Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Eighteen.
Howdy. Another numerical post title tonight - eighteen being the number of paintings that'll be in my next show.
Past few days have been extremely productive. Creativity is bursting at the seams again. Lots of painting, a bit of drawing, lots of design. All of the metalflake paintings are well underway now - the final four are in the glazing process. That should be finished soon, and then it'll be clearcoat time again.
The glazing process is probably my favourite part of the whole sequence now. So much fun playing with vibrant colour, and it's probably the least labour-intensive step, too. It's funny - my first attempt at glazing was only four years ago, and at the time I thought I did a bang-up job. Other painters who saw the piece were generous with their praise, too. And the painting was garbage. Just horrible. I didn't even know how to hold a brush properly for glazing at that point. Plus I kinda skimped on the drawing part of the process 'cause I was so geared up to start painting.
Anyhow, glazing and I are old friends now. I think it was reading about how and why glazing was done in the Renaissance era that made it all come together for me - essentially, the pigments they had were so primitive, they'd do a yellow glaze and then a blue glaze on top to create green (for example). In some ways that seems needlessly complicated in the modern era, but similar practices do add a lot more vibrancy and chroma to colour.
Meanwhile, I thrashed out the designs for seven more of these paintings today:
And last night I whipped up a list of what design will go on which painting:
Everything's coming along nicely, now. I should soon be able to predict a completion date.
Good times, good times...
Past few days have been extremely productive. Creativity is bursting at the seams again. Lots of painting, a bit of drawing, lots of design. All of the metalflake paintings are well underway now - the final four are in the glazing process. That should be finished soon, and then it'll be clearcoat time again.
The glazing process is probably my favourite part of the whole sequence now. So much fun playing with vibrant colour, and it's probably the least labour-intensive step, too. It's funny - my first attempt at glazing was only four years ago, and at the time I thought I did a bang-up job. Other painters who saw the piece were generous with their praise, too. And the painting was garbage. Just horrible. I didn't even know how to hold a brush properly for glazing at that point. Plus I kinda skimped on the drawing part of the process 'cause I was so geared up to start painting.
Anyhow, glazing and I are old friends now. I think it was reading about how and why glazing was done in the Renaissance era that made it all come together for me - essentially, the pigments they had were so primitive, they'd do a yellow glaze and then a blue glaze on top to create green (for example). In some ways that seems needlessly complicated in the modern era, but similar practices do add a lot more vibrancy and chroma to colour.
Meanwhile, I thrashed out the designs for seven more of these paintings today:
And last night I whipped up a list of what design will go on which painting:
Everything's coming along nicely, now. I should soon be able to predict a completion date.
Good times, good times...
Friday, July 22, 2011
First Rule of Creativity.
I've said this elsewhere, but I think I oughta elaborate on it here a bit: The first rule of creativity is, feed your head.
You need to stuff your brain full of inspiration - read more books, go to more movies, listen to more music, talk to more people, travel to more places, drink more booze. Then let all the input rattle around in your subconscious. You might just be surprised at the result.
Case in point: I haven't been creatively blocked in years. I've got notebooks and sketchpads full of untapped ideas that could keep me going for a long time to come. Surely I can't be unique in this regard.
You need to stuff your brain full of inspiration - read more books, go to more movies, listen to more music, talk to more people, travel to more places, drink more booze. Then let all the input rattle around in your subconscious. You might just be surprised at the result.
Case in point: I haven't been creatively blocked in years. I've got notebooks and sketchpads full of untapped ideas that could keep me going for a long time to come. Surely I can't be unique in this regard.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Seventeen.
Tuesday was an interesting day. Didn't get to sleep till about 3:00AM, and then abruptly woke up three hours later. And let me tell ya, I was WIDE AWAKE. Tried to get back to sleep for half an hour or so, but it just wasn't working. I felt like I'd been mainlining Full Throttle.
So I got up, checked my email and then had a look at the previous night's artwork. Immediately started touching up a few details on the various paintings. By 7:30 I'd worked on four paintings. And of course there were plenty more needing my attention; I've always got a few paintings on the go, but lately the numbers have ramped up considerably.
Kept chipping away at the artwork all day, other than for a couple hours when I took a break and went down to the beach.
At the end of a 19-hour day, I'd lavished my attention on 17 paintings. No errors or missteps, no regrets. The creativity and the paint flowed, despite how jittery I was from sleep deprivation. Not a day I'd necessarily want to repeat, but the results speak for themselves:
So I got up, checked my email and then had a look at the previous night's artwork. Immediately started touching up a few details on the various paintings. By 7:30 I'd worked on four paintings. And of course there were plenty more needing my attention; I've always got a few paintings on the go, but lately the numbers have ramped up considerably.
Kept chipping away at the artwork all day, other than for a couple hours when I took a break and went down to the beach.
At the end of a 19-hour day, I'd lavished my attention on 17 paintings. No errors or missteps, no regrets. The creativity and the paint flowed, despite how jittery I was from sleep deprivation. Not a day I'd necessarily want to repeat, but the results speak for themselves:
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