Cobalt Blues

Something for the charcoal lovers

2011-11-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

Charcoal and white chalk
14 x 26

According to the stats for this blog a lot of people come here via image search for charcoal drawings and portraits. Considering how few charcoal drawings i do that strikes me as a bit of a surprise. But I'm all about making people happy so here's one for the charcoal lovers out there. I'm still having trouble getting comfortable with the medium, but I like the look enough to keep trying. For bigger drawings it's much better than pencil and a silverpoint this size would take forever. That in itself makes it worth pursuing.

The stats also say there are even more people coming here for the silverpoint drawings. Not today, but there are more on the way. Stay tuned.

Candlelight II

2011-09-28T08:31:00.001-07:00

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache
10 x 14

A return to the candlelight theme here today. This is one of those things that practically drew itself, once it got started at least. It had a rather inauspicious beginning. I do all the hard drawing on regular paper with a plain old everyday pencil. Once I'm satisfied with the basic line drawing I'll transfer it to the prepared silverpoint paper. I wish I could tell you that I'm good enough to do it all right on the final grounded paper, but I can't. Deal with it, I have. You've got to remember that the grounds are pretty fragile and you can't erase a silverpoint line. Anyway, after I'd transferred the drawing I noticed a charcoal smudge right off the end of her nose. Being that it was charcoal I could just erase that, except as it turned out the eraser was a little on the dirty side, and it left and even worse smudge than I'd started with. I've tried to correct things like that in the past, and found out that the best way of dealing with it is to cut your losses and start over from scratch. So I had to trash this before I'd even started. Glad I started over.

Wading

2011-09-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

watercolor
22 x 15

Today's offering is a watercolor. Watercolors can be tricky little things. To be really good you need to do a lot of them. That's pretty much true of everything. Can't be good without putting in the time to get there. It seems to be particularly true of watercolors though. There's so many little things you need to keep in mind. For certain effects the paper has to be at a certain degree of wetness. A little too wet it won't work, a little too dry it won't work, and the only way to know when it's at that correct point is experience. Unfortunately you have to keep at it or you lose a lot of what you've gained. Lots of little tricks too. Again though if you take some time away from the medium you forget the little tricks.

That being said, I need to do more watercolors or forget about it completely. Can't see me giving it up completely though. I like watercolor too much. I think I actually prefer it to oil.

A Few Little Sketches

2011-08-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Looks like I wandered off for a while again. That's partly due to not doing much of anything, and I managed to screw up my shoulder playing lumberjack a few weeks ago. Well, at least I have plenty of firewood for the winter. I did get quite a bit of designing done. There's three good size paintings all designed and draw all ready to go with another two right behind. Nothing to it but to do it now. (Note to self, get those canvases stretched and grounded so they'll have some time to age.)

Since it's been so long I thought I should put something up even if they're not the greatest things I've ever done. So three little sketches today, not much more than background studies really.

Oil on Panel
6 x 12
Not much to say here. Moving on.

Oil on paper attached to panel
5 x 12

If you've never worked on paper it's a really nice surface for sketches. This is an old piece of Whatman's watercolor paper. As it turns out I absolutely hated the paper for watercolor, way too absorbent. But with a thin coat of acrylic matte medium it makes a nice surface for oils. Good for outside work too because as you may guess it weighs next to nothing. Just tack it to a thin board or even some foam core and off you go.

At one time I had considered using something like this as a background for a Lady in the Lake painting. I may have to come back to it. Still think it has some possibilities.

Oil on panel
6 x 12

I think this is easily the best of the three. There was a paint out up on one of the river towns a while back. Seemed like a good idea so off I went. The weather didn't cooperate at all so I turned around and came back home. I did take a few pictures along the way though. This is one of them so the day wasn't a complete wash out.

What to say?

2011-06-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

I saw this video over on the Gurney Journey and just had to pass it on. Strangely enough it kinda fits into what I have been thinking about the last few days. You see, I couldn't quite come up with what I wanted to say about today's offering. That's mainly because there's really nothing to say from my standpoint. So I could make something up that may well be marginally interesting or just punt. I've never been particularly good at creative writing so maybe the video will be a good lead-in. So here's artist's statement along with translation.

And here are today's drawings.

Both are silverpoint and 10 x 8

While these are both nice little drawings, more or less competent, let's face it, they're not exactly earth shattering. Don't get me wrong I like them both quite a bit, and I think they're worth looking at, but neither have any great message. And that's all right too. Everything doesn't have to be a metaphor for something else. Sometimes a drawing is just a drawing. I did them because I liked the poses and the overall feel. The second one is actually a rather sissy pose with no face and just the back of a hand without any fingers showing, but I like it anyway. Deal with it. How's that for an artist's statement?

That being said i'll bet that somewhere out there somebody is going to like these even without all the artistic gobbledygook. Maybe they'll even find a message of their own. So much the better. Maybe they'll even want them for their own. That can be arranged too.

Well, y'all take care out there and try to retain your sanity.

Sugar Creek

2011-06-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

Oil on Canvas
24 x 18

Have you all been paying attention? If you have this may look familiar. Back in late February there was a study for this. It's finally done, I think, and I've gotten around to posting it. I'm pretty happy with this. It may not be the bright, sunny autumn day you usually get, but that wasn't what I was after besides those are way too common. I was after something more moody. The day was misty at best. It looked like it was about to pour actually so the day of painting outdoors was put on hold. Instead I took a little stroll in the mud up this little stream fully expecting to get really wet. I escaped merely damp and the camera showed no ill effects. Anyway that's the story of what I was trying to do. Hopefully I did more than just give a weather report. Funny thing is that by the time I got home it was bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky.

Back Study

2011-06-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

oil on panel
12 x 11

Another little figure study today. I don't think I've done a figure painting in a while so it seemed a good idea to do one before I forget how to do skin tones completely. Not that I knew all that much to start with, but I have picked a few things here and there. So today's effort was centered on skin tones both in strong light and deep shadow. Can I get that glow that comes from a strongly lit figure? I think it came out pretty good actually.

Unfortunately, this is not the best picture. Sorry but something this dark with a glazed background, strong contrasts, and some pretty thick paint in places created a lot of glare with little hot spots that are beyond my ability as a photographer. I think you can still get the idea though.

Figure Drawing

2011-05-29T07:30:00.001-07:00

pencil and white chalk on Bugra paper
20 x 30ish

More in my continuing effort to improve or at least maintain my drawing skills. I really do like doing these larger, more finished drawings. They take some time, but that's all right. I think it's time well spent.

I still can't decide if I like this Bugra paper or not. It's awfully soft and rough for my taste. Still it holds up to erasing pretty well and it does take pencil nicely as long as it's a nice sharp pencil. And then there's the fact that I still have quite a bit of it left.

Asleep

2011-05-21T08:45:00.001-07:00

Silverpoint on blue gray prepared paper
5.75 x 12.75

It seemed like this thing took forever to do. I don't know if it really did or if it just felt that way. It shouldn't have. It's not bigger than usual or particularly complicated. The dark background did take quite a while to build up which is a pretty boring activity. And I did take a few elements out of that background. Speaking of the background, sorry about the glare. It's a much flatter tone. Photographing silverpoint is the only thing I don't like about the medium. That's probably why they tend to back up. I've got a bit of a backload to post in the coming weeks.

Fog Shrouded

2011-05-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

I had a little unintended break there. Time just gets away from me sometimes. During that break I realized that some of the things I thought were done -- well, not so much. So a little more work, some more photography and we'll get back to them. This one was and remains done.

Oil on Panel
12 x 9

Another trip to the wetlands on a foggy day, actually the same day as a couple earlier posts. That was a good day. I think I got some good spacial depth here, pretty happy with that. What I want to point out here are the grays though. I've been a proponent of the "grays make the picture' theory. The last two paintings really show that. They are both basically a collection of grays, but the addition of just a little bit of brighter color brings a great deal of interest. If you really look hard at those spots of color you'll see that they are also pretty low chroma too. So the moral is that you only have a limited variety of hue, value and chroma to work with so save your bullets for the places they are needed most. Don't overdo it or you'll have no room left for accents.

Good Friday Storms

2011-04-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

No art today, more of a weather report and storm aftermath. You in the US may have heard this on the news, but since I happened to be in it I think it definitely deserves a mention here.

First let me say we're fine, no problems here. But just a mile or so away large trees were snapped along with huge hail. We got extremely lucky here.

Late last Friday afternoon (Good Friday) we had a storm front move through, actually two big storms that met up in St Louis. They really started picking up strength west of here in Warrenton, maybe even as far west as Hermann, and tore through well into eastern Illinois. I don't know exactly how far that is, but I would think it's a good 100 miles.

These weren't your normal everyday thunderstorms. They were big and it seemed they were just about everywhere. Rain, hail and tornadoes were all there, and not just the run of the mill version. Hail the size of soft balls (that's about 4 inches for the non sporting), inches of rain and a confirmed E4 tornado (the scale goes to 5) An E4 tornado is defined as having winds from 166 to 200 miles per hour, that's big and rare. E5s are practically unheard of. Just to get an idea of how rare these are E4 and E5 tornadoes make up less than 1% of all tornadoes. It wasn't entirely unexpected. Stormy weather had been predicted for several days. There were even storm chasers in town waiting for them. They were probably still here from Tuesday when another good size storm rolled through about the same time of day. Well, they got a good show. One of the bigger cells went right over the regional weather bureau which isn't very far from here.

If you've never been a big storm complete with tornadoes consider yourself lucky, but they are extremely fickle. By that I mean one place can be totally leveled while someplace else just a few hundred yards away can come through unscathed. That's what happened here. There was a lot of destruction in New Melle just a few miles away in a straight line from here. Just a mile or so there were 12 inch trees broken down and egg size hail. Here, some hail, mostly pea size with a few piece slightly bigger. One gust of wind maybe, but nothing out of the ordinary. Didn't even blow over the trash can. Like I said we were really lucky this time.

Pictures are worth a thousand words so here are some pictures just to give you some idea. I stole most of these from the local news stations. If you'd like to see more google fox 2 news or kmov.

This is what it looked like coming in. Storm sirens are already blaring.

I forgot to mention some rather spectacular lightning.

Here's one of the tornadoes. I don't think it's one of the big ones that did most of the damage, but it's big enough. Most of the tornadoes we get around here are rain wrapped making it hard to see them. Not your classic plains tornadoes here.

That's some big hail and it was pretty widespread.

Now look at some of the damage. While you're looking at this keep in mind that there were no deaths and not even any serious injuries as far as I know. Apparently the warning systems work pretty well and I think there was a fair amount of luck involved too.

The airport was hit really bad too. There are a lot of big reinforced glass panels there that were mostly blown out. Most of the roof on one section is gone. The windows in the control tower that are supposed to be able to withstand a wind of at least 100 miles an hour were blown out. And then there this picture of a shuttle van that was apparently picked up, and is now just dangling off the side of the building.

The area in general is quite a mess. Tornado damage, flooding from the storms and normal spring floods with more rain coming today, tomorrow maybe Tuesday and Wednesday too. We'll get through it though, always have before. Nobody died so it's not that bad. One last view.

