Beach please...

Quick check-in.
My brother saw a painting somewhere, took a picture of it, and requested I re-create it.

Thusly...

It's becoming a thing.

Likely hard to discern at this state, but it's a overhead view of a beach. As if shot straight down from a drone/quadcopter. Waves lapping up. Beach-goers with blankets and umbrellas. Surfers wading out. Palm trees.

I have no idea who the original artist was. Also don't really know what the medium was. The picture my bro sent looked like a painting that was printed on a canvas with some vague craquelure effect on it. A bit strange.

So I'm using acrylics in a watercolor-ish manner. Multiple transparent layers, glazes, starting messy and becoming more careful as I progress. I've never painted something quite this big before. Not as my own piece alone at least. I've done smaller parts of big murals. But this sucker is 60x40. Bananas for scale in the first shot. Lol. It comes up to my eyes.

Trying to only do one layer every couple of days to keep my fingers from freaking out. Doing okay so far.

Cracked up watching the opening ceremony for the Rio Olympics. In one of the first video montages there are a bunch of overhead shots exactly like this one. Funny coincidence.

Also got an idea for a Project for Awesome Art contribution.
More on that later.

Picked a few of the first burgundy beans out of our garden yesterday.
Yay, veg!

P4A 2015 Recap...

Vlogritte John

Vlogritte Hank

The Vlogbrothers mashed-up with surrealist painter René Magritte.
Based on Magritte’s ‘La clef des songes’ where he juxtaposed ordinary objects with seemingly unrelated words. But I’ve given it a twist. The uninitiated would not see any relationship between the objects and the words, but my fellow nerdfighters probably will.

VLOGRITTE JOHN

Sharpies - Les étoiles (Stars): Referencing John’s primary occupation as author, the great impact of The Fault in Our Stars, and the enormous amount of Sharpies he used to sign more than 150,000 copies of the book.

Peanut Butter - La punition (Punishment): Everyone knows the only way to make the internet pay attention to news is via peanut butter face. Punishments and challenges have become such an integral part of online and vlogging culture.

Pizza - John: Inspired this whole idea. It had to be a thing. Pizza John a la Magritte. Hank explains how the original happened. Also, Happy late Pizzamas!

Egg - Le yéti (The Yeti): Initially, John’s very awesome wife was never seen on camera or spoken of by name, thusly, The Yeti. But more recently, Sarah has been cultivating our appreciation and understanding of art through The Art Assignment, sharing her knowledge and skill earned through a ton of study and curation. The egg is one of Magritte’s commonly repeated images, so it all comes back around to the inspiration. Here, it’s a symbol of John and Sarah teaching us, entertaining us, and helping us grow and think about the world in new ways.

VLOGRITTE HANK

2D Glasses - La baudroie (Anglerfish): Hank appears to have approximately a gajillion projects going at any time, which is hard to express with one object. I used the 2D glasses to represent the sciency, nerdy, creative, and oddball ideas that Hank has ‘made a thing’. And apparently La baudroie is not precisely an anglerfish, but it will have to do! Here representing Hank’s development as a musician and the delightfully deep Song About an Anglerfish.

Bunny Peep - La route (Road): Yet another popular community challenge, because eating a ton of peeps while explaining really horrifying world problems and hoping to decrease said worldsuck is a thing. And the road is paved with peeps on Nerdfighteria Island.

Corndog - Hank: Who the eff is Hank? Hank is a sausage covered in cornbread batter and deep fried. Hank + corndog = OTP..

Leaves - Le weegie: Leaves for EcoGeek and Hank’s effort to support and encourage technologies that don’t damage the environment and reverse some of the damage we’ve already done. Also a commonly repeated Magritte image. Le weegie is a silly play on words to represent Katherine’s contributions to GamesWithHank and Wii Wednesdays… as Luigi. Weegie! Master of Science, awesome singer, Christmas Tree wrangler, caretaker of animals… The Katherine, whose warmth and enthusiasm is contagious in the best way.

---

The process: acrylic paint on paper 16x20. Had to cut it down to fit in the scanner and stitch it back together. Some prismacolor pencil for details. Touch-up in photoshop.

Made fifteen 8x10 prints of each and doubled them up for fifteen perks.

Posted them on tumblr and got a lovely response. Lots of likes and reblogs, which is super sweet.

The Project for Awesome was wonderful as usual. Streamed as much as possible. Much silliness was had. Hitting one million was a highlight. Hank, Henry, Destin, and ViHart singing wildly. Lol. Great fun with sciency people.

A very successful P4A!

Done and dusted...

