winteryvisions ~ the art of Pat Hemmert

Self-Portraiture

2011-09-18T09:56:00.000-05:00

It's about time for me to do my annual self-portrait painting. It was something I decided to do last year, when I painted my self-portrait digitally. Lots has changed over the course of this past year. But right now I'm trying to decide on which media I want to work in.

I'm also working on putting my portfolio together for college 'cos dammit, I want my BFA. So I want to do something that I could include in a portfolio -- I'm thinking of working traditionally.

It's been a very long while since I've painted my self-portrait. I still do self-portrait drawings, 30 minutes, no erasing. It's something I picked up from Evil Professor Rex, and I actually really enjoy it. It was something he had us do for homework in his life drawing class, and it's also something that he critiqued us very strictly on. He critiqued us on likeness as well as technique -- his background is very academic, artistically speaking, so he wanted us to draw as objectively as possible.

I'll admit, I was afraid of doing my self-portrait before I took his class. There's something about it that's fraught with issues, especially if you identify as an artist. Like many women, I have issues with the way I look, but after looking at myself in the mirror once or twice a week to translate what I see onto paper, I've discovered I'm okay with the way I look now. And when you identify yourself as an artist, there's also that whole set of baggage that comes along where not only do you have to draw yourself, you have to do it WELL because you're an artist, not a five year-old with a box of crayons. No pressure.

So here's a progression of my self-portraits, starting from my time in Rex's class to the ones I do now on my own. I'm only including the ones I think are better, because it's my blog and I get to curate things here, but these are the ones I'm happy with. Later I'll put up some of the self-portraits I did in his painting class, which was a whole new kettle of fish entirely.

Yes, you're going to see my construction lines. Like I said earlier, we weren't allowed to erase. I never understood some of the students who did surreptitiously erase -- missing the point entirely. It's good training to (1) put your initial marks down lightly, which is something I think I'll always need to work on, but also (2) it trains you to choose where you put your marks down, 'cos once it's down, it's down. It's worse when you work in pen, which Rex would have us do sometimes -- but I like working in pen because you can't erase. You have to put your marks down with confidence, or they suck.

For the most part, these were done in thirty minutes, no erasing, in pencil. The very first one, August '09, was the very first one done for Rex's class, and it's done across two pages of sketchbook, which was something I did a lot of at the time. The one next to it, September '09 was actually 45 minutes, and we were permitted to erase, which made me all kinds of happy! The very last one, dated September '11 was done in black Prismacolor Verithin, which I really enjoyed working with.

You're not seeing the ones where the proportions are uber-squirrelly, or the ones where the technique was really bad, or the ones that were really unflattering . . . well you get the idea.

So right now I'm doing the self-portrait drawings more often as a warm-up for the self-portrait painting. I haven't decided whether to post a WIP of it; but when it's done I'll definitely post it online.

Convalidation and Sketching

2011-06-12T13:28:00.001-05:00

I've gotten out of the habit of carrying my sketchbook around everywhere and using it, so when I had to go to a Convalidation class yesterday with the husband, well -- it was a very long class!

As a side note, if they took all the religious stuff out of it, it would be a very good class for incipient bridal couples (talking about the importance of communication and understanding; realizing how much one's family influences a person and how they act in a marriage; how to fight fairly and repair any hurts that occur over the course of a relationship -- no, not physical fights or hurts! Anyway, everyone knows I don't fight fairly!) because not only does it teach valuable life skills on living the married life, it also is a test of devotion. If you're willing to attend something like this with your spouse-to-be for eight hours, then you'll have a better understanding of what marriage is all about as well as proof of your devotion to your beloved. Since this particular class was for married people (my husband returned to the Catholic Church), he so totally owes me ice cream for doing this.

Anyway, here's a few sketches from that class. And yes, I was paying attention while I was doing this.

The Five Stages of Pot Roast Grief

2011-02-05T07:31:00.001-06:00

So, because of all this rutting ice and snow and lack of infrastructure-that-deals-with-ice-and-snow, my sleep schedule has gotten all kinds of wonky, and as a result, I slept beatifically for ten hours yesterday (yesterday, not yesternight), and as a result, my poor pot roast died a horrible death. No one can hear you scream in the Crockpot.