Wetlands in Fog

2011-04-10T07:54:00.001-07:00

Oil on Panel
8 x 16

Another one of those moody, foggy wetlands paintings. Not much to say about this, hopefully it speaks for itself. I think there are a few more of these in me trying to get out. I'll try to mix in some other things so you won't get bored.

Spots of Interest

2011-04-10T07:13:00.002-07:00

In my roaming around I've come across a few sites that may be of interest, at least I thought they were. Some are already linked here but I think these deserve some special attention.

First, if you've ever wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, but found yourself economically challenged or maybe you just don't want to go all the way to Italy here's your chance. Here is the Sistine Chapel in the round without the crowds. Moving around takes a bit of getting used to, but still pretty cool stuff. Really the best way to see the ceiling frescoes is to lay down on your back and just look up. You'll find that that's frowned upon, and you'd probably be trampled. Don't have to worry about that here.

Edit: The Vatican doesn't seem to want to cooperate. The link isn't taking you to where it's supposed to. Here's the actual address, maybe a little cut and paste will work. http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/index_sistina_en.htm

Next is Scott's Sketchbook from Scott Waddell. The whole blog is good, but what deserves special notice is his series of webisodes dealing with drawing and painting. Lots of good, clearly presented information, and the webisodes are really well put together. He puts some time in on these rascals.

And lastly is this video of a lecture held at the Grand Central Academy on the Golden Ratio. You may find the first part a little heavy on the geometry, but it is needed to introduce the topic. Once he gets into the use of the ratio and underlying grid systems in general, well, I thought it was interesting.

The Golden Ratio from Benjamin Cave on Vimeo.

Angry Eyes

2011-03-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint

I did this one a while back when I was thinking about The Lady in the Lake that eventually turned into a watercolor. I wound up going a different direction, but at one time I had thought about using this or something like it as the lady. The expression would have worked nicely I think. She would have been in the lake with the water bubbling up around here gradually turning into her white gown. Still like that concept, may have to go back to it.

Late Snow

2011-03-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

We had a bit of a surprise here last Monday. I woke up, opened up the blinds and there was almost six inches of snow, wet, heavy snow. Not a word about snow in the forecast. Caught 'em napping. Strangely enough some of the weather forecasters seemed almost proud of being totally clueless. So this one's for you.

Egg Tempera on panel
7.25 x 13

It's not last week's snow. This is an older piece, haven't worked in tempera is quite a while now, but it seemed appropriate. Besides it's not a bad little painting. I just never got around to getting a good picture to post. I used to really like tempera. It allowed me to do things I couldn't do with oils. That's mostly because I didn't understand how to use oils, a problem i have since overcome. At least that what some people tell me. Personally I think the jury is still out on that one. Anyway, it's a nice draftsman's medium. It does have a really nice subtle quality that oils just don't have. Sometimes I miss it.

Reference Photo as a Point of Departure

2011-03-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

So, today I thought I'd talk about using reference photos. Yes I often work from reference photos. I think most of us do, if not entirely at least from time to time. I look at photography as a mechanical sketchbook most of the time. I also work directly from nature quite a bit, more and more actually, but reference photos still are important to me. When using photos though you must be aware of certain limitations. The darks tend to be too dark or the lights are washed out or some combination of the two. Color is seldom if ever completely correct so don't follow it too closely. And then there is the problem of lens distortion. A lot of potential problems to keep in mind. That's why working directly from nature is a good thing and reference photos are really just a point of departure to augment what you already know.

Let's look at this fairly simple, nothing out of the ordinary, photo.

Not really a lot going on here other than that nice sweep of water. So let's focus on that.

That's better. But still it could be better with just the addition of a distant hill something like this.

A very minor addition, but it gives the picture a little more depth and it echoes the curve of the water. Repetition of form is always a good way to unify a composition. Here's a quick illustration of what I mean just in case my words aren't making much sense.

At this point I'm thinking this isn't too bad. The sky could use some more interest, but basically it's something I would like to paint. It should be pointed out that I really like the salt marsh paintings of Martin Johnson Heade and this is right down his alley. Back to the interest in the sky though, what could be more interesting than a sunset? A good storm, but I want to do a sunset today, and work with that glow that comes at the very end of the day. Besides a sunset is much more of a departure from the original photo and that is what I set out to talk about today. We'll save the storm for another day.

Light is usually the most important part of a landscape painting. That's why I start with the sky, that's where the light comes from. In this case the entire landscape should be infused with this golden sunset light. That's important to remember because all this color is made up. A lot of people these days don't particularly like the warm, cool designation, I don't either actually, but in this case it's kind of useful since everything should have a warm golden glow.

So, my intent in this painting was to capture that very end of the day glow when night is trying to take over from the day, but the daylight isn't quite ready to go yet. That plus can I do it without having the scene right before me either in the form of nature or a photo?

Study for Sugar Creek

2011-02-23T08:39:00.001-08:00

oil on panel
12 x 9

I had originally planned to do this quite a bit bigger. However, after just a little bit of drawing I realized that there were some problems to be worked out first. Enter this little study. I think I've worked out most of the drawing and color problems. There are still a few little things that need some attention, but at least I know what they are and how to deal with them. So I think it's about time to start on the bigger, final version. I haven't done anything very big lately, could be interesting.

Millstream Gardens

2011-02-15T11:54:00.000-08:00

Oil on Panel
12 x 9

Missouri isn't exactly known for it's whitewater, but if you know where to look there are a couple good places. This is one of them, Millstream Gardens or Tiemann Shut-Ins. I've never figured out why it needs two names or what, if any, the difference is. What I do know is that is a very cool spot. Every spring they have whitewater races that attract a pretty big crowd of paddlers and spectators. Just imagine a nice, warm spring day after being stuck inside for a long, cold and snowy (this year) winter, and you're out on the rocks watching the races. Or if you're more the adventurous type maybe racing yourself. I had thought about inserting a video here, but couldn't decide on just one, so feel free to google Millstream Gardens and see what you come up with. If it looks good and you're close the races should be coming up in a few weeks, usually early March. Of course the shut-ins are always there and maybe you'd prefer to do without the crowds. Nothing wrong with that either. So much for the travel log. If the Missouri Department of Conservation wants more they'll have to send a little something my way. I've got to give them their due though, for a government agency they do a pretty good job.

And now for the painting, nothing much to say about it. I think it came out rather well.

The Glades

2011-02-08T08:22:00.001-08:00

Watercolor
22 x 30

This is an older piece that I never got around to putting up for some reason. I rather like it though. It's pretty much made up, no reference pictures, no actual place, but I think it is fairly representative of a glades landscape. That's glades in the sense of an open area in an otherwise wooded area. Around here glades have a quite thin layer of topsoil over rock. Usually not a real flashy landscape unless the wildflowers are in bloom. Hopefully that will be happening soon.

Early Autumn at the Wetlands

2011-01-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

Oil on Panel
6 x 12

Here it is, a cold winter day with an ice storm just getting underway. i thought I'd get this out before the power lines go down and the electricity goes out. Maybe we'll get lucky and we'll just have snow, lots and lots of snow. This has turned out to be a rough winter. Never mind, I've got plenty of dry firewood.

As a contrast to what's going on outside here's beautiful, warm fall day. This may look familiar. If not, it soon will because there are quite a few pictures coming from this day at this place. I love the wetlands. No idea why, maybe it's because of all the little hidden things just waiting out there. There's also a quiet kind of beauty there that can change drastically with the time of year, time of day and lighting conditions. Or maybe it's just home. At any rate I think I could spend the next few years painting nothing but wetland scenes. There's plenty of other things I want to get done too though.

View from the Bluffs

2011-01-24T07:52:00.001-08:00

OIl on Panel
9 1/4 x 16

This is one of my favorite places. It's out on the Lewis & Clark hiking trail, also one of my favorites. A couple hundred years ago Lewis & Clark were making their way up the Missouri River right past this spot. That's kind of a big deal if you're into American history. If not, well that's all I got so don't worry about an unwanted history lesson today.

A few years ago now I was out there on the bluffs just looking around and clearing my mind a bit. While I was there I noticed some clouds on the western horizon coming down the river. It was really pretty impressive. So I just sat there and watched it coming. After a while I realized it was coming right at me, but I realized that a little late. It was coming fast, and I was a good two miles away from the car. I got really wet that day.

One problem I have with painting favorite places is that since they are favorites I obviously like them. So the problem becomes, do I like the painting because it's a good piece of work or do I just like the subject matter? The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but personal feelings do tend to get in the way of critical thinking. So what do you think, is it a good painting or just a good place?

Green Cathedral

2011-01-18T09:23:00.001-08:00

Watercolor
22 x 15

As a painter I often ask myself what exactly am I trying to do. I guess I could go into artspeak mode and talk about the need for intrinsic elements to come together in a chaotic society to form a whatever. Yada, yada, yada. I could play that game but honestly it bores me. My work has been called no nonsense and unpretentious. I suppose in some circles that could be taken as an insult. I'm not in those circles and actually consider it a compliment. At the very least I think it's the truth. What you see is what you get so I better give you something worth seeing.

At one time Camie Davis had a blog on narrative painting. She's since combined all her blogs into one. See the link if you're interested. One of her last posts on the narrative blog started with a quote from Anthony de Mello:

"You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story."

And that is basically what I'm trying to do with my art. I'm a story teller. I'm much better with images than with words so I paint and draw. Figurative painting lends itself best to story telling, but landscapes also can tell a story of a specific place at a specific time of year and a specific time of day under specific weather conditions. If a landscape is done correctly (by my standards) it will take you to that certain spot at that time.

So what's the story with this painting? Well, there is no literary text portrayed, but the story is still there. I'll leave you to come up with it this time. After all, what you take from a story often depends on what you bring to it.

One final word here. Do your preliminary drawings!!!!! I had a lot of trouble painting the bottom of the drapery. Strangely enough, when I did the study for the figure I didn't do the bottom of the robe, too anxious to get started with the painting.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

High Water

2011-01-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry I left y'all hanging there. Small technical difficulty on this end. Well, I'm all upgraded and updated and ready to carry on. The really good news is I can now set up that online store I've been planning for a while. I hope somebody thinks that's a good idea. More on that later.

Now I've got to go back and see where I left off. I need to take some pictures too as soon as the sun comes out. I think this was the next one I was going to show.

Oil on panel
12 x 9

This started out as a plein aire piece. Unfortunately it wasn't particularly good. For an on site study I suppose it was alright, but still not really worth looking at twice. So like on an earlier post I thought it would just be used as a starting point for a bigger piece. Then it occurred to me that while it didn't work as a finished piece it was a pretty good full color block-in. So another layer of paint, and some further development of the forms and this is what resulted. Not too bad, captures the day fairly well I think.

Which reminds me about that day. I got out to the river petty early and was surprised at how high the water was. I'd planned on painting on a sandy shoreline looking the other direction, but considering that sandy shoreline was under a couple feet of water plan B seemed like a better option. You'll note that there is no shoreline in this painting. Just trees coming right down to the water line. While I was there three different guys came by to do some fishing. Each pronounced the water to be high and left. That's where the title comes from.

