The Struggle

This is the first painting I completed using primarily palette knife techniques.  It's a painting of my friend Chris Coogan in the act of decision making while working on a large scale piece.  Palette knife creates a really textural, physical paint quality that I felt embodies the mood I was going for.  Coogan is a phenomenal painter, but always plagued with self-doubt.  To quote him, "You sunnavabitch!  You painted my painting better than me."  For him every painting is a struggle in every way possible: technically, emotionally, mentally, etc.  At some point in every creative person's life, if not every single day, we go through this roller coaster of emotions.  And despite the defeat it sometimes brings along we still do this... we are really all mental :)  So while the image itself is quiet, I hope that the physicality, mood, and color evokes that internal struggle.  The painting is 24"x24" oil on canvas. 

Nighttime in Montmartre

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New small painting.  5" x 7" oil on canvas.  The next few I post will be fairly entertaining :)

Etsy shop back up

Starting this whole Etsy endeavor back up and being serious about it.  Take a gander :)

Julian's Art Shop

Also have a Google + account now, so add me

Julian Tejera Art

Bit late... but HI!

This semester I begin my thesis work in my directed study classes, so I'll be posting quite infrequently as I'll be in my studio most of the time.  These are some quick studies I did over the weekend after I worked on my assignments that I ended up loving even more than the homework.  So I think there's something to these and a number of people seem to think so, as does my prof Kevin Moore.  Let's see what happens.  Apologies for the crappy quality as they were taken with my phone.  Each one was no more than an hour and a half tops.

painted from life

In Kevin's class today we worked from the model but we were set up facing away from him.  This is a contemporary painting class and it is hands down the most fun studio class I've ever taken.  We essentially play and experiment without sacrificing the fundamentals.  So we had the model and were only allowed to observe and do sketches for our memory's benefit, but we had to leave any notes/sketches behind when we went to paint.  While painting we were not allowed to turn around and the same held true when we were observing; no turning back to compare the painting.  It was a helluva exercise in information retention but I turned out a painting I'm quite proud of, even got a damn good likeness.

I forced myself to exaggerate the colors and ended up working with mostly chromatic pigments plus white and transparent red oxide.  There's a lot more work I need to do to get my observational chops up, but considering this was done with mostly memory... not too bad.

Just a small taste

Here are three of the better life drawings from yesterday's open studio.  I forget the model's name but she was pretty good.

Here are two landscapes.  First one is another Crissy Field painting done almost entirely with palette knife:

Second is a work in progress, being done in my room from reference.  Although interestingly this one was started based only on my thumbnail from life and colors blocked in from imagination.  The colors and values are keyed a bit more accurately to how the scene actually looks, but it was fun starting with no reference.

Both are in my limited palette of titanium white, gold ochre (or italian earth), raw umber, burnt umber, brown pink, and ivory black.

I still haven't had a chance to shoot any of my paintings from Zhaoming's class and I'm still working on a couple small figure paintings that I'll post when they're done.  Stay tuned!

First post from San Francisco

Hello hello!  So I've started my first semester on campus at Academy of Art University.  So far I'm loving every second of being here.  I could probably write a whole lot more about it, but I want to get back to some studies I started yesterday in the room.  For now here are some life drawings I did yesterday at Valerie Winslow's anatomy workshop as well as a plein air painting I'm really proud of and the strongest study from yesterday's output.

5 minutes

two 10s

two 20s

40 minutes

study done using ivory black, titanium white, and brown pink

monochrome landscape in ivory black, titanium white, raw umber, burnt umber, and brown pink

More Caitlins

Worked with both Caitlins this week.  First painting was done on Thursday and the second one today at open studio.

Stuff n' such

It's been a while.  Here are three paintings I've worked on in the last week.  First one is a single session portrait done alongside my portraiture students last week in Rahway.  Probably about an hour and a half of work in here.

Second is male nude from life done last Sunday at open studio at the Montclair Art Museum.  Shameless plug:  Sundays from 11-3, $15, moderated by yours truly :)

Finally, here's a grisaille portrait I did tonight for my portraiture students.  

homework paintings

Here are my first two paintings of pride for Still Life class.  Something is happening in my technique, and I'm liking it.

The vanitas one isn't the best quality photo, so I'll have to reshoot it eventually, but it has some areas of yumminess that need to be viewed in person.  I'll try shooting some close-ups that do it justice, especially on the skull itself.  The painting began on the pomegranate and worked its way counter clockwise almost.  I basically worked around so I could finish on the skull because, well come on now... its a freakin' skull!  In hindsight I regret using plastic fruits, and I guess in the grand scheme of learning I know now to just buy the real things and paint them.

The next one is more of an alla prima approach, which is what the weekly assignments pretty much demand.  My handling is getting better and I'm beginning to hit color notes quicker and with more economy.

This week's assignment is centered around painting glass.  When I finish that bad larry I'll post it on here as it is turning out quite nice.  Now time to finish my philosophy homework :)

Still-Life # 4

I think I might name it "random arrangement" or make a series entitled that, as right now the set ups I'm creating have no narrative and are just exercises in color combinations and lighting. This is the painting from the last post that couldn't scan well. Enjoy!