Below is the most recent photo of my painting of Ben. I think (hope?) it is almost complete, but am curious to hear what you think. I am particularly interested in feedback on the sketchiness of his ear, shirt, and left eye.
Ben, in-progress
Filtering by Category: New Work
Portrait of Ben
I am participating in a show titled "Faces" in Berkeley that opens early next month. I will be showing three pieces and--potentially--a fourth, if I can complete this portrait of Ben which I started this week. I want this painting to feel like a charcoal drawing, with the artist's hand present in the push and pull between additions and erasures. The main image below is where the portrait is now. The three images in the strip below are from earlier stages in the portrait's evolution.
Ben, in progress
Making Progress Thanks to Feedback
I meant to post this three weeks ago, but forgot...
7/20/2012
Our crit group met last night. I brought the two paintings I recently dusted off and am reworking. The experience was a reminder the feedback is invaluable. The comments and suggestions on where to take the paintings were much appreciated. It is easy to become blind to your work. Critiques give you an opportunity to see your work through another's eyes.
During my critique, I was reminded to not get distracted by detail and to look at the shapes.
I specifically asked for feedback in regards to Kim - I was concerned about how sacharine it was and wanted suggestions on how to make it less so. One group member suggested I remove the plants and pots. I did that first thing in the studio today. I also am paying more attention to the angles in the painting. In Lindsey. I removed the ambiguous shape behind her head and simplified the space.
Kim
Kim, Detail
Lindsey
Lindsey, Detail
July 24th - 111 Minna Gallery's Sketch Tuesdays
If you are in San Francisco next Tuesday, July 24th, swing by 111 Minna Gallery for their monthly Sketch Tuesdays event. I am honored to be among a handful of female Bay Area artists featured at this month's Sketch Tuesday event.
From 111 Minna Gallery's website -
Each month the gallery hosts an evening of live art making featuring both established and emerging Bay Area artists. Inspired by Southern Exposure’s Monster Drawing Rally, 111 Minna offers patrons the opportunity to see local artists at work and get acquainted with them. It is also a way for artists to meet each other and to be inspired by each other’s creative process.
Sketch Tuesdays offers the local arts community a place to congregate, to talk, to create and to be seen. There is usually room for artists to just drop in and start drawing, but the good seats are reserved for the invited artists.
Art is for sale at reasonable prices and will be displayed until the event closes. This is a great opportunity to become a collector and to meet some very talented people!!
Revisiting Old Friends
I was recently asked to show my work as part of a group show at a new gallery in Livermore, CA. The show is about the figure and being such, the gallery was interested in my older work, most of which is no longer in my possession. To meet the gallery's request, I pulled two half-finished paintings off the shelf, dusted them of, and started painting. It is fascinating and challenging working on pieces from the past. I was surprised to see how my brushwork has changed in the three or four years it has been since I last worked on these two paintings. It is looser, softer, less interested in edges. I have eight days to finish the paintings. Wish me luck!
You can see the original versions of these paintings here:
It is done!
For better images of the portrait, please visit my Portraiture page.
Cheers!
Jellies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
This past weekend my friend Lindsey and I made a pilgrammage to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We were both captivated by the jellies. Below are some of my favorite shots.
Approaching Completion (in muffled steps)
I'm excited to share these images, the portraits are getting closer and closer to completion. It's been difficult working with reference photos that are black and white (portrait on left) and under saturated (portrait on right), but I'm always up for a challenge.
Please note the black lines are digitally imposed and used as guides rather tan being part of the final product.
Another Technique for Refining a Portrait
Many artists project the source image on canvas and trace the outlines. In my portrait work, I've found this approach to be helpful when working in the dry, precise medium of graphite. However, it is totally useless when I work in oil. My painting process involves loose application of paint, blending, wiping, and reapplication of paint. If I traced the image, it would be like painting between the lines or color by number. The painting would have no life of its own.
In addition to overlaying the in-progress portrait over the source photo (see the previous post), I've started outlining the source photo in Photoshop and overlaying the drawn outline over a photo of the painting in progress.
