1st Grade Calisthenics

Look at us hustle! We appear to be on some sort of forced march.


Apologies for the delay in posting. I really hate the painting that I'm currently working on and am in the process of rushing it out just to get it done. Probably not the ideal attitude but hey.

Starting From Scratch

Here's a detail shot of the oil painting from my current two piece project. Since the other half was a print, I decided to emulate the feel of an etching by scratching in some rough lines with a nail. Unfortunately, I ended up with a painting that looks like an etched print and a print that looks like an oil painting. Sigh.

The Public Eye

An oil painting/monoprint tandem project. The two images are meant to relate and bounce off one another. I was going for a two-panel sequence of a security camera type of deal.



I'm really pleased with how the monoprint's cracked static image turned out but I'm afraid it's not very congruent with the scratched-in style of the oil painting. I don't consider these fully resolved pieces and will try and work back into one or the other or both tomorrow morning before class and see what I can do. We'll see how it turns out. At this point I just need some shuteye.

Director's Commentary

Here's a play-by-play of how this latest painting unfolded.


I started out with a red and yellow ground and built up some arbitrary pockets of colour. Originally, I envisioned the buildings on either side to be depicted in a highly realistic manner but I quickly strayed from that idea. Probably because the research requirements and time restrictions were cramping my style. But I like the monolithic look that I ended up with.


After shading in the walls, I turned my eye to the sea. This was one of those paintings where I got so caught up in the actual process of moving the paint on the canvas that it took me a while to step back and realise that it just didn't look that good. This is definitely pre-epiphany. The colours are so muddy and uncohesive and that pthalo green sticks out like a sore thumb.


At this point I was concerned with revamping the tonal qualities of the piece. I painted over a lot of the darker areas with ultramarine blue. I'd say this was probably the turning point since that change ended up characterising the entire thing.


After going back and looking a lot more closely at Tomory Dodge's work, I actually began to source my visual material instead of basing it on memory. Hence the vertical textures and cross-hatched areas. Also a bigger alteration in terms of the way the brush strokes actually looked.


The final touches consisted of darkening the shadows and adding in the surfer and sky. I knew I wanted the latter to retain that reddish colour and ended in shading in a crude cloud structure to complement the light-to-dark transitions along the walls. The surfer was a bit tricky and took me a few times but I ended up using a bit more violet in the blacks to subtly make him pop.

That's about it. Sorry if this ended up sounding self-congratulatory and pretentious. But hey, what can you do.

Red Sky Diaries

Here's my landscape painting. It's been two weeks in the making -- kind of a visual combination of "Point Break", "Apocalypse Now", and "The Road", I guess. Actually, the style is a direct emulation of Tomory Dodge. I was looking to capture those really visible and deliberate brushstrokes.

Untitled, 120 x 60 cm
Oil paint on canvas
Painted September 2009

Here is a detail shot ... just because:


I'm quite pleased with how it all turned out because at one stage (as is always the case) I was ready to turn this canvas into kindling.

Connections

This painting is an extension of the systems of chance printmaking project. In continuation of the theme, I randomly selected one of my Facebook friends and asked her to supply me with what she thought was the best photo she had ever taken. This image, of a child on the streets of India, was the result.

Untitled, A1 dimensions
Oil paint on paper
Painted September 2009

Some things that I need to work on (courtesy of today's critique session): the transition from dark to light is too abrupt, especially on the left shoulder. The colours are a bit overdone, especially on the clothing where things get a bit confusing. The folds themselves aren't especially well done. That jutting vertical line in particular irks me.

Overall, however, it was a fun painting to do that came together quickly and easily. Plus, I enjoyed the constructive criticism. It's all stuff that I agree with and would like to incorporate into my work moving forward.

Boy Wonder

Here's a detail shot for an oil painting on paper that I hammered out in about 2 hours. There's still a few kinks to work out tomorrow so I'll post the whole thing then.

Darwin's Blade

This is my first print in a year and a half, a chine-colle. I was a bit rusty around the press but once I got back into the flow of things it was all smooth sailing.


Our project was to produce art that was created by a system of chance. For this particular print, I clicked on the random article button on Wikipedia and then did a Google Image search of the results ("Galveodon", a prehistoric Spanish mammal). The first image was this bizarre image of a half-man half-ape Charles Darwin which I then replicated and superimposed over the Wikipedia text.

RRCCCCBBB

Interesting sound effect for a swing set.


I'm currently suffering through a printmaking assignment and thought I'd post this in the interim. Hopefully, some much needed sleep + a last minute adrenaline rush will produce a wondrous result before 1.20PM tomorrow.

Woody

Behold the wonder of my 10th grade woodwork education. I just built my first canvas having spent the morning in the woodshop cutting the timber down to size and screwing it together.


There were a few snafus. I double drilled the short lengths of wood instead of the long planks on two instances, which is a habit that I'm going to have to very quickly break. And I had to iron some creases out of the canvas (which I just stretched). I hate ironing.

I'm going to apply some gesso right now and then try and get started on the actual painting sometime this afternoon/evening.

Cahulawassee Blues

Here's the concept board for my latest painting project. We have to create a landscape image that relates to the relationship between man and nature. At first I wasn't enthused at all, because let's face it: landscapes suck. However, looking at the wide range of contemporary artists out there working on the subject (Lisa Sanditz, Sharon Ellis, Amy Chan, etc) really inspired me.


This is kind of my own surrrealist take on that kind of introspective "Apocalypse Now"/"Heart of Darkness" trip down the river. I want to transpose the claustrophobia of the jungle into a delapidated urban setting. I picture the character kind of quietly paddling down this empty flooded ghetto; sort of a tourist in an ambiguously post-apocalyptic scenario. He's actually taken from a photo my brother took of a river surfer in France.


I'm currently fixated on the work of contemporary American artist Tomory Dodge (see: above). The way he crafts his compositions out of these haphazard rectangles of colour is amazing. And I really dig the allusive qualities of his subject matter. Definitely the primary inspiration behind this current piece.

I'll post more updates in the coming week. Right now I'm currently trying to assemble my first canvas -- that is, cutting the wood, fitting it together, and stretching the canvas. Good stuff.