Hello all,

I recently completed a new series for a show that will be running at a local tattoo shop. To go with the venue I chose a subject which would fit the place. I like doing things like that; I guess it comes from studying illustration. I do much better with a loose parameter than just telling me to “go nuts.”

I painted my friend, the model and excellent photographer Julia. I wanted to continue the process of the “Hip Hop” series yet in a different genre. The names of the pieces are all of species of roses, to further enforce the theme.

“Tuscany Superb,” 12″x14″, oil on canvas.

“Dupontii,” 18″x24″, oil on canvas.

“Goldyla,” 12″x14″, oil on canvas.

“Perle D’Ore,” 12″x14″, oil on canvas.

“Anastasia,” 12″x14″, oil on canvas.

“Alba Maxima,” 12″x14″, oil on canvas.

“Gray Pearl,” 12″x14″, oil on canvas.

1: Pencil Sketch

After toning the canvas I did a careful sketch of the figure.

2: Underpainting

I then painted the figure to a finish. For most of these figures I finished in 2-3 layers, but this painting only took me one layer.

3: Tattooage and pattern

I first painted the pattern of the background cloth, then the tattoos on her back, then I fused them together by painting into and out of the figure.

4: Glazing

I didn’t glaze all of these, but for ones like this one where I wanted to harmonize everything a bit more or adjust the values I threw an extra layer on it.

The show hangs Saturday August 21, and the official opening reception is September the 4th.  The show will be held at the Buddha’s Palm Tattoo Gallery in Sebastopol, California.  I will be showing along with my friend MJ Lindo and Robert Harris.

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I just dropped the paintings off at the show, and got the flyers… If anyone wants one (or more) send me your address and how many you want, and I’ll mail em out to you…

ps. Thank you all for the comments on CGhub as well! Really appreciated!

I’m going to break down my last week in Alameda the same way I did for the San Clemente plein air event. I had a great time and I met a lot of cool artists and fans of art.

Day One:

They set us up for the event Monday morning with all the packets and maps and such then sent us on our merry way to go paint. I found an interesting blue house with white trim that turned out to be quite popular. I know at least one other person painted it.

(Most of my pictures are going to be on the grainy/blurry side unfortunately.  I took these inside of a dim room…)

I then went over to the southeast coast of the island and painted this piece looking out towards Oakland from a small park.

The day wrapped up with an orientation dinner where all of the artists got together to connect, talk shop and drink plenty of alcohol… Fun times!

Day Two:

The US Navy graciously opened up the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to us painters to work our magic for free.  It’s normally a museum with an admission fee which is totally worth paying.  There are a lot of neat things aboard the ship, including this Avenger WWII Torpedo Bomber.

This particular gal had its wings taken off and propped up for display.  I spent about 2 hours on this piece.

A few cutters from the east coast had arrived and were docked next to the Hornet.  It started getting pretty windy so I probably could have went further with it than I did.

Day Three:

The beginning of the day was spent at the Hearst Art Gallery in St. Mary’s College in Moraga. (Superbly Independent: Early California Paintings by Annie Harmon, Mary DeNeale Morgan and Marion Kavanagh Wachtel)  The show was extremely inspiring.  As a bonus they had a few great pieces of their teacher William Keith.  It was a good show, all 4 artists have a distinct style but had a common thread of Northern California Impressionism that is a nice legacy to enjoy up here.

Even though photography is *technically* not allowed at the show, once I saw someone taking flash photography (eesh) all bets were off, and I snuck a couple nice shots in there…

William Keith:

A Marion Wachtel Oil:

I got back to Alameda and sought out a more natural view that would suit the inspiration I got from the show.  I went to Bay Farm Island and found this view:

I experimented with making the sky a lot darker than I usually do.  It worked to make the ground look more sunlit.  Afterwards I went to Lincoln and Willow and painted this piece of the liquor store on the corner.

After finishing that one I went over to the St. Joseph’s elementary school and caught the late evening light on the building.  I’m not crazy about the color relationships on this one.  I like the values but the color not so much…

There are some drawing mistakes on these that I wish I could correct right now, but hey that’s the nature of plein air painting.  I’ll try to do better next time.

Day Four:

This was the day of the Quick Draw.  We were told we could paint anywhere on Park Street from the bridge to the bay.  While most people found a spot on the street they liked, I chose to paint a scene on the beach.  I woke up in the mornin’ feelin’ like Charles Chapel Judson, so I painted this foggy windswept scene facing back into the city… I edited out the mundane buildings for a simple composition.  This was definitely one of the most successful paintings of the week.

Once we were done sharing our pieces, I went over to the center of town and painted the First Congregational Church.

I thought this one was also pretty good, it’s a fairly simple design once you look at it in terms of light and shadow.  The ratio of the entire piece is about 2/3 shadow 1/3 light.  I use a good recipe for sunlight where you make the light side lighter than you think you see it, and vice versa with the darks, then once you have that set up, paint the reflected light planes a bit lighter and colorful than you think you see them.  What you’ll hear is “Wow that looks so real” and the unintentionally-dreadful “It looks photographic.”  If its from a layperson, just take it as a compliment…  I finished the day with a painting of the Posey Tube which I am still working on.

