Thursday, June 30, 2011

Sweet surrender final - A first with chimney soot!

This last pass was done in a "trial and error" mode looking for a balance throughout...


I didn't mind the previous color scheme but felt that tipping the scale towards red would be more conducive to communicating passion. With this new approach with soot, I hope to remain on its wave length throughout the painting process (I'm after a blurring effect). This shouldn't be too difficult since transparent paint over soot is nothing more than tinted soot, its staining effect being that powerful! Ironically, as a result, even the opposite side of the canvas has some potential, something I may exploit with cotton/linen canvases...


I first learned of such a technique through the web site of a South American Chinese black ink painter using rice paper as support.

As a side bar, I've been looking at a subset of my recent paintings...


In light of this, it wouldn't be bad to introduce "softer" subjects... as a counter balance to sexual innuendos, blatant physical violence and blood sucking vamps! Still, I never had so much feedback since I decided to speak up my mind using paint! Evidently, I'm just joking!

Note to self: "I've been prudent with this first attempt with soot. Clashes of extreme colors with black and grey should be next on my agenda. Splatter marks would be nice. In terms of colors, green still escapes me as a skin color... gotta vanquish that demon!"

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Sweet surrender - step II... Another type of deconstruction!

With this second step, I've opted for a more stylized approach, separating the hair from the face to create a certain tension...


Because I want to keep intact the "out of focus" look, I think I will rely primarily on brush marks for textural effects... and see where this will lead me. This painting could be the beginning of a sub series using soot to really convey a smoke effect that goes in line with "Smoke and mirrors", the name for the main series I'm working on.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Sweet surrender - step I... Getting my hands dirty!

This is my first attempt at integrating chimney soot in my painting process...

I washed some transparent colors over this base before proceeding with thicker paint in selected areas.


 In the finalization of this one, my intent is not to lose too much fuzziness while going for some textural effects. This is likely to be a trial and error process!

Note to self: "I still need to master that barbaric medium when it comes to shades of grey!"

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Moonlighting final ... Brain supplanted passion with this one!

As I parted from my original idea, this painting became more of a ground for experimentation...


Nonetheless, I like the way the idea behind it evolved... definitely some smoke and mirrors here! The painting after some further modeling...


I now want to give a go at "chimney soot" on raw cotton canvas, perhaps an opportunity to develop my own pictorial language... one that combines everything that matters to me!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Moonlighting - step IV... Seeking a balance overall...

This is my fourth painting with this type of canvas (tightly knit raw cotton)... so I'm still looking for an optimal technique in a way. The fourth pass became multiple passes which still left me with unresolved areas...

Some palette knife work may help me with color nuances. At this stage, I'm only looking at creating a fairly convincing image that looks a bit rough on the edges... the hell with technique!.Luckily, I haven't lost too much canvas texture...

Monday, June 20, 2011

Moonlighting - step III... Firming up the color scheme... and the title!

I dedicated an hour and a half to this third pass, attempting to get closer to a final product...

I still need to resolve certain aspects of this composition, particularly the bottom of the boat. Also another color pass will be needed to get out of the dirt... a necessary evil after using charcoal as an underpainting.

Note: I couldn't resist slapping a new title to this one... just for laughs! "Moonlighting" means having a second job... this painting is now a good candidate for my "smoke and mirrors series"!

In parallel to this, I decided to put my money where my mouth is...and proceeded this afternoon with my experiments on chimney soot...


The tightly knit raw cotton canvas on the right gave the best results (it has little texture)... I couldn't tell the difference between canvas and rice paper! In that respect, the raw cotton/linen, not shown here, was not bad either.

In a nutshell, it looks like soot will suit me... for the second phase of my "smoke and mirrors series! On the long run though, I may need to take my chimney to the cleaners... or become friends with chimney sweepers!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Moonlighting - step II... Slipping back to my usual ways!

This second pass parted somewhat from my original intent...

...  which was to minimally intervene with color over a black and grey underpainting. Part of the reason is that I didn't use the light grey raw cotton/linen for this one (I ran out!)... so the underpainting with charcoal was far from perfect. As a result, I'm back to regular painting with a monochromatic color scheme. We'll see how this one evolves...

Note: I'm very tempted to consider using chimney soot from an old duct as a painting medium for my future black and grey underpaintings as opposed to charcoal!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Moonlighting - step I... Back at clashing black and grey with colors...

Last year I did a prototype painting that left me on my appetite. I decided to proceed with a second painting using the "Muse" as my model...


