Awe

Just another stunning painting from the masterpiece factory that is James Jean.


As deep of a slump as I feel like I'm in, seeing work like this makes me want to reach for a brush.

It's A Boy

Well, this was a pleasant change from all the wall textures and chain link fence. I'm generally more happy with the figure's upper body than I am with the legs, but overall I'm quite pleased with the results given that it was rendered almost entirely from my imagination (hence the inconsistent lighting effects).


It's a strange thing, but I suspect that all the technical emphases of our first year drawing and painting classes instilled a reliance on photographic references that I haven't been able to shake. Whereas prior to art school I could generally just draw freely from mind. I guess that's why it felt so nice to kind of ad-lib this little section (with more to come).


I still have to render about a dozen or so intertwined trailing characters in translucent glazes so this painting is far from done. Originally, I planned to do three panels, but I'll be fortunate to complete two. Volume of work is my biggest concern right now but I'd rather hand in one excellent painting than two or three half-assed pieces.

Tools Of The Trade

A snapshot of my painting table, complete with overused/abused paper palette and the two miniature brushes that I have rendered 85% of my painting with. No wonder it's taken so long.

Heavy Lifting

Behold the labours of the past two months. A bit depressing considering how little way I've come and how far I've yet to go. But it is the most layered and detail-intensive painting that I've ever attempted.






You can follow my overtly pedantic process from the buildings in back to the foreground wall to, most recently, the nightmare that was the chain-link fence. Incidentally, I absolutely hate rendering architecture.

p.s. For those that know it, yes, the imagery was referenced from La Cancha. I tried adding the "Ole" graffiti but it looked pretty terrible.

Mission Statement

So I'm about one third of the way through my final semester at art school and desperately trying to bring my final body of work up to speed (hence, the lack of posts -- sorry!). This project is basically a thematic continuation of last semester's work, dealing with issues of loss and emotional displacement in the context of the transition from youth to adulthood.

Preliminary sketch on wood panel

Basically, I'm painting a series of panoramic narratives, each of which will depict a boy with a soccer ball conquering a legion of his own imagined foes. It's a pretty clear and shallow reflection of my infatuation with the recently ended World Cup, and I am desperately hoping that the final product won't look like a Nike ad, but the subject matter is both personally relevant and visually accommodating to the type of language that I want to use.

My life, circa 1991

The one condition I did impose was to confine all of my compositions to a strictly two-dimensional plane -- not as a conscious decision, by any means, but more in how I instinctively visualised the idea. I suppose it harks back to memories of my boyhood iconography: living in a two-button world where the only driving factor was to get Mario from the left side of the screen to the right. That's something that wouldn't make sense to a lot of my more academic teachers, but I look at these old NES games and see a beauty in that kind of honest visual simplicity, and I look at my recent work and see evidence of this aesthetic lineage.

Photo taken in Boston Commons (01/10)

I also think this framework is a perfect vehicle to explore the dynamics of human movement, which is probably a more longstanding artistic interest of mine. As someone who typically frames only one or two people at a time in an image, I'd like to really explore a more intricate and fluid composition of interacting characters in this series of paintings. Something akin to the complexity of Renaissance painting, which is generally something that I tend to steer clear of.

Nicolas Poussin's "The Battle"

On a more technical level, I'm trying to layer my acrylics in a series of thin coats to produce a well developed transparency effect, what with the juxtaposition of the child's imagined elements against the reality of the physical setting. It's pretty cliche, but one of my bow-down-and-worship-him contemporary influences is the painter/illustrator James Jean. The image below, for example, is a perfect demonstration of the kind of hard-graphic-on-soft-paint look that I want.


As it is, I'm still battling the first of three planned paintings. I've hashed out the basic underpainting and am currently fleshing out the background (something I really, really dislike doing ... rendering architecture). But after uploading them to my computer I realise that all the photos I've taken are pretty terrible. This post is long enough anyways. If you got this far, wow, I'm impressed.

Men Become Boys and Boys Become Men

Here are those last three acrylics. In the end, I was only half a day over my intended five-in-five timetable. Not bad, not bad.




I'm quite pleased with how this project turned out -- in fact, it may have just convinced me to use acrylic for my final semester's major work. Food for thought, I guess.

Three Days of the Condor

Three down, three to go.

The head on this guy looks a bit potato-ish; I might have to re-touch that face. I'm also not too keen on that hand on the right. The blue vest was giving me nightmares but actually turned out alright. And though you can't really see it in this crappy photo, I must say, the light on that arm on the left -- amazing! Even a blind dog finds a bone once in a while.


The splotch on the background is an annoyance that I will have to deal with later, and one I know will lead to much cursing.

No Known Survivors

Here's an update on the second project that I'm trying to sandwich into the tail end of the semester. I started these six canvases a few months ago but they've since undergone some serious renovations. To be honest, I'm just having fun getting reacquainted with acrylics and banging out these G.I. Joe portraits. For some reason I find it 1000x easier to do photorealistic renditions with these paints than oils. And it's a nice bonus to not have to worry about chemicals or wait a day between layers.



