Fan the flames

I'm still thinking about what it is exactly that I missed. I know I made the face a little too long where the reference is shorter and a little more plump. I have to say that I've always been strangely attracted to her eyes. Unfortunately catching it in a painting really is quite hard. I think that when this is done I'll do another one of her with a different photo. Hopefully something clearer.

I plan on doing this first in black and white, then in color.

Keep The Fire Burning

So I continued working on it last night. I thought I'd add a background. Now I'm realizing I should have followed proper workflow and made the background first. The figure looks odd and so detached from her surroundings. lolz. I hope I can do something about that.

Here's the finished quick work. I think using a large brush for the foreground details turned out to be it's undoing. I wasn't thinking at all. lolz.

Fire Neuron No 1,934,568!

Here's an updated version of the nude figure I started a couple of months back. At the time I stopped working on it the hair, hands and feet weren't done. It isn't what I hoped it would be but i can stop here for now. I think I'll always come back to this figure though to try out new things... since it's in digital media, I can easily change existing colors and apply new ones. I think I need to study how to do proper backgrounds for figure drawings... It looks so boring on white paper. :) I need a lot of improvement on drawing hands and feet too.

I dropped the color information here so I can do tonal analysis. It looks boring... hence my tonal values need work. Had I done the tonal values correctly, this should be a little more visually exciting than it is now. This Padawan has much to learn. lolz.

Here's a WIP I started last night. It's from an excercise in one of my art books. I found his color pallete and usage a little too vibrant for my taste though so I sort of neutered it a bit. Trees will be going into the foreground. Maybe I'll get to finish this later this evening. It's supposed to be a quick excercise but if my OC'ness kicks in... lolz.

I have to guard against my insane compulsion to smudge paint all around my projects. I think I keep overdoing it and they end up looking chalky and dreamy. I guess this guy isn't over those fingerpainting sessions in gradeschool. lolz. There's this part of me that giggles like a child every time I smudge, push, lift, physically(or in this case virtually) blend colors on the canvas(yep digital media has canvases too. :P).

I just have to say this. I love my wacom graphire. It's a good investment. :D

Roller Coaster

I've been pretty unproductive these past few weeks. Life has once again been yanking my chain and I've been quite exhausted from recent events. I'm slowly getting my groove back though and largely due to this:

William Bouguereau (1825-1905)

"Each day I go to my studio full of joy; in the evening when obliged to stop because of darkness I can scarcely wait for the morning to come...My work is not only a pleasure, it has become a necessity. No matter how many other things I have in my life, ifI cannot give myself to my dear painting I am miserable."

"One has to seek Beauty and Truth, Sir! As I always say to my pupils, you have to work to the finish. There's only one kind of painting. It is the painting that presents the eye with perfection, the kind of beautiful and impeccable enamel you find in Veronese and Titian."

Among the great masters William Bouguereau is probably the one that I like the most. Even the story of his life is something I find highly inspirational. To date so many modern artists have tried to copy his work but so few can even come close.

Anyway, I'm now back on track and have resumed work on some of the things I've left undone. I promised myself that I will atleast have a portfolio ready by the end of the year. If my plans push thru then maybe I'll be taking up either an undergraduate degree in FA or if it's possible then perhaps a master's degree. lolz. I can dream can't I? :)

Abstract Art is Not Abstract and Definitely Not Art, by Fred Ross (edited by Iian Neill)

The following was taken from Art Renewal Center ->

Just because something causes you to have a feeling of aesthetic beauty does not make it a work of art.A work of art is the selective recreation of reality for the purpose of communicating some aspect of what it means to be human or how we perceive the world.

The greatest works explore beauty or tragedy in life. The most profound and universal of human emotions that are timeless, and could have occurred in the ancient past and will be experienced again in the distant future. The same kind of subject matter is explored by the greatest poetry, novels, and plays. Our hopes, our dreams, our fears. Jealousy, greed, lust, ambition, traumas from prejudice, war and even just growing up. The cruelty possible to humanity - as well as its compassion and idealism.

Then take any one or more of these themes, give it expression by masterful skills forged by the finest training available, from centuries of codified knowledge of the craft. And all unified by the perfection of composition, of design, drawing, modeling, perspective, tone, color, light, atmosphere, and paint handling.

That is the description of works of art.

Read on->