90th...

Another scan I had feared lost makes it way into the digital world. I completed this loose portrait of my grandmother in celebration for her 90th birthday. She seemed quite taken with it.

"Some Cupid Kills with Arrows, Some with Traps..."

My final Eros/Cupid of the week was a piece I was racing to get into a Valentine's themed show, but I just missed it. Anyhow, it was a little experiment in gouache.

A Dame of Danger

Playing around in the gouache, I came up with a throwback to the days of pulp paperbacks and eye-popping poster art in this treatment of my friend, the lovely and talented Ver Mar.

To The Future...

My latest painting in gouache, which is currently on display at the Hive gallery in downtown Los Angeles for the month of December.

Ire

The second of the speedy self-portraits.

I think the graphic quality of old posters is better in the last one...but the painting is better on this one.  We'll see.

Pistolero

The speed painting series (some of which I can't show on here, as they have other purposes) were all sort of leading toward this handsome fellow above. I took a little more time with this one, all the while keeping in mind the quick, decisive and vigorous brush strokes I'd been practicing on the speed paintings. He still had to get worked over a little more than I intended, but overall, I was pretty happy with how he turned out.  Now all I need is the time machine to take me back to a time when such skills were relevant.

(Also, of all my work, I need someone to explain why my self-portraits are the most popular pieces.)

Quickly.

No shame, I suppose, in admitting that I have little formal training in painting.  If anything, it's unfortunate, as I have a tendency toward wanting to create work like the old masters...and the great pulp illustrators and poster painters.  The old illustrators tended to have a high technical ability and were able to produce dazzling energetic work with rapid speed and exactness. So, these last few weeks, after just having worked in water-based mediums, I was inspired to achieve something similar and set to work with my gouache to see what I could do.  When it comes to reproducing a specific style, one has to do some studies, trying to dissect the technique...or at least what you think it might be. This was the fist in a series of paint tests, using an expanded palette of colors and laying it down as quickly as possible. Not a bad first try.

Off to the Races

The final piece in this series of watercolors on ink creations is in some ways my favorite of all of them.  It's not necessarily the most accomplished. In fact, I would say, in terms of rendering, it's a step down from the last one.  Despite that, I'm quite fond of it.  A few other share my enthusiasm...but it's mostly for the side-boob.  In any event, that brings this particular series of pieces to a close, though it hasn't killed off my desire to pursue the style.  I might, in fact, be working on another one.

On the Track and Off the Rails

The second attempt at a final piece for this series is perhaps best described by the image illustrated above.  I suppose you could say that the speed and ease with which the first one came together caused a bit of overconfidence in approaching the next one.  I have a photo of the drawing that I did before I began to paint, but have since scrapped the abortive attempt.

This image, the train wreck, was the third and perhaps finest of the entire series. You may not agree, granted, but I feel that this was where the imagery and the style best came together.  For the first time, I've actually wanted to repeat something like this composition as the masters of old often did multiple copies and versions of some of their best work, but haven't quite gotten down how I would do a reinterpretation of the image.  In any event, like the water nymph before, this one also sold.

Water Mediums and Goddesses

At long last, this week, I'll be sharing the final pieces from my watercolor experiment from a recent commission.

I began with this one, and I'm sort of amazed it turned out as well as it did.  It also took far less time than I expected.  Now you have to work quickly (but patiently, ironically enough) with watercolor. However, since I was doing this in glazes and washes with no real direct painting until the very end, it came together far quicker than I expected, especially for not having a hair dryer between layers.  As I may have mentioned, I was looking for something landed somewhere between the Victorian illustrators Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac and late era Japanese prints. This one of this series probably hit closest, though it appears that some Mucha snuck in there for good measure.

I've included the original drawing below for comparison.

Awash in the Flow of Watercolor

At long last I've returned with one of the finished pieces from my new water-based paint experiments. I'm very happy with them, though they're still not exactly what I wanted.  I was aiming for something somewhere between Japanese prints and Arthur Rackham.  In that respect, I've been somewhat successful, but there's still something lacking.  Now part of it is that my water color skills, while improving, are a damn sight below Turner...and maybe the drawing, while also getting better, still has room for improvement.  I'm working on it. Always working on it.  But here's a taste of the results.

