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1214 days ago
It was quite a surprise to see this site completely changed without warning, but worse to find it unaccessible from my home computer, hence why I'm closing this site down from a neighbor's pc where things here perform terribly even when I do get in. I can't begin to understand the tech behind why and support hasn't been forthcoming, so I'm packing it up. I have had very little luck finding any service (short of paying for one) consistant and reliable enough for my needs. I have gone the distance to learn html and build sites and have used other blog services and have had no luck in any of it. I suppose technology and I are like oil and water, we don't mix. It was fun to touch bases with other artists and read other blogs. I will still frequent them and will visit the forums as usual....as long as those areas behave. So, thanks again for all the great comments and support! That has carried me a long ways in my pursuit of painting and it still does! ThankYou!
1225 days ago
On my wanderings around the net, I came across this piece about Disney laying off some 650 animators who work in traditional methods in favor of retaining those who work in the digital media. Given the success of Pixar's work, I'm not surprised. I remember reading in some book a while back, could it be Walt Disney's bio by Bob Thomas or Shamus Culhane's account of working for the studio in the late thirties?..one or the other, I can't readily put my finger on it, but a quote really struck me as unforgettable. In a meeting with his animators and in a fit of temper, Walt was quoted as saying, "if I had machines to replace all of you, I would!" Whether this was accurate or not, I don't know unless I can recall the source, but it is interesting to see that very thing happening now. Walt was an innovator without question and would accept digital art as the next medium to explore, but I know he was shrewd enough to keep the traditional method of handdrawn animation for any ...
1228 days ago
As the summer continues, I have been running hot and cold with my painting and drawing. Basically from being distracted, but that is getting better. Even when I don't accomplish anything, I should update every now and then to let you all know that at least I haven't skipped town! I appreciate the comments left here. Even when I reshuffle the albums and lose some of the comments posted, I'm very grateful for such encouraging words! So, thanks again. I finally have a new project underway. 16x20, stretched canvas in water-mixable oils. I started with a drawing to work out where everything will lay and to "rehearse" the shapes. I toned the canvas with a wash of viridian and cadmium orange and propped in areas of color. The green is being done the way I had mentioned earlier while practicing landscapes. By tossing out viridian altogether, I'm mixing cadmium yellow pale and french ultramarine blue as a base. For the foreground, I need a high value, so instead of tinting ...
1250 days ago
It feels good to be back in the saddle. I started the portrait class this morning and finished a 14x18 oils on canvasboard in roughly two hours time. Painting from a live model is much about problem solving on the fly and I had a crumby start. The main challenge was painting in white as you can see! So, the first thirty minutes was struggling with that fact and I had to wipe the mess down and start fresh. I built up on what immediate darks I could see which was the face, neck, and shoulder, treating it like an abstract shape on a white surface and then gradually introduced the warm and cool middle values and some lights. Dress and hat was worked out ok, the folds gave me the worst trouble, being subtle as they were in value and they never look the same when the model moves. As time went on and got that scrub down behind me, I felt more confident. It was fun and I learned a few things. I noticed the photo album here was acting funny, so should you find it doing so, I notice it ...
1258 days ago
I signed up in hopes to take the eight weeks of the summer portrait class. The main difficulty is finding enough people who will take the class to make it a "class". If it doesn't work out, I still have open studio on Fridays. In the meantime, I'm priming some canvasboard just incase. Finding a decent palette recipe for portraits took some work. I browsed the bookstores and library and copied everything I could find. Howard Sanden's palette was one system out of a few (Burns and Singer to name a few) that I was impressed with right from the start and even to my benefit, his system consisted most of the base colors that I had in my palette. I cut a large card, painted and labeled as many variations of the skin tones as possible. When working in a class environment, this palette became ungainly for painting alla prima in two hours. For one, I haven't had my favorite mixes on memory and second there is so much variations that I studied the skin tone of the model too ...
