Modern Art Commentary

Very wise words from Andy Rooney. Definitely worth two minutes and fifty-seven seconds of your time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsfX6xqCBks&feature=related

Portrait of Aidan

Below is the latest portrait I delivered. I vary my approach from painting to painting, but when I'm doing a portrait, I really like to make a fairly tight drawing on the canvas. Tight is, of course, relative. In this case, it's not highly detailed, but it has all the information I need to paint from. Sometimes I work on a toned canvas, but for this painting I decided to work on a white canvas.

The Fan: a quick Study

It's really fun to take a break sometimes and do small quick studies. No pressure, just having a good time moving the paint around. I just tape a piece of scrap canvas to a board and go at it. The cropped version is about 9.5 x 13 or so.

Quick Study

It's really fun to take a break sometimes and do small quick studies. No pressure, just having a good time moving the paint around. I just tape a piece of scrap canvas to a board and go at it. The cropped version is about 9.5 x 13 or so.

MIFF Sculpture drawings

These are drawings I did for the Mississippi International Film Festival as a proposal for this years trophy. The last one is the one that was chosen. These sketches were done on Strathmore 100lbs. smooth bristol board. I used 2B and 5B pencils along with a tortillon stump. I'll have to say that a smooth surface is my favorite surface to draw on. Everybody has their favorites and it's really highly personal, but for me, I really like the way the graphite sits on the surface and can be so easily spread around and erased. I also like the fact that it takes ink so well and I can combine both ink and graphite together in the same drawing.

Polly Traveled to the Flea Market

This is my latest painting of a little character I created named Polly. I wanted to show, maybe in excruciating detail, all the steps an illustrator sometimes goes through for something out of their imagination.

The first two images are doodles from my sketchbook.

After I've decided on which sketch, I want to use I start fleshing things out. I scribble a lot. I really like the action and movement of the scribbles.

Now you can see I'm starting to refine the images. Naturally, I go for the vampire bunny bats first. I love vampire bunny bats. Cute, cuddly, dangerous, just like most of the women I've known.

I haven't done it much on this one, but off to the side you can see some of my doodling. Whenever I can't figure out how something should look I work on it on the border of my paper.

After the drawing is done, I put it in photoshop and try and work out my colors. Photoshop is a dream. It's fast, clean, and forgiving.

Now comes the part I like the least. Bluuuccckkk. Projecting, tracing, whatever. It has to be done.

Now, I'm blocking in. This is acrylic. I've worked in oils for over twenty years. Most oil painters don't like acrylics and vice versa. I like both, because I understand the positive qualities and limitations of each. I'll discuss that in another blog.

This is where I stopped for a couple of days. I put it aside and let it rest.

After a couple of days without seeing it, I realized it needed some heavier outlines around a number of the characters: the pestle, the snaky/lizardy green teapot, etc. Also, the scissors guys pants are too light, so I darken them up. Also, I've added musical notes to the singing cannon. You'll also notice, if you compare the painting to the photoshop image that the shadows are much harder in the computer image. I think it works okay, but it just didn't work in the painting. It was too distracting, so I softened it up.

Me and Father Mike

This is me and Father Mike at St Richard's Church. We're standing in front of four mosaics done in the 1950's by Jackson, Mississippi artists Karl and Mildred Wolfe. Both are now deceased. They are of the 14 stations of the cross. They had been put in storage for years and recently brought out. We were in a hurry and not able to get a real close look at them. I plan on going back and studying them later. They were an unexpected set of jewels. The real reason my wife and I went was to see two fantastic pieces of art the church owns. One is a 14th century madonna and child statue from Northern France. The other is a crucifix from 13th century Catalonia. Both are in their sanctuary. Prayers were going on, so I wasn't able to photograph them, but I'm planning on going back soon and making sketches of them both. They were marvelous. I was intrigued when I first met Father Mike at a city function and he told me about them. It's fascinating the art treasures that are hidden around us in plain sight.