Self Portrait 3

The work continues, but it is too slow for my liking. I must seize this moment of inspiration and light a fire under my brush. This is always a weird stage in painting for me. There is so much work to be done and I can see the final piece peeking out. I find myself too often just staring at the piece reassuring myself that the composition is sound and a beautiful painting is emerging. I am a bit afraid to continue for fear I will ruin it and push away any potential genius.

Despite this I enjoy this in between moment. Someday when I have a more masterful control of my technique I want to create a piece that makes full use of all the painterly texture. The dripping solvent, the thick brushwork, the bold color patches, a painter's wet dream so to speak.

 At the moment everything seems to be playing nice still, unlike Pandora who is still sitting in the corner. There are some glaring proportional issues with the arm and hand, but that is not worth the worry it will be fixed in the next hour of work.

Self portrait 2

I feel good about this one. I'm not quite sure what it is, but everything is going good. Now I just need to stay on task and make sure it doesn't run away from me. My professor told me to make sure I maintain the relationship between the foreground and the background or the composition could quickly degrade.

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I'm pleased to see that this familiar subject was really easy to get. Maybe I'm more vain than I thought. More tomorrow

Self Portrait: Twenty Five

My Pandora series continues to misbehave so I put it in the corner for now till it decides to play nice. In the mean time I have begun work on a self portrait. It has been a while since I made one so I am definitely due for one. Also I have the feeling it will be a pleasant milestone for later in life when my body has deteriorated and my fame is overpowering.

This is one of those pieces where I am working on pure inspiration which is a really awesome cycle. I feel the need to create without any research backing the work. I have no idea where this composition came from, all I know is that I need to paint myself as some sort of general overlooking his battle plans. I threw on a face vest, set up my camera and away I go. I plan to put something on the table edge, but not sure what it will be. Proportions look a bit odd, but I was good and used a grid so I'm just gonna say foreshortening is messing with me again and ignore it.

Pandora #2

I have been working hard to maintain my manic pace of work, but the other day I hit a conceptual wall. I was painting away progressing nicely when I stood back and realized I made a wrong turn. Everything looked completely wrong all of a sudden. Painting is sneaky like that. I did my best to fight and work my way out of it. They were not hearing any of that though. After a few hours of thought I decided that I lacked the substance behind the paintings. I was so excited to get back into my work I forgot what it means to properly research. If you go into a piece with an empty mind, its going to show. On that note I got some reading to do, but here is where I am right now.

Pandora Series

Glorious day! I has finally organized my life and will now be painting every, health and social life permitting. To kick off my return to painting I have started work on a series based upon the myth of Pandora's box. I believe it ties in well with the direction I am taking in painting and gives me a reason to paint my friend Christine.

Without further adieu I present the initial stages of each piece in the series.

Composition 1

The figure will be a prominent element in each composition because it is through her that the story unravels. For this series I want to try and place heavy emphasis on the emotional condition of Pandora. Conceptually I'm claiming to draw from Vermeer. I want to try and create private little moments and encourage the viewer to explore the scene with their eyes, of course this means I'm going to have to figure out how to create a believable scene.

Composition 2

This one will be more active than the other two so I have to be careful not to over do it and make it overwhelming. The bad stuff that Pandora let of the box will be represented by disembodied heads. In order to keep the focus on Pandora they will be slightly smaller than her head and less saturated.

Composition 3

 I am also doing my very best to ignore my typical ADD painting style and focus on one element at a time, in this case it is the face. Everything else in the composition will be built up from the face.