Dry Stream Bed

2010-11-21T07:16:00.000-08:00

Oil on Panel
14 x 12

I refuse to let autumn come to an end just yet. This is from one of my favorite hiking spots. The stream bed itself is about at the half way mark 2 1/2 miles in. With the exception of a couple little puddles I've never seen any water in it. That's not entirely bad, it's still a really pretty and quiet spot. But, I think it was last spring, I was there and there was water running in it, not much but still enough to be called a stream again. With all the rocks, getting across with dry feet was no problem. Since it was a different look I thought I'd stay for a while and look around. After a few minutes some more people came strolling by. Apparently they'd never seen water before because it took a good five minutes of planning to cross this little trickle. Dude, there's plenty of good solid rocks to step on, and worst case it's only two inches deep at most.

Split Rail

2010-11-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Watercolor

I wasn't totally happy with the painting I was planning on posting today. I like the actual painting fine, but the picture doesn't do it justice. Just as I was about to bite the bullet and post it anyway I found this little watercolor that has slipped through the cracks for quite a while now. New plan.

This is an older piece, but it still holds up pretty well. I'm older after all, and I still haven't reached my expiration date just yet. Besides it fits into the whole seasonal thing. We haven't really had much fall color this year, the weather didn't completely cooperate. Just have to make do, and get ready for winter.

Over the Horizon

2010-10-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache
14 x 11

Is there room in the world for another picture of a woman looking at some unseen thing? Hope so.

I'd meant to put this up a couple weeks ago, but something just didn't feel right. It seems I'd forgotten the cast shadow. Who was it that lost his shadow, Peter Pan? Wendy had to sew it back on for him. I guess I've sewed her shadow back on now so it's ready to be seen. Strangely enough that's about all I have to say about it. Hope that enough.

Lifting Fog

2010-10-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

Where is the time going? I didn't mean to skip two weeks without a post. I've got plenty of things to show but something always seems to come up. On the up side this piece hadn't been started two weeks ago so you get something brand new.

I'm going to show you something a bit different today, a plein air piece.

Oil on panel
6 x 12

I don't usually show these for two reasons. First I don't do very many so there just aren't many to see. Second they're not very good. I have a lot of trouble getting comfortable painting outside. I like it, I just can't get used to it. I really need to do more though, and I plan to continue at an increased rate. We'll see how those plans work out. There might be a third reason too. These little on location pieces aren't meant as an end in themselves usually. They're mainly just quick sketches that will grow up into something bigger and hopefully much better.

On to this particular piece. I got up early one day and headed out to the wetlands. As it turned out it was a really foggy day which I personally think is a great thing. By the time I got there the fog was already lifting, not too much of it left. It really didn't seem to be hanging over the wetlands too much to start with surprisingly enough. But the atmosphere was still pretty soft early on. To make things even better wildflowers were blooming all along the shorelines. So I set up real quick, painted as fast as possible and by the time I was done the fog had been replace by a clear blue sky. You can decide how well I captured the moment. My question was, did I have enough information to do a more finished studio piece? Well let's see.

Oil on canvas
9 x 18

Personally I think this worked out fairly well. There seems to be that early morning fog with the sun just burning through. The wildflowers make a nice focal point in the midgrounds and the water leads the eye into the space. I think I like it, should frame up nicely.

I really would like to do more plein air painting especially more detailed, studied out pieces. Yeah, that's a must do.

My 100th Post

2010-09-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Blogger informs me that this is my 100th post. Seems a bit of a milestone, modest by some standards but still. I should have some kind of big important thing today in honor of it, but I got nothing. So we'll just consider it business as usual.

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache

Not only do I not have anything planned for today's momentous posting, I don't even have a title for this piece. Suggestions are welcome. I still think it came out pretty good. Originally I had planned to just do a vignette, but as is usually the case, it just kept growing outward. I rather like the pose and can see it growing up into something bigger. Don't hold your breath on that one though.

I see a lot of these drawings growing up and so far very, very few have. I seem to draw a line between preparatory drawings and finished drawings. It all has to do with the original intent apparently. Some of the prep drawings could easily stand on their own, but they usually get stuffed away. Most of the finished drawings could be carried further into paint and color, but the original thought said drawing is as far as they should go. No good reasoning behind it really.

I'm rambling today. Nothing much to say. Just wanted to put something up for y'all to look at.

Morning

2010-08-31T09:20:00.001-07:00

Enough drawing for a while. Never thought I'd say that since I actually prefer drawing, but it just seems like time for some color. Watercolor in this case. Since there were no watercolor portraits last week that strikes me as a good choice.

Watercolor
14 x 18

What I wanted to do in this was show that early morning light and the calmness that goes with sun up. I love that time of day when the world is just waking up. Too bad it comes so early. There's usually a beautiful calm golden light, not as harsh as later in the day. Add a little bit of ground fog, and I'm ready to go.

A Pile of Portraits

2010-08-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Let's look at a few more drawings this week. Instead of full figures maybe some portraits for a change. And just to mix it up, how about a variety of media. I may use all the labels today.

Why do I use different media? Sometimes it's a matter of size. Silverpoint is good for smaller things, charcoal works better bigger, in my case at least, and pencil works for everything. Sometimes it's just a matter of, "I haven't done one of those in a while." Perhaps not the best of reasons, but it's all I got.

Pencil on Stonehenge paper

Charcoal heightened with white chalk

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache

This is me after all. There has to be a silverpoint drawing.

And for those who are wondering if I have forgotten how to paint.

Oil on canvas
16 x 12

I had a tough time photographing this one. Hope I got the correct picture.

As it turns out these are actually pretty good likenesses. You might recognize a couple of the models. The last is Elandria. She's been here at least twice before. And the first is Jessica who you might recognize from some earlier portrait studies. Thanks to all my lovely models.

Studies in Charcoal

2010-08-17T13:17:00.000-07:00

Last time I mentioned that large figure studies in pencil may not be the best idea. Pencil works fine, but it just takes a while on a larger scale. That's why charcoal is used so often. You can lay down larger areas of tone much quicker, and it's relatively easy to model 3-dimensional objects.

Personally, I have a love hate relationship with charcoal. Love the look, hate working with it. For some reason I've just never gotten comfortable with charcoal, but I'm still trying to get there. So here's a couple of my more recent attempts. All in all I think they came out fairly well. It just seemed like it was more of a struggle than it should have been.

I'm experimenting with papers for charcoal too. This is a full sheet of the Strathmore 500 series. It's not a bad paper at all. I've used it on and off for quite some time and really have no complaints. It's a pretty good all purpose drawing paper.

This was done on a piece of Hahnemuhle Bugra. I've been wanting to try this paper for a while, and finally got around to getting some. First off the sheets are about twice the size of the Strathmore. If you want to do some big work that's a good thing. For me and the room I have available to work, that's really too big. Nothing says I can't cut it in half though, so I did. It's marketed as having a rough side and a smoother side like Canson Mi-tienes. And while that may be true, both sides are much toothier than that the Canson. Not necessarily a bad thing but something to be aware of. For me the biggest thing was the softness of the surface as compared to the Strathmore paper. It takes charcoal and pencil quite well, but it's real easy to scuff up the surface. So be a little gentle and keep erasing to a minimum. Actually that's probably a good idea regardless of the paper you're using.

He's Baaaaaack

2010-08-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

He's back. What's happening? Has hell frozen over, is it a cold day in July? That can't be it, it's pushing 100 and besides it's August. Maybe I just finally got around to taking some pictures, and it just seems like a good idea to start up again. So here goes.

Ever wonder what goes on during these long breaks? What's that, you don't. Just as well since nothing exciting has been happening. So let's come at this from a different direction.

I operate on the assumption that one can never draw too well. Since I'm nowhere close to drawing too well and actually testing that assumption, I draw a lot. I do quick sketches that no one will ever see and a fair number of pretty highly finished studies. Let's start off this rebirth with some figure drawing.

Why draw figures? Why not? When it comes to drawing practice anything will do, the important thing is to do it and observe and record carefully. If you draw a tree or a pile of fabric you can get away with a certain amount of errors. Does that branch really go in that direction? If you really pay attention and do a careful study those errors won't be there and it suddenly makes absolutely no difference what you draw. With a figure though, there is less latitude. While bodies do vary, an error in proportions will just look wrong. There is a constant battle to render a solid 3-dimensional form that actually looks like a figure with all the right pieces in the right places.

So that's why I do this kind of figure drawing. Fairly tightly rendered and studied to the best of my ability. Ideally that ability will continue to improve, that is the object of practice after all.

Both of these drawings are pencil on Stonehenge paper in the 30 x 22 inch range. Given that size, pencil may not have been the best choice of medium, but it gets the job done even if it does take a while. I rather like the idea of having a drawing that I can go back to and chew on until it has been carried to the degree of finish desired. When doing one of these I always think back to my school days when a teaching assistant informed my that no one likes doing careful drawings like this. Well, I do.

Candlelight

2010-02-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

14 x 10
Silverpoint on Cream color prepared paper

Here's the latest silverpoint offering. I really don't have much to say about it. Hopefully it speaks for itself. I think there will be another candlelight drawing or two coming down the line.

On the technical side this is about as dark as silverpoint gets. I might be able to push it a bit farther, but not much, and I don't think it really needs to be any darker. If it were I think it would lose that quality of softness it has now. It would take all the air out of the shadows, and they would become more ominous and dramatic. Not going for the Rembrandt look here. Maybe I'll get a chance to play with the image in Photoshop to illustrate the point. All that silver in the darks also makes it almost impossible to get a decent picture. I bet I took 100 pictures of this before I came up with one that is usable. If you look close enough there is still some glare in the hair.

The color of the paper was a bit of a happy accident. Originally I wanted just a light, warm gray, but the raw umber gouache didn't tint out quite the way I expected. I was about to prepare another sheet, but decided to give this a try. I didn't have anything else to use it for after all. I'm glad I continued on with it. The color actually works quite well.

Roses in the Snow

2010-02-10T08:57:00.000-08:00

Valentines's day is closing in and there's snow on the ground so this seemed like a timely thing to post. If you're thinking that this isn't quite up to current standards that's because it's a good 20 years old. I was digging through the accumulated junk the other day, and found this illustration, just about the last remaining piece from my first go round in the art world. So the imagery may be timely but the posting is a bit tardy. In my defense though, when this was done there was no internet to post to. I was just waiting for technology to catch up.

So happy Valentine's Day to all the ladies out there, and for the guys, the ball's in your court, I'm covered. For once I didn't forget.

Lady of the Lake

2010-01-10T07:54:00.000-08:00

Watercolor
30 x 22

The Lady of the Lake, a classic subject that I have stayed away from until now. So let me wade into the waters with this one. (See how I worked the water theme in there. Darn he's clever. Please pardon me, all this cold weather seems to be effecting my brain. Back to the scheduled programming.) She's usually depicted in a boat or sometimes just as an arm sticking up out of the water with a sword. Well, I think she deserves to be seen as more that just an arm besides I had this really good photo of a full body to work with. And a boat, c'mon seriously. This is magic, she don't need no stinking boat.

You may be wondering about the sword, or in this case, the lack thereof. I wasn't worthy of seeing it. Yeah, I'm going with that. It's a much better answer than it honestly never occurred to me to include it. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Anyway, now that it's been pointed out to me that the sword is missing I'm considering adding it. I don't think it is really needed though.