Using Technology to Capture Likeness
Periodically while I work on a portrait I use Photoshop to overlay a photo of the painting on the source image. Not a fancy technique by any means, but a hugely useful one. By overlaying the images I can see immediately where my painting is off. For example, in the first series below, I can easily see that my painting is too straight on. Rather than directly facing the camera as I've painted him, the subject is turning slightly toward his right. In the second series I see several issues. The most important of which are the tilt of the head and the placement of the right eye.
Capturing the spirit of the subject can't be helped by technology. Thank goodness at least likeness can.
Portraits in Progress
Reference Photograph, Grandfather Buck
Although early in the process of painting the portraits, I want to be careful not to overwork them. I want the paintings to be a combination of fully developed areas and loose, gestural lines.
New Sketchbook Images
This summer I was blown away by Pat Sonnino's series of Moleskine Japanese sketchbooks that combined materials (largely from Rome's vast Porta Porteses flea market) with pen and ink and gauche.
Inspired by her work, I purchased a sketchbook and began drawing. Each set of pages is of a particular space, our living room, a friend's apartment, a coffee shop. Each space is connected to the next set of pages by an architectural element, shape, or line.
I've always been a fan of the Surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse and like to think of this sketchbook as a spatial version of the game.
I shared my first sketchbook with my critique group last week and received some great feedback. One suggestion was to research the variety of camera angles used to create interest and meaning in film and bring that variation into my work. This shot below is of my first attempt to incorporate this idea. I think it's a start, but that I can push this idea much further.
Artist Group at the Berkeley Free Market Building
I was honored to be part of the inaugural meeting of an artist group yesterday evening in downtown Berkeley. We met in Sarah Haba's studio which is located in the Berkeley Free Market Building. The studio is beautiful and teeming with history. The Berkeley Free Market Building was the studio home of Bay Area Figurative artists Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, William Theophilus Brown, and Paul Wonner.
Each artist presented their work and shared their motivations for joining the group. Seeing the quality and variety of the other artists' work was absolutely inspiring!
The tie that binds the group is that each artist has taken a class with Mel Prest. She has done us all a huge favor in recognizing and acting on the importance and need for artists to have community. We will be meeting once a month for critiques, conversation, and community.
In other news, I've begun prep work on several beautiful birchwood panels from Kevin Keul. These panels were built to order for commissioned portraits.
It's been too long...
Quick Update on MacArthur and Park and Liquor Video
Added more complexity to the horizon line and a stroke of red. Almost done!
Trying to add more depth and interest in the foreground. Struggling with the tree on the left. All I can think about is broccoli.
Forest and Claremont, from photo to finished painting
I've become particularly interested in documenting my work, in tracking the development of a painting over time. In an effort to study and share the many lives a painting lives, I will post the history of a painting at the point when I've decided it is complete.
Below is the source photo, the study, the underpainting, and the finished painting of Claremont and Forest.
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (and another new painting)
I've been working on Rockridge Nightscape AKA Liquor Video for 4 weeks. Because I only work on it during class - twice a week for three hours - each time I paint I look at it with fresh eyes. I made several major changes (at least major to me) this past class. Although the painting may look worse for it for now, the changes are for the best. The tree that was dividing the canvas virtually in half is gone and I've brought back the green leaves in the foreground. Next up: bringing back the depth in the sky and foreground.
And you may recognize this painting. It's a larger version of a study I did several months ago. I'm really happy with how the foreground is shaping up.
A New Painting and an Update
This painting is from a photo I took with my phone this past Friday night. It is the intersection of MacArthur and Park Boulevard by the high school.
And the latest iteration of "Liquor Video". I've been trying to paint only with 1" or larger brushes to keep the stroke loose and painterly and force myself not to fall into my old habit of overworking details.
Rockridge Nightscape Update
Latest iteration of Rockridge Nightscape, AKA Liquor Video.
From photograph to study, to under painting, to (almost) finished product