As I sullenly drank my coffee and sulked, I realized that I was working through the five stages of grief.

For a fricking pot roast. And I present them here for you:

Denial: No, no, NO, my pot roast isn't dry! It isn't a hockey puck, it just needs some . . . moisture.

Anger: Dammit! How the hell could this have happened?! Why the hell does no one else in this house have the sense the gods gave a frickin' weevil to know when the frickin' roast is *done*?

Bargaining: Okay, maybe if I sacrifice somebody's firstborn to Hestia, she'll salvage my pot roast!

Depression: My pot roast is RUUUIIIIIINNNNNNEDDDD!!! Why the hell do I even TRY?!

Acceptance: Okay, pizza rolls sound great.

Okay, to be honest, I didn't try bargaining with Hestia, 'cos I don't think she rolls that way. But I did try to find ways to salvage the pot roast.

Meanwhile, for art therapy, I did this for Day Four of thing-a-day:

Forty-five minutes in Autodesk Sketchbook Express, reference from the Livemodel Companion CD.

And those pizza rolls were pretty darned good.

First Thing-a-Day, Ringy-Dingy

2011-02-01T22:25:00.002-06:00

So, my first thingy for thing-a-day is up and posted.

Reference courtesy characterdesigns.com. (nudity warning)

There's so much wonderful stuff to see, I can't imagine being able to see all of it. I think there's over five hundred people signed up for it? That's like a small village. And the kind of talent pool available -- I actually wonder if we'd make a viable, real-life village. I wonder what it would be like to live there. So long as I didn't have to build my own home -- I'm rubbish at carpentry.

Anyway, I had some fits getting this sketch done. Couple false starts. Then I relaxed 'cos it's supposed to be fun, and it worked out at that point. Forty-five minutes in mypaint while listening to a selection of songs from musicals.

SuperDanny!

2011-01-30T23:12:00.001-06:00

So. They've got a new Superman in the works, and a new actor to play the Man of Steel. Didn't the last Superman movie come out just a few years ago?

Anyway, got to talking with the husband about Superman actors, and he suggested a couple that I thought could be interesting.

Danny Devito. I think that would be awesome. I like Danny Devito. And they should cast Rhea Perlman as Lois Lane.

Oh gawd. That would so kick butt.

I even did up a little quick sketch in Autodesk Sketchbook Express with Devito wearing the cape. Please excuse the uber-crappy quality; I did it in ten minutes. Very sketchy quality, no thought to composition or color theory, just a quick, quick scrawl to get the idea down.

Then the husband suggested another actor: John Cleese.

I'd pay twice the going movie ticket prices to see that.

Sorry, Mr. Devito. We still love you though.

Learning Curves and the Like

2011-01-24T23:35:00.001-06:00

I'm currently puttering around on posterous.com in preparation for thing-a-day and right now I'm trying to set things so that they publish to my blog simultaneously. After all, why go to the trouble of logging into two sites, and futzing with arranging the elements of one's post twice when I can just go whap!pow!zam! and get it all done once?

Oh, and abusing colors? Never gets old. Until, of course, it does.

Meanwhile, this is what I'm up to:

(reference photo courtesy of atistatplay and can be found here.)

I thought I'd revisit this particular piece since it was done over three years ago. I certainly hope I got better! This sketch was done in Autodesk Sketchbook Express, which was part of the bundle of software that I got along with my new Intuos. I'm not quite sure where I'm going to go with this; most likely I'll continue to develop it into a digital painting (probably in the GIMP).

One more week to thing-a-day, and I haven't a thing to wear!

All I Want for Xmas --

2010-12-26T22:52:00.001-06:00

My husband is a mean ol' man. I adore him. And I'd rather draw him a thousand thousand times than keep his photo in my wallet. He's a patient model, and very game for anything.

And did I mention he's a mean ol' man?

He came home from work on the 23rd with a bag from Best Buy which he put under the tree, after informing me that it was for me. I was a little surprised, simply because earlier in the month he'd asked me what I wanted for Xmas, and I told him. As far as I know, downloadable audiobooks don't come in Best Buy bags. I looked askance at the package.

"What is it?" I asked.

He smiled at me brightly. "It's a present!" he replied in a chipper tone designed solely to annoy.

