New works

So I've been keeping moderately busy with art. I began experimenting with copper as a ground. Its very interesting. Initially I prepared it using liquin impasto after sanding it down a bit for some tooth. I painted my brother Andy. It came out really nice and a lot of my fellow coworkers and artists thoroughly enjoyed it, even have a tentative commission! However... it was pretty much impossibly to add extra layers to finish the painting because any bit of solvent just completely destroyed the underlying paint layers. So I just, begrudgingly, scratched off the paint and prepared it the old fashioned way with denatured alcohol and garlic (i know, weird). This painting is last nights efforts on that ground and it feels so much better, oddly enough. I want to keep practicing. I think the painting got too tight for my towards the end and I lost some of the bravura that the first painting had, PLUS I really want to capitalize on the reflective surface and keep the shadows more transparent instead of as opaque as they are here. Otherwise, I'm happy with how this came out.

The skull is borrowed from work, its a real one too. Its almost done. The two drawings are just weekly head studies I do at the art school when I can sit in on a class here and there. The male head, Vinnie, was done in 30 minutes and I wish I could paint him, but alas I have to work :( The female head is the lovely Cheryl and I did her in 20 minutes. She's an evening model so I'll probably do a 3 hour oil sketch on wednesday. Thats all for now folks!

Art Dump 3

This is the last of the blog art dump. The skull is what I'm currently working on in my studio. Its an actual human skull I borrowed from work. There will probably be like two or three more paintings done in different angles. Primarily its being used to better my drawing/painting abilities from life, especially since I don't have a model readily available. After these I'll probably set up a still life and work on several in between hiring models. The second piece is a three hour painting I did yesterday of my model friend Marisa. I can't express how happy I am to have actually gotten a likeness in such a short time and I can honestly say that it was a huge milestone, breakthrough painting for me as far as life work is concerned. Last piece is a drawing from life done in a class I was originally taking at the museum but ended up teaching for the remainder of it's duration due to an emergency surgery had by the teacher, master pastelist Alex Picirrillo. Its the same model, Marisa, and its about 4 weeks (3 hour classes) of work. Its pretty much done and I'm really happy with it. I also used Wolff Carbon pencils for the first time, and I can honestly say I am not a fan. But this is my current work, all done within the last two weeks except for the drawing of Marisa. Enjoy!

Art Dump 2

So I decided to become an abstract artist. I'm dropping representational painting to do abstract works of art that will probably sell faster and for more money. Plus it comes from a deeper place in my soul, combining my love for texture and impasto oil painting and the... I'm just bullshiting you. I made these as a base for future paintings. They're backgrounds pretty much. Its also an exercise in seeing what shapes I can pull out of the abstractions on the surface, for when I have one of those pesky creative blocks you know? Doing these abstracts is actually very liberating and fun. Plus instead of throwing away perfectly good paint, it gets put to use in ways they wouldn't necessarily be used for in my regular paintings. Enjoy :)

Art Dump 1

Art Dump part one. No I haven't been lazy or too busy for work, just too busy to post online. First is a little snap shot of my studio space. Second is a small 8.5 x 11 oil on canvas board using a photo form deviantart that i'll have to link to eventually, just know its not my photo. Did it in a night. Third is a just a piece of canvas paper that I used to practice eyes and eventually just started playing with impasto strokes and doing wet in wet glazing. Very tricky, but really funny. The two color charts are based on Richard Schmid's instruction. The first one is the nicer looking one, using the photos of his own color charts to measure my own values against his. It looks darker, but it is pretty close, and I added some of the colors I use normally along with his own palette. The second one is my original palette that I did on my own without any reference it how it should look. And last was a 5 hour portrait painting from life that I did of the daughter of a family friend. Getting better at painting from life! Didn''t finish her eyes though, so she'll be sitting for me again. Part two coming up.