day Duane has invited us to collaborate with him in the creation of art.

One of the many satisfying moments I have as a painter is when someone brings me something to paint. Aside from the kindness inherent in such a gesture, it is satisfying to me because it means that, at least for a moment, they saw a fragment of the world through my eyes. Some object points them to my work and they can almost see how I might paint it. Indeed, in some sense the object is already painted because the person who brought it to me had some notion how it would look on canvas– they become painters even if they never picked up a brush.The first painting at the Found: Project is a gentle quiet painting of a skeleton key.Although I have no way of knowing how many items he’s received, I know that there was something in this key which matched Duane’s criteria and viola

Duane has invited us to participate in the creative process by sending him items to paint that are ‘oddment’ size (it can fit in the palm of your hand). Of course there are some ground rules, and you have to allow for the fact that what fascinates you, might not fascinate him.

The simple idea that he’s asked me to use my eyes; and that he gets to see the world through my eyes is so exciting.

Currently there are two paintings that he’s completed at Found. In order to explore this idea further I am going to make a few assumptions. In his rules, Duane states that the person who send in the item has the first opportunity to purchase the oddment.

Amherst Avenue Key by Duane Keiser

Because this painting is in the collection of Ms. Irene Aston Ziegler, I am assuming that the person who now owns the painting submitted the item. Although I have no way of knowing how many items he’s received, I know that there was something in this key which matched Duane’s criteria and viola.

When discussing the result of the collaboration, Duane states:

My painting may end up looking very different than the one they had in their mind but the initial interest in it, the shared vision of its potential as something worth painting according to a shared painterly aesthetic, is the same.

So now I am curious. Did Ms. Ziegler see the key this way when she sent it to Duane? What drew you to the key and did Duane capture it? Did he see and subsequently capture the same things you saw?

When I first saw the painting I wondered if the gleaming light on that silvery metal was what drew her to the item or was it the solid weight of the key?

I’d also ask Ms. Ziegler a final question. Now, having seen Duane’s painting of your key~ how has viewing his painting shifted your perceptions of the key? Did he captured something you hadn’t considered?

I guess its the idea of how much does one individual’s observations affect another’s is what interests me the most about this entire project.

This is the second painting that Duane painted at his Found Project and to me it’s subject is not as solid as the gleaming key.

Pussy Willow by Duane Keiser

I believe Duane captured the wonderfully soft and ethereal quality of subject. This is another gentle quiet painting. I love how he left the base incomplete, as if to suggest this is here now, but soon, soon it will be only a memory.

Addendum, Duane’s answered some of these questions in this entry in blog On Painting

…and one more for the road

I forgot to add this one earlier. I painted this about three weeks ago for Rob’s friday afternoon oil class.

I love this painting, it’s the first painting I’ve made in his class that I really liked. I still need to adjust her head, but perhaps I should leave well enough alone.

I haven’t signed it yet, but I will sign it and varnish it soon. Then up on the walls it goes.

Sunday Painting Class

Ted was on vacation today so Marjorie taught class today.

I really like Marjorie she is Rob’s apprentice and a phenomenal artist in her own right. She’s currently working on a large mural for a dining room ceiling-I believe the dimensions are about 12×18. Sadly, they will have to put a hole in the canvas when they glue it to the ceiling. There are gods nymphs and geese frolicking among the clouds.

Over our lunch break I asked Marjorie about the confusion I was experiencing with trying to learn from Rob but messing up significantly along the way. Her advice has helped-or at least it will once I get a better grip on the principals they both are teaching.

Basically Marjorie said to continue painting or drawing in my style but to pay attention to the principals they are teaching. So, I can breath I guess and continue to do what seems to be working for me but to learn from them form and style.

Here is the picture of Alan I painted last Sunday. The color key is pretty high. His hair and bandanna need work and photographed even worse, he has braids that are blond, red and reddish-brown. The appear a little darking in the painting. This was painted in one-session in the second class.