No matter how much wheedling, whining, whinging, asking, prodding, needling, pouting or otherwise making a pest of myself, he remained stalwart and refused to answer my question.

Though he did offer to let me peek. But really, where's the fun in that?

So, I waited (im)patiently, until the husband came home from Midnight Mass, at which time I was permitted to (finally!) open up my gift, which was way cooler than what I got him.

The marvelous bastard got me a Wacom Intuos 4.

Dear Barnes and Noble:

2010-12-07T14:46:00.001-06:00

I understand that when I place an order and check on the free shipping thingy that you'll hang on to my order until it's complete. It's a fact of mail order that I know well. I can be patient and accept this. But why must you hold my entire order until the day my pre-order comes in, and then proceed to ship the pre-order separately from the rest of the in-stock items? You're very silly.

So far, I have received Donato's very pretty picture book, Stephanie Law's gorgeous instructional book and Jim Butcher's latest oeuvre. They all arrived yesterday in great condition. But really, my time could have been better spent in poring over them lovingly these past three weeks while I eagerly await Jim Gurney's Color and Light.

I think it very shameless that you should tease and taunt a poor bibliovore like me.

Yours sincerely,

Pat

Improvement

2010-12-01T21:19:00.000-06:00

Just to show how far I've come since May of '09:

(stock courtesy mizzd-stock)

When I did this piece, it was the best thing I'd done to date digitally. This was done in OpenCanvas 1.1 with a graphics tablet. I didn't know how to floodfill the canvas in OC, so in order to introduce tone to the canvas I had to ruddy well paint it in. I did this in a single layer, in one hour. Even then I was aware that the likeness simply wasn't there, but I was quite happy with it. It looked sorta-kinda-almost realistic. Yay me.

Recently I discovered OC's ability to create event files of the paintings one creates in it, so I went back through and watched myself paint. When I came to this piece though, I was horrified by how bad the initial drawing was. Was I --? Did I --? Eek.

I'd forgotten how that drawing looked since it had gotten painted over in the process. Compare to the drawing of my recent self-portrait:

Granted, painting the self-portrait took several hours, and as a result, it's a great deal more polished -- but my drawing technique's improved quite a bit. Even now, with my hour-long (not quite) daily sessions of painting, my drawings have more information; are less . . . slapdash.

Thank you, Evil Professor Rex.

(note to self: must draw a portrait of Evil Professor Rex as the supervillain he is.)

Fall Self Portrait, Complete

2010-09-14T03:54:00.000-05:00

After several hours with the GIMP I've finally finished my self-portrait. It took more than four hours, but less than six, I think, for the color stage. So, all in all, I think it might have taken somewhere between seven and ten hours. Not all at once -- there's a lot of getting up and walking away involved.

Of course, now that I've slaved over it, I suddenly feel the desire to become an abstract expressionist.

Self Portrait, Fall 2010

2010-09-11T05:19:00.000-05:00

Self-portrait, about three to four hours on OpenCanvas 1.1 and a Wacom tablet. Digitally painting a grisaille with the intention of digitally glazing later. I did this looking in a mirror instead of working from a photo. The process was a great deal less grueling than working with oils, but I don't think I could have done it without that prior traditional experience. Thank you, Evil Professor Rex, for your strict instruction and insistence on drawing our self-portraits for homework.

I'm not entirely comfortable letting an image of myself float about in the ether, which I guess means that I did a passable job on likeness. I was just disappointed that I didn't look more like Tia Carrere.

Life Drawing II

2010-08-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

Quick post to show off a little of what I've been up to. Warning -- nudity abounds!

Pencil and white chalk on brown paper, from life.

I later scanned this in and futzed with it to make a line drawing that I could transfer onto my silverpoint surface.

Oh, and the writing on the back -- "This space intentionally left blank" -- was for the prof's benefit, as he was reminding us to consider the backgrounds of our compositions.

It's a wonder I haven't been slapped with an F for life!

The actual silverpoint piece isn't finished, but I'll try to get a progress shot posted soon. Pinkyswear.

