New Painting!

Here's the drawing for a new painting. This is with the model, George, I hired. I shot some reference for the background, immersing him in a bizarre landscape of folds and stars. I think this has potential. I have friends from California coming for the weekend. Will be great to see them, but it sucks losing momentum when I start something like this.

Nose Dive

Okay, so this was a week of work down the gutter. I became increasingly dissatisfied with how this was going. Felt like I was floundering. It's hard to flounder in a painting whilst floundering with my adjustment to New York. I might need to get a truck soon. So I went a little further with this painting, making it worse, all the while thinking of something else I wanted to try out. You don't get to see the even less inspired version. It was painted over, then put aside. On to something else.

Value Study

Here's the value study. I intend for most elements to get a bit lighter as I layer paint on them. With this painting I'm going to try and get most of the abstract elements done before doing the figure, which is opposite of what I did with the last two. Stay tuned.

Drawing on Canvas

The drawing on the canvas has been finished and I'm happy with it. I'm going to do most of the value study on the canvas in black, white, and greys. I've some colors in mind, and I know thing will change as I go, but a basic value structure is always good to work with.

I put some clear plastic up on my wall, found the studs, and screwed the canvas to my wall. Ghetto fabulous easel! Only three holes in the drywall, nobody will know. I am the Kaiser Soze of apartments, nobody has any idea what's happened even after I'm gone. Thought I'd be able to work at school so I ditched my last easel, which I wasn't crazy about. This will do nicely until September and the games begin.

First New York Painting

NYAA is doing some remodeling, which means I'm starting to work from home. Not a bad thing, I'm used to it. The first image is a line drawing of the composition - any circles will actually be stars. Using stars to break up some of the main shapes and will be add depth. Stars are great, and are something worthy of adding to my first painting in New York.

I attempted to do a full value study with charcoal. It didn't turn out well, but was useful. I love charcoal.

It will be interesting to see if this painting goes "as planned" or gets completely changed throughout the process like the last couple. Tomorrow I'm setting up my painting studio in my bedroom and getting the canvas ready. Hopefully I'll have time to start drawing, I'm swinging for the fences on this one.

New York!

I landed on June 19, 2011. This was a week of record heat and I inhabited an apartment I had never seen before, in a neighborhood that was completely foreign. The apartment is up four flights of stairs, had no AC, no blinds, no furniture, no internet... nothing. The only thing it had was volcanic properties of heat and light.
   It's almost August now and after a wind-sprint of "gettin-shit-done" my place is furnished and comfortable.
   I have never had this much culture shock inside my own country. I live in a Hasidic neighborhood, so everyone looks funky to me. The best grocery store here is Russian, so I can't read half the labels and have to mime questions to the staff. And I've been living in a town of 1000 people for the last three years with daily commutes down dirt roads in my pickup. Learning the bus routes and subway lines has been a bit of an adjustment.
   I'm starting to see the matrix a little bit.

Spent 2 days updating my web site. I'm happy with it, good to see some refinement in what's included.

Hired a model to pose for the next painting. Very cool guy who works as a stunt man. Taking a look at the photos after this post to see what I've got to work with.

Included in this post is my last painting, called "Time To Leave Town."

Finally... an update!

I got back from a three week trip to Northern India with some new ideas about painting... and this is what I did. I've been thinking about how much I love the implied narrative that comes with any figurative painting.  But the mental exercise that happens with abstract painting is also very interesting to me. I'm certainly not the first to mix the two together. But I like the idea of having a figure interacting with an abstraction. The abstraction feels, to me, like an extension of a figure's mental state.

Well, she ain't the pretties thing under the sun at this point, but at least she's gotten some color. I did the bark on the tree yesterday. I'm having a lot of interesting ideas for the next painting. This one is turning out awkward! Maybe it will shape up.

Getting my ducks in a row...