I painted this today. It’s a long pose we have three sessions with this model. The idea with this painting is to use the first session to map only the shapes of the lights and darks. We’re not to do any modeling of the figure. The photo doesn’t so the colors the way that I would like but it still gives you an idea of where I am trying to go with this.

I will have to start sitting since we’re standing the entire time on concrete~my bum knee is killing me right now ~sigh.

A Wedding in Montana

My friend Anna, was married last month in Montana. It was an event filled with happiness and joy.

Now I am one of the most unsentimental people you will ever meet. I am not mushy or gushy, I do not save Christmas cards and I haven’t love letters from a high school sweetheart laying about. Having said this, believe me when I tell you that every single step she took on her wedding day radiated happiness and joy. She was a beautiful bride.

When Anna first told me she was engaged, I sarcastically asked her if the wedding was going to be in Yellowstone Park or someplace even harder to get to. She stuttered a second, paused and then told me they were going to get married in Glacier. Figures.

I know sounded harsh when I asked about the location, but that seems to be the running joke among our friends has been, “What obscure place can I be married at, which will prove my friends love me because, well they attended?”

I was married in 2003 in Portland Oregon, my friend Mike and his wife Michelle (who met at my wedding) married in Maine during the summer of 2004 , and Ann Marie and Chris were married in Yosemite National Park in 2005 and Now Anna and Alan in Glacier Park. So you understand my comment and can see the trend. The only single friends left are of Chris, Scott and Aida. Hopefully they won’t pick Greenland, Antarctica or Tibet to pledge their troth. Of course you never know.

The only normal wedding amongst our group has been John and Shelly’s wedding which was a full blown military wedding held at the Post Chapel on Fort Bragg NC. That wedding had all the men in uniform and she actually walked under crossed swords. The whole shebang. Shelly wore this beautiful but voluminous dress, very pretty; I have a picture of her posing as Wedding Ballerina Barbie tucked away somewhere.

Friends and family flew in from California, Maryland, Nantucket, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. It was a fun and boisterous crowd, especially the Nantucket representative!

Anna and Alan hosted a rehearsal dinner on a boat cruise at Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. We feasted (such a nicer word than ‘pigged-out’) laughed and met the other guests.

After the cruise most of us headed to the hotel bar and hung out in the bar while the wedding party rehearsed. Once the happy couple returned, Molly hosted the traditional Post Rehearsal-Lingerie Bridal Shower with all the love and harassment we could muster. Traditionally, someone gives them bridal thongs that they have to wear (and be photographed in-over their clothes of course!).

In case you were wondering, a bridal thong can loosely defined as something with either white satin, frothy sheer flimsy stuff, something sheer and red trimmed in marabou or anything crotchless. We reached a new limit for this shower. Anna received several panties with jewelry and plenty of diamond bling, Alan received some playboy mansion gift shop red silk boxers with lipstick kisses. The loudest catcalls and hoots were made by the women. Anna’s mother Mary was properly mortified so all in all it was a complete success. Mission accomplished.

The wedding was held on Saturday afternoon at the edge of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park.

Photo by Scott S.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful. Anna’s stepfather, played the guitar as her father walked her through the trees to the edge of McDonald Lake. There were no more than 35 people there who witness this momentous occasion.

Those who could attend were privileged to witness such an achingly beautiful ceremony.

After the wedding ceremony, we all headed back to the Belton Chalet for a tasty repast and stayed up simply enjoying each other’s company until the wee hours…as it should be.

Some of my friends took a helicopter trip over the park and some (read me) slept in a bit. We all gathered one last time and had a lovely Sunday Brunch. Then I left with Shellie -we both had to fly out from Kalispell.

The rest of the crowd hit the river and did some whitewater rafting and then adjourned for Mexican food. Habeneros at 3100 feet above sea level, what a way to finish a wonderful weekend!

Congratulations Anna and Alan, may you know only joy!