Summer School

2010-08-10T21:19:00.001-05:00

I'm currently in Life Drawing II this summer. On a lot of levels, I'm rather surprised at how unstressful it's been. I've been in classes all summer, from Maymester to Summer II, and everything's been so stressful. Interestingly, I'm taking two classes during Summer II, and my life-drawing class, four hours a day, four days a week, is so. Incredibly. Unstressful. Dare I say, nigh relaxing.

Evil Professor Rex is making the drawing II students go the extra mile, experiment with materials, and so on, so this week and next week, I'm working in silverpoint. It's something I've been wanting to do for quite awhile, so I'm incredibly happy to have the opportunity to work in this medium. On prepared paper. Utilizing rabbitskin glue. Which stinks. But hey, pretty, pretty surface to draw on. I kinda don't want to draw on anything else now.

I'll post what I've done when I have a bit more *snort* time.

Reappearing on the Face of the Planet

2010-08-01T11:06:00.001-05:00

School sucked out my soul, chewed it up, and spit out the gristle. So now I have gristle for a soul.

Year in recap: school, school, school, more school, life drawing, school, school, and a bit more school, life painting, school, school, schule, more life drawing and school.

And let's not forget the school.

Also, in a great abuse of irony, I promise to post more art here in my copious free time.

I see that my last post talked about the 9X12 show -- I missed last year's show, but I have plenty of time to consider this year's show. Of course, I have nothing that will fit neatly into a 9X12 envelope, but that's what copious free time is for. Or so I'm told.

I wonder if the ancient Greeks had myths about free time, copious or un.

Decisions, Decisions

2008-11-21T01:02:00.002-06:00

Art is really about the decision-making process. It's amazing how many different ways a piece can go and still work, but what a finished piece communicates can be so varied, so disparate, depending on the decisions one makes during the process.

SWAK
Graphite on Bristol Board
November 2008
Source photograph courtesy of the lovely Kerianne.

The decisions I made concerning this piece are as follows:

*I needed some pieces for the 9X12 Works on Paper show coming up. So the choice of ground was pretty much well-decided since everything for that show either had to be on paper or made of paper. At this point it was just a question of which paper. I chose Bristol Board because it's sturdy, it was white (I have drawing paper, but it's a creamy-white, and I was planning on this being a graphite piece, which is another decision right there), the vellum surface wasn't too textured for my pencil work, and most importantly, it was what I had available right here. Funny how that works out.

*I wanted a large margin of white surrounding the finished drawing to act as an ersatz "mat". None of the pieces in the 9X12 show are to be matted and/or framed -- they just have to fit in a 9X12 envelope. There's a LOT of work hanging in the show, so having a good-sized border around the image would help to draw attention to it by giving it a bit of visual "space". It's very easy to go into sensory overload at the show, especially since everything is hung very close together. This, of course, gave me a size limitation which leads to my next decision --

*I really, really dislike the thought of folding up my artwork to stuff it into an envelope, so naturally, the piece was going to fit onto a 9X12 piece of paper, minus a generous border, which meant that 8X10 was out, as it would not give me the space I desired. I also wanted it to kind of be a more standard-ish size for ease in subsequent matting and framing. I chose 5X7, almost arbitrarily but not quite: I have a 5X7 template from some scrap Bristol. Having these templates to draw around makes it very easy to figure out where the edges of your piece are supposed to go, and I highly recommend them.

*Given the limitations already decided upon (small size, graphite drawing), I decided I wanted a more intimate piece. I personally believe that drawings tend to be a bit more intimate than paintings, especially smaller pieces. When I saw the original source photo I ended up using as a reference for this piece, I knew I had to draw it, and this provided the opportunity. Given the small size, I had also knew I had to crop in quite a bit, so I knew I'd be homing in on the incipient kiss. The source photo has a beautiful sense of emotion to it that I hoped to distill a bit by narrowing the focus to where one almost couldn't see the faces. I kind of wanted a sense of facelessness overall, just capturing the very lowermost portions of their faces, but I couldn't get a good crop that would exclude the boy's eye, keep the girl's nose, and maintain that gorgeous negative space between the two. In retrospect, I could probably knock off about an inch from the top and the right side for an even tighter crop, but what's done is done. Although I still have an eraser . . .