A Final Test

By the time I rolled around to this test, I was already feeling more comfortable with using watercolor glazes again.  This was more of a paper test.  While I knew about hot press, I had never used it.  Heck, I'd never even used super heavy paper before (and I'm depressed to admit that even watercolor board I've been using has still been buckling and/or curling more than I expected, necessitating the use of tape).  Hot press, though it too has grades, usually has a smoother or satin texture to it, as opposed to the grainier texture of cold press.  So as I prepped the final drawings, I did some glazes on this little lady.

More Testing...

Much like acrylic mediums a year or two before, I had never really played with all the chemicals you can get to go with watercolor.  So, this test got a little damaged as I tried them out.  Specifically with the masking fluid.  Masking fluid, for those who don't know, is sort of like rubber cement and can be used to cover areas you want to keep free of paint.  It peels up with your thumb or eraser when you're done; however, you can't leave it on indefinitely, and with the wrong paper (which this was), it'll tear up the artwork when you try to take it off.  Like any medium on any project, this is what the testing is for. Like most of my gender, I tend to tear right into things without reading all the directions first.  Fortunately, I've at least learned to invest time in doing these tests so I can do this rash play, and figure out what I'm doing wrong without ruining the final project.

In the end, the paper was heavy enough that I was able to re-ink what got torn and with a few more layers of wash, I mostly managed to fudge it out.  Had I not liked the drawing, I likely wouldn't have bothered.  Even with a few rough spots, it turned out to be a decent piece.

Testing...Testing...1-2 1-2...

I'm afraid there hasn't been much time for sketching lately, as I've been in full finished piece mode for some time now.  But as I had to continue doing paint tests in preparations for the final pieces, I figured I'd share some more of the tests.

Now, I realize that doing watercolors and gouache (which I learned was once called bodycolor) over ink doesn't seem like it would call for much testing, but then you don't understand how long it's been since I've worked with watercolor.  The water-based disciplines sometimes get the short shrift because of their associations with crayons and kids, but to do them well takes patience and skill.

So, I started with a quick sketch of classic Hollywood star, Myrna Loy.  It's not totally accurate, and I realize the level of the eyes are a bit wonky....but didn't I say test above?

I chose to go for a teal/turquoise color of glazing.  The first couple I mixed, but as I felt it needed more greens or blues, I only added additional glazes of one or the other.  Myrna's hair was red and I figured that would be a great offset to the backdrop...and hey, I think I was right.  So there you are.

In case you were wondering what the finished piece from last week's post looked like.  I figured I'd include it with this post.  Using sepia as a base glaze helped get that muted tone that I'm going to be looking for in the final pieces.

Process Shots

Normally, I don't photograph works in progress.  Often it's because I'm not happy with what I've done by the time I'm done for the day up until the day I'm putting on the last strokes.  Other times it's to keep subjects from getting self-conscious, or clients from getting worried...not because I'm bad, but because not everyone gets the process.  Or, I might nail some spot that I love, but because the rest is underdeveloped, it doesn't feel right to document it.

But this time, I've got a commission, and it's requiring me to try something new...well, not entirely new since most people have played with watercolors as kids.  But over the years, working in acrylic and gouache, I've gotten used to direct painting, and watercolor is a whole other thing.  So I've been hitting up the web blogs and tutorials to get a grasp on how to achieve what I want, but let's face it, as with most creative endeavors, trial and error is the best way to learn.

Now what I'm shooting for is a sort of classic style in the school of Arthur Rackham or Edmund Dulac, two of the Victorian era's greatest illustrators.  Their works were typified by pen and ink drawings colored with washes of watercolor.  Dulac tended to be richer in color where Arthur had more of a washed out sepia look. I sort of plan to split the difference.  So, I made my drawing from an old photograph, and started by staining the paper (I chose 185 lb paper...which actually turned out to be too thin for all the washing I was doing, that was Lesson 1).  Then, I had to let it dry.  Now, I could get a hair dryer, but some feel it changes the tone of the paint and fortunately I had another small project to work on between glazes.

