Tuesday, September 27, 2011

"Heritage"

"Looking West" is proving harder to get right, to my satisfaction, so am turning to another idea - and yes, another still life... it is not yet in a form to be posted, tho will shortly be so - so life goes on, even if not quite in the way as first presumed [yes, I know - does it ever?]......

What is it? a stone slab on which rests, propped, a ladle..... there's more, of course, but this will set, hopefully, the interest...;-)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Interlude.......

Been sort of taking a break, reading a number of books as a change of pace - just finished the works of Charles Sheffield, now on those of Dick Francis... but in short time the itch will be beyond ignoring and will be on the next rendering, "Looking West", a now 15"x40" panoramic landscape with figure on the right...

Of course, along the way [lately via my walks in the morning], am coming up with new theme/titles to play with [terrible, isn't it, to have ideas pop into my head like plucking apples from a tree...]...

Monday, September 05, 2011

"Engagement" 11

And I have made an end of it...........

"Engagement" 10

Am doing two layerings for the back ground, and here am showing both, in progress, so as to show why the first layering [red earth] is used, and how the second [antelope brown] finishes it off...

Sunday, September 04, 2011

"Engagement" 9

And layering antelope brown over the drawer beings the dresser to finish... now - on to the back ground......

Friday, September 02, 2011

"Engagement" 8

With new nibs, am back to layering colors - antelope brown, and on the top of the dresser, layering over that, raw sienna and another antelope brown...

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

"Engagement" 7


And the back ground grisaille is also finish, leaving just the layering of colors yet to do...

Monday, August 29, 2011

"Engagement" 6

And the grisaille of the dresser is now done, and the layering of colors can begin... the back ground grisaille will follow, along with its coloring - then the work will finally be finished...

Friday, August 26, 2011

"Engagement" 5

actually, am further along than this, having finished the horseshoe, and grisailled the dresser top, but is night and so no photo... prob will go on and finish grisailling the rest of the dresser, then get back to layering colors...

and yes, adjusting the eye to looking AT the horseshoe, not above it...

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

"Engagement" 4

Finished the rock grisaille - now, on to layering the colors...




which was done using FW Flesh........


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

"Engagement" 3


After a day of running around trying to find new daylight bulbs for my drafting table [the old one died over the weekend], with rain interrupting it in the middle, finally found some at Home Depot and am back at the rendering....

layered lemon yellow on the lit areas, and sap green on the shade areas... further refining will wait until the rest of the rendering is laid out...

Saturday, August 20, 2011

"Engagement" 2

And the shading is finished and ready for the layering of colors...




and the first layering is of light green...


Thursday, August 18, 2011

"Engagement" 1

Finished off getting the scales down... now to finish on the shading, and the grisaille will be ready for coloring... [am doing this section by section this time - change of pace]

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

"Engagement" WIP




And the inking has begun... would had shown the transferred board, but the graphite is too light to see well, so am letting the stages begin with the inking [which is where it really should be anyway]...

Monday, August 15, 2011

Variations on a Theme........

As so often has been the case with me, as seen in all the cherry renderings and marble ones, variations of some of my themeworks just seem to keep flowing from me... and so it is again - "Engagement" is the next rendering-to-be and is another lizard one, but this time intend the lizard at least to be in color, and MAYBE the rest as well... size will be different, as am still working off old blanks, and have run out of the 24"x18" primed canvas sheets [finally] - so this will be a 15"x20" on illoboard.... the sketch is now done, but the transfer not - so will have that all up to go rendering tomorrow...

what will the lizard be looking at this time? ah well, tune in to find out...
[and remember, this IS, like the preceding, a still life]

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Realism and Virtue in Art.......

Every so often am accused of pandering to 'convention' because my work is realistic - indeed, sometimes very realistic... 'if one wanted to see realism, take a photograph' is oft the comment... but this merely seeks to hide the real issue at hand - WHY the realism? for one, contrary to presumptions, realism is NOT imitating reality, a mistake which is why positing photography as a 'valid' replacement... there are several reasons why the error, some of which are innocent mistakes bourne of ignorance, others being deliberately crafted attempts to 'invalidate' realism in art... to begin with, until the invention of photography, art served at least a dual purpose, ONE OF WHICH WAS THAT OF A VISUAL RECORDER, something oft overlooked in art and realism discussions... it is an importance, moreover, which aids in seeing how art was served over the centuries, and why, after photography's invention, that serving no longer was of prime or even if of importance in terms of the nature of art...

