Seated Nude

Back to doing Acrylic. This was done in two 3 hour seating and some studio work. So, I can mix spontaneity and deliberate paint applications. I changed the posture of her right shoulder and arm to achieve more dynamic composition. That caused me to change the left arm and hand, as well as the shadow on her right shoulder. I think I managed to make it convincing. I really like the glazing in acrylic medium. It creates the color that is quite rich, and it can be done without waiting days as in oil painting.

Continuing Computer Painting

Trying some abstraction based on a picture.

Morandi 2 - Juxtapose

These few have horizontal composition broken by the white jar. The jar looks like a church among the houses in an Italian village. Another common theme is to have a color object sandwiched between white objects. Again, click at the picture to see the detail and to appreciate the color.

Morandi Show 1 - Horizontal

We spent more than a week in NY. We were showing my sister in law around. So, we can only spend one and half hours on Morandi Show when we went to Metro. There are so many others to show them. Even though the time was short, we thoroughly enjoyed the 100 or so of his work. Each is like a jewel in itself. They allowed no flash photo. So, I took advantage and took many pictures to share with you. Although I just have a point and shoot camera, some of his yummy colors can still be seen in my picture. Please click on the image to see the details and the color.

These are a few pictures of his pursue of horizontal composition. Notice the edge of the table is intentionally lined up with the top line of the objects. He originally painted tall boxes and jars in the third picture. He didn't like it. Do, he took a scissor and cut the upper part off, and pasted it on another canvas. Notice the corner of the table on the left and the unknown vertical strip on the right edge. They make the picture much more interesting. Who cares about being "real"?

Lady in Hat

This is a small acrylic painting done in one sitting and some studio work afterward. Again, I am disappointed with my camera in conveying the colors I tried hard to work out. hm...Probably should invest in a better one.

Girl tieing Ribbon

The theme of these few weeks is color. (unfortunately, my lousy camera lost much of the subtle color variation!). This is done in 2 sittings. She sat upright. But I alter the pose to make her leaning to her right. This pose adds more dynamics to the picture. The strong turquoise color of her dress is lost in the picture and my camera doesn't seem to be able to differentiate green-gold color from yellow. So I blame much of the simple color blocks on the camera. I have been a bit timid with strong color. Just want to be bolder.

More Passion

Just wonder what will happen if I make the negative space more active. So, I use Artrage layering tool do a study in computer. This version is certainly more dramatic. I am not sure which one I like better. Must look at it a few days later to decide whether I want to do anything like this on the canvas.

Passion

Zak continues his monk pose for another 2 weeks. Decided to do a portrait of some sort. I altered his face to look a little older. I use a pretty saturated warm background of Cademium yellow and try to retain its luminosity. Hope that it works for you.

Monk's Burden

Spend a week on this painting. Recently, I paint mostly with 24x24 size canvas, and have not done a larger size painting for a while. This is a 30x30 canvas. Feel more satisfying. I changed the posture to more upright position, so he won't look very relaxing. I made up the table and the stuffs on it. Use glossy medium for glazing. The shiny surface is a problem for taking photos. Perhaps, I should look for a less shiny painting medium.

Painting on real canvas is still more satisfying than digital painting. Perhaps, I have not yet learned enough technique of digital painting.

Agony of a Monk

This Monday, we had the model Zak dressed up as a Franciscan monk. We have only 2 sessions on this pose. So, I quickly drew in charcoal a gesture and a head. I want to make a painting on canvas. I need these drawings to put a block-out painting together for the next session. I came back and started working on several composition ideas in computer using Artrage. I also worked on some ideas of manipulating the expression of the model. Here is one version which I may use in the final painting. Zak graciously promised me that I can take a picture of him next time. That definitely will help for the painting.

I am still not sure the calibration of the color on my computer screen is correct. You may not see the color that I see on my screen. That may be one of the problems of digital art. There are too many knobs to turn. And each person turns them differently on their equipment.

Crater Lake, Ashland, Yachats

Just came back from a drive through Southern Oregon. Aside from some very beautiful sceneries, there were also a few delightful discoveries to share.

1. Crater Lake is known for its deep blue color as seen in the first picture.
2. We went to Ashland, known for its Shakespeare Festival. It is a neat little town. We found this little cafe called Ashland Bistro Cafe on the main drag near the festival. They have this Tuesday dinner special that includes a soup, a salad, and an entre for $15. And you can order a bottle of Merlot for another $15. The food was delicious and substantial, and the service was excellent. But, the nicest part is the live jazz band. They are really into music making, performing musics of very different moods. You can see that they are really into it. The owner took a break from his business and played one tune with the band. He is the one at the drum in this picture. We ended up sitting there and listening to the band for most of the evening.
3. The third picture shows a typical coastal scene. We spent two nights in Yachats, a town at the most scenic section of the southern Oregon coast. When we drove in around 5:30 p.m., a low fog came in from the sea. I quickly took a picture of the sea under that light condition. It is quite pretty.
4. We stayed in a seaside resort called Adobe. We got a room without a view for $62 a night after a 10% senior discount. Although our room does not have a view, the hotel is right on the water. I took this sunset view right at the dinner table. It is very pleasant to enjoy a nice dinner and a nice view at the same time. Again, dinner is very substantial and inexpensive. I had a pork Ossobuco for $18 that also includes a salad bar. It was so big that I could only eat half of it. We put the leftover in a doggy bag, microwaved it the next morning. It was enough for a breakfast for two in our room! Anybody going there, I would recommend staying in this place.