45 completed.
WOO!
They're packaged in groups of three and on their way to the P4A perks gathering place. Took about a month of work. Many continuous hours over the last two weeks. Abused my body in the process. A vicious knot over my right shoulder blade. Neck aching. Sleep-deprived. Too sedentary. And my fingers are all wrecked, thumb included. I won't be doing any art for the next two weeks. At least nothing that requires holding a tool of some sort. Might do some Illustrator work since it's just clicking paths into place. I'm typing this entirely with my left hand at the moment. Lol.

Totally worth it though. The Project for Awesome will be in a couple weeks. I'm very happy to contribute to the cause.

Here are some highlights out of the 45.

It's all Vlogbrothers/Nerdfighter stuff. I'm really pleased with the results.

The packaging is cute, too. Little brown paper envelopes with handmade stickers to close.

That's the look of glorious victory.

And also aching fingers. XD
I've even been taping my thumb, which is super tricky to do with the need for so much bend at the knuckle. It's quite furious with me, to say the least.

While working on this, I was reminded that most folks don't have to worry about using scissors or pencils for a few minutes. And also that I used to not have to worry about it. I went 20 some-odd years without having to limit tool use, and now I can hardly relate to what that must have been like.

Sad thoughts.

I'm now in the indecisive mode of how to encourage healing. Tight taping to stifle swelling? No taping? Heat soaks? Ice? Pure rest? Normal use? I wish I knew what it was. I'm tempted to take prednisone, which I know works, but the side-effects are miserable.

Just gonna tough it out and monitor recovery along the way.

FINGER STATUS

Little epicenters everywhere. My pinkie is the first to be fully swelling. Can't bend it much. Ring finger looks like I took a hammer to it. Small puffy spots on the middle finger. It's the least affected actually. The tip of my index finger is beginning to be unbearably sensitive. The thumb also has the hammered look going on at the knuckle, but the worst pain is around the side of the pad.

Mess.

I've had a few nights now where the overall ache and prickling is keeping me awake and it will probably get worse.

It's not all doom and gloom. It was a good test to see how much I can push it while also taping religiously. And I got some fun art out of it. S'all good.

Also got through all of Star Trek:TOS. I'll post on that at some point. Hoo boy. It really never improved. -___-

But next post will probably be about JYJ. I still want to say a few words about the album. Plus, they're currently on a dome tour in Japan and releasing a new single. They are singing Begin during the concert encore. EMOSHINKI. The tears. THE TEARS I HAVE SHED. T___T

Hajimarusaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Oh, and I think I'm switching lanes to the Nvidia Shield Tablet instead of the Nexus 9. Android Lollipop rolled out for the Shield a few days ago and I think that just sold it for me. Waiting to see if there will be any Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals that become the determining factor.

K. I'm done.

In the thick of it...

May have been a bit ambitious. Ha!
I've been hunched over paints and pencils and stencils for a couple weeks. Now on the homestretch. I need to get these Project4Awesome art perks ready to ship by next Friday.

Cut up a ton of squares from old printmaking paper.
Mixed acrylics and painted them all for backgrounds.
Below are some progress pictures while I was stenciling the Nerdfighter salute logos.

Stenciled what I could. Everything else is hand-painted and drawn with Prismacolor pencils.

I'm eyeball-deep in this mess now. Lol. It's all the most focused, meticulous, detail-work for the rest.

Still aiming for 45 pieces, but my fingers are starting to get really angry with me. Taping religiously has kept me from a full-blown swelling episode, but there are a few spots that are on the way. Depending on how well my hand withstands the next couple days that number may need to change. We'll see.

Then it will be packaging and mailing. Woohoo!

FINGER STATUS:

It feels as good as it looks. My thumb is unfortunately untape-able, because it's too restrictive. But it has also had far fewer blow-ups than my other fingers, so it's still pretty manageable. The ring finger is a mess, but taping is keeping the swelling down and keeping my mobility. Lots of other sensitive/raw/threatening areas, but all tolerable thus far. I wonder how I'll be in a week!

Time to get back to work.

Winter throwback III

I'm sensing a theme here. A bit of an odd story behind this one. Claytonian is a Youtube vlogger who lives/teaches English in Japan. He visited a gallery somewhere... this was quite a while ago... and this piece caught his eye. As seen on the left, I screenshotted it, because it is rather gorgeous. Eventually got around to painting a version, based totally on the screenshot. Claytonian didn't know who the artist was or what it was called. I couldn't find any information either. I would love to know. Until that happens I'm just calling her 'Clay's Geisha'. Kept messing up the eyes and redoing them 'cause they're so much lovelier in the original, but I couldn't make them work. I like the grey-ness of it, though!