And let me once again thank the lovely Elandria. You may remember her from this You would have had to have been paying really good attention or have a really good memory though. Keep her in mind, she may be showing up again to reprise this role and others.

Untitled

2009-12-20T07:57:00.000-08:00

watercolor
18 x 12.5

Well its been three months since my last post. I don't know if I'm more surprised that it's been that long or that it hasn't been longer. Untitled pretty much wraps up the last three months though.

I finished this a few days ago, at least I think it's finished, and I don't have the slightest idea what to title it. That's usually a result of not having a clear idea of what I was trying to do in the first place. Seems to be a lot of that going around these days. "Just do it." Nice bumper sticker but maybe we should give things a little thought before we jump in with both feet. But I don't really want to go down that road today. I'm not really sure what road I want to go down today. See, still untitled.

Anyway, even though this isn't exactly a Christmas image (poor thing would freeze something off wearing that around here today), I hope everyone has a good holiday season. And I'd like to thank everyone that has dropped by, especially those that have taken the time to comment. It really means a lot to me. And a special thanks to all my models (did you recognize Linda from the last silverpoint post?) Where would I be without you?

Winter Day

2009-09-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint on a warm light gray toned paper
18 x 14

I may have mislead you. Unlike a politician this was not my intent. I have always said that silverpoint was good for smaller pieces, but couldn't really hold up for something bigger. It just can't produce the dark darks needed to be noticed from across the room. I may have to rethink that. After looking at some of Dennis Martin's work I noticed that many of them are pretty big, much bigger than I had expected. So I took a shot and tried something bigger myself. Now this is not a huge drawing by any means, but it's about twice what I'm used to. It seems to hold up pretty well both near and from across the room, at least the size of my rooms. So bigger may be better.

On the downside it takes forever. The earlier parts had already started to tarnish by the time the last lines were added. I started this back in May or maybe early June and just finished it up a couple weeks ago. I didn't work nonstop on this though. There were quite a few weeks that it didn't get touched at all actually so it's hard to guess exactly how long it really took to finish. It certainly felt like a long time. Then again, it was nice to have something to go back and chew on.

Enough about that. What I was trying to do here was show how nice it is to curl up with a book when the snow in laying on the fields, the warmth of the figure against the cold of the landscape. Besides I loved the light. I hope I got somewhere close to the feel of it.

Twig

2009-09-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

Didn't mean to be gone that long guys, sorry. It's been a long and rather interesting summer. Overall not that great but there were flashes that kept me wanting to see what would happen next. It looks like that the way it will be for a while to come too. At least now I'm used to it. On to the pictures, that's what you're here for.

I've done virtually no painting or drawing at all in the last few months so this had the potential for complete disaster. I'd wanted to do this piece for quite a while, but something always seemed to come up and push this to the back burner. Instead of going right to the finished picture I thought you might like to see a couple of the studies that I do beforehand. There's a lot of stuff done that nobody will ever see, but are nevertheless important to the process. This is where all the drawing issues get worked out. Before I start the final piece I have a pretty good idea of exactly where I'm going.

pencil heightened with white
22 x 15

So here's the final drawing of the figure. If it wasn't right there would be no reason to go any further so it was pretty obvious that I needed to spend as much time here as necessary. Besides I like to draw, this was the fun part.

Watercolor
15 x 11

So now that I've got a figure I need to put her in a landscape or some kind of environment. An excuse to go for a walk in the woods, most excellent. Not the best watercolor I've ever done, but it serves the purpose. She should fit in there nicely. It's really best compositionally to do this all at once working with basically abstract shapes and then adapting the shapes to figure and surroundings. Sometimes you get lucky though and this way will work out all right. Let's put it together and see what I've got.

Watercolor
30 x 22

This is what I thought would be the final piece. I'm not so sure though so this could turn out to be another study. There's some good points but I think there are parts that I could and should do better. And this is why it is best compositionally to work on the whole piece at once instead of putting together pieces. On this particular painting there is no deadline and no one is dying to see it (as far as I know) so why not keep going and do it right.

Watercolor
22 x 15ish

This is a detail of the previous piece and makes a pretty good image on its own. Right now I'm leaning toward cropping it down and salvaging this part and later going back and repainting the whole piece, maybe an oil next time.

Edit: I've switched out the last two images with ones that are closer to actual in color at least. Images seem to come out about a step lighter here than anywhere else. Anybody else have that problem?

Intimate Landscape - Bloodrooot

2009-07-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

Oil on Panel
12 x 13

I thought I'd already put this up, but here it sits in draft form. Yet another oversight on my part, easily corrected.

This is another of my intimate landscapes. Every so often I like to just pick a small bit of land or streambed and see if I can bring it to life. That's pretty much what I up to here with a delicate little bloodroot flower. These are about the first of the spring wildflowers. When they start blooming winter is officially over for me.

I think I'm caught up now. Everything that's worth looking at is now posted. Wonder what I'll do next.

Sheltered Cove

2009-06-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

Oil on Panel
16 x 12

Once again I find I don't have much to say about this. Another foggy day, more water, some foreground rocks. All together I think it works fairly well though.

Daydreams

2009-06-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint
11 x 8

After those last two let's cleanse the room with something a bit better. Not much to say about this. I'm thinking about cropping a little bit off the top, but that will wait until framing time, assuming I frame it at all. All for today, not feeling very talkative. I just wanted to put something half way decent up for you to see.

Changed my mind, I do have something to say here. This is actually a second version. The first wasn't that bad with one exception. I wasn't all that satisfied with the face. Considering that's the center of interest, that's really not such a small problem. But it just needed a little change so maybe I could fix it. I've said that erasing is iffy at best with silverpoint. In this case iffy turned out to be no way, won't come off. Well, it is a gouache ground so maybe I could just reground it, gouache is opaque right? Yeah, not so much here, and the toned ground proved to be impossible to match. One last try, sandpaper. Sand off that spot and do here again. Yeah good idea. This is a second version for a reason. Things just went from bad to worse to the point that the only way to save it was to start from scratch, totally new version. Should have done that to start with. The moral is with silverpoint, just don't screw up. Know what you're going to do and do it right.

Close But No Cigar

2009-06-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I seem to do a lot of things that fall just short of what I'm trying to do. Today's post will be devoted to a couple of those so maybe I can put them behind me, and move on to something with more potential. Realistically I know I'll keep playing with them until they're either right or screwed up beyond all possibility of fixing. Maybe you'll have a suggestion or maybe you'll convince me that they aren't as bad as I think or maybe I'm talking to myself and this will just be a catharthic experience.

Oil on Canvas
18 x 30

Something's just not quite right. The middle building in particular is bothering me. I think it needs to be pushed back some which sounds easy enough, but in practice is proving a bit more difficult. The brick silo isn't really working with the dull red barn either. Okay, fix those things and problem solved right? We'll see.

When I first saw this barn all the paint had been scraped off and it was a lovely silvery gray like, well, barnwood. When a got back a day or two later it was already painted with a coat of primer that was this dull red. It still had a charm to it, but it wasn't the same feel. Now it's got it's final coat of bright red, and it's turned into the red barn cliche. I'm sure the farmer likes the new paint job much better, and I'll admit it is a good looking farm, but something's just gone from it. It seems to have lost it's character. Maybe that says something about me.

Night Calls a Woman
Oil on Panel
18 x 12

A couple years ago I was watching something on TV, Austin City Limits I think, and there was this band (forget the name, sorry) playing this song that kept repeating this phrase, "night calls a woman." It stuck with me, and just would not go away. So to free my mind of this one musical phrase I did this. Nocturns seem to be quite a bit more difficult than I had imagined. This is the second, maybe third, version, and it's still not quite right. The good news is, I seem to be getting closer. On the other hand that phrase still hasn't completely left my head.

So there it is. This may be a first for me. I never let anyone see anything before it's done and ready for public consumption. In my world it's either right or wrong, and if it's wrong then fix it or start over. Next time I'll find something better to post.

Back Studies

2009-06-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

oil on canvas
10 x 8

oil on canvas
10 x 8

Just a couple quick little studies today. I always seem to end up with little odds and ends of canvas off the roll. Being incredibly cheap (I prefer to think of it as thrifty) I always keep them around and eventually get them used up. That's the case here, just bits and pieces of leftovers put to use. I haven't even bothered to stretch them. If nobody wants them they may never get stretched, but that wasn't the point though. The object was practice. If they happen to turn out half-way decent so much the better. Any thoughts, anybody want to give them a home?

Quiet on the River

2009-05-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

Oil on panel
11 x 17

This wasn't what I was planning on posting today, but the more I looked at the other painting the more I thought, nope, I can do it better. There are things to fix. So that's what I'll be doing the rest of the day - making small corrections on a variety of pieces that aren't bad, but not quite right. I seem to do that a lot, fiddle with things until they're absolutely perfect or screwed up beyond all hope. Never really gotten anything perfect though, but the day's still young.

This little piece was done specifically to fit a frame I've had laying around for several years now. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. In spite of that I think it came out pretty well, and it does suit the frame. There was a very limited palette used on this, just milori blue (like prussian, but supposed to be more lightfast) venetian red, yellow ochre and lead white. There was no challenge to myself or anything like that, it just turned out to be all the colors I needed. On that note there is a lot to be said for using a limited palette. Harmonious color is almost assured, and you find that you really don't need every single color ever made. The old masters used very few pigments, and they got along pretty well. I remember one of my teachers once saying that with all the colors available these days there should be some pretty good painting going on. I'm not really seeing that. Maybe we suffer from an embarrassment of riches.

Ground Fog

2009-05-08T11:41:00.001-07:00

Oil on Panel
5.5 x 12

I've got to tell you I like fog. No idea why but I do. Not constantly you understand, but now and then. When I first moved out here, before the building spree, this is pretty much the way it looked most mornings. It would burn off fairly quickly so it wouldn't be depressing all day. Now fog is more uncommon and to see fog rising from the fields like this I need to go out a few more miles into the farmland. I think I like the subtlety of the colors and the quiet that usually comes with it. That's what I was going for here anyway. Welcome to my world.

Black Fan

2009-05-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

In keeping with yesterday's ramble about paying attention to all the elements in a piece I though this may be of interest. It's a little older too so maybe you can use it to gauge my progress or lack of progress. First let me say this is not the way to put a picture together. Don't try this at home.

Another little silverpoint as you may have guessed. A decent drawing, the forearm and hand seem nice and solid. Overall though, nothing to write home about. It's certainly on the blah side. So it sat around for a while until I decided maybe I could still pull it off.

That's a little better with just the addition of a vertical element and a horizontal. Now there's a little stability to the image, but still not right. Too much of that so what feeling. It needs some depth.

Now that's not so bad, not my best, but much better than the original version. There's some solidity to the composition, some depth. The lights and darks are balanced out all right. (The image is about a half step too dark here, sorry.) It's more than a figure just plopped down in the middle of the page. Not that that can't be pulled off, I just didn't originally do it here.

One other vaguely interesting thing here is that since it was done over a period of about eight months the earliest parts of the drawing had started to tarnish already. I don't think you can really see it here, you can just barely see it in person. From across the room it really isn't apparent, but up close the figure and to a lesser extent the horizontal ledge is much warmer than the distant landscape. That will even out soon enough, but it was nice to see the change. Normally the change is so slow and subtle even I don't notice it.