the proper understanding of art is that it is a SELECTIVE RE-PRESENTATION of reality according to the artist's FUNDAMENTAL [or metaphysical, to be more precise] VALUE-JUDGMENTS... note - selective re-presentation, NOT imitation... further, to grasp at the issue of realism is to recognize that humans do NOT begin their viewing of the world thru mere sensations, but thru PERCEPTIONS, which are as automatic as sensations are in the lower animals - and it as such that seeing the world as percepts is the beginning of how humans see the world is why realism, which is based on perceptual concretes, is the basis for grasping whatever the artist intend to show [for that is the purpose, TO SHOW ]... to show - what? well, THAT is what the 'fundamental value-judgments' are all about - as those are what the artist considers as of PRIME IMPORTANCE... this ties back to the 'selective' re-presentation, since one cannot include all within the borders of the canvas 'universe', thus must decide what to include, AND WHAT TO EXCLUDE as NOT being of prime importance... further, such considerations of, say, colors or shapes, serve, as consequence, MEANS TO ENDS, of the perceptual concretes [the objects to be included within the work]...

note, too, that in dealing with the nature of art, one is utilizing one's conceptual faculty - the reasoning aspect of one's consciousness, which takes the perceptual concretes - those objects of reality - and make abstractions of them, so as to make sense of the world around us - and of the world within the canvas borders... this is why aspects of those objects, the colors or shapes, for instance, have no meaning aside from the objects, but serve only as means to particularizing those objects...

note further, that these objects themselves serve also as means to the end - of the THEMING, of which the work itself is the means - the what and why of the importance which is considered as so fundamental... in other words, there is no copying of the world about, but visualizing abstractions of that world to serve a theming end, abstractions that, because of the primal perceptual nature of our seeing the world cannot be reduce further and make objective sense [that is, sense applicable to any and all who would see the work]... which means that works claiming to be art, but which pertain only to the senses, avoiding the perceptual, are contradictions in terms - without the perceptual to show meaning, there is nothing to give meaning, and as such there is no art there [decoration, perhaps, but nothing more]...

Thursday, July 28, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 11

And I have made an end of it.............

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 10


Almost there - just another pass, maybe two, over the drawer, then be done - need make it dark enough to not distract from the interest of the two subjects above it...

Monday, July 25, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 9




The second layer on the cabinet top is now finished...






as are the sides and placing the cabinet drawer...
[and yes, seems the photo is not a head-on shot, as the lines are parallel in actuality]

Sunday, July 24, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 8




The stand for the lizard/ rock is now done, and the first layering of the cabinet top is in progress... this last is a slow one to do in large part because of the coarseness of the primed canvas, and the high flexibileness of this nib...





and the first round of this part is done - now to go over again, smoothing out the woodwork... and note - this in actuality is being done with it on its side, the stroking being done vertically, so as to better make straight lines...

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 7

And the background is now done... so - onward to the rest...

Monday, July 18, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 6

Enter 'the other performer', stage right...

Sunday, July 17, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 5




Got in a wee bit this morn, maybe about an hour and half total [ have to take breaks else lose control of pen with the hand aching/ cramping too much...

this, btw, is much closer to the value than previous photos...



and this will do it for today... be glad when this is finished - end results looks great, BUT IT IS VERY TEDIOUS...

Saturday, July 16, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 4

Into the back ground, tho, in actuality, it is positioned upside down, the rendering going to the top... and am using the same nib as for the rest...

Friday, July 15, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 3




Got this far yesterday, and hoped to get rest of this section done by evening, but the hand cramped [it happens from time to time], so leaving it as such for now and will try to do rest of it today...


And thus done... now - on to the back ground....

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 2


Went to the tea lounge and managed to get in about an hour and half of rendering while relaxing with a couple hot spiced chai...

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

"Bestilled Life" 1

It begins with a close-up, a rough, which, like what follows, requires a lot of fine tuning before being done with...

Monday, July 11, 2011

"Bestilled Life"

This is a pen/ink work being done on a 24"x18" primed canvas sheet [my last one, as it were]... it is, as the theme/title implies, a still life - and yet, as will be seen when it enfolds enough, a question of how much so....... as of now, it has been transferred to the canvas and am beginning the rendering itself, but because of playing the mystery of just what it all is of, will only show it in the stages of development, leaving out showing the initial 'master' of the composition...

What is it about? ahh, that, too, is part of the enfolding mystery to be solved....