Day Five:

Friday had no painting.  Instead it was the first day we showed off our best 3 paintings of the week.  I put up the painting of the bomber, the tree with the dappled light, and the blue house.  The results?  I won the Frank Bette Award Honorable Mention (essentially 2nd place) for the bomber, and a sale of the tree painting.

Day Six:

The big day where we strut our stuff and show off all the paintings we can stick on the walls.  Since I can’t stand sitting around and shmoozing with the general public, I set up my painting gear and painted this scene of the wall next to my booth.  I also wanted to try out my brand new batch of Rosemary & Co. Long Flat brushes that everyone is talking about these days, including Richard Schmid and Jeremy Lipking… I painted this with only 3 brushes, all being those mongoose flats.  I love how you can get these extremely unpredictable strokes by twisting the brush around as you stroke, but will come back to its shape every time.  I highly recommend them and am going to try out some of the other styles from that company.  Great stuff.

Overall I had a great time.  There were always a good amount of people making sure the artists were well-taken care of.  Becca Payne, the organizer, genuinely cares about the art and artists participating in the event.

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Been sitting on these drawings for a little while… Haven’t thrown up a Dirty Sunday post in such a long time…

From June 19th through the 26th I participated in the 9th Annual Paint San Clemente event in Southern California. There were a lot of artists participating in the event, since there was no jury, only a pretty steep entry fee. The prize money was enticing though, so it was worth the trip down to SoCal.

Day One:

Quick Draw

There were probably a good 40 artists painting from 2 models in the front lawn of the San Clemente Art Center where the Quick Draw took place. It started off as a cloudy hazy afternoon and by the time the bell was rung, it was a warm sunny day. I took a shot of the painting midway through.

I used the leaves in the foliage around here to create interesting negative shapes around her, and also lead to the focal point. Here is the finished painting:

I received an Honorable Mention award for the painting. I believe I was the only one who got an award for a portrait painting.

Day 2:

No painting that day. I went to the Getty Center to check out the Jean-Leon Gerome exhibition. No photos were allowed, as in any exhibition on loan, so here are some shots of the other things in the museum.

Day 3:

Day 3 started out with a trip to the Huntington Library and Gardens. It was quite the amazing place! The gardens were a delight to explore, and the art collection was fantastic! I took a lot of photos there, and I plan on using a lot of them in future works of art.

The portrait gallery full of Gainsborough’s was breathtaking! I could have just sat in that one room for hours!

Being charged with inspiration, I went out to the first plein air painting of the week. I went up Highway 1, by the Ole Hanson Beach Club. The sun was setting, and I was painting almost directly into the light. I had to wear sunglasses to paint this one. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of it right now:

Day 3:

I went to the Irvine Museum on Tuesday. It was recommended to me by Alfredo Tofanelli that I check it out maximum inspiration. He was very very right! Amazing early California Impressionists filled this gallery, which was the size of a decent gallery. Looking at how they paint makes me realize how much I need to go to get to their level, because I’m sooooo far away still… The way they vary the hues while keeping the values the same is dazzling. You can’t see it with these meager jpegs. You have to look at them in person…

Beautiful cloud studies by Paul Grimm, an artist I had never seen before…

Elmer Wachtel

One of my favorite paintings there… A must-see-in-person…

Being extremely inspired I went and painted 2 new paintings out there:

I also went back and finished the painting from the day before. I wasn’t satisfied with the refinement of the piece, plus there were some parts that needed detail, like the buildings on the left.

Day 4:

I painted in Malibu Canyon isntead of San Clemente. This wasn’t for the official paint-out, more for the experience of painting out there. There was no place really to park and get any reference of the canyon, so I had to find a trail which was not quite as spectacular. I practiced simplicity in this piece. It took about the same amount of time to do as the first one in after the Irvine Museum visit, even though there are a lot less strokes. I think the color relationships in the foreground like the shadow is the most successful part of this piece.

Day 5:

I ended up starting really late this day. I went to the Pasadena Museum of California Art to check out the California Art Club Gold Medal Show. A lot of very strong work there, even though the overall quality was varied. If you go to their site you can check out the art on display.

This was a rush job. The composition is weak and the trees are too unresolved, but there are some decent things going on the piece. There’s a good sense of atmosphere going on, at least.

Day 6:

I painted a couple of pieces that day. I painted a hotel on the beach which I forgot to get a picture of, but is on display at the San Clemente Art Association Gallery. In between the two paintings, I checked out the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa. He has a lot of good frames for very cheap. Go to kingofframe.com if you want to see what he offers. I went back to San Clemente and went up to the hills to capture this scene. I feel like I could have exaggerated the planes a bit more to get a better sense of distance.

Day 7:

I barely got my 2 pieces turned in on time, couldn’t have done it without Al and Carole! After we got our pieces turned in we went out to Dan McCaw’s studio. Dan was gracious enough to spend the whole afternoon showing his work and talking to us about his philosophies on art and creativity, as well as his own lifelong-struggle to find his own voice. His work must be experienced in-person to get the full effect.