I've mostly modeled the mega-mallards on this one. I've been questioning this whole painting. Questioning the content of something so illustrative. Is this mystical and whimsical or just plain stupid? Questioning my technique: taking stabs at completing different elements in random order feels like being blindfolded swinging away at a pinata. Really wishing I'd done more to create reference material.
It's okay. I'm learning some things and have a better idea of what to do for the next one. I might even do this one over! We'll see.

Progress

I'm compelled to outline elements in the early stages of this painting. This is not my usual mode of working, but I've done it before. I think that because I don't have any direct reference for these things I'm using the outlines both as structure and to keep them distinct from their surroundings. Every painting has a phase where I think, "Is this going to be a disaster?" I'm right about there.

Got some paint down!

Alright! Had a guest the last few days which pretty much halted progress. I have a couple of days off now, so it's go time. Usually I work from dark colors to light colors, but on this one I'm going to get the background in first. There's a lot of intricate work over the sky, so I just feel like blocking it in.
The darks of the leaves and the mega-mallards will be next.

Yesterday and Today

Drawing's mostly done. Moved the "Mega Mallard" in the top right corner. Not a full value study, I already know the hair is going to get blocked in with black, and a lot of the background elements I'm going to do with direct paint.


Changed the body of the Mega Mallard in the bottom left corner. Neck needed to be longer. Making adjustments as I go. Already I'm thinking of ways the drawing could be better, but I'm going to stick with the plan. Onward and forward, I'll know to look out for some things next time.


Finally getting some paint on here! Blocking in the darkest darks. Having some issues with paint... or lack thereof. I'm trying some new things with color, hoping to start with some different greens and yellows. Art store is an hour away. Damn. Hopefully I can get there tomorrow.

Finally Started!

Got my canvas in the mail. First time ordering this particular brand, it looks good. The label says it's been gessoed three times. I like my own, and I like the surface smoother, so I gave it a couple more rounds of gesso, sanding after each application.


This piece will be called, "Tuesday Morning." Here's the drawing my painting will be based on:


Some color studies:



Now the drawing begins. I'll make changes as I go along... hopefully for the better:

Waiting...

Living in the boonies is great in many respects. One major exception to this is the lack of an art store. The closest one is an hour away, and it's not particularly good. After the Wyoming Antelope I began preliminary work on a fantastical piece. I ran up to the closest art store to get a canvas in the intended size. They didn't have one, but could order one that week. Fine with me. I went to pick it up later in the week, and they said their distributor couldn't get it. NOT fine with me. I was on a roll, and didn't want to slow down. So I ordered one online, knowing that it would take a while. So I did a quick study of an arm and a pistol. It turned out well, but was tough. I don't feel I'm mixing my flesh tones well enough. I got some nice blue in for the veins in the arm, but the darker part of the bicep and shoulder lack confidence. So much to learn.

This was a good study while waiting.


I actually had a little bit of a breakthrough with this one regarding materials. I used a small sable watercolor brush for some details that worked out great! I was also able to sign my name the way I wanted. It's the little things that can make life better.

Wyoming Antelope

Unfortunately, with these next pieces I don't have any of the sketches or color studies associated with the work. My studio space suffers from Acute Clutter Disorder, so I've taken to getting rid of the extra drawings and paintings once a final piece is done. This begs the question: What the hell is all this stuff on my desk? That could be the subject of another blog.

This piece was way out of my normal mode of subjects... which would falsely imply I have some kind of consistent subject. I'm working on that. I took a trip to Wyoming to visit my Uncle and I was incredibly inspired by what I saw there. I live in a beautiful woodsy place... but Wyoming blew me away, with its expansive landscapes, open skies, and interesting wildlife. I wanted to see if I could capture this.


My Uncle has this now.

Scholarship!

I'm hoping to earn the "New Media Scholarship" offered by the New York Academy of Art. I'm applying to this grad school and hope to attend next fall. The scholarship requires that we document our application process. Well, my application is already in the mail. So I'll start with what I've done recently and move on to my current project.

First Art Blog

The intention of this blog is to document my art making process. It is to record my work leading up to my move to New York, and my studies while I am there. Feel free to check in and see what I’m up to!