This is what I have been slaving over for the last week...

*Edit: I changed the color balance to show a closer version of the color of the painting. My camera takes very yellow pictures because of the flash. I need the flash because I am too shaky to take a good picture w/o.
This is my version of Sargent's Spanish Dancer.


I am working on a second painting that I think will that if it is not a diptych then at least be a sister piece. I am hoping for a diptych. I love diptychs. Both paintings are huge, coming in at 24" X 32." For watercolor, that is gigantic.

Joe

*Edit:This is an updated picture. I finally had time to set up my wonderful HP Photosmart C4580. (It's amazing!) I also finally installed photoshop on my computer not too long ago and now I am able to scan my paintings and let photoshop piece them back together. This makes a much better image because my photo-taking skills leave much to be desired. So after a very busy busy weekend of painting and the exhibit I bring you the new image.
This is a portrait of Joe. I did this one in three days. The portrait of his mom is a full sheet, this painting is a half sheet. I think this one turned out okay. My teacher said it was the best portrait in watercolor that he has seen come out of the academy. He really likes it, clearly. I like the way I painted. I don't think there is anything wrong with painting, I just don't like how I drew it. That's a huge problem. My other watercolor teacher has been telling me for a year that I need to stop being such a shitty drawer (not exactly his words, but it wouldn't be a surprise if he said it like that). I figured it would sort itself out, but I think I may have just gotten lazier over time. This also comes on the heels of working on a painting yesterday that I drew over the summer where most of the drawing is so wrong. I was very proud of that drawing until I looked at it as I was painting yesterday and noticed that most of the lines are very off. Granted, that was a semester ago, but I really haven't improved. I'm not patient enough.

Also, I need to scan this painting in because this picture is really too yellow. All the nice greens and blues are missing. I will try to fix that on Monday, but I am also going to be getting everything ready to enter two contests later in the week so I will be very busy Monday.

Margaret

This is a portrait of Joe's mom. There are a few things that I really like about this painting, mostly in the face. I like the way I painted the eyes and skin tone. I don't like that I messed up on the drawing of the eyes and they are not on the same line. I also don't like how the nose is drawn because it looks a little sunken in. However, I do think I got a likeness and I would like to try this painting again.
This is also just a detail, the painting is huge and I really don't like how I did the rest of the painting. I just made a few bad decisions and did not have the time to really carry off a painting so large.

I made it!

My painting of Tux has been accepted into the 25th annual Open Juried Exhibition of the Illinois Watercolor Society.


Go me!

Check it out

At the moment this is my favorite painting at the Art Institute. The image does not do the painting justice at all. If you get a chance to go to the Institute this is the painting you should look at. I think I may love this guy more than Sargent and Sargent is my painting soul-mate. The feeling I get standing in front of this piece or one of Sargent's is the reason I became an artist. Although I did not know that feeling existed until after I already started drawing. I want people to have that feeling when they look at my stuff.

The Institute also has a photography exhibit going on right now. It blew me away. The man is a genius. I forget his name. His pictures have multiple golden sections in them and he does it over and over. It's hard enough getting a golden section in a painting, but to get it multiple in a photograph of a space that is a street or some other public area is amazing. Crazy!

Sketchbook 3

This is at Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva (I believe.) I had a very fun day painting with Katie. It was gorgeous. We also were in the newspaper because many artists gathered at the park for a paint out.

Sketchbook 2

This is over a couple of days. Maybe 3 or 4 hours total.

Sketchbook

This is a fountain just south of the art institute. It started raining 15 minutes into the painting, but I really like what the paint was doing.

The Best Painting In The World!!

I had the pleasure of "finding" this masterpiece. It is beautiful. If the house was on fire I would grab this painting. Anyone who disagrees is just a hater and you can't appreciate true greatness when you see it.

Some Gesture Paintings

Nude Female

This painting started out as being an exercise in a loose, fast technique and trying to use colors. I am very happy with the way it turned out.

Plein Air Painting (1st time)

This is a close up of my favorite part of the daffodil painting.

1 Hour

This is a quick painting of Joe. I had to make up a project during the week we used a model and he was kind enough to sit in for me.

1st Still Life

This is my second water color painting. My first real still life. I love the way it turned out too. It's an african figurine, a plaster hand w/ broken fingers and a shell. I love the shadow from the figure and the shell. At the beginning of the class that shell didn't look like anything, but a blob and half way through the class it looked awful so I am glad it turned out ok.

Contours

Last one. 

More 

These are the contours I stayed after class to do. Well a small sample of them any way. 

Contours

This is a contour drawing. We used colored pencil. You draw very slowly using with your pencil as parallel to the paper as possible. I am really bad at it. Although the ones I picked to put on here are pretty decent (lots of practice). We get 5 minutes for these 

Conte

This is a conte blocking. You take a piece of conte and use one tone to lay out the basic shape of the person, then you press harder to get another tone for the shadows. You only shade in the darkest shadows and you only use the 2 tones. You also only use the broad side of the conte. The purpose for all that is you just want an abstract form, no details. He looks like a samurai. I love it.  

This is a gesture drawing. They are fun to do, but complicated. You have to sit at the far edge of the bench with your arm straight, drawing by only moving your shoulder and/or elbow, holding the pencil at the back and so lightly that the teacher could just tap your hand and it would fly out. You have to scribble and draw in circles not using any straight lines and then when you get everything laid out you can go back and make a few areas darker. All while not picking up your china marker. (we use china markers not pencils for these) And it's done in 1-3 minutes.  

Gestures

Another gesture, same woman 

Line Drawings

This is the second line drawing I did. I got alot farther on this and I think the only thing the teacher did was the lines on the face. 

This is the first straightline drawing we did for class. This took me the whole week to do and I didn't get hardly any of her legs finished. Plus I think my teacher did some of it. God that one was so hard. It's the same lady as the the one I got to use pencil and white charcoal on.  

Just a quick note on sizes

All work from class is done on 18 x 24 in paper so unless I take a picture of it to post the whole thing will not be on here.

Practice from books is done in my 5 1/2 x 8 in notebook

Actual sketchbook is 9 x 12

Noses 1

I've moved onto the nose, obviously. Just one more page of them before I get to the lips. That's a large chapter.  

Eyes 3

Hopefully I will only have 1 page of eyes left and then it's on to the nose, but that is a much shorter chapter. These are not as good as the other ones. Nothing good from the daily sketch book.  

Practice Eye

This is an eye I did on my own. Trying to use all the practice I am getting from that book. It's done over quick sketches of Tux.  

Quick Sketches

This is from Saturday. It's James giving Tux a bath 

Street Lamp

From a park in the Goldcoast, Newberry Library. From 2004.  

Vanderpoel

Anything with a page number is practice from "The Human Figure" by John H. Vanderpoel. If I start practicing from another book I will note it in the caption. 

Eyes 1

Eyes 2

Random Things 3

my shoe, a chain, a singer at the "L" stop, blue line riders