I'm currently on a painting-a-day schedule since everything's due next week but it's not as bad as it sounds because, despite the time crunch, it's been quite a pleasant experience. I actually think that self-imposed pressure has helped, too, at least insofar as making me a bit more subconsciously decisive. It's kind of like when I drive to school -- since there's only 1 hour parking and I have to go out every so often to move the car, I find that I'm much more productive in terms of what I squeeze into every 60 minutes.


Anyways, that's all I got so far. I'll try to post as I go and take some better photos (those backgrounds are actually completely flat and tonally identical).

Burning' and Lootin'

First work: done.

Not that there isn't more to do on this one -- the tones on those signs should be a little more consistent. That baseball player needs way more black on his upper body and shoes. I could probably work a bit more on the panel transitions. I definitely need to figure out how to hang these panels (D-rings?)



Sadly, it's a numbers game now. I've got two weeks left to finish my other much more neglected major work. If there's time, I'll address these issues as best I can. Compromise is such an ugly thing.

It's probably still too fresh to decide whether I like this piece or not. I can say that I don't love it. But maybe that's because I can't help but think about the concessions I had to make to my original idea of having these portraits be life-sized on door-sized panels of wood. I wish there was a way to make this happen, but I'm not even one of those people that can re-visit a work to touch it up, let alone recycle the same idea.

Triplets

The photo quality isn't great, but here's a quick look at the three panels that I've done so far.


Batman's been a problem child since day one, and to be honest, there's still something about him that gets under my skin. Unfortunately, I have neither the time/effort to re-attempt that particular panel, and I can't think of anything that I could do different to make it better. Hmmm. I guess I'm getting a bit over this project, as evidenced by the steady decline in quality/enthusiasm since the astronaut.


Anyways, three down with the remaining two primed and ready. Next Friday is my D-Day.

Haterade

Two down, with a third about 3/4 done and the last two prepped and on deck.


Some lingering issues:

1) That text really irks me. I'll wait till all five panels are painted and then re-do it all.

2) I didn't notice at first, but my studio neighbour astutely pointed out the abrupt transition between the panels. Again, I'm going to wait till I've got everything done before adding some cross-panel drips to smooth it out a bit more and add a bit of visual continuity. (Thanks, Nick)


On a side note, whilst prepping my remaining panels with a yellow undercoat the baseball player I'd painted earlier turned out as pictured. Dig that soft look. People have been telling me to include it in the sequence but I think homogeneity's an important part of this project. Maybe if I had a mulligan I'd steer the whole thing in that direction, but it's surely way too late now.

Frontiers

A quick recap:

I had this idea waiting on deck pre-semester so was able to hit the ground running -- concept sketches, materials, laying-out and image prep was all done in the first 2-3 weeks. And then a month and a half of flatline. I had my subject matter down, knew how and where everything had to be, but just couldn't figure out the painterly aesthetic that I wanted.


E.g. three early iterations of the first image I tried painting. I'm actually quite fond of the one on the left but (error of all errors) I plotted a new course after some negative feedback from the one teacher in my class whose opinion I actually value. Hence, the increasingly butchered attempts. In terms of the figure, it turned out okay but I immediately and adamantly knew that I could do better.


Behold the breakthrough (above). The lightbult moment came as I was staring at the texture of the floor in the painting studios during a group crit, and was further reinforced by the chance discovery of this jacket cover for Matt Kindt's "Superspy". This led to the profuse experimentation with dripped solvent and glazed paints. I'm extremely happy with the end result. That background combined with the slashed paint strokes on the astronaut give the piece the whole street art feel that I was so depserately searching for.


Now all I have to do is get the rest of the pieces up to speed. Which isn't too bad considering that the astronaut only took me two days all up and I've got the blueprint for the whole process in my pocket. Most importantly, however, is that this project is now fun again. No more banging my head against a wall.

Only four teacher assisted weeks left in the semester and counting so I'm glad that things are finally coming together. Let's see how it goes from here.

Amsterdamage

Detail from one of the panels that I'm working on. This particular piece could use a little more yellow/peach in the upper left but other than that I'm keen to start painting the figure.


I've currently got six of these panels for a proposed 2x3 grid. For this semester, realistically, I think I might be able to squeeze in an extra two or three for either a 2x4 or 3x3 grid. But I could totally see this as an ongoing work (at least rolling over into the next semester). I'm thinking 20 to 30 pieces at least, gradually moving on to more progressively damaged and de-limbed figures. We'll see, I guess.

Knowing Is Half The Battle

Exactly two weeks since my last post and I am determined not to let this blog die. A lame excuse, but I have been having some issues uploading images on my up-and-down internet connection.


Here's some tonal underpaintings for one of my projects (my first foray into acrylics since the unfortunate mess that was foundation painting). I deviated from my initial proposal somewhat and instead decided to focus on the stilted posture and plasticised expressions of these six old G.I. Joe action figures. They're both endearing and alien to me; comforting and lonely. The backgrounds definitely need to be flattened a bit more but so far I am liking where it's headed.

