Current painting, in its current stage.

Here's the under painting, again, the color is weird because of the unnatural lighting in my studio.


This is the first layer or so of paint. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. I'll sit on it.
A detail...

I still feel like it needs work in spots, but I can't tell why yet. Once this dries I'm thinking about adding some grays and stuff here and there.

More stuffs

This is the first stage of the painting of Heather. The photograph in back is of her kitchen.


This is the second stage with the figure worked up completely.



This is the final stage with glazes and transparent "drawings" in paint. (The color is a little inaccurate. I photographed this in artificial light and had to adjust to compensate for the yellow hue)


This is the final stage of the painting of Josh. I added some red glazes and some words you can't read.

A Finished Pieces

Both of these are finished, but I only have images of the finished version of my Scavenged piece. Here's this one (if you couldn't tell, it's a self portrait)...
...and a detail.


This is my first painting for Thesis. This is in it's unfinished stage, although it is actually done. I hopefully will get some good photos of it soon, but I haven't had the time yet. There are some red and purple glazes on it now with some faint text, and the arm and leg are done now.
Here's a detail of that.

Project Updates

Here's the first stages of my scavenged project. This is the initial glazes, under-painting, and some initial paint layers. I was feeling unsuccessful, so I put it away for a few days...


...and this is what I accomplished the next session. The color isn't completely accurate to life, but the photograph was taken at night with unnatural lighting. I tried to adjust it digitally.


This is the start of my first painting for Thesis. I printed it on cheap inkjet paper, then sanded. I'm going to paint a figure (of Josh) into this just as I've done with the last two paintings that involved a photograph that I posted in this blog. This is 4x5 feet.

What I've been up to

This piece is what I worked on for my drawing class I took this summer. I was still working toward the concept I've been pursuing and plan on pursuing in Thesis. It was a looong process to figure out, but I think I finally came up with something worth while. I printed a photograph on cotton but ironing the fabric to freezer paper and sending 8.5X11 in. pieces of it through a printer. Then I did acetone lazer jet transfers on the top of that. Then I finally did charcoal washes and pastel layers on top of that. It took lots of time and experiments to figure everything out alright, and I think I solved a lot of big problems in my concept and process I plan on using in Thesis.



This charm is the piece I'm going to be painting on for the Scavenged show the Exquisite Corpse Gallery is doing in October. I'm basically EXCITED! I found this at a thrift store, and it's so terrible I love it. The point of the show is to take old pieces of "art" and turn it into something new, and hopefully better. I hope to actually end up with a legitimate piece of artwork when I'm done. I think I might document each stage, but I might not have the patience to keep up with that.

In Progress Drawing Experiment

I'm exploring surfaces to draw on, especially ones that I can print on. I figured out how to print on cotton, and this is an experiment of how it feels to draw on it. I'm liking it so far, but I'm playing with the methods of attaching it to the board in a way that gives the fabric a good tooth for pastel. This isn't finished, and is a pastel version of a painting posted a few posts back.

Recent Work

Here is my most recent work. I'm planning on working more with this idea, and hopefully will involve the idea in my drawings too. I'm going to attempt a lazer transfer with acetone and do a pastel self portrait on top of that. And I'm wondering if I should use less saturated photos for my next pieces, or maybe even completely black and white.

The idea behind these pieces is to suggest a divide between an individual and the world that person lives in. People can become disconnected from everything else and they become detached and alienated. Yet somehow, they are more alive and expressive than the rest of the world. I'm working on an artist statement for this body of work, but I'm trying to figure out how exactly I want to approach it.

More Stuffs...

This is a drawing I did in Figure Drawing 3. We were practicing how to capture movement. We took three poses and combined them into one. Then last Thursday we had to draw the string quartet. That was a little bit of a struggle. If I needed to study the hand to figure out the way it looks when it's gripping bow, I would have to stare at it for a long time because it was always moving. But I think that turned out pretty well, and we're going to try it again this coming Thursday.




Here's a value gesture for Figure Drawing 3.




Here's a painting in progress. I'm painting a figure into a photographed environment. I'm also working on another one (and probably will continue the idea for the rest of the semester). When I finish them I'll take photos of them and explain the idea more.

The News

I didn't get into the West Michigan Area Show this year. I'm of course disappointed, but in a way, a little relieved. Now I don't have to spend the money to frame the triptych. That probably wouldn't be the cheapest, unless I built something, which I hate doing. But I suppose I will try again next year!

WMAS 2010

I entered that landscape triptych into the West Michigan Area Show 2010. I've been worried that they're not going to accept it because it's a triptych and I'm counting it as one piece (meaning I only sent one entry fee in). But I thought about it for a while, and I think they need to be in a group. They don't have the same sorta feel to me if they're separate. So I guess I'm pressing my luck. We shall see how it all turns out.

So far this semester,and a little from last.

I've been super busy with work. Advanced painting is going well, and I think I'm developing my ideas pretty well. This is an image of my painting in progress. I just need to work on a few more things, then add some glazes and I can call it finished. Oh, I also need to add some text. Today I'm going to start my new idea.

These next three pieces are meant to be a triptych sort of. They were my final for Landscape Painting. The idea behind them is that between the long and narrow format and the fragmented way it is painted, it confuses the viewer. I meant to make the colors warm, inviting, and intriguing, so that the viewer wants to be there and explore, but they aren't given the whole picture. They get a sense of the environment, but they have to image the rest. I think I'm going to title it "The Imagines Landscape". It might be my entry for the West Michigan Area Show this year.




This is a portrait of my roommate, Shannon. It's painting 1 out of 4 for my Advanced Figure Painting class. A La Prima (wet into wet). It took about 3 hours.

I'm going to try to keep up with photographing my projects as I finish them. Let me know what you guys think!