Thursday, July 07, 2011

"The Betsy Threads" 6

And it is finished - actually was several days ago, just forgot to upload a photo.....

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

"The Betsy Threads" 5

The back ground wall has been gone over with sepia, filling in much the earlier cracks, thus darkening it, and as such bringing out the spool sticks more...

and the major blocking of the rest of the rendering has been done - so now is the refining, the detailing...

Monday, June 27, 2011

"The Betsy Threads" 4


Laid in the white and outed the red... added the white as was much whiter than the white paper on the foamboard...

Friday, June 24, 2011

"The Betsy Threads" 3

And am now on the background wall, finishing the first layering, burnt umber...

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

"The Betsy Threads" 2


Transferred, the coloring has begun, with antelope brown, lemon yellow, flesh, and flame orange per the spool woods and sticks...

Sunday, June 19, 2011

"The Betsy Threads" 1

The rough idea and its more polished sketch, which will, after getting the loose spools more crisped [and rounded rightly], be transferred to the foamboard of 4"x15"........

"The Betsy Threads"

Struggling on the sketching of the new rendering to be - getting stars of a flag to looking right is proving frustrating, but am making progress and hope to have the 'master' sketch up in a day or so... it'll be a pen/ink rendering, and of course, in colored inks......

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

"A Finger to the Sky" 7

Slowly moving to the fore.... a combination of verithin canary yellow, light umber, and verithin peacock green streaks make up the grass field...

Friday, May 27, 2011

"A Finger to the Sky" 6


Doing more on the clouds in smoothing them into a painting stage, adding dark purple to them, along with a thin layering of verithin canary yellow...

the buildings have espresso on them, and the skyscraper also has verithin canary yellow and spanish orange...

the trees have marine green and parrot green, along with some verithin peacock green...

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

"A Finger to the Sky" 5


The clouds are all laid out, now to finish detailing them - then to move on to the rest of the rendering... then to color....

Monday, May 23, 2011

"A Finger to the Sky" 4

A wee further and more detailing of the clouds........

Sunday, May 22, 2011

"A Finger to the Sky" 3

Added more, and refined more........

Saturday, May 21, 2011

"A Finger to the Sky" 2

Turning to the storm clouds, am beginning to build them up, giving them the blockbuster forms ... this is just in the rough and a lot of smoothing out and 'inner' cloud forming is yet to be...

Friday, May 20, 2011

"A Finger to the Sky" 1


Got some indications to the fore ground...

Thursday, May 19, 2011

"A Finger to the Sky" WIP

A landscape in colored pencil, as was promised some time ago... 20"x16" on Stonehenge paper using Prismacolors and some Verithins... those will be storm clouds when done... the transferred building and the lay-out was first indicated in greyed lavender, overlaying with indigo blue, to make the grisaille...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

"Turning Towards Tomorrow"

Am still formulating this, tho do have the foreground rather well worked out - and as such will post that much before long...

Monday, May 09, 2011

What's next?

Having finished "Improvisation", the question now is - what's next on board?  well, am planning on doing a color pencil landscape, for one, probably a 16"x20" size on Stonehenge paper, with a working title of "Turning To Tomorrow", and will involve a spiral...  that ought to generate some mental wonderings...  am hoping to have a sketch posted in a few days...

There is a 4"x24" piece of foam board on which can be done another color still life, of needles and threads, on top of a partly seen old flag needing repair... of course the prime threads are of red, white, and blue, and the theme/title for this will be "The Betsy Threads"...

Another idea undergoing mental detailing is another pen/ink one, in color also, a landscape on a long foam board of 15"x40", with a figure on the right, by a shore, looking to the left across a vast field of grass to a distant gap, across is seen a cliff rise, on which is seen a development, with further distant spires of skyscrapers... perhaps mountain or hill outlines on the horizon area... theme/title here is "Looking West"...

So - plenty to be engaged with...

Sunday, May 08, 2011

"Improvisation" - 11



And it is essentially finished...  I may or not tweak it some more later today, but otherwise am done...

Friday, May 06, 2011

"Improvisation" - 10

Almost there........  just needs tighten up here and there, and 'push the values' more - then be finished!

Thursday, May 05, 2011

"Improvisation" - 9

Progress - and now in the home stretch... just needs get the crate slats done, finish detailing, add shadows, then 'push the values' - and it will be finally finished...

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

"Improvisation" - 8

Finished the canister, and added more to the meat matter... and more still....