Dues Ex Machinima (World of Warcraft)

This is probably my favorite machinima. If you’ve never heard of machinima its where creative people use software to capture video images from a computer game (e.g. World of Warcraft, Halo) and add either voice dubbing or music. There is a website called Red vs Blue that was extremely influential in the development of machinima.

This song (Here Without You~ by 3 Doors Down) always makes me very sad. I remember listening to it when I was deployed in Iraq around Thanksgiving 2003. It always brought tears to my eyes then and it still does if I stop and think about how things were back then.

I used to play World of Warcraft (WoW), a lot, a real lot (as a friend used to say). Sadly, since I’ve moved to Virginia I simply haven’t had the time to play. As they say ‘RL pwns WoW ‘. If you’ve never played WoW I doubt this would make much sense to you, but so just watch it and enjoy how they are trying to tell a story using game generated imagery and music.

If you are interested the crib notes are:

• There are Horde and Alliance- before the expansion the factions hated each other
• The couple are human and very happy
• They are busy killing monsters, she attacks a undead warlock, the ‘lock kills her
• Human man attacks the ‘lock the human dies too
• Human male wakes up alone and as an undead and very alone
• (undead) Human male is upset and searches for the ‘lock who killed him
• He finds the ‘lock and after a fight kills the lock but is still alone
• The undead males have the best dance in the game and the Night elf males have the worse (think village people on steroids)

Here is the link for the original video.

Friday Night Drawing Class

Drawing class tonight. I am having a lot of difficulty with this class because I am trying to learn what Rob and his assistant Marjorie are trying to teach me and things don’t seem to be making a lot of sense right now. I keep thinking what I should be doing is listen to them demo a particular method and then I try to draw the model using their techniques.

I am trying to not work too small or too detailed. Even though this is a drawing class we’re working our drawings similar to how you’d construct an oil painting. and it frustrates me to no end since I am trying hard to integrate what I can do with what they are trying to teach me. It’s weird but when I watch the demo and really listen to what he’s talking about and then work the way I normally do; if I remain conscious of what he discussed it turns out well. When I attempt to do exactly what he did or I get too wrapped up in a precise instruction/technique it goes south pretty quickly.

Tonight out model was a white male named Jiri. I think he’s eastern European but it’s difficult to tell. When you look at him straight on it’s difficult to really see the beauty of his bone structure. Tonight I was to his left at around 40 degrees. I was kind of disappointed at first because there weren’t a lot of interesting shadows. But the nice thing was you really got to see his jaw line, nose, eyes and lips without the distraction of the shadows. Jiri has the kind of lips you see on a DaVinci Madonna or a Greek statue. They are very different from what we consider as beautiful lips today but the structure was so interesting. He had very deepset eyes and a prominent nose and it’s the eyes that really got me in trouble.

I simply massed them in because I was worry about getting too caught up in the structure (prominent brow/deep set eyes and heavy lids) and it got fairly off kilter in the drawing. I did the same thing with the ears but thought screw it and ruthlessly edited. When Rob saw the ears he loved them (I was brutal and they were not beautiful but they were true to Jiri and you could really see their structure), not so much for the eyes.

At that point I only had 15 minutes left so I started sketching his eye in a corner of the paper. Once class was over I showed that to Rob. He really liked the eye and told me that’s what I need to do to the main drawing. So tomorrow I will chamois out the eye and start over. I joked that I should cut out the one eye and glue it over the eye. My poor drawing.

I guess what I really got out of tonight was watch the demo, try to absorb one aspect of the lesson, and at least for the initial lay-in edit ruthlessly and be bolder.

Here is a copy of the DaVinci preliminary (he used chalks, charcoal and some paint) I am working on. So far I am about halfway finished. I am only using the verithins but it’s slow going. After looking at it Rob said I was about halfway there-I have some editing to do on it (adjust the nose and it’s shadows, rework lips and darken the darks).

Just in case you were wondering….