Flowing Lines

2009-05-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint
12 x 9

Let's try this again. Personally I think this is pretty good. Keep in mind that I seem to be a bad judge of my work, and my taste in general may be suspect given today's standards. I'll keep doing what I do in spite of all the outside influences though. Isn't that a definition of insanity? Then again if I am crazy do I really care? These thoughts are way too deep for a Friday, especially on Derby weekend.

I seem to be getting a lot of similar images, women with a lot of drapery. Too many? Is that a bad thing? Is there more to say? I like drapery mainly because of the way light falls on it. In this there is the added interest in the transparency. The figures are almost incidental. My main interest is still the light.

But there's more to it though, isn't there? So many elements to work with in a drawing, and with painting there's the added element of color. To make an image really work you need to consider all the parts -- value, line, composition, color. How you group the elements can vary. For instance, I think light comes under the heading of value. But value could just as easily be thought of as part of composition. The point is everything is important to creating a meaningful whole. In this silverpoint I wanted to project a soft, delicate, intimate image. Therefore I kept the value range from being too dark while keeping the figure on the light side. The lines flow rather than being short and jumpy giving a more peaceful feel. I tried to put in enough detail to project an intimacy without being overly picky. Hopefully everything came together.

Reflection

2009-04-26T07:10:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. What have I been doing to make time go so fast? Well, I'm back, didn't die or anything serious like that.

Silverpoint
12 x 12

Another silverpoint for today's offering. First let me thank the lovely Elandria for being such a wonderful model and providing me with some beautiful reference shots to work from. Lanny, you're the best. (Don't tell the other models I said that.) Yes, I work from photos, I'm no purist. I'm also really slow, especially with silverpoint.

I don't really have anything to say about this today. Maybe I could go into the use of photos as reference or talk about my speed or the lack thereof, but I think I'll save those for another day when my thoughts are, well, more thought out. The drawing alone will have to do for today. I'm fresh out of wisdom. Here's a little detail too. Click on it to see what it looks like in actual size.

Good Weather Coming?

2009-03-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Oil on Panel
8.5 x 10.5

Spring is finally here. Flowers are coming up, trees are blooming, I'm getting itchy to go and paint out in the fresh air. My pochade box is all ready to go. Did I mention it's really cold, raining and snow is expected this afternoon and tonight? Well I've got basketball to watch today anyway.

If anybody else finds themselves stuck indoors today I just finished a book that may be of interest, The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber. It's one of those rot your brain fiction books, but it's pretty good. I saw a lot of me in it which is really rather disturbing considering the main character has a tenuous hold on reality. Basically it's about a truly talented artist (that's not the part that reminds me of me) that finds himself cranking out advertising junk when he is approached to take part in a clinical study on creativity. In the process he has a bit of a break with reality and becomes Velasquez where he forges a piece similar to the Rokeby Venus, or did he just imagine it?. It gets into questions of perceived realities and asks some pretty good questions about the art world and art itself. Anyway, I liked it.

River Access

2009-03-12T08:45:00.001-07:00

Oil on canvas
18 x 36

This is an older piece that I have never been able to photograph adequately. Well, this is about as good as it's going to get. The problem now is that I think I've improved a bit in the interim, and I really think I could do this better. I like the spot and the overall feel so maybe I that's a good reason to do it again.

A couple things came together in the last few weeks, and I thought they might be of interest. First I was asked to provide an artist's statement by two different places. Personally, I've never cared much for artist's statements simply because I've always felt that if the artist has to explain what he or she is doing it isn't being done very well. Perhaps I'm just a simple soul or just not evolved enough. So what am I trying to do with these things? The answer seems simple enough. I'm trying to take the viewer to a place in time and space where a feeling, emotion or thought will be evoked. To touch the viewer in some way; I always thought that was the object of art. I could be wrong about that. Again, I'm just a simple soul.

The second thing was a post on the Gurney Journey about filling in. link Strangely enough "filling in" refers to just what I am aiming to do, allow the viewer to enter a painting, and wander around and feel something. I had no idea there was an actual term for this. It was pointed out that this can lead to sentimentality. Yeah, I suppose so, but as long as the sentiment is real and not taken to the point of sappiness is that really such a bad thing?

So to come full circle and mention this particular painting, (it's not that bad after all, is it?) I'm hoping you'll want to get in a boat and see what's around the bend. Maybe see what's on the far shore or pick up a fishing pole and try your luck. How'd I do?

Summer's End

2009-02-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

Watercolor
22 x 15

I know this isn't exactly what you would call timely considering it's closer to the end of winter, but maybe it's just what we need to shake off the cold. Perhaps I'm ahead of my time or lost in the past or just totally screwed up.

This is the first watercolor I've done in a while so there was potential for disaster. A lot of watercolor depends on "feel" that comes from doing. Is the paper wet enough, dry enough? It's real easy to lose that feel so I was pleasantly surprised at this outcome. It's also a composite of a landscape reference with a model reference. Around here when you see a log like that, you can be pretty sure there will be turtles laying on it catching some sun. Personally, I think this is much better.

Here's a detail of the figure for anyone interested in details. It's about actual size, maybe a touch smaller.

Moonlit Dreams

2009-02-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

Silverpoint
7 1/2 x 12

I don't know exactly which way to go with this post, but I do want to put something up today so I think I'll just offer this drawing without comment. There's some good things about it that I like, and as always, there are some things that could be better. You decide which is which today. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

River Bank

2009-02-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

First off I'd like to announce the opening of Show Me Handmade. I've added a link over in my other pages section that has all the information of location, store hours and what kind of things they have including some of my work. The grand opening is scheduled for March 7, but they're already open so if you're in the neighborhood drop in. There's a variety of art related stores there in the mall that are or will soon be opening. That takes care of the business for today. On to what you're here for.

Oil on Canvas
18 x 30

I may be sorry I posted this one. It's one of those that I can't quite decide if I like or not. There are some things that aren't too bad, but overall something, like a reason to be looking at it, just seems to be missing. I had thought about putting a figure on the bank either walking into the scene or looking out over the river, but neither of those worked too well. Then I thought about flashing a tree with some bright early fall color, but that stuck out too much. So I muted that tree some and that's where we are now. What do you think, yes or no?

Since I don't quite know what to say regarding this let's talk about something related to this piece. Around here there is an activity practiced by a few called sandbar archeology. Rivers rise and rivers fall. When they go down all kinds of things are revealed. Most of it is junk of course, but some is quite old dating back to Lewis and Clark and beyond. In most cases of archeology if you find something it should really be left in place and reported just in case there is some real historic significance. On the river though if you find it, it's yours simply because there's no telling where it washed down from. In this picture the river is low. That "beach" is usually under a couple feet of water. If you're wondering, I didn't find a thing. You usually don't. That just makes the occasional find that much better.

Vanity

2009-02-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

Silverpoint on off white prepared paper
12 x 10

I haven't put up a silverpoint in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing any. There's actually a backlog to get out, so if you like silver keep looking in, they're coming. Come to think of it there's a lot of things to be posted. I'm not really a big fan of talking about my work. In a business where promotion (primarily self promotion) is important that presents a bit of a problem. Something else to work on.

One thing about having all these silverpoints sitting around is that I've had a chance to look at them in a variety of lighting situations. I wasn't feeling too well a couple weeks ago so I got lazy and just laid around in bed. As the sun crossed the sky the difference in lighting really affected the drawings. That's not all that unusual, I've noticed the same thing in oil paintings that have a lot of glazing on them, but this difference was enough to be remarkable. I suppose it was a matter of reflection or glare because the majority of change took place in the darker range of values. As you probably know silverpoint lines aren't terribly dark. I'd say it's comparable to a 2H pencil depending on the ground used. However I find that to be dark enough for most images, and it turns out that in the right lighting conditions that can be pretty dark especially if it's just used as an accent. It's certainly dark enough to make an image pop. At any rate I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by some of the recent pieces. Considering that I usually am not all that satisfied with my work, it makes a fella think. Maybe I'm just mellowing in my old age.

On one of the forums I look in on somebody mentioned that she couldn't see any lines on the drawing I posted, just smooth tones. Well there are lines there, a bunch of them, trust me. Here's a couple details that are roughly life size to show the level of finish. Maybe someone will find them interesting.

Early Morning Tree

2009-01-24T08:41:00.000-08:00

Oil on canvas
16 x 12

No mythology, mysticism or any other m-words today, just a picture of a tree. This time its early morning, the sun is just rising and the ground fog is burning off. That's actually one of my favorite times of day, if only it didn't come so early. Well, you can't have everything. I'm not really sure what to say about this painting. It's not earth shattering in composition, color, paint handling or anything else for that matter, but it does do what I wanted it to do. It gives that feeling of the early morning quite when the world is just waking up. At least I think it does. One comment I should make is that, on my screen at least, it's coming out a half step lighter and higher in chroma than in real life. The coloring is really pretty subtle. One of these days I'll figure out the differences between all these picture programs.

Lone Oak

2009-01-19T08:36:00.000-08:00

Oil on Canvas
12 x 16

I used to think a tree was just a tree. Then I grew older and possibly wiser, and found that trees were much more. At one time I was real big into bonsai trees. I still am but not to the same extent. There's a distinctly romantic component to bonsai. One tree is supposed to represent all of nature. Ideally it will take you away to a place.

Many bonsai artists also begin to dig into some of the folklore regarding trees. Let's take a brief look at the oak. The oak was considered the cosmic storehouse of wisdom by the ancient Celts due to its growth and expanse, and was honored for its endurance and noble presence. The wearing of oak leaves was a symbol of honor in several cultures such as the Greeks and Romans and is even continued on today in military medals (oak leaf clusters in lieu of duplicate medals). Sometimes the name druid is traced back to the Celtic term for the oak, duir. The usual translation for duir is door though. According to lore the spiritual Celts would "access the ethereal planes of higher thought" (visions and such) by "opening the oak door." Further merit was given the oak as a consequence of it's apparent ability to attract lightning. Personally I'm not so sure I would consider this a plus especially if I were a tree, but then I'm not a druid. The oak is said to represent "all that is true, wholesome, stable and noble." So if you're having a rough day picture the oak and draw into its strength.

Not much about art today I'm afraid, but maybe this was interesting anyway. So what do you think of all this? Does this painting give you any of those feelings? Nobility and strength cutting through the mist maybe. If it doesn't I guess I screwed up or maybe sometimes a tree is just a tree.

If you're interested in the symbolism of trees and other assorted things you might want to drop by www.whatyoursign.com

Sunrise

2009-01-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

Oil on Panel
5.5 x 12

Let's get back to some of these little landscapes I mentioned a while back. I've tried to stay away from the pretty, calendar art landscapes in my work, but I find that the last three I've done are just that, two sunsets and now a sunrise. This is the flashiest of the bunch, and as such it almost makes me cringe. Well, if the Hudson River painters could do it, I guess I can too, at least I can try and see how well they are received.

I thought I had more to say about this, but I can't think of what it would be. So there you go, first post of the year.