Here he is showing off his sketchbooks. They are amazing!

He even treated us to lunch across the street! What a guy! A few members of our party went away with a piece or two from the studio that they purchased. Very cool, very inspiring but in a much different way than the museums were… I felt very fortunate to experience the company of an artist at his level in a casual way and not at a lecture hall. Check his blog out at http://danmccaw.wordpress.com.

We went over to the CAC Gold Medal show because they hadn’t seen it yet. Once we got back to San Clemente, the pieces were done being judged and so were up for display. Pretty solid work overall. Al and Carole both did some awesome pieces. I walked away with the 4th and 2nd place award for the pieces I don’t have good pictures of(figures, right? 4th place was the beach scene). We went out for drinks and delicious dessert afterwards, a perfect way to cap off a great week had by all….

Tonight I am doing something a little different.  I’m posting up a painting of mine which I don’t like and am going to try and explain what I don’t like about it and how I would change it.

This is a painting that I worked on two separate days, 1.5 hours each, approximately.  The thing I like the most about this view is the two clusters of trees opposite of each other.  I don’t much like the foreground mound very much, but I do sort of like the mustard plants in the foreground.

The two main problems I have with the piece are the lack of separation between the middle ground and the background, and the awkward shape shooting off of the cluster of eucalyptus trees in the middle ground.  Also, there is an overall flatness characterized by a lack of atmospheric depth.

Here’s what it looks like after some Photoshoppage:

I added a bluish glaze to the entire background and also added some violet tones to the shadows in the eucalyptus.  It sits that way further back in space. I also darkened the mound and resolved the shadow pattern to make it more 3-dimensional.  I added some orange and violet to the light side of the eucalyptus cluster just to separate them some from the hills in the background.

I didn’t like how the line of the shadow ends in the bottom right corner either so I tweaked that up with the distort tool…

This view has potential, but I will have to find a more interesting foreground to go with the parts that interest me the most before I attempt a proper painting of this view.

A humble tree study I did on the same day.

I’ve got a few oldies and some newies too… This first one was painted in Auburn. It has a pretty cool looking courthouse in the middle of town that I painted as the afternoon was coming to a close…

This second painting I might have posted before, but I have never scanned it, I don’t think.  I painted it last October during my “Fantastic Titanic Art Week” aka Capitol Plein Air Festival.  This was for the Quick Draw event.

I painted this last week at the Sebastopol Monday afternoon painting session.  The lighting there is just horrible, but it kinda forces me to do things I wouldn’t normally do, such as inventing color combos, inventing backgrounds, etc.  It’s made me pretty good at painting a portrait fairly quickly, since I rarely show up on time…

I painted this last week in one of my favorite areas of Santa Rosa.  I like the color.  It was painted at a time I don’t normally paint because the light and color changes so quickly.  What you have to do in this situation is anticipate what is going to come next and adjust your painting accordingly…

I got a couple of these pads of OLD HOLLAND CANVAS PAD (10 SHEETS) 6X8″ which I am loving.  They feel great on your brush and they are a very good surface for quick studies.  I painted this guy in about a half hour.  I did a few more on these which I will post once they dry.

More figure drawings… Hmmm what should I do with all these drawings I’m stacking up?

My newest piece in the “Hip Hop” series… I will be showing a bunch of these in the LYRI-CAL show in Santa Rosa the 22nd of May. They look really good together! I am stoked to show them together.

A few of these landscapes I will be putting these in the Fish Tales Show in Christopher Queen Gallery this Sunday. I know it’s a bit out of the way, but if you are going to the beach or the river that day, why not make a little stop? Get some wine, some cheese, cake and whatnot. Check out the auction, it was a lot of fun last time.

These are some more figure drawing studies that I’ve been doing at the Wednesday night session. I’m planning on doing some video tutorials trying to explain what I do and what I’m thinking when I draw. Figure I can help some people with it.

May 2nd:Christopher Queen Gallery Presents: Fish Tales
May 7th: THE MAJORITY PRESENTS: KALEIDOSCOPE Santa Rosa’s MONTHLY Art Show! every first friday of the month
May 22: Reprezent Clothing Presents LYRI_CAL

More of what you all love :)

This first session was with Amy, the beginning drawings I did with her were 2 minute drawings where I would study the pose for about 20 seconds, then go to the easel which was not facing her. I would try to remember as much of the pose from memory and draw what I could… I’d have to cheat, though. You can test with a good degree of certainty how strong your memory is with this method. It’s a fun exercise, something I will try again.

These drawings were my usual standard fare…. They were about 5 minutes each.

Drawings of my friend Nicole, who is one of my favorite people to draw ever… her body and poses are amazing… I’m starting to dig doing these 30 second poses.

These drawings were done all on the same day… Had a marathon drawing session with Jessica, a model I have never worked with before, but very good. These range from 30 seconds to 20 minutes.