RE: Painting my way through Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis. The first solo, a blast of dark blue sound, pouring down over the composition with the force of a tsunami, but never indulgent enough to obliterate the other musicians... as with this application of paint, we can still hear/see the other components of the … Continue reading An Abstract Project – Kind of Blue – Three – In Come The Solos
An Abstract Project – Kind of Blue – Two
RE: Painting my way through Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis. The brush ripped across the snare drum and tickles the high hat cymbal with a fierce determination... Threatening the coming storm of sound that is Miles' horn. The dipping of the brush on brass required a response... it required the use of a pallet … Continue reading An Abstract Project – Kind of Blue – Two
An Abstract Project – Kind of Blue – One
Entering into the home stretch of the semester, our painting teacher launched a new direction challenge... Astractions! I've done many abstracts over the past thirty or so years or so and felt I've done enough... especially since enjoying the portraits and figure painting much more this past few months, but I like a challenge, so... … Continue reading An Abstract Project – Kind of Blue – One
The Artist Self – Four – Feeling Good, I think…
Let me start by saying I'm getting to that dangerous point in my semester where I just feel like quitting! I'm exhausted from all the academic papers and just want to get doing stuff! I want to continue painting more figures and faces and digging deeper into this style, but there are still things to … Continue reading The Artist Self – Four – Feeling Good, I think…
Portrait Of An Odd Feeling
Another more-or-less spontaneous portrait (perhaps, self-portrait) built up from the left over paints on the main canvas I'm currently working. I started with laying in blues over the whole board... I was blending the paints right on my other canvas and then brushing off the extra here. The blob in the middle became the face … Continue reading Portrait Of An Odd Feeling
The Artist Self – Three – Things are working out nicely, so far…
It's been a few days that I've been staring at the unpainted figure and the background, so far. I've been really enjoying the the rough blending of greens, blues and hints of yellow in the upper background, as well as the dark swatch across the lower third of the painting... the rest was still open … Continue reading The Artist Self – Three – Things are working out nicely, so far…
The Artist Self – Two – A Surprising Start
The big question was whether to start on the figure or the background... one will inevitably influence the other. I was really enjoying how the figure looked in simple black lines, so I started on the outside. I did my best to not overthink it and working with wet-on-wet paint really helped. Now I still … Continue reading The Artist Self – Two – A Surprising Start
A Crowd of Me – Three – It feels oddly cartoonish, for now…
While I'm enjoying the annotated feel of this and how it feels cartoonishly alien, it isn't what I was intending. It feels... incongruous. Some of the faces aren't in the same style or emotional range. At this stage, I feel that I've fallen back on my older drawing style and not kept with the spontaneous … Continue reading A Crowd of Me – Three – It feels oddly cartoonish, for now…
A Crowd of Me – Two: I see some change in perspective
Yesterday, I mentioned that I originally intended to input my self-portrait as only one of the crowd. I wanted to be the small face in the back, right of the composition... the spectator behind the crowd, looking at whatever they were looking at. Hmmm... I wonder if this means I have a secret desire to … Continue reading A Crowd of Me – Two: I see some change in perspective
A Crowd of Me – One
Staring at the big (30" x 30"), white canvas is often the most stressful part of my process. How do I start? Where do I start? That very first mark is so important to me that I find myself in a battle against my fears and insecurities. A multitude of voices clamour for dominance in … Continue reading A Crowd of Me – One
The New Renaissance Mindset 