The Coming Year

2008-12-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

Watercolor
11 x 7

As the year comes to an end you can expect all the year in review shows complete with predictions for the coming year. No predictions here from me. You don't want to know what I think is coming, trust me on that. As for what's past, if you've been keeping up you've already seen most of it, so just flip back on your own. I had thought about going back several years to let you decide if I'd shown any improvement, but due to a technical problem I can't get to any old files stored on my zip disks. So you dodged that bullet too.

One of the few files I can get to right now is this little watercolor. It struck me as a relatively good image to end up the year on. Is she watching something / someone go, or waiting for something / someone to come? Maybe she's had a really bad year and is getting ready to jump. What you take from a piece depends a lot on what you bring to it, doesn't it?

To my reader(s) I hope you're not getting ready to jump. I wish you all a good new year and remember the trick is to keep your head when those around you are losing theirs.

Head Studies

2008-12-16T11:06:00.001-08:00

A few months ago there was a discussion of the working methods of William Bouguereau at one of the forums I visit regularly. That struck me as pretty interesting. I'm personally not a huge fan of Bouguereau, but I have to admit that the man knew how to handle paint. As a result I thought it would be a good idea to try a study or two and see if I could come away with some added knowledge. There was one problem though, there didn't seem to be any agreement of how exactly he did it. I've never seen one in person so that made it even harder to decide for myself who was right or at least closest to right. After a few weeks of discussion and one side arguing for one way and another side offering arguments for a different approach I finally decided it didn't matter that much to me. But by then I'd already dug through my saved files and found a couple Bouguereauish poses courtesy of the lovely faestock from Deviant Art link . I had them drawn on the panels and was already to go. So I just decided to do them the way I normally would. Here are the results. Both are not much more than sketches and are unfinished. They could be polished quite a bit more, and brought to a higher degree of finish, but I don't know that that would really add much. Besides I'd done all I'd set out to do.

Oil on Panel
12 x 10
SOLD

Oil on Panel
10 x 8
SOLD

I think this is the better of the two. For all you paint freaks out there that like to get up close here's a couple details.

All in all I think I may go back to the original idea and see if I can do a convincing Bouguereau study. The man could push paint around.

Dusk

2008-12-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

Oil on Panel
8 x 12

Another of the little landscapes I'm playing with at the moment. A very simple little image hopefully expressing the peaceful, quite time just as the sun is going down. I don't really know what else to say about it. It will have to speak for itself.

Is there a there there?

2008-11-24T08:57:00.001-08:00

Oil on Panel
5 x 12

This is a simple little painting, maybe not as simple as it first appears but still there's not a whole lot to it. Personally I like clean, uncluttered images, but I have it on good authority that I'm quite, what's the term, nuts. Anyway, I was going for a tranquil, twilight mood and for that I didn't need a lot of extraneous stuff. I'm thinking of doing quite a number of small paintings, predominately landscapes, like this that can be done fairly fast and sold at a reasonable (read cheap) price. If anybody out there has any thoughts about this or interest in the pieces let me know.

But that's not what I want to talk about today. I did a little gallery hopping a few weeks ago, mainly looking for new outlets for me and just to see what was out there in general. I didn't hit the entire gallery scene by any means, but I think what I saw was pretty representative. It was pretty disillusioning. I didn't find anyplace I thought I'd fit into, so I didn't even bother submitting anything to anyone. That led me to start thinking about they whys. What did the pieces being shown have that I don't. Excluding the abstract art and just looking at the realist pieces I came away thinking that the one big thing they had was flash. These things just jumped out and grabbed you with bright, downright garish color and strong contrasts. The problem was that once they grabbed you there was really nothing there to see. No subtlety of tone or color. Composition, nothing special. Drawing for the most part was adequate at best and I just came away feeling cold. There was no there there, just trash flash. Is that what people really want? Much of it was only slightly better than the Starving Artist shows they have at the hotels where you can but a sofa sized painting for just $40. Where can you even buy a frame that size for $40? But that's a whole other rant.

I'm not putting the painting in today's post as any great example of subtlety by any means. It's just something to see in case you don't want to read my ramblings. But I do try to do pieces that the viewer wants to spend some time with. Hopefully they have enough to grab your eye in the first place, but once you're looking I truly hope you will stay there awhile. It isn't always a matter of detail. The next time you look at a Vermeer for example look at the overall feel, the way light falls on a wall. It looks simple, but it is deceptively complex. That's what I'm after. If that doesn't fit in with today's art world I guess I'm just boofed. (That's a technical term. I think you can guess the meaning.)

Maybe it's just a society thing. Are people too busy to stop and contemplate these days? Or maybe I'm expecting too much. Painters view paintings differently from other people. There was one trip to the museum I remember where there was a guy that was apparently a big Matisse fan. When he finally found one he practically broke out into a little dance he was so happy. Total viewing time of the painting itself was something in the range of three seconds even though this just happened to be a very important piece. Painters actually look at a painting to see it. It's not exactly a passive activity. I've spent my share of time with my nose up to a painting, and I know most of you have too. I've seen other people wondering what I was looking at so closely. They probably just thought I had bad eyes.

Duck Season

2008-11-18T08:56:00.000-08:00

Oil on Canvas
10 x 26

It's duck season again. Time to get up before the sun, go out in the cold autumn pre-dawn and sit in a duck blind with a wet dog while waiting for the ducks to come in. When I put it that way it doesn't sound like all that much fun. I really just went to watch the ducks and play with the dogs anyway. There's something about seeing hundreds of ducks and geese migrating down the river, and a good dog is, well, a good dog. What more can I say?

Anyway this is one of those paintings that won't go away. For anyone that's followed this blog from early on you may remember a wetlands series. This spot is to the right and over the levy from an earlier piece. There was a sign saying to keep off the levy, but being me I had to see why. When I peeked over and saw the blinds I figured out the why real fast. I've had this laying around for a while. I thought it was done, but wasn't entirely happy with it so I kept fiddling with it. I think I've just about got the mood I want so I'm calling it done. At least until I think of a way to make it better or somebody buys it.

A New Day

2008-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Oil on canvas
20 x 15.5

I had a lot of trouble getting a decent picture of this. Between the glare and the value contrasts it was a minor nightmare. There's still a little glare, but I think you can get the basic idea.

I'm not entirely sure I like this painting. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but it strikes me that it may be too much of a cliche. Well if it is, so be it. I'll leave it to you to decide. I also don't have much to say about it. So feel free to make up your own story. I will say that it reminds me of a Thoreau quote from Walden. It's toward the end, maybe the very last phrase. "There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star." It seems to apply.

Lilies of the Valley

2008-10-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

10.5 x 8.5
Oil on Panel

I don't do a lot of still life painting, but occasionally something catches my eye. Outside the window of my little painting space (I hesitate to call this cave a studio) there is a patch of Lilies of the Valley. In the spring it's really quite pretty. After the flowers die down it leaves a pretty dense patch of foliage, and that's the part the cat loves because it provides cover for a variety of critters for her to watch. She seems particularly fascinated by turtles.

Preliminary drawings

2008-10-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

I thought I would drag out a few of these to show some coming attractions as it were. In reality this may be as far as any of them go. Odds are I will never get around to finishing them assuming they even get started. Perhaps you can tell I'm feeling a bit down. No matter, here are the drawings and some of the images that have been rolling around in my head.

pencil with white chalk on pinkish paper

This one has been started and screwed up beyond all recognition. I could probably continue on and save it, but somehow it just doesn't seem worth the trouble. Maybe that will change, and I'll go back to it some day, we'll see. This drawing doesn't seem too bad though so it wasn't a complete waste of time. If I would have done a couple more prelims maybe I wouldn't have messed up the painting or I would have realized I was going down the wrong path sooner. Jump right in, no guts, no glory is usually superceded by fail to plan, plan to fail. In honor of the election, I'll be speaking in bumper sticker from now on. I can be as annoying as any politician. Whoops, spiraling again, sorry.

charcoal with white chalk

Don't hold your breath on this one. I like the drawing. I like the image in general a lot too, but I don't see me really jumping on this one and doing it. First, it's figurative so the marketability is limited around here at least. Second it would be recognizable further limiting marketability. Most people don't want pictures of people they don't know on their walls regardless of how good the image is. Maybe that's just a local thing, but that's what I've got to deal with. All in all, this is a piece that I would be painting strictly for myself, and I've already seen it in my mind so why bother.

pencil with white chalk

This one was done so long ago I'd forgotten about it. Again I like the image in general and I think it would make a good painting, but I'm afraid I'd be doing it for a very small audience of one, me alone. I actually showed it to one of my galleries. They made some joke and blew it off as unmarketable. Not really encouraging.

So am I worrying too much about marketability?

Figure and Fabric

2008-09-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint on prepared paper
10 x 8

I've been meaning to post this all week, but with the elections and all the problems on the stock market I've been really hacked off, and I was afraid it could quickly spiral off into a rant against the vast majority of the world. Well, I've taken a deep breath, and decided there are definitely enough political blogs spewing partisan crap that I need to stay away from it. Just in case you're wondering though I'm hoping for a scoreless tie in this presidential election. No winner, start over with a whole new bunch. They're both fools at best and possibly downright dangerous. Hold on, I'm spiraling. Back to art.

Okay, I'm better now and I'll try to remain focused on this drawing which combines some of my favorite things, a pretty woman, good lighting and white drapery. Can't go too far wrong with those elements. This is on the same off white ground as the flute player a couple posts back. I really like the color and value. It's just enough to knock off the bright white of the paper but still light enough that heightening with white isn't necessary. If a bit more light is needed though a touch of white will add some sparkle. It's warm enough that it combines with the silver really well, and as it oxidizes it should just get better. Compositionally this is obviously based on triangles, the most stable of shapes. But there's also an inverted triangle coming down from the top. Most definitely not stable. So to counter that throw in a couple vertical columns and a horizontal or two and everything nice and solid again.

You may notice I've added a couple new links where you can see more of my work. Everything there will be here. There will probably be more things here actually. But please free to take a look and tell me what you think. If you go to Brushspace click on the follow this artist button. Near as I can tell it doesn't do anything or maybe nobody that I'm following has added anything new. Anyway I've recently fallen out of the top 100 most followed, and that bothers me for some reason. There's some really good work there. If you want to take a look at the My St Louis Art site you'll see the world I find myself stuck in. Click on the photos button to see examples of the work from around here. And while I'm babbling on let me add a thank you to everyone that has dropped by, and a special thank you for the ones that have taken the time to comment. Your encouragement is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Monday Morning

2008-09-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

Oil on Panel
24 x 11

This is a painting about light. If you've been paying attention and have a really good memory you may remember this window from a watercolor of an old church posted a year or so ago. That was a foggy winter day, this is a bright, sunny day making for a completely different feeling. Light changes everything, and light is really what painting is all about, at least the way I paint. There's a saying that light defines color and texture and shadow defines form. Look at the wood textures in this piece. In the light the textures are much more defined and important. In the shadows the texture is more limited to the flaking paint. The shadows define the clapboards and the shape of the window in general. And look at the difference in color. The shadows are a warm almost uniform gray while the light is a mixture of light ochres and siennas. The color of the light is of the utmost importance in feel. This is a relatively warm light which would indicate a late spring or summer day, probably in the mid to late morning. If it were warmer it would make you feel like it was earlier morning, not long after sunup. The angle and length of the shadows would be an important indicator too. If it were a cooler light, it would be more likely to feel like a winter day. So if you look really closely and pay attention, it is entirely possible to tell an entire story with nothing but light. At the very least you can use it to define a mood in whatever you're trying to do.