*And a very quick, tiny sketch, approximately 2" tall and 3" wide. Not very proportional to the final piece, but it showed me the approximate placement where I wanted everything to go. Emphasis on "approximate".

*I decided to lightly cover the picture plane with a light layer of smudged graphite so that I could work up to the lights (by erasing) and down to the darks. Interestingly, a large section of the girl's shoulder shows this layer, illustrating how much I did have to go either way to get the lights and darks.

*I really liked the soft, lost edges occuring at the boy's chin as it recedes into darkness, so I definitely worked to emphasize that.

*The last decision actually came as something of a surprise to me: originally, I just wanted to have a dark section of negative space between the two faces. That's it, just a dark shape against which their features would pop out. But as I worked on it, I considered having a couple/few spots that were slightly lighter, to indicate a fall of hair. I waffled back and forth on it while I worked, and finally decided to go ahead and do it. Now, honestly, I think it could have worked either way, but when I did it, DAMN! It really made the whole piece fall into place, giving it a great deal more intimacy than it originally had, so I'm glad I did it.

*Title: I really have a preference for either short, one-word titles, or very, very long, almost-complex sentence titles. I wanted something succinct, since this is a small piece, and perhaps indicative of the sense of closeness, of the incipient contact about to occur. Unfortunately, the best I could do was "SWAK" (translation: Sealed With A Kiss). Either that or "Ohhhh, What's THAT Taste Like?", which is a line from the film Drop-Dead Fred, and I really didn't think it would communicate quite what I wanted. (Although, if it had been up to my husband, he of the dignified look and puerile sense of humor . . . let's just say that there's a reason why I no longer ask him for help with titles.)

All in all, it was a pleasant road to travel down, and the results please me. Would that all my decisions were this easily made!

Welsh Police Helmet

2008-11-16T00:21:00.003-06:00

I've been a little busy recently, but here's something that I've just finished for the upcoming 9x12 Works on Paper Show.

Derwent Drawing Pencils on black Strathmore Charcoal Paper.

It's part of my husband's hat collection. The man takes up more closet space than I do. Er, that is, he would take up more closet space than I do if I had closet space.

If someone asked me five years ago whether I enjoyed drawing and painting still lifes (still lives? which is it?), I'd probably glare daggers at them. But then, up until a few years ago, I'd never done a still life.

I think it's the whole working from life thing. I like working from life, and prefer it far more than working from a photo.

Now if only someone could convince Ewan McGregor to come over and model for me. I far prefer the figure over still life, any day.

(Well, Mister McGregor? Are you ready to pose a la odalisque and flash me that incandescent smile?)

Ducks, Water, and Pixels

2008-10-05T05:21:00.003-05:00

I've been working sporadically on this these past few days. But I've been experimenting with other painting styles and techniques, so I swear I haven't been just goofing off!

I wanted to try some other techniques and tutorials, and obviously wouldn't be able to do them on a piece that's already in progress! I'm so impatient sometimes.

I found it very interesting that I paint very differently digitally than when I'm painting traditionally (whether oils or acrylics). But on some levels, I really feel like I'm taking to it like a duck to water. Okay, I may not be swimming pretty like a water ballerina, but at least I'm dog paddling! I've always struggled with painting, it doesn't come as easily to me as drawing does. So I'm quite (pleasantly!) surprised by my initial forays into digital painting.

Sadly, I've been kinda neglecting my sketchbook lately. I guess I really need to work on that. And maybe a few things for the upcoming 9X12 Show.

My computer is a wicked, wanton strumpet. Or maybe I am.

A Few More Hour's Work

2008-09-26T05:19:00.004-05:00

And more progress on the digital portrait.

Here's after about a couple more hours' work -- I thought I'd show it with and without the sketch side by side for easier comparison. Having the sketch on top really showed me that I needed more darks. I've been trying not to be so hesitant with this portrait -- hence all the crazy colors, I guess.

And after a couple more hours of work, I've pretty much dispensed with the sketch -- it was covering more than helping. I'm still bringing it up, but less and less as work continues. I've also blocked in something remotely resembling the final background:

I'm hoping to be finished with it in a couple more days. If it doesn't finish me first.

Nah, I'm having fun.

Digital Painting! Mothers, lock up your computers!

