End of Year

The school year is officially over!! That's good, but sad too. We had an end of year show and it is really inspiring to see what everyone has accomplished. This summer will be interesting. I'm hoping to get as much drawing and painting in as possible, but I also need a job or I won't be going back to school next year. I have included a picture of the cast painting I'm working on. I didn't get as far as I would have liked, but I am happy with what I accomplished. There are a few areas I need to go back over, but I feel that it is big step in the right direction. Some of the things that I believe helped were slowing down, using a smaller brush, really trying to get on the form of the cast, and using linen which is really nice to paint on, but very expensive. I also included the final figure drawing for this year.

Drawing, drawing, drawing, and more drawing

Here are the results of this months work. I have only included a few of the best. Near the end of the month I started doing 2 and 3 day block-ins. The portrait, however, was done in about an hour or two. The female was a 3 day block-in and the older gentleman was a 2 day block-in. Overall I have mixed feelings about how successful this month was. I was getting very frustrated for several weeks. I didn't see any progress and felt like I was wasting my time. Thankfully this week I felt like things were coming together. My block-ins have gotten a lot more accurate and are taking less time to complete. In that regard I feel like this month has been a success. I still see that things can develop though. There is certainly room to push the process and continue to become more comfortable with the natural progression of a drawing. Next month is the last month of the year. I plan on doing one more drawing in graphite and then hopefully I'll start painting the figure in the fall. I have also included the beginnings of the sketch of what should be my final cast painting.

March Madness

March has been a crazy month. I had hoped to get some pictures up sooner, but life got in the way. I am approaching the last part of my second year in art school and I feel happy at what I've been able to accomplish. Yet, at the same time I feel unsatisfied. One of the more difficult parts of school has been learning to be patient. Although working hard and putting extra time helps ultimately it takes time and consistent practice before it all comes together. Slow and steady wins the race. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep going to school. Times are tough and school isn't cheap. I've committed myself to getting through at least one more year, but the fourth year is still a question. This year I have drawn the figure, painted the casts, and am still working on the ecorche or anatomy study. Next year I will paint the figure in a single color. Hopefully I'll get to do some figure sculpture and portrait and start painting in color. If I am able to stay a fourth year I would push the color painting and do some still life painting. I have included pictures of my ecorche sculpture. I am still sculpting the muscles on the right side of the body and the left side will remain the bare to show the skeleton. I've thought about maybe sculpting the deep muscles on the left side... we'll see. I have also included a picture of the bust I have painting over the last month. It isn't the best picture, but it gives you a good idea how things are going. Last of all I included a picture of the figure drawing I completed in March. Each month my figure drawings have gotten better. Slowly each one has felt more solid. I'm really happy with the portrait.

March

We made it to March. That in and of itself is a huge accomplishment with all the little things that have been going on here...snow, sickness, snow, church responsibilities, snow, parenting duties, snow, and everything else...and oh yeah...did I mention the snow?

Even with all the trials we've been facing, I feel like I am making a lot of progress in my art work. I am very happy with how this particular cast painting is coming out. At the end of last year I felt like I didn't know quite enough. As we are coming to the end of this year, I am happy to feel like I now know how to paint (even though I haven't learned how to incorporate color).

Winter Storms

Due to a winter storm I stayed home from school today. I'm a little relieved. I've been so tired lately. Life has been overly busy lately and I needed a break. I should still be able to get some drawing and painting done today. I have included a few pictures of my human ecorche project. I have completed the skull, spine, ribs, and arms. This Thursday we will complete the skeleton and should start on the muscles soon. I have also included a picture of my cast painting. I painted an underpainting for the first time and am very happy with the results. I'll finish up the underpainting tomorrow and start the final pass. You can see it is already starting to look 3-dimensional. I also put in a picture of the portrait of my figure drawing. I finished the block-in stage last week and started to turn form.

January 2010

"Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away." (Oh the places you'll go, Dr. Seuss, 1990, Random House, pg. 1) This has been a key focus of our night-time reading lately. It has held our girls attention, at least, as well as can be expected for their ages.

