A painting progression - Kipp

Finished a painting of my friend Kipp the other day which turned out pretty well. I actually thought to take progression photos along the way (smartphones are actually good for something other than texting), and thought it might be of interest to others to see how a painting takes shape.

First -- I usually start off by doing an underpainting or sketch in burnt sienna. This gives a warm undertone to things I find appealing. At this point I'm primarily looking at getting proportions and basic placement the way I want it.

If you look closely you'll see a light grid drawn in pencil. I've worked with photographic sources most of my painting career but have changed how I use them. Back when I was in grad school and for about 10 years afterwards, I shot 35mm slides and would project those.

These days I mostly shoot digital, using my phone, then print them out on a color laser and grid them off. They each produce a slightly different look. In addition to gridding, sometimes I'll print out the photo and project it on the painting surface using an Artograph opaque projector.

Second -- I usually work from the edges towards the center, doing more of the background elements, saving faces and other centers of interest towards the end. This has the effect of lulling me into working looser on these bits since (in my mind) they aren't the "important" parts.

Curiously enough, because I work more freely, this has the side effect of sometimes transforming these areas into the centers of interest in the final painting. The sweater, for example, took on this role.

Third. At this point I was pretty far along, but I wasn't completely satisfied with where I was with it. The painting was clearly of Kipp, but there was something about the likeness I wasn't happy with, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. I was about to leave it as it was when...

(Fourth - brief interlude) -- I noticed it was Kipp's birthday. Since I was painting this portrait for my own amusement, I decided to do a little quick study as a birthday present. I found a piece of old 1 x 12 in the studio that had been cut up for some now-forgotten purpose. The aged pine had a nice middle-tone that served as a toned ground.

I spent about 45 minutes during my lunch hour just having fun with it. When I was done, I looked at it and saw it was by far a better painting than the one I'd been fighting with for the last several days. So now I couldn't just leave it...

Fifth - I stared at the painting and the study, trying to sort out why one was so good and the other not. I went back in, wiped out what I had done with a turpentine-soaked rag (the painter's best friend), and started over.

A fair amount of the problem was some subtle proportional issues with the shape of the head and what-not. The rest of it was just that the painting was overworked - the surest way I know to ruin a painting.

 So I finally finished; it still wasn't as wonderful as the study but it was definitely improved. And somedays you just have to be satisfied with improvement over perfection.

 Hope you found this interesting!

New Painting: Texting Women

After a prolonged period of non-art production, I've actually been fairly busy, comparatively speaking, since last December. The other day I finished "Texting Women" (title subject to change), which I started not too long ago.

Apologies for the awful photo; it was shot with my cell phone. Done in oils, finished size is 30 x 40.

Coming soon (I hope) - prints!

I've recently become intrigued by the idea of producing a few giclee (or do you say "geclee") prints of some older art. A giclee print is essentially a high-end inkjet print made using archival inks on archival paper.  

This interest was sparked by the desire to share a couple of specific works on paper for which I'm not willing to part with the original. A big part of the success is starting with a quality digital image, which adds considerably to the initial setup cost; this would most likely involve having whichever service I use do the scan using a commercial scanner. 

That being said, I'm thinking of doing a test print or two using a smaller image I can scan myself.

Informed friends (thank you, Marshall Harris and John Moore) have shared their experiences and suggestions and I'm hoping to continue to tax their generosity and good will! 

After a prolonged absence...

It's embarrassing to see that the last post on this blog was almost 2 year ago. Sheesh. That is going away NOW.

What's new? Oldest son is back in Texas, after a seven year stay in Toronto. He's now in Austin, working for Whole Foods. Youngest son has one more year at Texas State University. All my once far-flung offspring have returned, only a 3 hour car trip away.

The art? Sigh...

In the Fort Worth Museum District

There are several not-to-be-missed shows over in the Fort Worth Museum district these days, which caused me to put aside my visceral hatred of what the City of Fort Worth is doing over there.

First off, if you haven't done so yet, GO TODAY and check out the Lucian Freud show at the Modern. I'd been waiting with barely concealed eagerness since first hearing of it last year, and it does not disappoint. An absolutely fabulous show. Warning, if naked people upset you, take a Xanax and get over it.

The accounts I've read of Freud's life would lead one to conclude he may not have been the nicest person to wander the earth, but he is by-god one hell of a painter.  This is, by the way, the only US venue of this outstanding show, and is up until October 28, 2012.

Once you've finished with the Freud show, you owe it to yourself to wander over to the Amon Carter Museum, and check out the show, American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, De Kooning and Their Circle, 1927 - 1942. The Amon Carter does a consistently good job on shows like this. Before you leave, also find the exhibition, Industrial Monuments: Photographs and Works on Paper from the Machine Age. I'm  a sucker for works on paper and actually enjoyed this more than the American Vanguards show (as good as that was). You may need to ask a guard where the Industrial Monuments show is on display - it's a little hard to find.

A retirement

I first met Jim Woodson, lo these many years ago, when I was a long-haired painting major at TCU. And now, some 38 years later, he has the audacity to retire.

I had a number of excellent instructors when I was at TCU and Jim was at the top of the list.

He had a gentle way of guiding one back when you'd strayed a little too far off the path without making you feel as though you'd screwed up or wasted a lot of time and effort

His wife Barbara threw a retirement party for him last Friday that was a gathering of the tribes. I saw old friends I hadn't seen in 20 years and students that could have been my kids.

Dan Shepley, a friend from high school days who later was a college roommate, made it down from Indianapolis. Back in the day, Dan and I lived in an apartment that was across the alley from Jim's house. Watching Monty Python at Jim's was one of our Sunday rituals (along with eating Mexican food at Pancho's Mexican Buffet).

Good times...

Good luck, Jim, and thanks for everything!