Master Copy | Landscape | Tula Telfair

(upper) Tula Telfair's original, (lower) my copy

A bit after the fact, but here is my final for landscape painting this past fall semester, a master copy of a Tula Telfair painting. When I went through the list of master painters we could choose from, Tula Telfair stuck out the most to me immediately. Color! So vivid, it reminded me of how saturated I like color sometimes. The way she uses it truly is masterful, a brightness but also a quiet to many of her paintings. There is an almost surreal quality that I feel and I believe I react that way based on the color.

Also, the woman can paint some DAMN fine clouds. And this fool needed to learn how to paint clouds.

I had a really great time doing this painting and, even more importantly, feel that I learned a lot from it. It's not exactly like the original (for starters, size... Tula's are like five feet!), but I think it's on the right path. It just needs another ten or twenty some odd hours.

Landscapes

I'm back after my short hiatus over the holiday and my visit to Chicago. It was great to be home for a bit.

Now, without further ado, I have for you on this fine Tuesday... Landscapes!

Week 12 into the semester and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with landscape painting. There's still much more for me to practice, experiment, and develop, but I'm beginning to enjoy it more each day.

This is a master copy of a painting by Michael Workman. He is a great landscape painter and I really love his compositions and texture. I've found that one of the aspects of oil painting which I enjoy the most is the interesting and various textures that can be made. Sure, texture is in every medium, but I feel it comes more naturally to me with oil and also allows for much more variation in approach. Copying Workman's painting has definitely helped me in switching up compositions in future thumbnails and paintings, as well as think more about shape, texture, and atmospherical perspective.

Here is a study from a field painting at a winery in Sonoma. I like the patterns which were visible from above and also like that the painting has some cartoony, animation-like feeling to the colors and shapes. I still need to go back in with a few layers though, especially since you can still see the pencil lines I put down originally! A bit too thin of application, mayhaps.

Another study from a field painting, this time at Tennessee Valley in Marin County. It was a very foggy day and color were very subdued. Although it got pretty chilly painting so near to the ocean in the morning, I really enjoyed the setting and sweet reference photos I gained from this expedition.

There will be more landscape paintings to come. I'm thinking now about doing some of my thesis illustrations as landscapes.

More to come Thursday!

A Dream In Progress

Today's main focus has been starting my painting for the cover of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I thought I would share some progress shots thus far.

Transferring the drawing to panel using graphite transfer paper. Now there's something I must say here. For the longest I forwent the transfer paper and did the cheap method of just coloring the back of your drawing with pencil myself, then transferring it. Now, that works fine and all... but I have to say I am not regretting the ten bucks I spent on the transfer paper AT ALL. And it's only been used for two illustrations so far. It really saves me time and also makes the lines much darker and legible than the self-graphite method (at least in my experience... perhaps if I had used darker leads..).

Morale of the story: if you're easily distracted and impatient like I can be, do yourself a favor and get the transfer paper.

Drawing's all ready to go on the panel. Time to start painting!

And an in-progress. Definitely gone farther and there's A LOT more to do on this, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to finish it traditionally in time for the class deadline of Monday. That's where my handy dandy computer is going to come in this weekend. However, I am definitely finishing this piece traditionally for my thesis... just need to also meet the deadline of the Narrative Illustration class.

It's been a fun day of painting and I'm looking forward to many more. Painting, you teach me patience and to relax and not worry about the little mistakes or "errors". It can always be covered up and re-worked. And, hey, that "mistake" actually kinda looks cool and inspires me for something else. Way to go, painting.

Plein Air Painting in the Chill San Francisco Morn'

For today's Landscape Painting class we went to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for some plein air painting. No matter what I do or how I try to prepare, SF always gets me with its chilliness. The entire four hours of outdoor painting (minus the last ten minutes--literally--when the sun finally shone through) were quite chilly and we were all trying to stay warm and paint our lil' cold fingers off.

I had a lot of fun, even having to lug all the painting and easel shit around! I'm looking forward to developing my environmental painting skills.... because they sure need some work.

Have  a great weekend, everybody!

Holy Shit, Zombie Attack!

Hey there! You may have noticed that I haven't been posting regularly the past week, week and a half (you also may have not). I had some family visitors in town and coupled with the intensity of the summer semester there just was no time. I actually have an abundance of things to post, but just couldn't find the time.

Fear not! We have returned to our regularly scheduled posts! I'd like to add another day so that I update three times a week, but I just can't commit to that right now. : /

So a lot of what I'll have to post in the coming days will be drawings from my Character Design class, but I thought I'd give a little interlude of a painting.

Behold! Implied Zombies!

Here is the painting in its finished stage at the moment. I'm going to take her into Painter and Photoshop to finish the job since I want to test a few things but not ruin the painting if I don't like it (ie, add more zombie hands). Also, I am very far from working well on small details with oil.. maybe I just need smaller brushes or different small ones, but when I want just very thin lines it's extremely difficult for me to control it that well. Hence, the wonderful computer!

Some in progress shots a'coming... I was keeping to the notion of working loose, so I only roughly placed in figures and elements with the brush this past semester. It definitely helped me to keep loose.

mmm... blacks...

I've gotten into the practice of doing a black and white underpainting. This helps me tone down my overly vibrant colors, as well as give it a mood which I like.

Glaze dem colors and lots of small working and re-working then...

Voila! The completed oil painting!

I'm excited to add the small details and everything. I may go back and add the changes to the actual painting later, but we'll see. It'd be fun to put up in the hallway or living room... Zombies!

Have a great Wednesday.

Oh, painting, How I hated Thee...