2010 is off to a good start and I feel like I'm off to great places. My studies at the Grand Central Academy of Art are progressing well. Sometimes it is discouraging to recognize how far I still have to go, but every once in awhile you get a glimpse of where you are and can see how far you've come. January has done that for me. Painting presents a lot of new and frustrating problems, but as I began my new cast painting this month (the bust) I realized, to some relief, I have learned something. I shared the drawing with you last post. Since then I painted a value study to understand the organization of the values on the cast (essentially how much light each area is receiving). The director of the school mentioned last week he wants to see us get through cast painting much quicker than we are doing currently. The whole idea behind cast painting is to learn the process of painting and how to turn form in paint (make it look 3-dimensional). After I complete this cast I will paint a sculpture (full figure) and then move on to painting the figure and probably doing a little work in figure sculpting. I have also included my wipe-out of this cast. You apply a some what even layer of paint and wipe away the lighter areas. This creates a feeling of 3-dimension that is the base or platform you paint over.

I was also excited that I finished my figure drawing for the first time. I say finished, which really is a relative term... really it seems like it is never finished, but I mean that I made an attempt at every part of the body. Some of the things that came out of my critiques this month follow: Overall the block-in is good and seems to be getting better and better every month. I need to maintain that progression. The turning of form is better, but can still be better. The half of the form that receives the majority of the light is getting too dark. Light as it falls across the form from direct light to the terminator or shadow is not a linear relationship. In other words the amount of light that falls off of the form as you move from light to shadow or absence of light is not the same. The light falls off exponentially. The areas closest to the shadows can probably drop slightly in value and the areas closes to the direct light need to lighten up. I also need to put some work into drawing hands. I'm looking forward to getting started next month.

Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the ecorche in progress. I'll get something up soon. Right now I have the skull, rib cage and pelvis sculpted. I'm happy with the results.

Giving Thanks

I wrote this post Thanksgiving Day

We just let out for the Thanksgiving break and that ends our November pose. I was really happy how it turned out. The portrait turned out really well. I felt like I have a much better understanding of what needs to happen and am excited to get to work in December. In the afternoons I am still painting casts. I don't have a picture right now though.




Since it is the day we celebrate our blessings and focus on giving thanks I thought I would briefly reflect on some of the things for which I am thankful. First and foremost I am thankful for God. In our politically correct world we don't hear it enough, but I am thankful for His love and guidance. I am thankful for my family-my wife, my daughters as well as my siblings and extended family. I am grateful to be able to attend art school in New York City. That is the culmination of a lot of blessings. First off, for the encouragement my friends and family have given me and the support and sacrifice of my wonderful wife. She has been positive and always encouraged me, even though it hasn't been easy. I'm also very thankful to my in-laws. They have let us stay with them while I am attending art school. I am so thankful for everyone's sacrifices. I feel very humbled and thankful. I try and keep those sacrifices in the forefront of my mind. Those sacrifices help me to work harder.

Here is the November figure drawing

October

I wanted to get some stuff up and show you what I did in October. The mornings are spent doing figure drawings and the afternoons, cast painting and one day a week portrait drawing.

Here's a peek.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to take a good picture of this drawing, but this was the upper portion of my figure drawing in October.

This is actually my second cast painting. The first was the mouth. Below you will see the process I went through to get to this point.

First I drew the ear. Initially I just had the basic outline and then my teacher recommended I do a wire frame type structure over my drawing. This was a great opportunity to become more familiar with the spatial structure of the form in preparation to paint.

Second I painted a quick value study. This gives me the opportunity to understand how the values relate to each other. This is another opportunity to study the cast in prepartion to paint. I'm happy with how this worked out

I wish I had taken pictures of the painting in stages of development, but it didn't happen. In any case next I transfered my drawing onto canvas and painted the cast.

Last of all here is the portrait drawing I did today. I'm not completely happy with it, but it's a step in the right direction. Right now Jacob is having us draw the portrait of the model along with skull studies from skull we have posed next to the model.

Back in School

I started back to school the first part of September but had to take several weeks off for military exercises. The only thing I have to show thus far is a figure drawing I did the month of September. It is done in graphite and took about 50 hours. All work was done from a live model at school. I will try and get the blog caught up soon.