Pencil/Pastel Painting in Artrage

Artrage has a pencil option, and you can adjust the thickness and choose your color. So, I try this one with a combination of that and airbrush. It is much like painting in pastel.

Layering Colors

I want to add color and intensify the value contrast at the same time. Layering tool in Artrage is a wonderful tool to do that. You can try out different colors to achieve what you want before you actually merge the layer with the under paint. The combination of layering and the use of airbrush tool allowed me to do a more detailed work than I would normally do with oil paint. Wonder what I would do when I go back to do oil paint.

Continue having fun learning new tricks. Next is to learn how to do cut and paste.

Digital Painting - continue learning

Never been a good portraitor. Spent two days on this just trying to learn how to play with the new toy. I think I get a good handle on the brush, palette knife, mixing and picking colors. There is this airbrush that is not readily available when painting in real oil medium. It is very handy for manipulating the soft edges and the transition. One thing that is very different from painting in real oil is that you don't always remember what tool is in your hand. It is just the tablet pen for all tools. You forget that you have a brush in your hands. Actually you have a palette knife. Only when you start puting the paint down, you discover the mistake. There is an "undo" comend. But it only takes out the last stroke you did. There is a "layering" tool that I have not yet explored extensively. It is supposedly equivalent to glazing technique in real oil painting. But the advantage is that you can take it off if you are not happy with the result. That is not possible in real oil painting. You can glaze quite a few layers, trying them out before you decide that is what you want. You can then merge them in with the under-painting.

Working pretty hard for two days. Wanting to see "Dark Knight" on IMAX. Probably should reward myself for working hard.

The Foreigner - by Francie Lin

Just finished reading this wonderfully written book. You can see the critical review here.
The first word came to my mind if I want to characterize this book is crafty. It is very visual to me. Scene after scene unfolding in front of me in fast pace, much like an action movie. Yet, every detail: the set, the atmosphere, the psychological state of the character, are not missed under Francie's wonderful writing. Urged by the tempo of her writing, I can't help turning pages faster and faster. I think I need to go back for the second round; this time go slowly to appreciate the detail of her writing.

Just wonder how well the book can be accepted by a person with no Taiwanese experience. I googled, and found all the reviews and the bloggers are equally enthusiastic about the book as me.

I always thought what a viewer receives by reading a work of art (yes, we do read paintings) is the combined result of the artists creative intention and the life experience of the reader. The book is categorized as a darkly comic thriller. I do not see much of comic there. To me, I feel a bit of an existential crisis in addition to the family, fraternity, conscience, cited on the book leaves of the cover.

I am very proud to say that Francie is my niece!!

Joy of Learning - Continue Computer Painting

My original intent to acquire the Artrage+Wacom was to use it as a tool for studying composition for painting, before I embark on putting paint on my canvas. So, I use the previous drawing of the old man as a motif for a painting. The steam room scene in my health club came to my mind. The two additional figures were painted out of my head. So when it comes to actual painting, I may have problem making them convincing. I won't have the actual models to work with. This is the second composition I made. The first version has the right side figure siting at lower height than the center figure. It was not good. I am not happy with this version either. The figure on the right is too close to the central figure. That makes the picture look cramp and feeling pressurized. I need to space him out. I have not yet learned how to move things around, resizing the canvas without much erasing and repainting. I may want to do a few more variations of composition before I actually paint it.

My friend Jason gave me quite a few tips on the use of Artrage. Picking colors from other part of the painting surface helps to keep the color consistency and value accuracy better. The use of airbrush which is not available in actual oil painting is a great tool to blend colors and to create soft edges. There are a lot more to learn in doing this. I think computer painting can stand on its own as a fine art tool. It was simply not available to Michelongelo. That's all. Heard from Jason that there are now archival inks available for printing out long lasting prints.

This is not by any means a finished painting. But the learning process is fun.

Playing with My New Toy

Downloaded Artrage 2.5 for $25. It is a much better tool than Corel in the bundled software. It has many controls, e.g. the amount of paint you put on the brush, a palette knife for spreading the paint, ...etc. I only use very little of the features so far. For example, I have not yet learned where the palette is for mixing colors. So the colors are all mixed on "canvas". I am not skilled yet in controlling the brush and other tools. Continue using the window and the lamp on my desk for practice.