In other news, I have fully moved in to my new computer. Still getting acclimated to all the Windows 7 jazz. Feeling less anxious now. I was worried I wouldn't be settled in by the time my online classes start next week. Silkscreen, CSS, Web Development, and Dreamweaver. I predict I will be confusing the three online classes with each other. Lots of passwords and schedules to stay on top of. I'm suuuuuper excited about Silkscreen, but the teacher is notoriously a bastard. As far as I have heard, he rarely gets through a semester without making at least one student break down in tears in class. Soooo... yeeaaahhh.

Oh, and I got The Fault in Our Stars a day early from Amazon. w00t. One of the gazillion pre-orders signed by Vlogbrother, John Green. I'll start reading it tonight. Huzzah! DFTBA.

Winter throwback II

 

I worked on this one during the 'beginning painting' class also. The antique picture to the left is the obvious reference. I stumbled across it somewhere on the net... possibly the Pink Tentacle blog. It hasn't been updated much since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, but they had a lot of incredible old artwork/posters/photographs on a regular basis. Anyway, this lovely lady was rather striking. The fabric of the kimono looked like a fun challenge. Unfortunately, I never finished her face and neck, so she's a little lacking. I was really pleased with the kimono and obi's color and pattern. As far as I recall, the rounded hairstyle indicates she was a married woman... 'marumage'. There is a Japanese language lesson in there. Weee!

Winter throwback I

A handful of older pieces will be on their way to this space during winter break.

First up...

Alphonse Mucha's 'Cycles Perfecta'. The Art Nouveau style is so... accessible? I think it just always looks good. Mucha was the master. Came across this poster a few years ago. I hadn't seen it before. Interesting combination of the crazy hair and dress and simple bicycle. Kinda spiffy. I painted this during 'beginning painting' at the JC. It's more like a class for experienced painters who can take advantage of the studio and get units for it. Our Prof let us paint anything we wanted. Actually, the three figure studies I posted recently were during this class... from the only day we had something specific to paint. I digress...

So, my Cycles Perfecta is acrylic on canvas. 18x24. Pardon the terrible photo quality. I was really happy with it and thoroughly enjoyed painting it. But, the curse of a perfectionist, I wasn't quite happy with the blend on the face and the arms. Went over them again and it irreparably dulled out the color. Gah! Even though it's glaringly annoying to me, I guess it's not obvious to everyone else. Miss Perfecta has recently taken up residence at my bro's place, where she can be enjoyed by real cyclists who would never let their hair get silly enough to get caught in the spokes.

Folding chairs are cool.

My fingers were cranky and then I went and drew a soft-ground abstract thing. My index finger is back to being a sausage and my middle finger is well on its way. I wanted to draw one more soft-ground plate, too, a hot air balloon similar to one I did for a recent commission. Since I can only balance tools/utensils between my thumb and palm... that probably won't happen. At this point, I'm looking at a future of web-design, because I can't keep killing my hand with drawing and painting.

So, while I wallow in finger-swelling misery for the last week of class, I'll post these. Did them during the painting class I took last year. We only had a model once I think. It's the only time I've ever painted the figure from life, which is kinda sad. Still pretty terrible at drawing/painting figures. Have never practiced enough. As far as my hand problem is concerned... I won't be getting more practice anytime soon.

Lots of red, since I tend to not use much red.

Something looser for fun.

 The striated blue background in the last one still annoys me... otherwise I kind of like that piece. I wish I could paint again. T___T

In regards to the previous post:
Went back and forth with a Blogger Help dude... eventually he suggested I contact Google Apps. Did that, but it's probably going to take forever to hear back. *sigh*

It would be so nice to have a functioning hand for the last printing lab on Friday.
Probably not going to happen.

Oh, and obviously the Republican candidates are a freakshow, but that 30 second ad by Rick Perry that's making the rounds... hoo boy!
Not sure if I've ever been so thoroughly repulsed by a person in such a short amount of time.

Saw a great response on Reddit. It deserves a re-post:

I'm not ashamed to say that I won't be voting for Rick Perry, but you don't have to tune in to CNN every evening to know that there's something wrong in this country when politicians can openly spew homophobic, unconstitutional rhetoric and still garner support. As citizens, let's end Perry's war on reason and tolerance, and fight against radical conservative attacks on our secular heritage. Separation of church and state made America strong, it can make her strong again.

 Word.

Now in color...

