Pop Goes the Artist!

I was browsing the extensive library of art-related quotations over at the Painter’s Keys Community and stumbled across this gem from Ambrose Bierce (author of the brilliant “Devil’s Dictionary“):

“Painting: the art of protecting flat surfaces from the air and exposing them to critics.”

How true…

I was flipping through one of my portfolios a little while ago, looking for older pieces, mostly school assignments, that I could throw out. Then I thought maybe it would be fun to take some of the worst (or more interesting) pieces and post them here in an occasional series. Now, I’ll have to really dig to find anything older than my freshman year of high school, but I’ll do my best to find a few pieces that predate that.

This piece I’ve posted here is actually from the first semester of my sophomore year of high school (2002), from a one-semester intro to printmaking class that I took. (The second semester was devoted to 3D arts.) I actually did produce a few things worth keeping around in that class, but most of it was forgettable. This one here, which I apparently titled “Cheesefest”, is one of the pieces that inspired my art teacher to say “Printmaking just isn’t your strength, is it?” Heh. I think this was a “found-object print” in which we mostly just smeared some ink on random stuff and stamped it on construction paper. I appear to have used string, lace, and who knows what for the cheesy shapes (it wasn’t actual cheese, of that much I am sure).

I never did really get the hang of abstraction.

May I present the third in what will be a series of four Lucy paintings (blue is next, but not for awhile, I think). By now you’re probably all sick of seeing paintings of Lucy and I’m (almost) sick of painting her, adorable and photogenic as she is. Actually, what I’m most sick of is not her cute face, but rather the colors I’m using. I have burnt sienna oozing out my ears! It’s not a bad color for an earth tone, but still–brown is brown. And brown is not a fun color.

I like the composition on this a lot, the off-center focal point with a lot of background. The yellow background is absolutely glorious (it’s a little brighter in real life) and I would love to see all three of these paintings hanging in a row on a wall. Perhaps if we ever finish our basement? That said, I’m not sure if I’m entirely pleased with the painting as a whole. I feel as though it’s lacking something, but I couldn’t begin to say what. Perhaps it’s that it’s a little bit simpler than the previous two, or it could just be that I’m bored and have spent too many hours staring at it. Either way, although I’m tentatively calling it finished, I think I’m going to post it for crit on WetCanvas and see if anyone there has suggestions.

I find I have less and less to say about these paintings the more of them I do. They’re great fun and I’m loving the results I’m getting, but they’re also on the self-explanatory side. (”Yellow Lucy” acrylic on canvas, 20×24″)

***

My initial plan was to do a pencil still life next, to hone my life drawing (rather than photograph drawing) skills, but I have yet to find a grouping of items with any sort of interest. Instead, I think I’ll try out both the Colourfix paper and my new Rembrandt pastels in a rendering of this photo of Muckross Abbey I took in Ireland. I haven’t picked up a pastel in more than a year, which is odd, since they used to be my very favorite medium. I’m looking forward to going back to them.

While working on my most recent painting of Lucy, I got the idea to take pictures of it in various stages of progress. I’ll admit that my method of working is not particularly complex, simply because my style of painting is not particularly complex. Three-quarters of the time I spend on a painting, I’m just readjusting the “geography” of the painting, adding more layers of paint for opacity, making edges harder, etc. But what the heck. I took the pictures, so I might as well post them. So, step one: cover the canvas with off-white gesso. It seems to help the colors go on more opaque, meaning I have fewer layers to paint. Always a bonus.

Next, I take my big line drawing, done on newsprint, and transfer it onto the cavas. I do this by rubbing the back of the newsprint drawing with charcoal, then taping the newsprint to the canvas and tracing back over my lines. This works better than trying to do the drawing directly onto the canvas, since it’s hard to erase thoroughly on canvas. Almost any painting I do starts out with a photograph I’ve taken. I draw a grid over the photo, then use the grid to make an approximately 8×10 line drawing. Then I use a bigger grid to make the first drawing into the full-size one I transfer onto the canvas. It adds an extra step, but I feel like it helps me to get a more accurate drawing, so it’s worth it.

Now I start painting. I generally add the colors in no particular order, although I usually do the bigger areas first. I use colors straight out of the tube whenever I can, because mixing is a pain. That said, this background was a mixture of (I think) brilliant green, cadmium yellow, and perhaps a bit of white, but probably not.

This is where the painting starts to look “done” even though I actually have a fair amount of work left. All the major colors are down, so it’s just a matter of adding highlights and shadows for form, redoing shapes (in this case, I made a lot of changes on the left side of her face), and correcting mistakes, smudges, etc. When I finally feel it’s finished, I sign it and then paint the edges so that it can hang with or without a frame. I almost always sign in black; the color I choose for the edges depends on the painting. If it has a lot of background color and a fairly simple color scheme, as this one does, I usually use the background color. Otherwise, I use black.

The finished product! This is still not the best photograph; I tried it again minus the late afternoon sun, but now it’s underexposed. I think that’s a little better than a glare, but it’s still not perfect. The other step-by-step photos actually offer a fairly accurate idea of the colors, so I’m not going to spend too much time worrying about it. On the whole, I’m rather pleased with this one, although Red Lucy is still my favorite. I’m envisioning a series now, with two more to follow–one with a yellow background and one with bright blue. We’ll see. I love photographing and painting Lucy. She’s fast becoming my “muse” although I should probably try to branch out some, eh? (”Green Lucy” acrylic, 20×24″)

This project wasn’t on my “to do” list, but I was scrolling through the pictures on my computer and thought that Lisa’s senior pic would make a nice practice portrait, especially since I wanted to experiment with the style for “headshot” type compositions. Then I saw a tube of the background color (Liquitex turquoise green) on clearance at an art supply store and it all came together last night and this afternoon, in an unexpected tribute to Andy Warhol (at least where color scheme is concerned). I’m happy with both the likeness I achieved and with the style, although it feels a bit weird to do a portrait of someone without them knowing and then posting it on the Internet. (Lisa, if you’re reading this: Hi, I’m not a stalker, and would you like the painting?) It was, as I said, strictly for practice. I like doing portraits and this is a nice size to work in. (9×12″ acrylic on canvas board)

Technical notes: I scanned it, so it’s slightly cropped (although nothing important is missing) and the colors are a little duller and lighter than they are in real life. I played with the brightness, saturation, etc a little bit but didn’t think it was worth too much stressing. Just know that the background color is much prettier in person.