2008-09-24T20:05:00.005-05:00

Just to show I'm not being a complete bum: I've been playing around with the GIMP for digital painting, and have a couple progress shots of what I'm doing so far.

Without sketch:

With sketch (as a multiply layer overtop):

Trust me, they're less rubbishy than the oil paintings I've been doing lately. This is after about two and a half, or maybe three hours? I'm not sure, I haven't exactly kept track.

Just to prove I haven't just been sitting around baking cookies.

Ooh, cookies.

Um, gotta go.

More Drapery

2008-09-07T13:24:00.001-05:00

From drapery week. Graphite on sketch paper. I spent an hour and a half on it before I started to lose the light.

Drapery, sans Figure

2008-09-04T05:26:00.001-05:00

I miss school already -- having just moved into our new house, and considering its distance to the campus -- well, there's no way. Short of teleportation.

Anyway, one of the things I've done this summer was to spend about a week studying drapery. I'd much prefer if the drapery were, well, draped around a figure, but one must adapt. Usually, in the figure-drawing class, we only get about twenty minutes per pose (thirty if we're extra-special good!), so I usually end up blocking in the figure and spending the majority of the time trying to capture the folds of the fabric. Twenty minutes just ain't enough to do it, sadly -- this little study took nearly two hours, and is a great deal smaller than what I normally work when I draw the figure.

Derwent Drawing Pencil (Chocolate) on manila paper, 7.75" x 10.5"

Although I must say, it was kinda nice to work with something that didn't need a break.

Update

2008-08-30T09:40:00.003-05:00

Well, no new art to post as of yet -- most of the summer was spent *waiting* for our house to be ready to move into, and did I mention the waiting and waiting and waiting? And of course, the waiting was done while most of my art supplies were packed.

But hey! It's all over and done with, and we're all moved. Most of my supplies are unpacked now; I just have to organize things. However it's a little difficult as we have to worry about giant hordes of tiny attack frogs.

Yes. Tiny frogs. A few nights ago, as the husband went outside to smoke, a couple of the itty-bitty little frogs charged him and managed to make their way inside. We were able to capture one of them rather quickly, but the second one eluded us for quite some while. When he reappeared we evicted him as well, but he had been out of sight for long enough to emplace hidden cameras, or *shudder* do things to our computer (just what he did to our computer I dare not imagine!).

Seriously -- they're tiny. About an inch long. And bright green.

And they're so freaking cute!

The first time we saw one, it hopped onto the husband as he walked out the back door, startling him. Here's the culprit, hanging around on our back door:

And here's one I saw this morning, on our kitchen window, backlit by the sun:

And of course, the little blighter pooped on the window while he was there:

And yesterday I saw a frickin' huge moth on our patio door:

He hung out there for quite awhile, even letting me put my hand close enough to him so I could show his scale:

And, since this is really supposed to be an art blog, here's one of my daily sketches I did back in June:

graphite, watercolor, Derwent InkTense pencils, and acrylic.

EDIT: You know those little green frogs? One just attacked my nose. I'd be traumatized if I weren't laughing so damn hard.

Forest Sprite Sketch

2008-06-05T00:49:00.002-05:00

One of my daily sketches:

Watercolor, InkTense pencils, graphite and gel pen.

The reference photo is courtesy of magikstock

It's actually the second attempt at this pose. Sometimes my sketches are pretty good. Sometimes they really, really suck. I'll try not to post the sucky ones online *grin* but I had a lot of fun with this sketch, and I can foresee myself working on a more finished version of this sketch in the near future.

Everyday, a Little Something

2008-06-02T12:41:00.002-05:00

I try to sketch something everyday, even if I can't get in a good drawing or painting. I started this habit during winter break, and got some pretty nice sketches out of the experience, but it fell by the wayside as soon as school started up again.

Now it's summer time, and I've started up again, in a new book. Some of the sketches are crap, some are "meh", and some are pretty good if I say so myself. I try to get the ones that are decent-looking posted online, either here at this blog, or in the scraps section of my deviantArt site.

Of course, the lack of sketches in today's post meant that everything I've sketched since my last posting is rubbish.

