so one tuned!

Worked on the painting a bit more. Perspective on the glass, the little cap in the front, the shaker etched out a bit, the ball a bit more, the olives (give them some reflected light), give the wine glass liquid some volume (so we see a bit of the other side so it's not just 'flat'), as well as some of the shadows and the cloth to give it more volume. Also added a cool fold that leads to the wine glass in the background. I was looking at this Henr! F@nt!n L@t0ur painting up close (Fl0res Y )bject0s D!vers0s) and noticed that he gave the sculpture (which looks 'smooth' from far actually a lot of texture. So I was trying to separate the texture of the ball similarly from the rest of the other, smooth objects (even the cloth). The trick with the cloth is that it's not rich or elegant, but actually moreso like a washed out cotton-type material. It's fun trying to work out how light reacts to these objects. I hope to start another one next week.

working on the painting

Spent the evening chilling and putting in some work on the painting. As you can tell, I am working on some things and will keep hammering on them tonight (not to be taken literally). Thought of pulling and pushing the background in and out a bit so that things recede and fall back into the background, but the focus remains. My prof corrected me on some perspective stuff, which I'm also working out because they're not based on what I see, but actually what is 'correct' for the painting to work. The last photo I thought was funny..I didn't have a proper place to set up my work station (as I don't own an easel..I recently got one of the cheapo tabletop ones) so I propped the setup (my drawing board) on some books that support it on both sides, and leaned against the cushion stool holding up the objects I'm painting. It was a procedure...I can tell you that, and things still keep falling from time to time so I have to restick them (that is, the towels that bounce the light onto the objects from my lamp, etc). I had to take a photo of the books, because apparently they're all ones listed as the top 5 books of Engineers Hahaha. And they were randomly pulled off of my bookshelf! I'm an art-tech nerd! (see, Hitchhiker's guide, Vonnegut and Skunk Works in there). Hopefully there is room out there in the world for people like me, since it's been hard to fit solely either way (I'm apparently 'not art enough' but 'not tech enough'..just in the middle).

More Drawer-ings

Kat. I like her. Last time I met her she had guns. Also, two other models were there drawing, which was nice. I decided to switch it up a bit from my usual Tuesday workshop because it was becoming a little too 'costume-y' for my taste. Would like to keep it classical (although every once in a while costumes are nice to draw drapery, etc). It can become too much of a performance thing and not enough interest on line and angles and perspective, etc for the artists. Plus, it can sometimes draw the wrong crowd (it's like a sports game..some people come for the food, drinks, the intermission/break thingys and some people are really just there because they love the sport itself). It was funny; one of the models said "you're everywhere!" Haha. I should hope so. lol. One guy told me the other day that for him 'all the models blend together'. Uh no. I'm sorry, I think that part of being a professional is to treat the models with respect and as people too. They're not wallpaper for your Se@rs catalogue home. It's really important for me to know each one of them (what's your name?) because they also do tend to relax the next time they're around (a familiar face!) and you do get better poses. I've never met a rude model yet (thankfully). Just sayin'. It's a two-way street. Anyways..enough blathering (blather blather blather!!!)

h0t m0mm@...kinda sorta

I put about one hour and a half into this beginning of a sculpt. It is super rough but the shapes (the big ones) are a lot better..moving slowly along. I may get repetitious but need to do and redo until I start getting this. Yesterday in class I did pretty well on the 'drawing 180 degrees from what you see' exercise on the head (the body wasn't too bad either, but the head was best). On the body I have a habit of being 'visu@lly dyslexic', so drawing 180 degrees or even 90 from what I see I apparently do well except I switch the left and right foot haha. My prof had to sneak up to me before the model was done (two minute to six minute pose) to whisper 'you're doing so well...but you have the legs on the wrong side' LOL. And the model, Ke!th, was twisting and turning and everyone was holding their heads and yelling OYYYY!!!! As soon as our prof said "we're going to try these with the head" I said to myself YESSSS!!! while the rest of the class groaned LOL. And I owe most of this (although in part to life drawing) to sculpting. How I love thee. The turntable o cheapo (ie a l@zy Sus@n...if you're a poor student no need to buy a stand..just use one of these..I got mine..a six inch one which is just great for my small base and my larger one..for less than $5) Seriously, if you can sculpt a head (even if badly) it seriously helps your drawing understanding of the head. And what is sculpting if not just another skill in the toolbox. Plus, it's frustrating (anything is when you're learning) but FUN!!! I love it all...all of this is just the b0mb. Um..how did I survive without this all in my life? Anyways, spent 10.5 hours yesterday drawing and painting and another 6 today drawing and sculpting. Will start back painting (and do a little sculpting in between) tomorrow.

