Underpainting!!!

Yesterday had a very important but straightforward night of progression in the current commission I am working on: the underpainting! I relaxed and enjoyed painting this while hanging with my studiomates.

Saturday Drawing at Kits Beach (ie heaven on the weekend??)

Today in Vancouver was so wonderfully beautifully amazingly gorgeous that I felt I would be a fool to be working in my studio rather than outdoors. Equipped with a fresh 2' x 2' canvas courtesy of Jono Echols, I grabbed all of my drawing pens and paints (just a portable watercolour...) and went to Kits beach. Spending the day drawing in the sun, and talking to passerby about my work...was wonderful.

This is the best way to spend a Saturday...

This is the canvas in its current state after an afternoon of pen work.

Detail of the pen work

Hockey Equipment Progress

I have penciled in the underdrawing for the three commissioned pieces I have been working on. Imagery here, I'm excited to work the underpainting tomorrow or Monday. I'm excited to be working on the three pieces as a whole, meaning I will be progressing the same stages on each of the three, not completing one piece then moving on to the other. This is to create a unified set.

New Commission

I am working on a new commission. It consists of three paintings created as a series. The pieces are for a hockey player who requested representational paintings of his hockey equipment - glove, skate and stick.

I prepared a photoshoot to create the source imagery, the chosen images are below. I am looking forward to working with a nice orange-blue colour palette to bring out a lot of the subtleties in the greys and blacks of the equipment.

Crows!

I started a new piece today. It expands on the techniques I'm working with, combining light applications of acrylic via palette knives, and drawing on top with various weights of ink pens. I'm happy as these works are receiving a good amount of positive feedback - this piece sold before I had finished it!

A Happy Blend of Paint and Ink!

I've been wanting to combine drawing into my paintings more. I recently started an experimental piece that I built on today. I'm happy with how it is coming along. It has a nice "pop" to it, working with heavy black outlines of various line weight. Too bad the foam core/paint surface did something to my brand new pen and now it wont work!

To keep myself perky with my oil painting, however, I made this piece below. It's a close up of a honey dew melon, yet it looks somewhat suggestive - one observer called it "sphincter-like". I don't deny it.

If I Were A Lobster, I'd Do A Self Portrait

Today at the Studio I continued work on two pieces I had previously begun. Things are getting exciting, I'm feeling like I'm making some good leaps in my artistic development. This is because I took almost three years off from art making to go to Web Design school and work in Toronto as a designer. It wasn't until that time had passed that I realized that my artistic skills were slipping away and I had to revive them - this is when and why I quit my job in Toronto and moved to Vancouver, where I would have time to practice my art again. I'm now happily knees deep in a wonderfully vibrant art community which continues to expand! Thanks guys :) lots of love!

I worked on this new claw painting for a bit tonight. I like that I'm loosening up, and here I put the claw in a setting/context. The mixing table behind is reminiscent of my love of electronics in art. I may spend a little more time tightening up bits of this piece tomorrow before callling it finished - I like having parts of the under painting showing through. This was an important moment.

I've developed my larger lobster shell canvas some more. I'm starting to like how it is shaping up, although I want to tighten it up with more details still. I would like to have a little more of the underpainting showing through, but I will maintain that mindset for my next work. Regardless this guy is coming together both as a work and as a teaching tool/learning process.