One more for March

My friend Brennah saw this tree branch yesterday and snatched it up for me.  Much thanks homie, thinking this one will show up in one of the next 3 paintings I'm doing for the Wheeler open house in May.  Going simple again with themes with Land, Sea, and Sky, using women and elements from each setting to fill the surface.  I'll post the sketches once I have a chance to get to a scanner : / Mines still busted.

Music is cool.  Really want to check out a Black Keys album.  Herd this song at work yesterday by them, called " Tighten up," nice old school feel, really sick.  Then 2 other bands I wanna check out, and hopefully isn't just a one song band, are Heartless Bastards and Gil Scott Herron.  The Gil Scott Herron song is the devil and me I think, and I can't remember what Heartless Bastards did.  Much love to the Serrius Radio at work... sometimes, esp when it's not Monday and hipster run off is on.  You suck dude, and I hate your program. Seriously just rambles off bs while trying to sound like a " hipster" that probably isn't even old enough to remember Kurt Cobain shooting himself.  Meh, what ever, dude can have his show, I just block out his DBin.

Cheers!

First pass with oil color

Just going in and redefining the shapes and color of the foreground elements before I do a Galkyd glaze and then another oil wash darker than the previous one.  This is going to take a while to dry before I can do the glaze, so I'll have to let it sit for a few days if not a week and work on some other paintings.  Stay tuned.

Acrylic color and oil wash added

Did several steps in the whole process today.  Started off finishing out the values, then added the transparent acrylic color, and then finally the first burnt umber and Italian yellow ochre oil wash.  Thinking pf adding more dark washes after I erase some of this one out, but won't know until I see how light or dark the final result is of the wash. Sorry for the last crappy picture, the image is getting blurred by the above lights, I'll try and take a better pic in the morning from natural lighting. Stay tuned.

And the first wash...

Yea, this is going to be interesting. I'm going to have to keep a lot of areas that are to dark way lighter while constantly darkening the foreground elements to keep them as the focus.  After the first wash I did just that, darkened the foreground and added highlights to it as well.  I'll post more as I go.

Oh and I took a pic of the first wash under some low light, Looks pretty dope.  I might have to pull that into photoshop and make a digital companion to this piece, if I don't get tired of it before that.

seriously..... the final drawing, I promise.

Really need to stop working on this under drawing and get started painting.  It's not a horrible thing, really happy with this drawing feels real solid, but the darker it is the harder it'll be for me to cover that up with bright colors with out using opaque strokes of paint.  For the next painting I'm going to have to make sure I focus more on the line work, less one the tones early on, then use the paint to really push the darks and lights.

Salt Tree

Worked on this a bit at work today, added the coiled ferns and got some more defined line work in.  Got home, took a nap and woke up at 130 and added some zinc white to the foreground elements. Then I added a bunch of zinc white to cover up my measuring lines, this comes at the cost of losing what I did to the background but thems the brakes.  Going to let this dry, add some matte medium over the zinc white, add some more darks with charcoal, spray and matte finish it, then I'll be ready to apply the yellow ochre acrylic wash over the whole thing.

Herd Ween is coming.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros too in June.
Some one else is coming but I can't think of it now.

Need money for shows Gah!

More refined

Worked on this a lil before work this morning.  Solidified the star with measurements and redrew the tree branch from a still life.  Much happier, now I'm debating weather or not to add ferns again.

Some recent sketches

My scanner broke a week ago, or at least it won't scan, probably some windows 7 update that's conflicting, I tried to fix it, but got bored and decided to just wait and use my friends.  So these are in no order or anything, just some of the ones I did most recently that I felt like sharing.

Background added

Added this background, fixed up on this other image that was bothering me, did some research on ferns for visual reference and various meanings and mythology. Going back to bed now g'night!

Clock Work

Again with the awake on a Sat morning.  Decided to get out my guitar finally and start playing again, at least to learn a few songs that I've been wanting to.  Think its been since late high school the last time I wanted to learn some new stuff.  That was over 10 years ago, damn I'm starting to get old!  Restrung the electric and thinking of getting a cheap amp off craig's list, and then gotta restring the acoustic.  Gonna go look for some branches  outside now to draw under some directional lighting.  For some reason, I dunno, it's 3:40 AM.

This made a loud noise about 20mins when I broke it off of the dead tree out back in the lil court yard of my apt complex.....  I promise the tree is and has been dead for a long while.  Been looking at branches a bit the last few days and this on seemed to be the best for what I wanted shape wise. 

Thursday night life painting 03/18/10

Thursday night session went well, pretty happy with the results.  Worked on the background a bit more before starting the figure, and went in with opaque color on the figure to begin with rather than building up my tones slowly.  I feel this better utilizes the point of digital media to do quick opaque paintings, focusing on color and shape more closely rather than a slow build up of tones an value.  Finished this up in 2 1/2 hours.

Went to Dorman St. again afterwords, met this couple from NY and won 3 games of pool against the husband, think his name was Josh?  Nice people.
Good night.

Iiar!

completely forgot to take pictures.  Good times, got pummeled in pool by jeff bell, so what else is new.  About to watch lost now, man I hope this series ends well.  As in no suck ass writing, on the other hand Dexter is amazing, and should be watched by all . Good night

Now it's finished.

And I'm headed to Dorman St.  I love this bar, reminds me a lot of the places I went to in Savannah.  I'll take some pictures and post em.  Probably the best thing I've been introduced to since I moved back here 5 years ago.  Really wish I had found it sooner, but what ever, it's there now, so time to enjoy.