Worked on it for a couple of days and then it got too damn hot. Can't be painting during the day inside when it's 96 degrees outside and the whole house is closed up tight to keep out the heat. I know acrylics are pretty safe, but still, I require ventilation.
So yeah, kinda fun. I'd like to go in with graphite or prismacolors and mess with details and silliness. But now that the weather is cooling, I need to be working on the bigger paintings I have planned/need to finish. I'm slacking off far too much.
I'm thinking about FIDM... the $$$ is terrifying though. *sigh* Dunno what I'm doing. I think I'll take an online html class at the JC. Maybe advanced etching. Maybe silkscreen. Ugh. Too many things on my mind and no real direction. Same ol' same.

Harry Potter in a week. T______T
I think I'll go through an entire box of Kleenex before the movie even starts. But I know, once it's all said and done, I'll be walking out of the theater like this...

And then I'll go through another box of Kleenex.
^^

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Yay, Summer!!!
My goal is to get five paintings done before Fall semester. That, and getting a driver's license and a job if possible. Plus, I'm doing some other art projects for friends. Yeeeee.


I don't know what this is or where it's going, but I've been painting it for the last couple days. Acrylic on Bristol. I actually drew it during Winter Break last year, but didn't get a chance to paint it. The process was lifted from one of Mzzz. Larsen's classes. During the gallery's sculpture show, we went down and sketched some of the maquettes. Then we cut the sketches into interesting pieces and moved them around on paper, tracing the contours. We finished them by 'irradiating' with simple black gradients. I rather liked my piece, but I think the Larsen kept them all.

But... I still had the sketch cut-outs!!! So I figured I would make my own little project. I think I'll be painting in some big areas of yellow-orange next. Maybe some bright green. Something bold. We'll see.

Some assembly...

Let's see...
Fall of '08. I took Principles of Color with the exquisitely terrifying Donna Larsen. Ms. Larsen. You have to say it with a 'z'. Mzzzzzz Larsen. This is crucial. In all of her eccentric glory, she provided me an education in color that blew my mind. While this made me incredibly excited for future work, I looked around at my old art and works in progress and... deflated. Everything came to a screeching halt with the BRAND NEW INFORMATION that no other art teacher had offered me before. I loved that class. Loved it. Wuvved ittttt. Tons of interesting assignments.

This collage is made with a complimentary admixture of red-orange to blue-green. Mzz Larsen calls it 'esoteric toning'... because she can. Flat colors painted out on bristol paper to make swatches. Swatches are exacto'd into any desired shape. Then you just start stacking. Glorious fun.

Trebuchet
7x7 in. Bristol

Of course, I had to take her other class, Intro to Art & Design, in Spring '09. An equally challenging and awesome experience. Our final project was a Cubist collage. We had to show our 'workspace' in a Cubist mode, include three personal items, and use a number of specific visual cues, like reversals. We also chose a 'slim volume of verse' and had to photocopy the cover and a page from the text to include. I used 'Pieces of You' by Tablo, a South-Korean hip hop artist. Acrylic paint, photocopies, prismacolor pencils.
All of it came together so joyfully for me. Very satisfying.

Walls of My World
14x17 in. Bristol

I'm itching to do a series like this.

on the shoulders of...

Acrylic continued...

Magritte's Umbrella
on canvas
Magritte's 'Hegel's Holiday' with a Northern California Twist

Diebenkorn Remix
on bristol
A JC project to re-color Diebenkorn's 'Window'

Shoulder
on bristol
thumbnail copy of Morisot's 'Lady at her Toilette' seen below

JC work galore. Ha.

Transit
on unstretched canvas
referenced from a photograph I took on SR citybus...

My second home. :D

All acrylic paint.

Toes
on canvas
she popped into my head while watching TV and I had to get her out

Thunder
on canvas
inspired by tattoo cloud designs

Peony
on canvas
I was studying the ukiyo-e books at the library

Hikari
on bristol
JC project referenced from the Whale sculpture on the 4th floor of the library

Peacock
on canvas
Kim Jaejoong of TVXQ

Most beautiful man I've ever seen. Good voice, too. ^^

catharsis

Abstraction is restorative. Especially with paint. All of these are from high school or just after. I was on a really abstract kick for a while.

Aqua
acrylic on canvas

Sugar
acrylic on bristol

The Girls
acrylic on cardboard
this was a collaboration with a number of girls in art class, Junior year

Tir (land, in gaelic)
acrylic on wood panel

anthem
acrylic on wood panel

The bottom two were from a project. I had four sets in total, four panels each. Two sets were sandwiched together and attached with clear vinyl strips to create a giant 'Jacob's Ladder' toy. One of them was sitting at Chop's for a while.

arid.2

Continuing...

wine bottle still life
graphite pencil

Stovetop
bristol paper with a layer of acrylic paint for color
b/w prismacolor pencil for the drawing

Sushi Bro
similar process with acrylic paint to the above
b/w conté crayon for the drawing