As I've said before, I don't paint often but as you might have noticed, I often do quite a few paintings within a short time. Who knows when this burst will end but in the mean time I've had a chance to scan the few I've finished or gotten close to finishing. The first was a pair with a dog (but I don't know where the reference came from)
I felt like I gained a sense of control when I redid her face, which is evident in the stark contrast between the overlay and the rest of the painting. I was worried that I would have to accept it looking as it did but then I painted it to perfection and became hung up on the inconsistency with the boy's face, which came out looking almost perfect the first time around. On principle I don't like dogs but this one had me transfixed for some reason and I had a lot of fun finding out how much black there was in a face which I originally thought of as entirely beige. He is not ferocious.
The next painting I attempted are not worth scanning. They were both of men doing solitary activities and bored me before they got to a stage close to completion. I wonder if they would turn into something if I continued, however my plan for now is to put them on hold until I have the confidence to paint over them.
The next painting was the one of Sean and Henry, which I already posted on instagram. Despite the awkwardness of the moment in which the reference photo was taken, and the awkwardness of the composition, I thought it turned out pretty well in the end, although the composition did not become more awkward and I wonder if there will be a day when I look back at the painting and know what it's about.
In actuality, I started this painting before the first one I painted, but it seemed to be going so badly that I stopped it at once. I started with a lot of black and mine and Sean's faces looked so small as compared to Henry's and the rest of the frame that I felt there must be something wrong with the proportion. However, in the final version I took a leap of faith and continued with the proportions I had going for me and the only problem I ran into was a slightly elongated bottom half which meant I had to make up some of my jacket (the one I got from bubbe), so I experimented with adding a snotty green. The elongation of Sean's torso is what led Michael to believe he was wearing coveralls and which resulted in the joke about elongation.
The next painting I started was of Alex and me in New York, on the day when we bought art supplies and collaged in the park. You can see in the reference that we are sort of holding back smiles which came across at first fairly easily however, I had to perform a risky operation of shifting my eyes, and eventually my entire face, slightly to the right, which changed my expression so that I now look like I'm holding back tears. Perhaps this is for the best and reflects the changed state of our relationship.
I originally chose this photo for the dynamic and square composition and now still think this is the reason I chose it. As you can see, this painting is yet unfinished. I took the first step towards completion by painting in the background - a simple solid blue like wallpaper, but have yet to tackle that shiny mess of metallic that is the table, fearing that if I do, I enter into the land of the un/illdefined. However, those glue sticks are very appealing, both conceptually and structurally.
More likely my hold up is the shirt I'm wearing which boasts a meme which I've done my best to forget. The greatest strength of this painting, was how effortlessly Alex's face came out. You may be able to tell that, especially in comparison to my face, there are hardly any layers and yet I think it's successful in looking like her, at least enough like her. To be honest, I look forward to finishing her arm, which is a beige similarly solid to that of the sky. I intend to block out the meme and focus on the changing gray hues beneath it when (if) I get around to finishing this painting. (I hope I do)
Since I did not finish this painting, I chose instead to start another one of Nicholas, who I went on a date with about two weeks ago before I met Sean.
Right off the bat this painting took shape and the tricky part was the proportion and figuring out how the things related to the frame, considering how close and enmeshed they were with it. Adding more color was not the opaque dream I'd imagined, and instead left me feeling flighty with my use of a tiny brush to reflect my trepidation at messing up my successful outline, and the resultant itty bitty (disgusting) strokes. In any case, I still see the likeness, which is strange as his face, as in other pictures, appears as flat as the panel I'm using itself. I liked the blue in the background and I hope it doesn't seem random or detract from the face. Looking at it now again, I feel I've been successful in communicating the presence of the mirror, which I don't see now how I thought I'd miss.
My story begins (but I did not begin it this way) when the 30+ hardboard panels I ordered from Blick arrived the other day and I was delighted to find it was much easier than reviews (and my previous observations) stated it would be to remove the stickers on the back. Of course I gessoed all of them in one sitting, gessoing being unarguably the best part of the process (because it is the most relaxing). I was then left with a tremendously satisfying pile of white panels which sat on my desk after the original failure of the sean and henry painting for a number of days.
