Cans 2 Post 4

I'm getting there sloooowly!

Cans 2 Post 3

This is the absolute slowest I have ever been. I can usually finish a 6 x 18" in one long day but here I am at day 3 and not even half way finished.

The reason why is I can't sit or stand in one place too long. I seemed to have overdone it while jogging and my hips are so sore. Not my knees like most normal people, but my hips. Nothing seems to help it, even rest. I'm sure it will get better, but for now its hard to concentrate while drawing. If I sit they really start to hurt. I found that kneeling helps, but then I have to take breaks when my feet fall asleep and standing in one spot is just as bad as sitting.

So this piece is taking forever. My productivity relies on drawing for long stretches at once usually 12 hours in a day and I have only been aboe to get in 1 maybe 2.

It is also looking a bit different than usual. I just can't get myslef to lay the pencil down as evenly as I usually do and I am not finding the patience to go back and tidy up the pencil strokes. SO I just decided ot give up on the clean look and go for a bit of edge. Or as Simon said on American Idol last night a bit of "grit." Which is perfect I figure for these cans anyway. Why would I want a completely clean technique for dirty crushed cans anyway, they deserve a bit of "grit" as did the songs on American Idol last night - so many were sung perfectly but lacked the edge/grit that they so needed to be pulled off.

Cans 2 Post 2 Work in Progress

I didhn't get very much finished today. I wasn't going to use my solvent and then I just couldn't help myself. I've been using it VERY heavy to get a;; of the texture out of the colored pencil which is tough on the sanded board. This time I wanted to see what it would be like if I used less solvent and a blending brush ofr paint.

It doesn't get all the grain out but it gets some. What I like about it is even though it isn't as painterly as when you use a lot of solvent, you get some happy accidents which for this piece I think added some interest. I pointed to a couple of "happy accidents" in this post.

I'm off to paint with some 8-12 year olds at an afterschool class at Artworks in Keene.

Cans #2

I (haven't felt like working on anything for a week or so, so I decided to do a bit of photorealism to get myself going again. I don't know why this happens to me - where I do loads of pieces in a row staying motivated and excited between each one and then I stall and have trouble just wanting to start a new piece. So here's the very beginnings of a second piece to go with "canned" and at the same dimensions 6" x 18." I'm thinking 3 of these hung tall instead of horizontal would look great together.

So this is just the very beginning and I'll post it as a work in progress. Probably not enough to really post, but I wanted you all to see I'm working and maybe it will be fun to see how quickly I can get that little square to grow into a bigger composition. This is just the top right corner and is about actual size if you don't click on it. If you click on it it is grossly enlarged! :)

So I know some people don't like photo-realism. Frankly I never understood why photography is considered an artform by some of the same artists that don't think photo-realism is real art. I agree if you take someone elses photo and then copy it - the person doing it didn't put any imagination into it, but when someone goes out or sets up a photograph to work from - getting the correct lighting and crop and then does a photorealistic drawing/painting of their own photograph, then I say that is art and creative! I mean the only difference between the fine art photographer and the photo-realist is that one is very good with camera equipmement and one is good at improving the photo by hand - all the creativity is in taking the shot and cropping it in the first place. Well that's my opinion anyway. :-) & now I'll get back to my photo-realism piece which I think will be just the thing to get me going again!

a little cloud study

The Workshop is still on! The snow can't last that long can it?

Here's a little sampling of what we'll be doing at tomorrow's workshop (see previous post). Cloud/sky studies. Basically we are going to be experimenting with doing colored pencil with solvent, and clouds are such a good excuse to move around pigment.