Bellydancer Sketch

2008-05-29T17:13:00.003-05:00

I've been busy recently with non-art related stuff, but I've been trying to get in one sketch per day. Usually I spend no more than twenty minutes on a sketch -- sometimes less than ten if it's a simple pencil sketch.

This particular sketch was a bit of a challenge -- partly because I started with a dark, random blotch of watercolor to sort of prime the paper. The reference photo, courtesy of elflands-workshop, was particularly lovely and I wanted to do it justice. As a result, I ended up with one of the most mixed media pieces I've ever done (ink, watercolor pencils, watercolor, graphite, gel pen, colored pencils, and acrylic), and I spent a bit more time than I normally would have on a simple sketch.

But I'm happy, and that's what counts, right?

Male Figural Sketch

2008-05-26T02:03:00.002-05:00

Another one of my daily sketches, and this one's not nude!

Erm, not that there's a lot of detail anyway. It's just one of those quick little twenty minute sketches. Graphite, InkTense pencils, India ink, and Prismacolors. The original photoref can be found on this site.

Some of my daily sketches

2008-05-21T01:25:00.000-05:00

Uploaded three new sketches to my scraps at deviantArt. They're nudes, otherwise I'd post 'em here.
http://winteryvisions.deviantart.com/art/05122008-sketch-86275178
http://winteryvisions.deviantart.com/art/05132008-sketch-86275374
http://winteryvisions.deviantart.com/art/05202008-sketch-86275625

April Showers Bring . . . Lots of Shows, Apparently!

2008-04-27T14:02:00.001-05:00

So -- the show I was frantically preparing for has come and gone, but meanwhile it seems like everyone and their dog has a show this month! In the span of about a week I've attended three receptions! Even the show I was in had its reception earlier this month. What is this, June for weddings and April for art shows?

Anyway -- I ended up primarily hanging drawings at our Emerging Artists show. It was a serendipity that allowed a friend of mine to end up posing -- fully clothed! -- in our figure drawing class, and she was an awesome model. I don't think there was anyone that day who didn't come away with good drawings of her. Paintings take me far, far too long, and I'd rather take the time to consider how I REALLY want things to look and work on my skills besides. I will say this, though -- it was hard for my drawings to compete with the paintings that the other artists hung. Bigger doesn't always mean better, but it sure as hell helps.

Another Quick Post, and a Congratulations to --

2008-04-24T09:00:00.001-05:00

-- my buddy, Ari, for winning Best of Show (2D) in the student show last night. Despite the rigors of a tornado drill, a fire alarm, and lightning streaking across the sky, she managed to kick all of our collective asses with this gorgeous piece of hers that can be found here.

(I knew I should have switched the tags on our pieces! She got more money than I did!)

Great job sweetie!

Quick Post with Underpainting

2008-03-06T22:25:00.003-06:00

Thought I'd show what I had so far on the underpainting front. The figure is underpainted in purple (dioxazine violet mixed with burnt umber and titanium white). And yes, what you're seeing is the image painted over two canvases, each measuring 20" X 16".

Still got a ways to go.

And a closeup of the face:

I'll post more when I have more progress. Or when the nice men in white coats come and take me to my new studio with padded walls. Wheee!

Cartoon

2008-03-01T20:01:00.004-06:00

I've been busy recently trying to get work done for an upcoming show. The good news: I have an upcoming show. The bad news: they won't let me hang nudes.

Now doesn't that sound all kinds of perverted.

So, between schoolwork and house-hunting, I've been frantically stretching canvases, priming canvases, measuring frames, and so on. I much prefer drawing, because I'm a great deal more competent at it. But drawing requires matting and framing in order to be presentable. A painting on canvas needs only to have its sides neatly painted, either in a continuation of its painting, or in a solid color (such as black, or the background color of the painting in question). Right now I can't afford to mat and frame five or six pieces. But with a little effort, I can make my paintings ready to hang.

I do have something to show for my absence -- a full sized cartoon of the painting:

Charcoal and carbon pencil on brown paper, 40" x 16".