If this is interesting to you, might I suggest you look at Giovanni Bellini's St Francis in Ecstasy in the Frick collection. He was one of the earlier users of light to unify a painting. In that one he uses a greenish light which really enhances the feeling of something out the ordinary going on. There's some real interesting compositional things going on too. One of my favorite all time paintings. Maybe it deserves a post all its own.

Flute Player

2008-08-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint on prepared off white paper
12 x 9ish

You don't get many do overs in life, but that doesn't really apply to drawing. If it isn't right, throw it out and do it again until it is. This is a do over. I originally did it about a year ago when I was experimenting with copper instead of silver. I found out that it works, but I much prefer silver. Copper is harder and therefore leaves a lighter line so you really don't have much of a value range to work with. I couldn't tell that annealing helped in that area either. You might expect a different color line too, but that difference is so slight that you really have to look hard so that's not a factor. Plus there is the question of how it will oxidize. How would it look when used with silver? That's not something I can control, and I really won't know for several months if not years so that's a risk I'm not really willing to take. Anyway, what I wound up with was a rather faint image that was basically all right, but nothing to write home about. Since I liked the image and the model I thought it was worth taking another shot at it. This obviously, is the result.

Arches I and II

2008-08-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Oil on panel
22 x 11

Originally I thought this would make a really nice watercolor or gouache. Boy, was I wrong. Actually it probably would have if I hadn't screwed it up horribly. I once had a teacher that said watercolors were either really easy or absolutely impossible. Apparently this was one of the impossible ones, especially since I hadn't done one in a while. So rather than attempt the impossible I switched over to oil. I'm glad I didn't give up on the piece entirely. I really liked the pose. The arch of the back accentuated by the hair hanging down, and the arched doorway. And let's not forget the arched niche in the back wall. But once it was finished it looked a bit lonely. So it became one of a pair.

Oil on Panel
22 x 11

To do a set you want to have them be similar without being too similar. Same background, yes. Same, or at least similar dress, yes. Same model would have been nice, but she's moved on so I needed somebody else. Just as I was about to find a replacement model I stumbled across an older photo I had laying around waiting to be used. Could this work? I think so with a few alterations anyway. So what do you think, does it work as a companion piece? It's got some nice arches and arcs to it. The model is similar, although I think I could have made her just a bit taller. All in all, I rather like the way they came out.

Gallery Announcement

2008-07-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce that I have been accepted into the Argonne Gallery. It's a brand new gallery here in the St Louis area, Kirkwood to be exact. The official public grand opening is August 9, but it's already open for business so if you're in the area please drop in.

Argonne Gallery
101A West Argonne Dr
Kirkwood, MO 63122
That's right across the street from the Kirkwood Train Station.

I've got three pieces there right now, two silverpoint drawings and a small oil.

River Icing

2008-07-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Oil on Canvas
19 x 36

Summer is most definitely here. It's hot and humid and nothing like the day I took the photo references for this painting. That day was about 10 degrees with a gentle wind wafting down the river from the north at about 100 miles an hour. It was freaking cold. Therefore this was not done on site from life. I guess I'm just not that dedicated. I did leave a nice warm house to walk along a frozen river though so I should get some points.

Longing

2008-06-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint

I meant to post this months ago, but never got around to it for some reason, laziness maybe. I'm not really sold on the "Longing" title so if anybody has a better idea I'm open to it. This has always struck me as more of a drapery study with an incidental figure than a true figure drawing. I used to hate drawing drapery like this, but somewhere along the line I got to like it. I suppose it has something to do with the more you do, the easier it gets. By the way, the full size image is about the actual size of the drawing.

Bottom Land

2008-05-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

7.25 x 18
Oil on Canvas

There's a lot of good farm land around here, good bottom land in the river valleys. This particular spot is probably under water right now with all the rain we've been having. Hopefully it will dry out before the planting season is over. It's already late.
A few years back a rails to trails project created the Katy Trail, a hiking/biking trail that goes most of the way across the state. This painting is from there. For the most part, if not entirely, it follows the Missouri River. So as you go along you have the river on one side and some pretty impressive river bluffs on the other. You can't see the river in this, but it's just on the other side of the trees. You also go through some of the river towns, many of which have wineries where you can catch your breath.
This is a very simple painting, just a few horizontal bands in effect. Hopefully it gives you a feeling of peace and stability, that's where I was going this time. Personally I like to keep things simple and create a space where one can stop and get away from the daily problems for a moment. Farm land is good for that. Maybe it's the Antaeus factor at work.

Sunflower Field

2008-05-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

Oil on Canvas
15 x 36

As much as I love to draw let's break the string of drawings. This one was finished up not too long ago. It's a scene I wandered across last summer at a local wildlife reserve. I've been going to this place for as long as I can remember, at all times of the year, but I don't remember ever seeing fields of sunflowers like this. They always planted smallish fields of corn and other things that were mainly used as feed plots for the deer, geese and other assorted critters, but this was totally unexpected. Judging by the number of people that slowed down or stopped completely when they saw this field I wasn't the only one surprised.

White Lace Mask

2008-04-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

silverpoint on bluish gray prepared paper heightened with gouache
8 x 6

A little while back I started an allegory of painting piece. ( I really need to get back into that seriously again.) Part of that allegory involves a masked woman, a subject that I found fascinating as it turns out. I'm not really sure why this is, but it seems to be a fairly widespread fascination. I suppose it has something to do with mystery, or hiding yourself and becoming someone else for a while. I'll leave you to ponder that yourself. This is one of the drawings from what is turning out to be a series of masked and veiled women. I liked the soft, lacy look of this mask. It made the perfect subject for silverpoint.

This mask in particular was made by the model who just happens to run eyefeather.com . So if you are ever in need of a mask you might want to take a look at her site. She's got all kinds of masks for all kinds of occasions.

Morning

2008-04-26T07:44:00.001-07:00

silverpoint heightened with gouache on bluish gray prepared paper
9 x 6

Another little silverpoint drawing. So the question is does the world really need another picture of a woman looking out a window? I thought one more probably wouldn't hurt.

Behind the Veil - Pencil vs Silverpoint

2008-04-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

People occasionally comment on how many different media I use, oil, watercolor, egg tempera, and a bunch of different drawing media. They'll ask how I decide which to use on a particular piece. Sometimes it's just a matter of what I feel like. Right now I'm thinking I haven't done a watercolor in a while so I'll probably dust them off and do some. But sometimes there actually is a good reason for using one medium over another.

Each medium has it's strong points and weaknesses. Let's look at some drawing media this time, specifically silverpoint as opposed to pencil. They are very similar in a number of ways, and I tend to use them in about the same manner with a couple exceptions. Silverpoint is difficult at best to erase so what you put down, be prepared to live with. No going back to pick out highlights with an eraser. Pencil is a quicker medium, good for sketching and exploring a form. It's really a more forgiving and versatile medium. Pictures are worth a thousand words and that's good because I'm much better with images than words, so on to the pictures.

Silverpoint on blue gray prepared paper

Silverpoint, to me, is best used for something like this, small and intimate. It holds details well although that isn't particularly important in this drawing. The down side is you can't produce a very dark tone. As a result they won't capture your attention from across the room. So don't try, play to its strengths. The pale gray lines produced by a silver wire will give a very sensitive treatment of the subject. As the silver tarnishes the drawing will become slightly warmer further adding to intimacy. It's a very subtle warming that you really won't notice happening. You'll feel it more than see it. I've talked a lot about silverpoint in earlier posts, no need repeating myself any more than I already have.

Pencil heightened with white chalk on gray laid paper

So here we have a similar subject. It's slightly bigger (the silverpoint is about actual size in the larger view) and the paper is darker, but still similar. The major difference is in the treatment. A pencil allows for much darker values letting me create an image where the figure emerges from the shadows. I couldn't have done this with silverpoint simply because silverpoint won't give me a dark that dark, but with pencil -- no problem. The choice for pencil here was an easy one.

Let's say I had done the second one in silverpoint, the darks would have been about as dark as the paper, maybe another step darker, but that's it. I might have made that work, but instead of a dark, mysterious piece it would have been much airier, more like a cloud than a shadow. It would have had a completely different feel and not what I was going for at all. Somebody is probably thinking that I could have done the first one in pencil. It wouldn't have looked that much different and probably would have been easier. That may well be true. So why silverpoint over the more versatile pencil? It's largely a matter of feel that doesn't translate well to photography much less the net. Besides I felt like it and I have a lot of silver wire to use up.

Reclining Nudes

2008-04-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint
5.5 x 13

Silverpoint
5.5 x 13

I don't really have much to say about these, just a pair of reclining nudes. The two make a rather nice set though. Same size and medium, same basic subject, but different enough to make each interesting itself, I hope.

Since I have so little to say today, maybe it's a good time to thank everyone that has stopped by and especially those of you that have taken the time to comment. It's greatly appreciated.

Transcendental Landscape

2008-02-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

egg tempera
20 x 30

Most of my work is pretty approachable. The subject matter is right there and it really doesn't require a whole lot of thought. But maybe if you were to take the time to give the piece some consideration, maybe, just maybe there really is something more there. This painting is different. It's not a particularly pretty picture. It wasn't meant to be. It was meant to be looked at and thought about. Maybe there is something worth looking at.

I remember having this in a show once upon a time. Most people glanced at it and walked on. A few people said it reminded them that they still had to rake the leaves, but there was one woman who seemed to get it. She stood there for the longest time, just staring. I found that extremely satisfying. She has no idea how close I came to taking it off the wall and giving it to her.

Hard Candy

2008-02-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

Still no new camera so I'll have to dig back into the vaults. This is actually one of my favorites.

Egg Tempera
10 x 16

Back in high school I had a science teacher that painted a bit. When he found out that I also painted and sold he couldn't understand how I could stand to part with a piece. He said it would be like selling one of his kids. Assuming that to be true, it's probably a good thing I don't have any kids. Most of the time, once something is done, its done. Get it out of the way and move on to the next. Being a good capitalist, I consider sales a good thing. There are a few exceptions though. This one I would have trouble parting with for some reason.

Here's a detail.

A Bird in Hand

2007-12-30T07:48:00.000-08:00

Silverpoint heightened with white

Let's see, the last two posts have been about critters and hands. This image seems to be a good way to tie those together and then maybe move on to something else. This was actually based on a stock photo by the lovely Longstock that I just couldn't resist. For more of her stock work take a look here. link

Critters

2007-12-22T08:59:00.000-08:00

I used to do a lot of pen and ink drawings. For some reason I got away from it. I may have to take another look at in drawings because I really like the look. These are some of the things I did, again older work until the new camera comes.

Sorry, not a really good picture of this, but it will have to do for the time being.

Every year the World Bird Sanctuary would invite their members out for a photography day. They'd place their birds in a more natural setting than the usual perch. It was a good time and you could get some pretty good pictures. They had this little guy sitting in the crook of the tree, and people were having a terrible time just finding the bird. It almost always had to be pointed out.

