Tightrope

With this one I explore oil pastels yet again, and while generally happy with the results, remain ambivalent toward the medium having rediscovered why I gave them up to begin with.

Sure, there's more to be done with this one, namely rework his hand to be in more natural proportions to the rest of his body, but that's an easy matter to attend to.

Happy Friday the 13th.

The Sacrifice Moves Forward

For such a little guy, the baby was a big challenge. At one point I even turned the canvas on its side because I couldn't seem to control the brush well enough to make those subtle curves of a newborn.

I'm happy with the way the infant turned out.

Still have to add his ear, then it's off to adding the subject's hands and completing the work by adding more detail and blending.

The StudioCAM 'froze' around 2pm CST and I didn't know it until I got a call to let me know.

Until next time…


Cheers!

Again, The Sacrifice

After adding red and yellow to my palette, the subjects started taking on 'life.' Cool. And adding highlights and the darker shades here and there lifted them off the canvas. Adding mid-tones to emphasize the elbow joint of his right arm will bring a more realistic appearance instead of that 'lumpy' and unnaturally bowed look - all that without losing the 'S' curve I'm looking for.

As expected, I had problems with the StudioCam. Sorry folks… May just look into using the Yahoo Messenger, webcam feature iometime in the future, but right now can't justify burning time trying to learn something new.

Until tomorrow, have a better one!

Cheers!

The Sacrifice Proceeds

Finally off work so I can paint.

The background worked out but was a royal pain. Low humidity and no drying retardant were the culprits - the paint dries fast and is hard to blend over large areas… And another refinement of concept, born not of inspiration but of invention. I'll leave the left of the canvas rough with abrupt color changes and blend only the right side, symbolic of what? transition - comparison of past, present.

Right now, the figures looks flat and awkward and his head looks like it's facing forward instead of up, but I know from the past all this will change fast, probably tonight. Still massaging the shapes.
Have a more or less blank slate the rest of the weekend so will no doubt get a lot of work done on this canvas.

For all you night owls out there, I'll be on webcam through to the wee hours. Still having intermittent problems with the webcam computer so might be on- and off-line a lot.

Cheers!

The Sacrifice Continues

Work on this new canvas continues, but I'm not very happy with it. The background transitions of value are looking stepped instead of gradual, which I prefer. As the background is now, it'd provide a context for the subject, but would demand too much attention, detracting from what'll be the figure in the foreground. Definitely more work is needed.

The background, as I see it with this one, now, is more important than the subject.

The Sacrifice Begins

What you're seeing is prep work on a new 24x48 inch canvas.

Tentatively called, "The Sacrifice," this painting will be one of the "Transitional Canvases" in the Exigency storyline. As such it's being primed with a neutral gray gesso to receive it's mid-tone background.

Nudity will continue to represent the vulnerability of our 'hero,' and the precarious nature of self-discovery through trial and error under the influences of peer pressure and/or unquestioned social mores.

Limited-edition, giclée reproductions of the original graphite study will be made available at a special price to subscribers of Interface, with the general release to the public sometime in mid-December. (See My eGallery Online - link at right - for subscription information and to see the sketch - at least until I move on to the next painting... click on "Latest Work In Progress" at the top of my website homepage.)

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the models who made this painting possible: Richard, who posed for the initial sketches, and a new model who worked with me last weekend, allowing me to refine the original concept and get this painting underway. Both deserve acknowledgement for their patience and hard work. These poses aren't easy to maintain!

Cheers!

Finished

Deer At Nightfall
11x14" Acrylic on canvas
November 2007

This one had been hanging around unfinished for a few weeks. But understandably. There was something wrong with it but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Since I'm not one to sign a painting until I'm satisfied with it, it just sat. Then a couple days ago the 'wrong' stuck out like a sore foot, obvious as could be. So I was able to finish it, sign it, and call it a done deal. Sweet.

Then it came time to post the work on my website, and man! what a hassle! I still haven't nailed down the photography angle so that the images I post actually look like my artwork color-wise. They're either too blue or too green or too red, and when I try to compensate in any type of photo imaging editor, something is always lost, e.g., contrast or saturation in one area of the photo or another. I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm gonna hafta take some serious time out to rig lighting and play with camera settings so the original photos'll need little if any retouching. The problem I'm having of late is the texture of the canvas has been too obvious, exaggerated in my photos - something I know is a lighting problem solved with a diffuser.

Anyway, I'm calling this painting a wrap even though viewer's over the internet will probably never see the painting as it was meant to be seen.

If anyone has any advice about artwork photography, I'd sure be obliging.

Camera: Sony Cyber-shot 7.2 megapixel with a Carl-Zeiss Vario-Tessar 2,8-5,2/7,9-23,7 lense.

'Til next time,

Cheers!