Art Dump - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Digital Tutorials

A digital study of a rock as a tutorial to help assist with a digital painting course. 

A master study of a Rembrandt Self Portrait. First time really using artrage. 

I unfortunately did not block the color shapes in, and instead went for individual color notes. This is a bad habit I'm trying to get away from with digital. 

A digital self portrait. Roughly an 1.75 hour study from life. This time in photoshop. 

A branch dangling in the water near dusk. This was probably a 40 minute painting in oil. 

A large concrete block used for parking. Graphite - 1.75 hours. 

This painting was probably 5.5 hour painting with the intention of really focusing on accurate color and trying to be very efficient with my marks. Although this painting does not convey anything of significance, I was pretty happy with this, which doesn't happen often. 

The Bad... This painting was unfortunately rushed... as are most plein airs as of late. Maybe an 1.5 study when I was relatively distracted with a piece of criticism from a professor. 

I've been having difficulty with covering the entire picture plane with a short period of time with accurate marks. I feel like I would rather put down the right strokes and leave the canvas half way finished as opposed to quickly covering the surface with poor decisions. 

I am going to go smaller in size since 9x12 are a little too cumbersome at the moment. 

An impromptu painting demo... Yes it's simply a mug. Nothing fancy or enjoyable really. I need to figure out ways to make simple objects into compositions. 

The drawings lined up. 

A two hour figure study. This one is a little stiff and the drawing is off. 

Today's figure session! Roughly an 1.5 hour study. Some proportional issues but, I think this is heading in the right direction. 

A drinking fountain. Not the most glamorous subject matter but it was a nice evening to join a fellow graduate student painting in the hallway. The perspective is way off in this, which I did not really realize until it was pointed out by my brilliant professor. 

A 2 hour study... I need to simplify... always simplify. I had fun with this area however. 

A lemon... which is incomplete. 

1.5 Hour - Fleeting light is killing me at the moment. 

I tried to implement a professors suggestion to work off of a white ground... and man do I hate it. It throws things off for such a long time.  I usually use a wash of burnt umber, a little ultramarine blue, and burnt sienna to tone the canvas and to establish the drawing with the brush. My professor believes that this is muddying my paintings and wasting time. I think bull hockey, but I figured I would give his suggestion a try. I still don't know how I feel about this though. 

The values on the brick shed are of on the shadow side. I simply need to finish painting the surface. This was mainly a focus on color. 

A road. Graphite 

So, what do you do when you get out onto a location and prepare all of your mixtures for the scene and the light completely changes? Not sure. It was completely overcast all day, and after I was about to put the paint down, clear blue sky came. I still attempted to paint what I had remembered. I ended up scraping this painting off. 

A self portrait - 5 hours. I accidentally got paint on my face and it through me off on the temperature shift I was seeing on the left cheek. The drawing is also a little weird. 

Bah! 

The ugly... Not a fan of this painting. 

And last but not least a shop vac that was in the studio. 

I wanted to occupy most of the first month of the semester with alla prima studies, and then I would decide I what I will produce for the remainder of the semester. As much as I love plein air painting, it's getting difficult with less and less daylight. I think I will pursue a few other interior based paintings that will be long term projects. 

More updates to follow. As for the Phantasmagoria album, it is still being mixed, but it will be done in that regard shortly. 

Thanks!