I've mentioned before that one of the things I tried working on this past semester whilst painting was staying loose. Another, even more difficult, practice was to keep working on a painting through the stages of "God, that looks awful", "Ugh, I hate this", and "What the hell am I doing?"

This is one such painting.

This was the last in-class painting for my figurative painting class. We had five weeks and it was to be our best painting of them all! Granted, I missed one class but even with four weeks this painting frustrated me more than any other painting the entire Spring semester. I re-started this three times. The only reason I didn't re-start it a fourth was because I was running out of time and worked through the hatred.

And I'm glad I did. Granted, the composition I still dislike. It doesn't utilize the space of the canvas and continually frustrated me. However, it's what I learned while painting that was worthwhile. Working through frustration and dislike of a painting or drawing is almost always beneficial because I learn what it is that's bothering me and try to work a way around it. Compositionally, with this one I tried accommodating for my terrible placement with texture and color in the negative space.

Working on this further and not starting over also allowed for me to develop the skin tones and plane changes more than I would have been able to if I scrapped it and started anew. I like how the breast and shoulder turned out. Also, I think I captured the cool light on one side and the warm on the other pretty well. I'm not sure had I started over that I would have had time for these nuances.

Do I love this painting? No. Is it my favorite of the semester? No. But I did learn a lot while painting, the best being how to deal with my frustration and work through it. This is super helpful because in case you don't know me well, I tend to get frustrated frequently and with ease. It's a work in progress.

Also, I'd like to note I didn't post Friday... sorry about that. Hence this Tuesday post. Also, I have a super awesome friend visiting me tomorrow and staying for a week, so I'm doubtful that I'll have time to post anything until next Friday.

Have a great week, everyone!

Transient

Today's post: "Transient" painting in process to completion!

Underdrawing.... I only did underdrawings with the brush this past semester to force myself to keep loose and not get hung up on the drawing. However, I still want to experiment with a detailed, rendered drawing and painting over it... but I suspect I need a re-work varnish. Anybody know for sure?

Happy accident! So, I was cleaning my brushes when I accidentally flicked one and some of the cleaning solution/turpentine hit the wet paint. Oh, shit! Wait a minute... I really like that. A technique was uncovered! I'm still in love with my drips and splatters as textures, but understand I need to experiment with my control and use of them. I think using the turpentine to create them and then layer color over them (sometimes not) helps create a greater sense of texture than just the ink splats I've always been so fond of.

Underpainting complete! Kinda creepy... which, of course, means I'm into it.

Glazed color...

Stage it was in right before the last session. Empty eyeball socket really enhances that creep factor.

And final! I still need to sign it and varnish the painting, but it's mostly complete.

I really like how this painting turned out and a lot of people enjoyed it at the gallery show last week. I wanted to explore lost edges and had the concept of her being some sort of ethereal space woman in mind when painting. I think some of that emotion and mood came through in the final without having to become literal.

That's not to say there won't be space paintings coming your way in the future.

That's right. Paintings of chicks in space. It's happening.

Gallery Art Extravaganza: The Most Epic Blog Post to Date (brace yourself for images ahead)

Happy Friday, everyone! Someone may have noticed (but probably not) that I didn't post this past Wednesday. Sorry about that; I don't intend on missing my post schedule, but these past two-three weeks have been insanely full of creation.

Yesterday was the epic gallery and art showcase with RAW. It was pretty effin' sweet. My head has yet to return fully to my body, but it is floating mere feet away so no worries.

Now to present you with one of the longest blog posts to date.... Here's the work I presented at RAW's "The Blend" Showcase.

Here's my part of the fence. There was more light provided earlier in the night, but by the time I got around to taking pictures it was dance party time. Still, it helps convey the atmosphere.

Those are the only pictures I took last night; a little sidetracked with everything else going on. RAW had photographers going around and there'll be an interview with me (gah, I hate hearing my own voice recorded). Once those are posted, I'll definitely share.

Now for the breakdown of each painting/illustration!

Ideal I

pencil underdrawing

monochromatic underpainting wash

final

Ideal II

underpainting

final!

mmm... boobs... I really enjoyed drawing this torso.

Beauty

I really enjoyed the drawing for this one. 

underpainting

final

mrow... sexy-yet-still-cute cat with attitude

Beauty is in the Eye

only one in progress of this painting... I was far too absorbed! Creepy at this stage, though, right?

Final! I always wanted to paint on an oval canvas. One of my art experimentation dreams has come true!

face detail

see a running element?

Transitory

The last painting of the show. I have a lot of in-progress of this painting that I'll make into a separate blog post. I had plenty of time to photograph and stare down this painting since it was also my final for Figurative Painting this Spring semester.

Knees!

wisps...

A super big thanks to everyone who came out! So many friends showed up and it was heartwarming to constantly have someone to talk to; it made the time fly by! I also had an absolutely wonderful time meeting the other artists at the show, so if any of you may be reading this--great job! Lastly, it was so great to talk to people who walked by my work. All your comments, insights, and responses were invaluable and I'm so glad people enjoyed the paintings and female form in all her glory.

Ah, and just one more thank you... super big thanks to both my families! Ma, Dad, and Cat, thanks so much for your encouragement. Also huge thanks to the Gomez Family and your great support. Even from miles away, you all helped me make this night awesome. Last, but certainly not least, Jesse is the most awesome partner I could have.

Okay, I'm done with my thank you rant. I'm pretty sure I heard the wrap-it-up music sentences ago.

I'll be posting this work on my Etsy store in the coming days so if anyone's in love with one of these paintings, it could become your very own!

Have a great weekend 'cause I sure as hell will.