12x12 - tonal

First peek at 'The Memory Thief' - a new painting I'm creating for the 12x12 group show at Galerie Abyss opening August 6! 

fb event info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1067384330002872/

Confection - tonal

Here is a tonal study I made for a new painting called 'Confection' I'm working on for the upcoming Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. I completed it with these great water soluble lead pencils that Derwent Pencils makes. (Honestly, I hadn't used them in years - but had a lot of fun with them again.)

Countdown - the process

Just for fun, here is the whole process from my recent painting 'Countdown'. 

 Thumbnail studies (bottom right was the chosen one to develop)

 first rough

 rough with text and numbers added. (Getting the text how I want digitally and then tracing it later saves a lot of time.)

 final rough

 cleanup

 tonal study

 color studies done at a small scale digitally to save time. I like to see many varieties on one page. (Bottom right was chosen to expand upon.)

 Premixing the color palette for the painting.

 underpainting (blocking in the darks and lights)

 painting in process

 final painting!

Countdown - tonal

I decided to do a tonal study (in pencil) for the ‪#‎painting‬ I'm working on called 'Countdown'. Here's part of it:

The Devil is in the Details - original tonal drawing

Feels great to check something else off the list! 'The Devil is in the Details' is now completed. The original painting is available and the original tonal study drawing is also available for sale on my online store here.  

I will be posting more of the development from the painting soon.

List of paintings to complete for 2015

('Fetch' is a painting I'm looking forward to creating, but I've had to postpone it. The vision I have for it is a larger painting too detailed to complete before the end of the year. I'm going to continue creating some smaller more affordable works for now.)

   

The Devil is in the Details - tonal study preview

The tonal study for my latest painting, 'The Devil is in the Details' is all done! Here is a sneak-peek. Continuing on with wanting to make more original works at an affordable entry rate, it's not a large painting, just 8"x10". (The original tonal study is the same size and will also be for sale after I release the painting.) The image is of course inspired by the old proverb.

Art & Intuition

Late June, I had finished the drawing for the painting that would become 'Fleeting Focus' (above). Then, early July my computer was temporarily being fixed and so I wasn't able to look at additional reference photos online or do color studies in Photoshop. Knowing of the approaching deadline for Galerie Abyss' 12x12 group exhibition and not wanting to wait, I decided to do something a little uncustomary and start the painting anyway with the color scheme I had in my head. Anyone who is familiar with my THOUGHTS & PROGRESS booklets can tell you this is not how I normally operate. (See below)

This is what the painting originally started to look like. (Kind of boring.) I received my computer back but then left for a needed break away and spent some time with my family. When I returned, I looked at the painting with a fresh pair of eyes and HATED IT. I sought to improve it and did some color studies. (See the final one below)

 

Now, I was getting somewhere. I had thought about the color, lighting and reflections enough that I allowed myself to start painting. Color studies (for me at least) give me a starting point - somewhere to go from and improve upon. I then completed the final painting (see below). 

You will notice the final image has some changes from the drawing and color study above. Because I gave myself more time to think about the outcome, I came up with more ways to improve it:

The last '6' of the slot has not yet come to a stop. This gave the painting more interest and a greater sense of movement. 

Red (the character from Red Hot Riding Hood, the wolf character in the painting is based off animation genius Tex Avery's wolf character of the same cartoon) was originally going to be reflected in his nose. I really liked the lighting choices I made in the color study and couldn't figure out a way to make it work because it would have meant adding another light source and altering the lighting. So I abandoned it. 

With slot machines, you see remnants of other icons above and below what the wheel eventually stops on. I dropped those elements because they were unnecessary and would have meant I would have needed to paint the numbers smaller to accommodate them.

  

All this leads me to my confession: art is not overly intuitive for me. 

 This is not an apology or an admittance of defeat, just an acknowledgement (and acceptance) of how I operate. My goal is always to make the best artwork I can, and can't successfully accomplish that by just 'winging it' and hoping it will magically work out. Some artists are (at least seemingly) more spontaneous with incredible results. I'm not one of them.

So - what have a learned from this experience?

I already have a process that works for me - that I can improve on and should not jettison.

My best effort will only come from me genuinely thinking and planning the quality of the outcome. Said another way: not being 'overly intuitive' is not a bad thing because it forces me to think about it and produce great work.

Taking a break (weather it be leaving for a week or just taking a long walk and returning) is something I shall implement more.   

Just because my computer is being fixed doesn't mean I can't do tonal and color studies the analogue way. (I just prefer digital in the planning phase because it's faster and doesn't waste materials.)

Can art become more intuitive for me over time? 

Yes. Every time I start a new work of art it's not like I have to relearn everything all over again. So there ARE things I don't have to actively think about each painting. Also, each new painting allows me to learn at least one new technique I can apply again to future paintings. (With 'Fleeting Focus', I studied then learned how to paint a convincing motion blur via the spinning '6'.)