Diligence

WOW.... life has been crazy lately. I don't have a great deal to say, but I would like to share what I have been doing lately. Also, I am going to start highlighting the work of artists, which I have come in contact with that I consider great. Here is one my friend found and shared with me, George de Forest Brush (1854-1941). He painted mostly Indians. I really like the colors he uses in depicting skin tones. A lot times skin tone can become almost plastic looking. This is very nicely done.

Included in this post is the painting I completed in the portrait painting night class. It isn't exactly finished, but I ran out of time. All the same I am happy with my first attempt at painting.

I have also included a portrait drawing I did of a young lady. It was a four hour pose.

The figure drawings our three day poses and the man with long hair is the new portrait I am painting in my night class. Also, I have included what I hope to model for my final cast drawing. It is a bust of a Greek man. We call him Bruno, not really sure who he is.

Let me mention quickly the importance of vision and persistance. It seems like the learning curve at school is actually not a simple curve but a combination of multiple curves-more like a jump rope. There seems to be the ups and the downs. Right now I feel like I am in a low period. I have mastered a certain level and am struggling to jump to the next skill level. It gets frustrating. I have to continue to maintain the vision I came with, develop the necessary skills and be persistant. Sometimes it seems things would be better if I tried something different, when in reality we're on the right path we just need to stay the course, be diligent, and wait for the natural consequences of work fall into place.

What Matters Most

Things are crazy and there isn't a whole lot of time. Family demands, church and school keep me and my family busy. As I think about this past school year, however, I feel like I have really been given the opportunity to recognize those things that are most important in life. Not to say I didn't realize it before, but I have internalized and come to understand that family and friends are everything. Going to Art School in NYC has been a huge sacrafice. We have had to give up a lot of monetary items. We are currently living with my wife's parents. Thanks to them this has all been possible, but it is difficult humbling ourselves to accept their help. I feel so greatful for an understanding of those things that matter most. I see a lot of people that are mis-directed. Before I came to art school I was pursuing Dentistry. There were courses that I absolutely loved, anatomy, biology, but then there were others, like chemistry that I hated with a passion. I found myself trying to make something work that I didn't believe in 100%. One of the things that helped push me towards art was the believe that I would be most successful doing what I love to do. Monetarily it may not be as rewarding as dentistry, but as I have come to accept that I have set my sites on greater goals. You can be happy, truly happy when you focus on what matters most.

Moving Forward

I really don't have a whole lot to report. School is going well. I am trying to get the Salt Lake Temple Sketch digitized and printed-I'm not sure how long that is going to take me. I finished the hand cast drawing I was doing (I'll get a picture of it this weekend) and will probably begin my final cast drawing in March. Right now I am working on my block-in's before starting the final. The night class is going well. I only have two more days to finish. I'll take a picture Friday to show the progress.

Here is the progress on the lab I started at my brother's house during Christmas break. To the right is a cast I was blocking in the other day at school.

Finally I get to Paint!

Last month I started taking two night classes, which I plan to continue this month, portrait painting and portrait sculpture. I am really enjoying both, but especially the painting. The first three weeks were spent drawing the head and finally this week I transfered it to canvas and started to paint. The transfer process is not entirely accurate. It lacks the human touch, so this week I painted the contours and added a light wash. I have included the canvas up to this point. Next week I will start modeling or makeing the head look 3-d. I am really excited. Because of the added problems with color this first painting will be monochromatic. Essentially, everything I have been doing up to this point is in preparation for painting. It is the same process, just paint instead of graphite. I have included both the painting and the drawing I transfered it from. The model is the younger sister of one of my fellow classmates. It is a two month pose-one night a week for three hours. So I will have four more weeks to paint.

In class I am finishing up the hand. After that I will spend several weeks working on block-ins before starting my final piece. The final piece should take 2-3 months and will be a lot more complex than I have attempted thus far. After that I will start the whole process over, but painting casts instead of drawing. I hope I can start painting before school ends in May.

Handy

Need a hand? I'm still not done, but I should finish it up this coming week. When all is said and done I think it will have taken just over 2 months. On this particular cast I feel like I really have grown a lot more than on the previous ones. I feel a lot more capable of identifying the relationship of values and placing those down on paper to get an object to look 3-D. I still have to do a final project. I'm looking around to find a cast I want to do. I'm thinking about doing a full figure ecorche cast (ecorche removes the skin and shows the underlining muscle structure). After coming back from Christmas break we started working from live models. I have included a few drawings of these.










This was the first figure drawing I did.


















Each is a 4 hour pose.














This was my first portrait drawing. I have really enjoyed portraiture and have actually started a portrait of my wife.















This was our second week model and first female model.



This picture was taken about 2 hours in to my drawing.