Week: 3/5-3/11

Above images: Combining some older panels that haven't seen the light of day for a while with some new panels — simply for the pleasure of looking at something new.

Above images: Continuation on newer images

Above: All done. 6 works ready to go to the gallery at the end of the month. Drilled, notched and signed, now to see if they fit into the car all at once. 

Work 8/27-8/29

Something needed to happen to this portrait which was started in May of 2010. The last time I looked at it here it just was too straight forward and matter of fact. The stripes help push it back some, but now I wonder if I need to knock back into the stripes with some flesh tone a bit. Stripping pictures below.

New piece, starting off with a trapezoid format, image based on a photo of my brother looking over the armrest of a couch with Caleb in the background.

Removed the two 12" squares from the bottom left, replaced with 12x24 and began tightening the portrait further.

Work 8/22–8/25

Starting to add some color to the underpainting. Oil.

I did a bad job of documenting this. Here is a brief explanation: working with 2 12" squares and a 12"x24 rectangle it was my intention to replace the bottom left corner of one of the red portrait started this past spring as I want the original for another composition.  The panels were given a green coat of acrylic and than some tape patterning and rotating of the panels occurred. The ultimate result of these efforts was than incorporated into the bottom corner as depicted below.

This is not working well at the moment, really it looked better before the portrait was reworked back onto the new panels. Not sure if there is too much pattern happening throughout  the piece or if it is an issue of the revised corner of the portrait being underdeveloped, but something feels very straight forward and lacking of interest. 

Work 5/6 - 5/8

Possible Configurations

Taking a look at a variety of 72"x72" arrangements:

This one has been clamped and leaned against the back wall for a few weeks; last night some highlights started to be worked into the standing figure on the far left.

Back In The Studio

Back from FL, back in the studio.

This piece was begun in early January, I feel as though the balance of the original background panels, image and texture provide the level of interest that was indended.

Had to start something new tonight. The lamp underpainting from before FL got me thinking about how when the panels are combined the variety of color and rendered elements often compete with each other. In this piece I intend to leave the rendered element primarily as an umber drawing and see how that will affect future panel combinations.

About 1 hour of drawing, using the Acrylic Flow Release and Burnt Umber.

You can see the effects of the Flow Release in this detail from the mouth area. The medium makes the paint sloppy and a little gummy, small bubbles appear when worked on the panel vigorously. Although the product didn't mention lenghtening the drying time it certainly does just that which is great as it works a little more like oil and turp allowing you to wipe paint away to create a highlight long after it was applied to the surface.

Weekend of 2-12

Saturday's weather was too nice and it was impossible to spend more than a few hours in the studio, Sunday I got up early and got 4 hours in before church and a few more while Caleb napped in the afternoon.

Red Portrait progress in background, on the floor are two panels that were selected to have some texture and pattern added to them.

Initial tape and a variety of house paints, polyurethane and matte medium.

Here's the resulting effect. I worked with colors that don't appeal to me because I envision covering this whole thing with gray paint and sanding back to get some hits of color from this base. The other goal is to have a more varied painting surface to paint on eventually.

I tried something new with the tape I pulled off of the panels, rather than just throwing it away I used the paint that remained on the front and applied the strip of tape, paint side down to other panels — resulting in a transfer of sorts. The thought has occurred to be before to save all of these tape fragments and use them for collage elements on these panels. But for some reason I have enforced a "no-collage" rule on myself for now and this was a way to use the tape and discarded paint. Sorry I forgot to shoot a pic of the panels with the transfered paint. I'll do that next time.

More progress on this iron painting, top panel paired with a new bottom, just to look at different color. 

Simply wanted to see what these to things looked like together. (I apologize this image is of really poor quality.)

Progress on Brushing Teeth, time spent blocking in large forms, attempting to accurately describe the  proportions, especially of the hand holding the brush.  

Studio Pano 02/06

Studio panel from after everything was wrapped up for the day. This is almost a 270 degree view. The square configuration to the left of center is just something that was assembled to see how smaller portraits might feel in that format scale. 

Random shots from 02/05—02/06

Further progress was made on several other things besides the Woman With Red Stripes piece. Here are a few random shots.

Here is the second of the iron paintings, for some reason in the back of my mind I see this pairing up with the Man With Striped Shit image above at some point, but that may change since the idea in my mind is never as good as what I accidentally discover.

The minimal palette was mentioned in a comment I left last week, here's a shot of the palette used for flesh tones. Across the top: Titanium White, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre. Across the bottom: Mars Black, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue. Most people leave off the Ultramarine when working with this type of palette, but  it adds a further hint of purple when used with the Umber.

Some oil based Poly mixed with latex house paint on top of a discarded/failed panel. Much better, the house paint had a slight tint of pink to it. Anxious to see how it dries.

Jan 29-Feb1

Worked closed Tuesday due to the snow so here are some images from this past weekend as well as yesterday. There needs to be a small investment made into a tripod so these images turn out better in the studio light. Hopefully soon.

The bottom left panel was part of the larger square piece that I was working flat on the ground. I had dismantled it and took a look at it here. The bottom right was something I've had around forever, in fact it may be one of the first panels I created. Anyway it got a good sanding and I liked what was happening.

This piece had gotten put away for a few days, it was nice to see it again with a new eye. A bulk of Saturday was spent chipping away on this.

When the Red Portrait wasn't being worked on the 6 panels on the iron exploration piece got rearranged so that a new painting of the iron could begin. You'll notice the previous one is now in the upper left hand corner.

Since the sanding went well on some of the previous panels the panel on which the  new iron painting was to begin received a healthy dose of sanding out in the garage. It as great, sleet coming down, garage doors open and just working. 

After the panel was sanded a hour and a half was spent getting this initial sketch on the panel. The cord was avoided in the first sketch so this time around it takes a more central focus. Getting to explore objects from a variety of angles is one of the reasons I like doing these multiple studies. The other reason is that while I like working from the photographs I take it is nice to do some direct observation from an object sitting in front of you rather than the flattened two-dimensional photograph. Although experiencing both looking scenarios produces a good mix of final results.