I've never really done a full-size cartoon before -- usually I'll have a sketch in my sketchbook, and I'll take it over to the artograph at the school and use that to enlarge the image so I can transfer it to the canvas. This time, though, I wanted to work out the composition at size instead of fiddling around on a smaller area. It's actually pretty liberating: I don't have to fudge on some areas that would be too small on a 5x7 sketchbook. I also know where everything is going. Sometimes, working in the sketchbook, I won't get the proportions of the composition right, so when the image gets enlarged, the composition gets thrown out of whack. What I mean is that I'll scribble a haphazard box to work out my composition in, but the box (picture plane) doesn't have the same proportion as the canvas I end up working on. So, the arrangement of elements I worked out in that box doesn't work well on the canvas.

Closeup of the figure's face.

I'm still working out exactly what I want and where I want it in the composition. I'm anxious to get started on it, but I know if I don't finish the drawing and know where everything is going to be and what direction I'm going in, I'm going to flounder somewhere between 60 and 75 percent of the way through the painting. Happens every time. You folk who work so spontaneously and on the fly -- you're lucky dogs. Nyah.

This is a little scary for me -- I'm still afraid that I'm going to irrevocably screw up and have nothing to show for it. I'd cross my fingers, but it's rather hard to hold a brush that way!

Next time I'll post some of the progress on the painting itself.

Naked

2008-02-10T22:04:00.000-06:00

I'm currently working on a number of works for an upcoming show in March. The show is for those students who did well in the Fall Portfolio Review at my college, and it's off-campus at a local community arts center. I am so totally cool with that. I love to show off my art.

However.

And it is something of a however.

Not a but. Because, as it turns out, but(t)s are a bit problematic.

The people who run the venue are a bit on the conservative side. Prof B. -- who was the one who informed me that I was included in the show (yay!) -- also informed me that they specified no nudes.

Ulp.

I am, primarily, a figural artist. I love the figure. If I could take figure drawing classes every day for the rest of my life, I'd probably be quite happy. It's hard enough that people are reluctant to purchase nudes even though they understand it's artistic, and even admire the image. But to have a venue that won't show nudes, and not because of local ordinances -- that's demoralizing to me.

And they're not the only ones shying away from the nude. I've heard that one of the local colleges won't accept nude figural work for an inter-college show. What the heck is up with that? One of the things that is usually required for a college submission portfolio is figural work. The nude figure has a long and exalted history in art education. And for a college to refrain from hanging figural work . . .

I'm glad -- and lucky! -- that the school I go to is willing to hang nude figural work.

Anyway, if you're still with me, and you remember what I wrote at the very top, I mentioned I'm working on a number of pieces for the upcoming exhibition. I have a body of work, but that body is naked.

Oh, excuse me. Nude. *wink*

Here's something from my sketchbook that I'm going to expand on for the show:

Look Ma -- no breasts. I'm sure she'd be so proud.

On second thought, she'd probably try to have me committed. She's more into staid portraits and still lifes.

First Post

2008-02-07T14:25:00.000-06:00

What the hell am I supposed to say? "Hello world"? Um-hm. And I'm sure my shouts and cries would be drowned out in the hullaballoo of the blogosphere.

I thought about it for awhile, what I should post in my initial foray into blogdom. For the longest time I resisted blogging simply because I'm a very private person. But, believe it or not, in my own way, I do crave something of an audience. I'm an artist, and I like showing people my work. I think showing one's work is a very important part of the artistic process. (Or maybe I'm just a show-off.)

So then, a post about this being my first post: Well, I suppose I could just pop one of my pieces up here and say (metaphorically, of course), "Ta-DA! Here's my work!" But that kinda rubs me the wrong way. Blogs, to me, are about writing, even art blogs. And when I write, I like to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. So here is the start of my blog, and I should have a cohesive beginning. Well, I hope it's cohesive. And I really didn't want to start in medias res as if I'd been here all along. I haven't. But I'm here now.

About me, in a nutshell(which makes me the nut): I'm an artist, I live in north Texas. I draw. I paint. I occasionally sculpt very poorly.

A green man sculpture I did about a year or so ago, unglazed stoneware, painted with acrylics.

So, pull up a chair. Pop in occasionally. Look at my art. Comment on it if you feel moved to. And on my end of things, I'll post images of my work as well as works-in-progress. I'll even write about my experience with art. Actually, getting me to shut up would be a bit of effort.

As you can see, I'm still moving in, still learning the ropes. Excuse the mess. At least you can still see the floor.