We seem to be lousy with raccoons around here. There's a family down the block that thought they were so cute. So they started feeding them. Well, that's fine except they don't stay down there. Just about every night they come up here and raid the bird feeders. Again, I can deal with that, just don't put out much seed before dark. Well, one night I look out the sliding door in the kitchen and my cat starts slowly backing away. That was strange because she usually ran around the house like crazy when she had a raccoon visitor. So I looked a little closer and saw that there was a family of five out there.

Hand Studies

2007-12-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Many people find hands to be the most difficult part of the human form to draw, and I'll agree they can be. Unfortunately they are also one of the most expressive parts of the body too, so learning to draw them is pretty much a necessity. So what tips do I have for drawing them? None at all other than practice, practice, practice. Sorry no real words of wisdom here, but I'm open to suggestions. That being said I do take my own advice, and I do a lot of hand studies. The following examples are all kind of old now. (My camera bought the farm and the scanner isn't much better, so for the next few weeks there will either be older things or nothing at all.)

pencil heightened white white chalk

This is the oldest one of the bunch. Hopefully these will show some improve with time. It is a study for a larger piece that I never got around to doing. Maybe someday, but until now the hands are all that exist.

pencil heightened with white chalk

Another study for a larger oil, this one was done. This study is actually a good example of why it is good to do studies. Not only do you work out any potential problems before the actual final work begins, but you may wind up with a nice piece in itself. People love to see the process leading up to the final work. In this case the study was bought by a violin teacher. Apparently my model has perfect technique, and the teacher wanted to use this as an example of what should be done. Really more of a compliment to my model who is a wonderful violist than to me, but I did wind up with two sales instead of one.

silverpoint heightened with white chalk

You might remember a similar piece back in the beginning of this blog. This one, like that one, is really more of a stand alone piece. It was never meant to grow up into something bigger. Just a practice piece that works pretty well all by itself.

Dogwood Blossoms

2007-11-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

watercolor
15 x 22

Before the winter sets in I thought I'd post a spring icon, a branch of dogwood blossoms.

Snow Storm

2007-11-16T07:16:00.000-08:00

Watercolor
22 x 30

Geologically speaking Missouri is two different areas separated by the Missouri River. As I understand it the glaciers only got as far south as what is now the Missouri River valley so the north of the state is considerably flatter than the south which is dominated by the Ozark mountains. The Ozarks are a very old mountain range and by mountainous standards they're really not much more than hills in this age. They are quite beautiful though, and they are home. They are also dotted with a variety of springs, most of which have, or at least had a mill associated with them. That brings us to the subject of this post, Alley Springs. I've found out recently that this is the most photographed mill in the state. Far be it from me to not paint a cliche. In my defense it's usually photographed from the other side where the millpond usually provides a mirror-like reflection. All right, I admit it, I've done it from that side too, and probably will again. In an attempt to be a little different here is a view of the front side of the mill during an early winter snowstorm. Not as picturesque perhaps, but it does have a quality to it that I rather like.

Quiet Times

2007-10-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

Silverpoint
8 x 6

I may have mentioned this before, but it's worth saying again, I love silverpoint. It's perfect for the small, intimate works that I enjoy doing. It holds detail well, doesn't smear like a normal graphite pencil and gets better with age. I think this one is pretty successful.

Autumn Forest

2007-09-20T13:52:00.001-07:00

Oil on Canvas
25 x 18

As usual I'm not really too sure what to say to say about this. I absolutely love the autumn around here, but I also love the spring, summer and winter. Each season has its good points. When the leaves turn there is a tendency to grab all your pretty colors and just start throwing color around. That will lead to what my uncle called calendar art. You know, the garish things with the cranked up chromas that wind up on calendars. For that reason I often shy away from the classic red tree and sunsets too for that matter. But occasionally one slips through. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? Well this one slipped through, but it's really not about the bright fall colors. It's about the way the light falls on the tree stump. That's my story, I'm sticking to it.

Study for Autumn Forest

2007-09-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

Oil on Panel
12 x 9

I look at the calendar and it's been over two months since I last posted anything. Where did the summer go? Well, I'm still alive and kicking, just a little lazy when it comes to taking pictures of pictures. I'd planned on waiting until the fall to post this due to subject matter, but I really need to get into the habit of putting new work up more often. So, here you go, a little painting of a fall forest's edge. Nothing really special, but not too bad either. As a teaser, it's more of a study for a bigger painting yet to come, hopefully in the not too distant future. Wait for it.

Yellow Rose

2007-06-24T09:38:00.001-07:00

7 x 14
Oil on Canvas

I've posted a lot of people lately so maybe it's time for a change. Here's a little rose still life. I actually did this a year or two ago and just recently reworked it. The flower just wasn't right, it looked a bit on the wooden side. I hope you'll agree it's better now. This one went through a lot of changes to get to this point. At first it was a very light, airy piece with a tile wall for a background, but that didn't quite work. So I thought, maybe more dramatic lighting. No good at all. Then one night I was sitting around and noticed all the brick surrounding the fireplace. Maybe the contrast of textures along with the stronger lighting would work. I think it worked pretty well. The strip on the bottom isn't working though so maybe it's not as done as I thought. I think I need to lighten it or maybe take it out completely.

I've been looking at some of my older things that are still laying around. Things I thought were pretty good at the time, well, not so much now. There may be quite a bit of reworking going on around here.

Portrait in Oil

2007-06-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

oil on canvas
10 x 8

One last portrait to show, this time in oil. This one is more dramatic than most of my work, but I think it works. I wanted a kind of "in your face" look this time. I also wanted to see how far I could push the values and chroma before it went off the deep end.

I've posted some pencil portraits recently so I think another one isn't really necessary. In these last few posts I've tried to show my range in portrait mediums and styles. I hope you get the idea of what I try to capture. Oh, did I mention I take commissions?

Shawl and Rose

2007-06-12T08:13:00.002-07:00

Watercolor
16 x 9

In keeping with the portrait theme here's a one in watercolor. Most of my portraits are in either oil or some drawing medium, but I can do them in watercolor too.

Crown of Flowers

2007-06-11T08:47:00.002-07:00

Silverpoint
10 x 8

I thought I would post of series of portraits over the next few days. If you like them, I am available for commissions if you feel so inclined. This one is silverpoint which I really like especially for more delicate pieces like this. It's great for smaller, more intimate drawings. It allows for a great amount of detail in a small space if the subject calls for it, and it gets better with age as the silver tarnishes.

I will also be showing watercolor, oil and maybe a pencil over the next few days.

Curls

2007-06-07T14:20:00.002-07:00

silverpoint
12 x 9

It occurred to me that the last two posts were of the same model. She's really quite a beautiful young woman, but you can't really tell that from the previous posts. So here's one where you can see her a bit better. I don't consider this to be one of my better pieces, but it's not too bad and it is a decent likeness.

Storm at Sea

2007-06-04T14:48:00.001-07:00

Oil on panel
16 x 12

I have no idea what to say about this picture. I had considered saying something about the start of hurricane season, but that doesn't really have much effect on us around here. Then I thought maybe I could tell you about my love affair with the sea, but that's boring besides given the choice between going to the ocean or the mountains, I'd choose the mountains every time. Doesn't sound like much of a love affair. I never really cared for the pictures of waves breaking on the rocky beach either. So what's left?

Hopefully this will stand on its own. It's definitely a story telling picture. You supply your own story.

Pink Hat

2007-06-03T07:39:00.002-07:00

Watercolor
21 x 14

Finished this one about a month ago, maybe a bit more, and never got around to adding it here. So here it is. A nice airy, summery painting.

Autumn Hillsides

2007-05-30T08:32:00.001-07:00

Oil on Canvas
12 x 24

This is a very simple scene, but I really liked it. The contrast of the sunlit hill receding into the distance next to the nearer hill in shadow was very appealing to me. Add the light strip of the field in the foreground and the creamy clouds, and it really captured my attention. But I think the light branches of the sycamore trees are necessary to make the picture.

cast drawings

2007-05-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post a few of these drawings since I haven't had a chance to photograph anything new. About a year ago I decided to sharpen my drawing skills. So I started doing drawings of Bargue plates. I don't have access to the actual plates, but the book is pretty good. Having said that, none of these are from it. They're all stashed away in sketch books, and getting the paper to lay flat for a photo is just more trouble than it's worth. These drawings are fairly similar though.

pencil
This is one of the earlier drawings. The paper was a bit rougher than it should have been. There's just more "noise" than I would have liked. Live and learn right? You may think the nose is kind of funky too. It was actually broken off, so it's not really funky, it's just gone.

pencil
The paper problem has been corrected here. I think this one is fairly successful. One of the problems I have with the Bargue plates is the lighting. As I understand it the casts were purposely lit to minimize reflected lights. So you have a light, a dark and a transition tone which, to me, results in a flatter than necessary image. On this one I worked from a photo of the sculpture that I downloaded from the Louvre site. In the Bargue book there is also a plate of this same sculpture. At the risk of dislocating my shoulder while patting myself on the back, I like my version better.

charcoal
This is just a bigger version of the same kind of drawings, this time in charcoal.

I don't know that anyone would consider these great art, the originals are, but these drawings, not so much. They weren't really meant to be. They were meant to be practice pieces designed to train the hand and eye. Look, see, draw, then check keeping the drawing as close to the image being copied as possible. Once you get good at rendering from two dimensions to two dimensions start doing the same thing except this time work from life, from a three dimensional object, maybe a real cast. Sound boring? Maybe, but if you want to really polish your drawing it works, and if its done right it works pretty fast.

Spring Rains

2007-05-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

Oil on Canvas
22 x 36

I don't know what it is about me, but I love foggy, rainy days (to a point at least). This is one of them. Hopefully it speaks for itself because I don't have much to say about it right now. I'm finding that talking about my work is the hardest part of this blog stuff.

Winter Church

2007-05-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

Watercolor
22 x 30

I was looking through photos trying to find something that might be of interest, and I ran across this one. It's a bit on the old side, but it's not too bad. On to the interesting part.

This was in a show once upon a time. When I have shows I like to kind of blend in and see what people really think. If they know you are the artist you rarely get true feedback. You get the "Oh this is wonderful" stuff whether it is or not. While that may be good for the ego, it really doesn't help all that much. Anyway, I was wandering around and there was this one guy talking to a rather attractive woman in front of this painting. A little eavesdropping seemed to be in order so I started listening to him tell her all about my painting. It seems that this piece is all about life and death and spirituality. The green tree represents life with the dead (actually leafless) tree and cemetery representing death. The church of course is the spiritual part. I don't know if she was buying all this, but I was quite impressed, especially since I had no idea that I had done that. I thought I was just balancing out lights and darks not commenting on life and death.

I guess I'm just a deep kind of guy, deeper than even I knew. Something was sure getting deep that night.

Candy

2007-05-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

Oil on copper
3 x 7

I just noticed that I haven't posted a still life here. That could be because I don't do that many or maybe it's just an oversight. Either way it's time I corrected it. This is a tiny piece, more of an experiment using copper as a support than anything else. Copper is a rather interesting surface, very stable and archival. It's a bit smooth for my taste even after scuffing it up with some emory cloth. As a result the paint really slides around. I've got a couple more pieces to play with, but after that I think I'll stick to canvas, canvas panels or a true gesso panel for the times I need a really smooth surface to work on.