2nd pass

The darker ones are kind of what I was seeing since the lighting in that room SUCKS. But I have another week to continue or start over or whatever so pushing along. This is all really fun. Oh, I also signed yet another NDA for some project or the other, so we'll see where that goes (if at all). Should be fun, or torture, or whatever those things tend to be. And I get to sleep early tonight! Class all day tomorrow, and then again on Sunday morning, too. May head over to the museum on Sunday evening, although my parents haven't seen me for a while (online) so um...plus I think I should have things in my place to eat because um..you can't eat paint and brushes!

first pass

First pass on my painting from the gr@is@ille stage. Need to keep working on it but that's all for tonight :)

a new dude wip

Still have some work to do on this guy, but this was a rough. No reference used but the prof was going through the head in black and white with us and then we did colour..we basically did our own thing. He's not supposed to represent any particular culture or anything that exists on earth, so don't get your hopes up. Besides, he could be all mech below the clavicle..mwahaha.

I've been

Kind of worried that with painting, my drawings will start to flatten out because they're shape based (or at least the process is, in painting). But anyways, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Here are some drawings from last night of the lovely Sue, who I enjoyed because I'm growing a bit weary of the plethora of stick-thin models in LA. I like the eccentricities and differences in each person; I think that that is what makes some models so fun to draw. Also, I'm slowly working on this painting that's going to take me two weeks. So I did a prelim sketch, and did a quick gris@ille layer that I'm experimenting with to figure out values. Still working on it; it's going to take time. My teacher might kill me for doing that but hey, now is the time to experiment. I'm really not big on following 'what is cool' or whatever in terms of drawing styles or whatever. I try what I try, I guess. I know that my work is not as bold as some of the animation type gesture drawings I've seen out here in LA, but I really like the quiet sculptural style and I hope to continue with it and find my own thing. That is huge with me. Not just being a clone and following and copying just what people think 'is in' (*cue "Have you seen this bad@$$ artist? I'm going to be just like him and do my brustrokes the same way!*) Actually, I think it's great to be influenced by someone (how could you not be) and copying is good when learning, but the whole idea of just aiming to be a bad copy of someone really puts me off. I was looking at @sher Dur@nd's paintings yesterday (Huds0n School painter). Yes, people of a certain school may have similar styles because their methodology or what they believe to be true (in terms of fundamentals or even 'absolutes') is similar, but each one of those painters from that school is different and you get a sense of individuality...they're of a similar thought but are interested in different things. I'm not sure why we're so caught up today in just straight up copying (post-modernism? lol). My friend was saying (as I visited the N0rt0n S!mon this weekend) that the great thing about the Renn@!ssance is that they were making discoveries and had such curiosities (which showed) in EVERY single painting or sculpture. She was saying that a lot of that curiosity is not present in today's work. So I have to ask..what is it that we are curious about? If we're not, what then is the point of being an artist or a designer? If you're not curious about how to make the world a better place, certainly as a designer, or curious about how the future might look, then what is the whole point? Are we just concerned with copying every tiny detail so that we can be the new cameras or robot-artists? *I hope NOT*

more painting

We did cool and warm today so I'll have that up next week. However, here is another I started but didn't finish. Glass is such a b!tch but I have to know how to paint materials really well and understand value, and the other is of a still life we did in class last week. Richard had a talk with each one of us about our habits (mine is my messy palette obviously) and what he is aiming for each one of us to get better at, our progress and what we wanted for ourselves. It was kind of scary (because I thought at first he was going to say that I sucked and he was going to kick me out of his school LOL) but well needed. What I love about it is that he can always put things into perspective so there is never any arrogance in our class, which I L-O-V-E. Everyone is working really hard towards their specific goals and understanding what we individually have to work on.

painting homework

I may start another one but then again, I need it to dry by Saturday and...I got my L@zy Sus@n in today..yipeeee...the sculpting resumes! Mwahaha! I'll probably end up doing both anyways. I shot it under those ugly compact fluorescent lights because I think ugly is the new beautiful...just kidding.