I'll keep you posted -- promise!

Narcotraficantes

I haven't actually liked anything else that Joe Carnahan's done but I quite love "Narc". It's gritty, intense, and raw, and that's exactly how I want to paint.



I had a clear vision for the backgrounds of my five panel piece (see previous post) as a flat and ambiguous space, but the inability of my brain to think in abstract terms has produced a bit of a muddled mess.

In my previous painting experiences, I have absolutely loathed what I have been making until, at some unexpected and unpredictable interval, the lightbulb clicks and everything ends well. So it's really just a matter of pushing through the self-hatred until this epiphany unfolds. That's what I like about painting -- you can keep on slapping down colours till the thing goes from ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly to magic.

Silver Lining

Alex McLeod -- Toronto-based digital artist and all round nice bloke. I met him through a friend of my brother's at The Taxali 300 opening and had a nice chat about making it out the other end of art school and living as a practicing artist.



It was fun to hear that Alex had majored in painting/drawing at school (the same thing as I am studying now) since he basically abandoned all the traditional practices he learned to branch off in his own direction. Not something I see myself doing given my digital ineptitude but it just goes to show you that there's more to life than school -- especially when it comes to art.



It was interesting for me to hear Alex talk about how he was influenced by those old point-and-click adventure games and their pre-rendered backgrounds because I look at these images and see them as photographs of dioramas or set-pieces that have actually been physically constructed. In my mind, at least, it's like we're walking through a Hollywood soundstage or a claymation studio just seconds after everyone left for lunch. I dunno. There's something charming and nostalgic about how self-consciously artificial these setups are and I really like that.

You can check out more of Alex's stuff on Kanye's blog. Or if you just happen to be in Barcelona in February to March, I highly encourage you to go and visit the Rojo Artspace.

Flesh Painter

I feel like a lot of photorealistic artists straddle the line between achieving something in their work that's technically amazing and conceptually interesting -- rarely, however, is it both. Alyssa Monk is an exception to this rule. Her work is so consistently mind-blowing and uniquely ambient that I find myself sifting through her dozens of paintings and loving each and every one of them.




I do kind of wonder about the photo reference for that baby though ...

Retrospective For Life

These are the last two paintings that I did in the semester prior to my exchange in the States, the first of which was an exercise in transparent/flat/broken colour, and the second a collage project. I was happy with them at the time and I'm still quite pleased with them now but it's strange to see how different they are to my last batch of projects.

3 Sachel Youths, 60 x 84 cm
Oil paint on canvas board
Painted May 2009

Baby Irma, 42 x 30 cm
Oil paint and mixed media on canvas
Painted May 2009

I only started painting in about August 2008 -- involuntarily I might add, since at the time I was only interested in the 'drawing' portion of my Drawing & Painting major. That semester was an exercise in brutality, too, as we were forced through the monotony of dozens of still lives and technical exercises, the results of which were predictably abysmal.

But over the summer break I made it my goal to actually learn something about painting and worked on a couple of canvases for fun (it also happened to coincide with my need for an artistic portfolio for my exchange application). Here's an early example:

Lupe the Fiasco, 42 x 30 cm
Oil paint on canvas
Painted January 2009

I look at this now and it seems so rudimentary. But at the time it was a huge breakthrough for me -- I was actually having fun while I was painting. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from a teacher at art school was, in response to my whining about how I wasn't used to handling a brush, to paint as if I was drawing; to make the medium one that you were familiar with. That's probably why all of the above paintings are characterised by these bold linear outlines. Eventually, I progressed from a paint-by-numbers approach to something with a little more tonal variation and textural qualities. And these days, I feel like I don't need that crutch anymore.

It's surreal for me to see the exponentional difference in my paintings and approach to the medium from this time a year ago. Technically, I feel a lot more confident, and aesthetically, a lot more willing to experiment. It's definitely encouraging. Because as much as I learned and grew in 2009, I'm greedy enough to want even more this year.

Leftovers

Just touched down in Chicago. My first impression is: I love it.

Anyways, just wanted to share a couple of pieces I spotted in Chelsea a while back before I forget about them and they get buried deep within the corners of my hard drive.

Cayce Zavaglia
'Martina' 2009
Embroidery, crewl wool on fabric

Cheryl Kelley
'Untitled'
Oil on aluminium

Two very different yet equally beautiful photorealistic depictions. It's pretty much impossible for me to choose between the textures of Zavaglia's piece and the rock'n'roll lighting of Kelley's painting. Absolutely stunning stuff.

You Can't Go Home Again

Great piece by a great painter. I'm embarassed to say I only discovered Elizabeth Peyton this past year but curbing my artistic ignorance is one of my ongoing resolutions.


You know that excitement when you're walking down the street and you see someone who attracts you? Suddenly, just for a second, all possibilities are open.

- Elizabeth Peyton

That's how I feel about 2010. 2009 was a real rollercoaster but I guess that's just the way life is. This one's a big year for me though -- my senior year at art school. Wish me luck!