I wanted it dark, with a lot of contrast between the figure and the background.  I didn't bother with masking fluid and later just lifted the spillage with a brush and water. Also, a little color seeping helps to keep the the figure and background looking unified.  But I have to admit, I get bored and frustrated working this way.  I usually end up causing a lot of the bleeding myself because I keep wanting to jump into working other areas, but you can't add more of a water media next to a wet area and not expect to see the tendrils of color worming their way over.

And the thing about watercolor and washes is that you have to do tests or swatches because what it looks like fresh and wet isn't always what it looks like once it dries.  Some colors stay bright or seem brighter, others wash out really easily.  The one that seems most obvious, but is somehow easily forgotten, is that it's not likely to have much of that gloss (without mediums) that you may or may not like.  And so on.

Once I had the background down, I went back in to work the figure, but I still didn't directly paint any of the tones.  I'd wet an area, drop in the tone then give it some mild working with either a brush or small make-up sponge, or both.  The buckling of the paper caused some pooling that made for some matte effects in the thicker paint that I wasn't crazy about, but over all, she turned out ok.  However, my final pieces are going to be a helluva lot more complicated...haha...it might be another couple of tests until I can jump in.

Painting Water in Watercolor

No real series for this week.  In fact, this one should've been the wrap-up for last week.  This week's material are tests for a new project and commission I'm working on.  It's taken some getting used to to get back into watercolor after being so used to direct painting, either in acrylic or with the gouache.  Anyhow, that's what I'm doing...and the above is how it's going so far: not terrible...but not great either..

WARLOCK: The Movie (1975)

This is my poster for a would-be Adam Warlock movie that I had hoped was going to be included in a Comic-con themed group art show.  I accidentally jumped the gun putting this together, and the event didn't happen.  Remember that Warlock test piece I put up a few weeks back?

The cosmic characters have long been some of my favorites in the Marvel Universe, particularly those penned by Jim Starlin.  Thanos is a fantastic villain (and apparently going to be in the next Avengers movie...). Adam makes for a bizarre hero with a cigar-chomping troll, Pip, as a best friend.  Then there's Drax the Destroyer, who was created to destroy Thanos, but I guess only recently, forty years after his creation.  And the deadly assassin Gamora, who, in her slinky fishnet outfit, was twenty years ahead of the superhero sexpots that would really begin to dominate in the 90's.

Now some may criticize me for lifting these poses and whatnot from others work...but in my mind, those old movie posters were made from set photos, so wouldn't the comics I was referencing be the same?  Anyhow, it certainly owes a debt to the aforementioned Starlin, Ron Marz, Al Milgrom, and many others who brought these cosmic stories to life.

A Man-God Reborn!!!

Our second cosmic character this week is the strange hero, Adam Warlock.  A long time favorite of mine, I believe I have all of his early appearances, save those first couple of Fantastic Four's where he debuted as...dun-dun-dunnnnn...HIM!  The Warlock persona was later created by another favorite character, the insanely inconsistently written High Evolutionary, in a series which led to Adam become the messiah of counter-Earth (an Earth on the other side of the sun that is in many ways our opposite) in a controversial story-line.  However, it was Jim Starlin's run on Warlock that drew me in as it picked up, in many ways, where Starlin had left off with Captain Marvel.  One of the most unabashedly bizarre books of the 70's, it would lead to the second great takedown of the mad Titan, Thanos...a storyline that would again climax twenty years later with the Infinity Gauntlet series.

This rendition of Adam in gouache was adapted from one of the early tales by Jim Starlin.

Aggrandizement of the Self

And breaking out the gouache ultimately only meant one thing: New Self-Portrait.  And if you're going to paint yourself again, it might as well be vaguely creepy...

V the Volcanic

This weeks entries start off late because of the more involved nature of the work...if there's a theme, I guess it's the Gouache.

A few months ago, I assisted filmmaker Seaton Lin make a round of the southwest chasing Morrissey's 2012 multi-continental tour to capture the performances of chanteuse Kristeen Young.  Kristeen's sets cannot nearly be captured nor conveyed by some shaky cell phone footage on YouTube (not that you can't still block everyone's view behind you with your smartphone waving around in the air to catch one).  An absorbing mixture of melody and intensity, I was fairly well convinced that I'd have to commit something to paper from the footage we gathered.  In any even, I would recommend catching her, with or without Moz (though always a consumate showman), if she burns through your town.