My overall goal is to make so many of these small paintings that I don't mind selling them for relatively small amounts of money but so far their quantity isn't deterring my tendency to view them as precious and perhaps I can simply try to make paintings that I don't like but other people do, in order to aid in wanting to sell them.
I felt like I gained a sense of control when I redid her face, which is evident in the stark contrast between the overlay and the rest of the painting. I was worried that I would have to accept it looking as it did but then I painted it to perfection and became hung up on the inconsistency with the boy's face, which came out looking almost perfect the first time around. On principle I don't like dogs but this one had me transfixed for some reason and I had a lot of fun finding out how much black there was in a face which I originally thought of as entirely beige. He is not ferocious.
The next painting I attempted are not worth scanning. They were both of men doing solitary activities and bored me before they got to a stage close to completion. I wonder if they would turn into something if I continued, however my plan for now is to put them on hold until I have the confidence to paint over them.
The next painting was the one of Sean and Henry, which I already posted on instagram. Despite the awkwardness of the moment in which the reference photo was taken, and the awkwardness of the composition, I thought it turned out pretty well in the end, although the composition did not become more awkward and I wonder if there will be a day when I look back at the painting and know what it's about.
In actuality, I started this painting before the first one I painted, but it seemed to be going so badly that I stopped it at once. I started with a lot of black and mine and Sean's faces looked so small as compared to Henry's and the rest of the frame that I felt there must be something wrong with the proportion. However, in the final version I took a leap of faith and continued with the proportions I had going for me and the only problem I ran into was a slightly elongated bottom half which meant I had to make up some of my jacket (the one I got from bubbe), so I experimented with adding a snotty green. The elongation of Sean's torso is what led Michael to believe he was wearing coveralls and which resulted in the joke about elongation.
The next painting I started was of Alex and me in New York, on the day when we bought art supplies and collaged in the park. You can see in the reference that we are sort of holding back smiles which came across at first fairly easily however, I had to perform a risky operation of shifting my eyes, and eventually my entire face, slightly to the right, which changed my expression so that I now look like I'm holding back tears. Perhaps this is for the best and reflects the changed state of our relationship.
I originally chose this photo for the dynamic and square composition and now still think this is the reason I chose it. As you can see, this painting is yet unfinished. I took the first step towards completion by painting in the background - a simple solid blue like wallpaper, but have yet to tackle that shiny mess of metallic that is the table, fearing that if I do, I enter into the land of the un/illdefined. However, those glue sticks are very appealing, both conceptually and structurally.
More likely my hold up is the shirt I'm wearing which boasts a meme which I've done my best to forget. The greatest strength of this painting, was how effortlessly Alex's face came out. You may be able to tell that, especially in comparison to my face, there are hardly any layers and yet I think it's successful in looking like her, at least enough like her. To be honest, I look forward to finishing her arm, which is a beige similarly solid to that of the sky. I intend to block out the meme and focus on the changing gray hues beneath it when (if) I get around to finishing this painting. (I hope I do)
Since I did not finish this painting, I chose instead to start another one of Nicholas, who I went on a date with about two weeks ago before I met Sean.
Right off the bat this painting took shape and the tricky part was the proportion and figuring out how the things related to the frame, considering how close and enmeshed they were with it. Adding more color was not the opaque dream I'd imagined, and instead left me feeling flighty with my use of a tiny brush to reflect my trepidation at messing up my successful outline, and the resultant itty bitty (disgusting) strokes. In any case, I still see the likeness, which is strange as his face, as in other pictures, appears as flat as the panel I'm using itself. I liked the blue in the background and I hope it doesn't seem random or detract from the face. Looking at it now again, I feel I've been successful in communicating the presence of the mirror, which I don't see now how I thought I'd miss.
My story begins (but I did not begin it this way) when the 30+ hardboard panels I ordered from Blick arrived the other day and I was delighted to find it was much easier than reviews (and my previous observations) stated it would be to remove the stickers on the back. Of course I gessoed all of them in one sitting, gessoing being unarguably the best part of the process (because it is the most relaxing). I was then left with a tremendously satisfying pile of white panels which sat on my desk after the original failure of the sean and henry painting for a number of days.
My overall goal is to make so many of these small paintings that I don't mind selling them for relatively small amounts of money but so far their quantity isn't deterring my tendency to view them as precious and perhaps I can simply try to make paintings that I don't like but other people do, in order to aid in wanting to sell them.