For class we use either prismacolor verithin pencils or chalks/conte crayons in black, white and sanguine (tera cotta color). We draw on specially prepared paper- you do this at home and bring in your prepped sheets for class, I use Frankfurt cream paper that has been prepared in the following manner:

• Prepare a watercolor wash (use yellow ocher, raw sienna or what ever color you prefer) -keeping it fairly light
• Prepare 1 part amber shellac with 5 parts denatured alcohol, mix and store in airtight container (you can buy these materials for under $10 at Lowe’s or Home Depot
• Apply a wash of watercolor, this will be your ground color and allow to try
• Apply coating of shellac/alcohol mixture and allow to dry
• Keep the shellac, alcohol, and shellac/alcohol mixture safely out of reach of children and don’t forget it’s flammable!

The color of my wash looks similar to parchment once the wash is applied and has dried. You can go darker but remember this serves as your midtone in your drawing so it needs to be fairly neutral. If your drawing the figure I’d suggest the ocher since it looks similar a skin tone. Another color you could try is for more French academy (ala Proudhon) affect by trying a blue-grey instead of the ocher.

A friend recommended I make the following disclaimer on my work. Unless otherwise stated, I own the copyright on all the art work (oil paintings, oil sketches, drawings, and photographs). You do not have the right to download or link the art in this blog without either correctly attributing it to me or asking my permission. Seems like most folks would know that but you just never know.

Painting

I decided to try oil painting when I lived in New Mexico. I have some experience with watercolors and acrylics so I thought it would be fun to try something different. I studied with a Leo Neufeld for a year. My goals were (and still are) simple when it comes to oil painting, I want to paint things that don’t look like they were bought at a garage sale.

Although that might sound simple, it is not. I am fortunate because I have doodled my way through elementary, middle and high schools as well as in my working life (the more boring a call the more elaborate the doodles). So at least I can draw, somewhat.

I painted this last winter. The model, Zuleika, is a beautiful young woman who had such grace and sweetness it’s difficult to convey without sounding sappy.

Now that I live in Virgina I have the great fortune to be studying with Robert Liberace . Rob’s work is phenomenal and when I grow up I hope to paint or draw with his expertise.

The main thing I am learning in his classes is how to see the colors of skin. That might sound fairly simple but it’s not. Depending on the base color/complexion light does interesting things when it hits skin.

My favorite coloring to paint is pale white skin, the kind that you usually see on someone with red hair. Last term, one of the model’s skin had this gorgeous color; blues, lavenders, pinks, yellows and greens. The transitions were subtle and if you blinked you missed them. She was beautiful. Unfortunately my painting was not but that is ok. The point of studying with someone is to learn how they see and what they see.

I hope that makes sense, I pay very close attention to Rob during demos because I am trying to learn how he views the model, how he renders the form and what he keys in on. I still don’t see the colors in the skin tones that he does but I am trying.

Because I was in Florida during the opening of registration for Rob’s classes, I couldn’t get in. I have been lucky so far in buying someone else’s spot or folks telling me, “Hey I won’t be here next week, you can have my spot.” So my attendance has been sporadic. I’ve taken one painting class and two of his drawing classes and I will be able to take the last two of his drawing classes of the term. Since I couldn’t take Rob’s class I signed up for Ted Reed’s painting marathon. It’s a 5 hour class and it feels like a part time job but it’s been amazing as well.

Last week’s model was a black male named Alan. He had very light skin and it was difficult painting him because the midtones were slightly muted and grayed orange. Now in realty no one is really orange but that’s how he appeared in the light we were using. The thing about painting darker skin tones is how the light dazzles and dances on the skin. For lighter skin tones, light is usually (to my eye) lighter skin tones with occasional highlights. on darker flesh is sizzles and sparkles, it’s simply gorgeous.

Rob teaches sculptural anatomy at Studio Incamminati so his demos are peppered with triceps, pectorals, lats, tibia etc. He’s made me dig into my anatomy books at home to try and learn more. The main thing I am learning about anatomy is that even if you don’t see it (say the ribs-because they are under a great deal of flesh) it will still affect the way the flesh sits on the bones and also how the light and shadows will play across the surface.