New Year [almost]

Getting into the swing of the year's end, before it's actually up; I thought I'd post something.
I have no heat in my studio, but my wife bought me a heater (and it's awesome); I realized the other night while I was working that "...it's damn cold in here." My heater helped.
The reading on the temp gauge said "32" (degrees F), and outside was 26F. I'm not sure if the temp gauge goes below 32 or not, but I cranked up the heat while I was drawing.
I was also drinking a Peppermint tea, like my horoscope said I should. I'm sure this helped warm them bones. And when I went in to pee, I mentioned something about drawing, and wifey said something about "...can't you just draw inside."
NO.
Well, I wound up just going in as my studio was getting to a warm 38F.
But I did make some fantastic sketches/oil pastels about a new direction I may explore. The more I think about it, the better I feel about getting out of A-town.
There I had (/have) a reputation as a 'fucking prick' or 'jerk' or 'asshole' or some other derrougatory term that I don't know I'm being referred to as. Whatever, I'm not really swayed by the sounds of fuckwads from 1,000 miles away.

I am going to do something, probably a series or maybe just a few pieces, soon about my joyous time in the A-town.

OH and I'm doing a series of my friends. If you want to be painted as I see it, email me a pic of your face. [straight on from top-of-head to just past shoulders]

New Years Resolutions

My wife asked me the other day, what my new year's resolution is. I told her I don't make those things. But as I have thought about it, and the type of motivation it could give me, I have decided to do something this year.
It won't exactly be a resolution, more of a goal or standard that I will hold myself to; ok, so I guess it will be a resolution (but I won't call it that).
My whole plan will be to:
1. Blog my art at least three times a week. [That's not a lot, but it's way more consistent than I am now.]
2. Finish at least two works a week. [This will be a little more difficult to achieve.]
3. Keep my website maintained better. [It seems it's always being messed with. I want to make my site reliable and informative. I haven't decided if I want to make it iphone accessable, or not.
4. (and this is up to eveyone) Sell more art. [I love commissions.]

There, wifey should be happy. And she may even see this; Since she has a working computer, and she is the only person who currently suscribes to this blog.

Done

It's done, it's done, it's done!
My Porn series is finished.
Now it's time to shop it to galleries.

Two More

Only two more paintings, then I am done with my pornography series.

Once it is finished, it'll be time to show it off.

First Masterwork photo

This is the first photo of my first masterwork. I am about seven hours in... I think. I would like to have more into it, but I'm also finishing a couple other things. Soon though.

I need to do some work tonight

it has been weeks since i last worked; hopefully i can stilk be as productive as i have been in the past few months. sometimes it is good to step away from a big piece in order to see it better.
I think my eyes will be pretty fresh tonight when I get cracking.

First Masterwork

Last night I began work on the piece that will define the next stage of my art.

I am planning for it to be done by the end of the summer/ beginning of fall.

I don't think I'll post any photos until it is finished. I am excited about how the first hours went, and can't wait to continue working tonight.

Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year, so far; it's supposed to be 103°f. Joyous-Joy. I don't think I'll go to my studio until it starts to cool of a little. I know I'm being kind of a sissy, but I don't have AC in there, and I have to watch Son#1.

For now I'll just continue to hydrate, and look longingly at the paint staining on my hands and under my thumb nail.

Wanting to Work

Family visits are great, except they suck the life from me.

Don't get me wrong, I like hanging out with family. I don't even mind when they come over for a few days, it's great. I am just unable to combine all my creativity and motivation at the same time. Or if I do, it seems that something else is more pressing.

Now that all our guests are gone, I will spend the next few days regaining my artistic strength to begin work on my giant canvas.

For now, I have some drawings to do.

Painting...Duh

Last night was the beginning of some new adventures. I completed some backgrounds for future paintings, and did the under-painting on another. I want to attempt a few different techniques wit the different mediums.
I used a tempra as the background on two canvasses, and plan to paint the main subject with acrylic. If I'm correct, this will make the background stiff and chalky while leaving the foreground subject in a high contrast--being slick and plastic.

I only wonder if I will have adherence problems...

New Studio

I almost have my new studio organized. Just a couple of loose ends to organize, and then it will be painting time.

It has a lot of room for my current canvas to remain set-up, AND I was able to whip out my old glass pallets.

pictures seem redundant.

Saturday Again.

It is again the weekend, and still life's feel boring.

I must say though, I have rekindled my love of my woodless graphite pencils. The weight and feel is everything I remember.

Study

This is a study for the next painting I will do.

Self Portrait

Recently I have been flowing.

Site

I have made my site new. The link is above.


I just finished with a commissioned work, and am ready to start on something new. It's harder to find time. . .

I want to do some paintings of a few LOSC players.

I am looking forward to having a dedicated studio in the new place. As always, updates will come.

Gauche

I have more Gauche than I knew.

As I was organizing my studio today, I found five more tubes of gauche. I recently began painting portraits with it on translucent paper,. . . it's not quite onionskin or tracing paper. . . it's more like marker paper. The fluidity of the gauche, and the rapidity of the painting, makes for some very interesting results.

Faces

Instead of having a photo of my friends, as their respective pictures, in my phone. I have decided to paint their smiling faces, and then insert.

This will start something new . . . I can't discuss it.

As always, check later.

Work

Tonight I worked on my next series. I am a little premature, since my current series is only half completed; but there are only so many hours in the day.

I probably will explain very little about this new set of work, until it is closer to completion.

I also sketched a couple of portraits in graphite. It was much easier to sketch faster, and surprisingly more accurate for layout. I just think it was like a radio. . . tune in, tune out and work.

Showing the Boy

Tonight, I showed the boy the picture I painted.

I asked him if he knew who it was, he replied:

"Um. . .it's not mama. It's [me]!!!! You paint this papa?"

I told him I painted it he seemed pleased. This is all I hoped to come of it. He went on to explain to me that his hair ". . . wasn't that hair," or eyes. I assured him that in art, sometimes we show emotion by changing the original image.

Maybe someday he'll understand. He knows what he likes, and for now, that is good enough.

For me, having a day away was good. I realized while looking at the painting that I need to shorten the whole face between the nose to chin. it's just too long. I plan on fixing it this weekend. I should be exciting. I may even try another style. . . time will tell.

First Post- First New

Tonight I tried something new with painting.
I painted over my oleander canvas. I liked the painting but thought I could do it better.

I wanted to paint the boy, and I did.

He smiles and lights my world, I have to correctly honor him. The new style I'm trying is very 'modern.' I left some of the paint from the previous painting showing through the canvas. I eliminated all unnecessary details; while still allowing it to look like the boy. But, as seems the trend, I was loose with my brush strokes and let the paint run.

I had control over the run. I would only allow certain colors and used it to subtly enhance the eyes. This may be something I keep, or I may paint another idea I have for this same image over the top. Time will tell.

Critic number one and two still have to weigh-in on what they think.
I will update with an image in the next couple of days.

I value their opinions.