Finished!..... almost.

Waiting on the outlines to dry then I'll add a final galkyd glaze.  Pretty happy with the out come, but I'll have to work on my line weight and control as I get used to using oils like an inking brush.  The previous glaze makes it easy to wipe away mistakes so I get some practice in.

Reworking the drawings

Last one and I'm going to bed. I'll update this post later today when the gesso dries and I work on the drawings some more, but I'm reworking these two.  Also added some texture, these are going to get the sane painting style as the last post.

Do I look 17?

Got carded for a pack of smokes the other day.  And not just a " We card everyone" thing either, this lady looked hard at my id, had me take it out, and then reluctantly gave me a pack of cigs claiming it didn't look like me.  Maybe she thought it was fake, but why would I have a fake id at 28?  Do I seriously look like I'm 11 years younger than I really am?  I'm not even pissed, I'm just impressed. 

Here's an updated on the test I'm doing with texture for a new set of images. since I'm jumping back and forth between so much I added what the last step looked like for comparison.

4am again!

woke up again at 4, but this time cause my dog has been having some, ah, problems.  Anyways so I decided to stay up for a min and work on a few quick things.  Finally putting the galkyd glaze on the cleaver painting and I'm a lil anxious/nervous.  So far  it has definitely punched up the color a bit, but it also seems to have a lot of little bumps and bubbles that don't really show up head on, but do under angled lights.  I took an extra picture to show what I'm talking about.  Thinking I might need to cut the galkyd with mineral spirits a bit just to have it go on smoother and maybe cut down the bubbles, but maybe I'll get lucky and a lot of them will disappear during the drying/oxidizing process.  This will hopefully take only a day or 2 to dry but not totally sure just yet.  Once that's done I'll apply the line work and maybe one more finally glaze before its done.

How soon is now?

The only Smiths song I know, but it pretty much sums up the 80's for me.  Really need to make an 80's mix, it's been so long since I nered out and listened to all the music I grew up on.  Not trying to say the 80's was the best time, but damn there's some music from that time that I just don't think life would be the same with out.  Probably the decade with the most 1 hit wonders and I think that makes them all that much better.

Took a step back on my painting, which is the point of a test.  There just wasn't enough texture, so I decided to add some with gesso, and not to mention a chance to redraw the image again which will lead me to a happier out come.... I hope.

Feeling this.

Having a blast.  I've been thinking of painting this way for a while ever since I saw Ashley Woods work. This is truly the most fun I've had in a while, and I think it was about time I really looked at the way I produce my work and find a process that didn't feel monotonous and dull.  I like the way I painted before, don't get me wrong, although it just wasn't me I think and that's why it was like pulling teeth to get an image done, where as for this one I'm having a hard time walking away.  This is the second wash, just some burnt umber loosely applied, the next step being a darker color and a lighter color to push the contrast even more.  I think next time I'll leave less white of the board though, as it seems to be to bright at this point in certain areas.

The test

Probably cheating on the whole blog thing, posting 3 times in one day, but what ever.  Here's the test image I'm starting a quick drawing on a cheap canvas board, just going to slap this one on to get an idea of what the hell I'm doing for this new way I want to paint.

Spreadin salt

The initial drawing for the second image I've started today.  This one will have a portrait in the center of  the ornate structure as well adding the skull of salt on the banner, the salt symbol itself just doesn't do it for me.  Going to do a practice run of a quick simple image before I start on these, but I'm definitely going to be leaving these a lot less colorful and more messy with drips and light washes.  Got an image in my head and I need to figure out how to get it on these boards.

Awake

With renewed vigor.  Got up early, dunno how but  guess my body wasn't into sleeping, considering I went to bed at past midnight, woke up at 4 am, stayed up until 730 and woke back up at 930, but I guess that's 5 hours which is what I used to sleep like.  Sleeping to much, it's a sign of trying to avoid things, so maybe this is a good thing.  Focus focus.  Reworked the drawing from last night this morning and starting another.  So anxious to see Mastodon, listening to them right now, getting mucho work done today.

 

This is the sketch I'm drawing from, it's been posted before, but figured it'd be nice for comparison.  I try to draw everything I do at least 3 times to get a better feeling for how I want it done.  Easier to step back and let the changes help rather than fret over them.  

Can't Sleep

Started this drawing when I woke up, but will probably adjust the living hell out of it before I start painting.  Thinking of trying some very loose oil washes on this one, letting it drip and pool on the surface, leaving it rather messy looking. 

Salt Ship

 

Just a clay board with ink applied then scratched off, then reapplied ect ect.  Had fun doing this and think I'll do more with similar content, or at least the little skull with the salt symbol will be popping up a bunch. 

Final painting

This is almost finished with the exception of a galkyd glaze, the line work, and then just a few minor touch ups at the end.  I'll have to wait a few days right now for the last of what I put on today to dry so the glaze can go on and then I can start the line work. 
The lighting in my apt made this picture come out very golden yellow, which I might do as a final glaze right before the line work to be honest.  I'll have to see, but that will rack on another 4 or 5 days of waiting, but I think it'll be worth it.

Clutch and Mastodon

Are both gonna be in Indy in April.  Really looking forward to next month, haven't been to a good show in way to long.  Here's 2 more sketches of these bronze busts I'm doing, now that I have some ideas that I'm happy with I have to practice painting corroded bronze and metals.  I'll post more as they come along, as well as the skull cleaver painting test that is coming along quite well but it's slow because of having to wait for the oil to oxidize more before layering on Galkyd as a glaze.