Hands

These are three 12"x12" studies done on wood.  Hands have forever been the most difficult aspect of the figure for me, so this semester I made it a point to give prominence to hands in all my pieces.  All three of them were also experiments in palette knife and brush combo techniques.  In keeping with my thesis, these are all hands of my friends and incredible painters in their own rights.

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. 

Focused

This bad boy is a painting of my friend and incredibly skillful artist Lucas Bononi at the easel about to start work on a drawing.  It's 51 1/2" x 36" oil on paper on masonite.  It also garnered 1st place in the MFA figurative category for the Spring Show at my school (Academy of Art University).  I don't think I've put so much time into a painting as this one, and happily it shows.  I definitely learned a lot while doing this with regards to edges and technique, but mostly this was a lesson in patience for me :)

In Progress Paintings

I'm currently working steadily on three out of four mid-size paintings, the fourth hasn't had much work done except a light sketch.  The first painting is of my stepfather Helder drinking espresso and using a toothpick after dinner.  It's one of those scenes I grew up witnessing on a daily basis, and the kind of scenes I find myself attracted to the most when it comes to painting.  

The painting is 16" x 20" linen mounted on wood.  

The next two paintings are from a photo shoot I had last week with my good friend, model, and fellow artist Caitlin Albright. 

20" x 30" on linen

18" x 24" masonite

The colors on all three appear really strange when uploaded to blogger, so I'll have to figure this out.  I'll post color corrected shots of the paintings when they're further along.

New

Buy Now

Small 5" x 7" painting of model named Jess I worked with a while back.  Really liked this pose and always felt it would work really well as a smaller painting.

Gots my blogging pants on

Just an update on what I've been doing.

Small 6 x 8 study.  I have a lot of extra stock photos from previous shoots, so I'm just going to start painting them.  Going to hit this one up again to put some final accents and highlights.  Model is Liana, hired her last month for some thesis shots.

this is oil on fabriano hot press paper prepped with matte medium (3 layers homeys!).  I did the drawing first, sealed it, then laid in a wash of permanent alizarin crimson and permanent magenta.  That combo is quickly becoming my favorite base color plus it dries really fast.  Again, some extra photos from a shoot I had back in NJ for a job.  She's one of my favorite models and a great friend, Caitlin.

Liana again.  Did this one tonight after class with Jonathan Ahn.  I actually worked on it a bit more after I took the last pic, will post better quality photos when I finish these.

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.

Dorian Vallejo "Drawings Inspired by Life"

Anyone who reads this blog or knows me also knows that I'm kind of a groupie for artist Dorian Vallejo.  I'm happy to say he is a good friend of mine, so it isn't simply a case of me being a fan-boy creeper who would randomly appear at his door after work to talk and... wait no, that's exactly what I did :P

Anyway, the Christmas season is upon us and as such there are only a couple weeks left before the exchanging of gifts between friends and loved ones.  For anyone who loves art or knows an art lover, especially figurative, then I highly recommend Dorian's book "Drawings Inspired by Life."  The book has high quality images of his life drawings, from quick ink sketches to more fully realized drawings in mixed media.  He captures the human form with an entirely unique vision that, above all else, speaks volumes of his love for the craft and his subject.  Having drawn with him and watched his process, I can also add that he likes to have fun with his experimentations.

Buy the book for yourself, a friend, family, or the homeless guy down the street whose always talking about that time he and Michelangelo snuck into a church basement to do dissections.  For a really special treat I would recommend getting the special edition and he'll personalize it with a one-of-a-kind drawing.  Click on the image below to visit the book site and order.

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

Last Open Studio Sunday :(

Today marked the last time my group met for Sunday open studio before my move to San Francisco.  It was a bitter sweet afternoon as I have had such an incredible time working with everyone, growing and learning together, sharing many laughs, strengthening existing bonds and making new friends.  And while it's certainly not the end, this marks the definite closing of one chapter and start of another.  When I get some of the pictures that were taken I'll post them on here.  On a personal level it was really lovely to have been surprised by the group with a going away festivus complete with yummy food and a pretty awesome gift; Andy did a quick sketch of me drawing a couple months ago and everyone signed the mat...

Not gonna lie, I got a bit choked up.  This played all the right notes on my heart strings :)

Now onto some art.  I had a kick ass day!  These are more or less in chronological order from my favorite 5s to the long pose.

If any of my open studio mates are reading this, thank you all for a wonderful 8 months :)  Much love to you all.

More Caitlins

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

A tale of two Caitlins

Worked with a new model named Caitlin today.  One of my best all around sessions, so I'm happy with how almost everything turned out.  These are some 1-minutes

Now on to some 5's

I think this next one is a 10-minute

A 20

Long pose in oils.  

This next painting was done in my friend John Atura's class a couple weeks ago.  The model was the other Caitlin who I've worked with before.  It seems models named Caitlin tend to be pretty damn good.  Mental note made...