My New Toy

My friend Jason (BLOG) and Jessie are computer artists working in the animation industry. Both are also fine artists. I have been watching how they use computer to create fine arts. It seems to be fun, and you can do pretty much what you can do on canvas (with the exception of paint texture), ONCE you MASTER the use of the pressure sensitive tablets. With their suggestions, I bought this WACOM tablets (approximately $300) which arrived yesterday. I installed it today and used the bundled simple art software called Corel Painter to paint a simple painting of this lamp on my desk. Don't think I did very well. I spent 3 hours includng getting familiar with the software functions and to get a feel of the tablets (various brushand their size selection, pressure, hand-eye coordination, color mixer). It is interesting to learn new things. The next step is to get a better software. Jason suggested ARTRAGE ($30). I will download it soon. Will see how far I can go with this new toy.

Garlic Chive

I built a vegetable garden in my back yard. But never succeed in producing good crops. Squash and tomato plants kept growing beautiful foliage but not fruits. At an elevation in Seattle area, the growing season is short. Both of my neighbors' yards have tall trees blocking sun lights in the evening and in the morning. These may be contributing factors. Only these garlic chives do extremely well. Just this little patch gives us more than we can eat. Our friends Cathy and Ching came and harvested most of them and treated us with a chive dumpling dinner in their home. Only less than two weeks, they grow back and ready for harvesting again. Almost everyday, we have chive and eggs for breakfast. We also had my niece Nancy and her husband John came over for a chive pouch (韭菜盒子) dinner. And we still have surpluses. Fish fertilizer and diligent watering really help. For variety, I am looking for other vegetables that may do well with limited sun exposure.

Tense Up Again!!

I never like to draw/paint these beautiful young hunks/gales often offered in the public studios. They are good for studying how to draw/paint human anatomy convincingly. They just don't interest me. This young man posed twice last week. He has excellent physique and posed in heroic poses. When I painted in oil using a discarded "experienced" board, I was able to stay loose. It is not particularly a good picture and I didn't learn much in the process. I did play with non-realistic flesh tone. You can click on the picture to see some of it. At least I stick to the purpose of my exercise. The second picture of a charcoal drawing is a failure. I tried to get into the detail middle tone variations. I tensed up. The picture is "dead". I didn't enjoy much either. Perhaps next time I should just use the pose as a point of departure for an abstract or semi-abstract painting/drawing instead of describing what I see. My mantra: Stay loose.

I find my "point and shoot" camera does not do a good job. The flesh tone color variation is quite a bit richer than what is shown. Time to invest in a good SLR camera?

Morandi Exhibition at NY Metro 9/12-12/14

We are planning a 10-day trip to NY in late October through early November. We want to book a pair of free tickets on Continental flight early to avoid possible change of policy. Also, by booking early, we may get on the direct flight to Newark. Anyway, after booking the flight I checked what may be on special exhibit at Metro. Surprisingly, I found they are staging a show for one of my favorite artists, Giorgio Morandi, the 20th century Italian artist . He painted mostly jars, bottles and blocks in his studio. With these familiar characters, he was able to come up with "infinite" number of beautiful composition. His "chalky" colors further enhance the meditative feeling when you look at his pictures. He is cited by critics as the painter of painters. I had only seen two of his originals, one at MOMA and the other at Yale University. The reproductions in the art book I bought don't even come close. In the above picture you can see that even the shadow and the little negative space between the bottles are key elements of his rigorous composition. Feel lucky that we will have an opportunity to see more than 100 of his work in early November.

A Freudian (Lucian) Pose

Continue going to these 3-hour studio sessions trying to get back on track in my painting activities. I decided to draw this time. Using charcoal, I can get a little bit more detail in within the short time given. Just happened that this model poses in a frontal position. It is not as "in-your-face" kind of confronting pose as in some of Lucian Freud's pictures. But it definitely will be banned from the wall of Mercer Island Community Center here in Seattle area!! There was this young lady setting up her easel next to me drawing life size on a 5 ft tall paper. She is a very good artist. It is interesting that her drawing is an assertive and strong old man, and mine is this questioning and somewhat resigned senior citizen. I thought I drew what I saw. I suppose that different people do see the same subject differently.

A $34Million Lucian Freud Painting

This painting by British artist Lucian Freud (grandson of Sigmund) just fetched $34 million at a Christie's auction in mid-May. I appreciate most of Lucian Freud paintings. But, I am lost on this one. I understand that artists want to challenge the established artistic taste and to establish a new direction in aesthetics. Is there something like "emperor's clothes" here? Perhaps, I am getting too old? But, he is 85, you know.

Improvements?

I tried to work a little bit at home to see whether I can improve the picture without losing the feel of immediacy. I strengthened the body and the arm. The main improvement is the negative space I added to the left corner of the picture under the elbow, echoing the inclined shoulder line of the model. That also supports the triangle formed by the arm and the head. I think this little space strengthens the entire composition. At least I feel I learned something from this little exercise.

Short Studio Painting

Haven't done any studio drawing/painting for quite some time. Feeling a painting slump recently. Trying to get out of the slump by loosening up in these quick 3-hour sessions at Gage (Seattle). I use acrylic because of easier clean up and of fast drying for instant layering of colors. The down side is, of course, the difficulty in blending. But it forces me to work fast, adding the spontaneity to the picture, good for loosening up.