 ... with the intent of leveraging a black and white underpainting as the foundation for a more colorful rendition... somewhat akin to a Chinese black ink approach. This is a 30 X 48 canvas.

Note: The "Muse" looked lethal, in the reference photo I'm using for this painting... something I want to capitalize on!

Note to self: "I want to get off the beaten path!"

Friday, June 10, 2011

Flock III final.... Lost some birds along the way!

Unsatisfied with the balance between tones, I finally opted for a drastic change in that area...


 The sunset became the focal point rather than the birds. Textures remained fairly subdued...

These types of exercises are useful for me since they emphasize color balance and color application rather than subject... I'm leaving it at that.

Note to self: "There's no two ways about it... my strongest paintings come about when I have a strong sense of direction right from the outset... or when I am very passionate about the subject matter, which was not the case here!".

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Flock III - step IV... Getting there through persistent hesitancy!

My painting time being somewhat restricted these days (too many chores around the house), I zipped through this one counting on spontaneity to deliver the goods. However, this was not meant to be. Today, I tried to modulate colors and tones a little more before going for maximum contrast with my final pass tomorrow...

 The last pass needs to be ultra spontaneous, to recapture any lost freshness resulting from too much "pussyfooting around"...

Note to self: "This may not be the ultimate painting for me, on the other hand, it's only when I get off my beaten path that I learn something!"

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Flock III - step III... Still in the thin of it!

A quick third pass this morning has allowed me to work a little more on the image rather than the painting...

The next few passes will be crucial... I still need to carve these birds to my satisfaction!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Flock III - step II... Still trying to find some viable design...

Proceeding with this second pass, I felt compelled to add some kind of imaginary landscape to create a sense of space...

Although I'm using thicker paint, I'm still smudging it as if operating in underpainting mode. I will try to consolidate everything with the third pass...

Note: The smaller format (24 X 30) is a somewhat of a challenge with my crude tools...

Monday, June 6, 2011

Flock III - step I... Taking an abstract painting break!

I decided to let simmer in my mind a few potential subjects for my "smoke and mirrors" series... an opportunity to revisit my "flock" series with a new outlook and new methods...

 I basically used left over liquid paint from the previous painting to get an approximation of where I want to go. It will be interesting to see if I can manage this one from such a chaotic start!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Pipe dream final - Bringing back the kid inside!

In deconstructing this one a little, I finally opted for the approach of a 3 year old...

... to underline the lack of seriousness of so called "pipe dreams". In final analysis, I decided to add some Chinese calligraphy, in essence, the Chinese characters for "dream". With this type of painting, I'm after unusual looking female characters that may create some uneasiness on the part of the observer.

Update: I noticed a few missing marks in Chinese characters which will be added before varnishing...

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Pipe dream - step IV... back to wiping out paint!

With this 4th pass, I'm back to applying and wiping out paint in rapid sequences to obtain additional textural effects with paint. The bare canvas fibers (no primer) help in that respect...


It's a method that I've used before with raw cotton canvas which has a tighter knit than the raw cotton/linen. With the latter, I'm satisfied with transparent mid tones because of the beautiful gray undertone provided by the canvas. Each support has it's own temperament... and I have to adjust.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Pipe dream - step III... Pussyfooting my way to some potential solution!

Abstract backgrounds are not my forte... so I decided to sort of "half" commit to a more uniform color scheme in total contrast with the head...

I'll see what kind of textures and nuances I can add in to make it look more interesting. At any rate, it seems that this one has definitely taken an experimental slant!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Pipe dream - step II... experimenting with a syrupy first color pass!

With this one, I decided to handle the first color pass by mixing my colors with a syrupy acrylic pouring medium to see the effect at the early stage...

The challenge will be to leverage this underpainting as much as possible when graduating to thicker paint. So far, I've been using the pouring medium to obtain a dripping effect in my recent paintings. With this approach (painting above), I'm going for more uniformity with my textural effects throughout the picture plane. Eyes and lips are suboptimal at this stage since I have other plans than a straightforward rendition.

Note: So far, with raw canvas, I've been dependent upon glazes, palette knife work in certain areas and paint drips.  I now want to add textural effects through the use of semi-fluid paint at the early stage. By combining all these techniques, textural effects and color nuances should become more interesting.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Zen garden... the "after" picture!

We spent the better part of the last two days regaining control of our garden...


... and it's time to get back to some painting. I stretched a 30 X 30 raw cotton canvas and did a first pass...

 I'm not sure where I'm going with this one... but I may try more fluid colors to see what kind of textures I can get. I want to call this one "pipe dream", another painting with experimental deconstruction...