New Prints on Etsy

This image, "Taking Off" and its companion piece, "Landing", have just been added to the prints section of my Etsy site.  Check them out: Prints on Etsy

Art Basics: Transferring a drawing to canvas.

I enjoy documenting the processes I use in creating some art pieces, so I thought I'd share.  This process of transferring a drawing on paper to a canvas is a very basic process and it could be achieved a few different ways.  I chose to use the charcoal transfer method (like using carbon paper) after I enlarged my drawing in photoshop.  Here are some photos to guide through the process:

Here's the sketch I began in three stages of development.  The concept is a continuation of the Head and Hand series as documented HERE.


So first you complete a sketch you like, and you definitely should like it A LOT or enough to not mind tracing it three times.  I am pretty satisfied with this sketch, I might have repositioned the lower hand to create a more interesting space around the jaw line, but I like  the softness of the expression of that hand enough to see what it could do for the finished painting.  The original sketch should have strong contrast so that you can trace the areas of light and dark as flat shape which makes the painting go much smoother with better results.

Next you make a line drawing from the sketch by using tracing paper and simply tracing the image.


Since I want to go from a small sketch to a large canvas I decided to use photoshop to blow the image up .  You could also use the grid method as shown in a video HERE.  After scanning the image, I laid it out in photoshop on four 8.5"x11" pages so I could print it in four sections.



Once printed, cover the back of each page with charcoal or soft pastel, flip it over and position it on the canvas.  I use a pen black or blue to trace the image on the paper so that my marks are darker than the printout and I don't repeat any lines.  In this case, since I had four separate pages to trace, I went ahead and traced the transfer on the canvas with a pencil immediately after laying it down so that I wouldn't smear it as I worked on tracing the other sheets.



There will likely be some gaps to fill in and some lines that weren't transfered dark enough.  Using pastel leads to a darker transfer than the charcoal.

Next step is to add paint!  I'll post updates throughout the week on that process.  A print will likely be available along with the current ones at www.etsy.com/shop/hybridtribes, sometime in the next two weeks.

Reduced Costs=Reduced Prices on Prints!

Prints on Etsy
Now $15

Lowbrow art, where does it fit?

I love "lowbrow" art, pop surrealism, pop modern...whatever you want to call it.  It is relatively new, well been around since the 70's, but you'd think galleries would be more accepting of the style by now.  However, MANY galleries have become known to exclusively showcase the style, so there is no shortage of venues for pop surrealists. But it would still be nice to look at calls for art and not feel the need to weed out galleries so carefully.  What do you think?  Where does lowbrow fit?  Who are your favorite artists and galleries?

Lowbrow Wikiality

Joe Sorren

Just found one of Joe Sorren's and Jud Bergeron's new collaborative sculptures.  I am itching the get my hands on the wax in my studio and sculpt 3D versions of my head and hand series.  I wish foundries weren't so expensive.  Need a grant!  Sorren's contribution to the sculptures are akin to his 2D creatures and characters.  I love his fluffy, strange style.

Joe Sorren and Jud Bergeron Sculptures on Fecal Face

Joe Sorren, The Mushroom Hunter

"never paint it again"

Good advice is basically the driving force of a current set of drawings and paintings I'm working on.  An awesome professor once advised the class "figure out what you don't want to paint and never paint it again."  I am taking this advice very seriously, maybe this is already what most artists do.  But to me, a lot of art seems to be composed of what the artist thinks is expected.  What should the ethereal or sexy lady archetype be doing in the painting, for example?  Well of course her hair should be blowing or something of that nature and she should have bedroom eyes, right? Well, if the form of a different type of hair or eye is more interesting to paint, just in terms of process, then thats what I'll paint.   Typing this out makes this seem painfully obvious and almost irrelevant, but I think if an artist will look at their past work they can easily pull out a few decisions that seem contrived by the artists idea of what the viewer wants to see.

So this current set of work I've started, began with this:

and a painting of the same image:

This type of image is similar to what I typically render.  Abstracted figures and faces are recurring themes in my work.  But this time I looked at this image with a question.  What did I like about the process of painting this image?  The answer is face, hair and hands.  You can tell looking at the body that there was no effort there to provide detail or indicate gender.  So I thought then it was pointless to depict a body at all, so what if I combined hands and heads only?   

And the next:

Eliminating the body allowed for a more interesting composition and more enjoyable painting session.  The next paintings in this series will continue this theme with a little more emphasis on the space behind the strange non-figurative figures.  

So this all boils down to editing out what doesn't interest you, free up some mental space, process your process. 

Favorite Illustrators/artists

I'm constantly looking at other artists work for inspiration and ways to improve my technique. Here are just a few of my favorites:

James Jean: www.jamesjean.com
Audrey Kawasaki: http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com
Lisa Yuskavage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Yuskavage/27512707964?v=wall
Joe Sorren: www.joesorren.com
Mark Ryden: www.markryden.com
Amy Huddleston: www.amyhuddleston.com

                                            Lisa Yuskavage: Lurid and luscious ... Wilderness (2009)




Leave links to some of your favorite artists please!

More recent photos of my installation.

A corridor for the imagination.
The In-Betweens.

Trying to get some good photos for a grant due TODAY!

These are losers... but good enough for blogging I suppose.

These materials are very difficult for a non-photographer to photograph...back to it.  Gonna try something different.

Closer...

I am getting there...I have never worked on a project for soooo long.  I've been piecing this installation together since August.  Although I started in a very different way I like where the journey is taking me.  What I have ended up with are these wall-like structures formed from plexiglas rectangles and thin and fragile sheets of poured plexi that look like webs, as well as fishing line dipped in dissolved plexi.  These elements form each wall and come together to look as if the walls are dissolving.  Its very drippy and ethereal/whimsical.  I love that I have eliminated color.  When I start my painting series this summer I think I will definitely begin with a more neutral/muted palette which is a huge break from past efforts that are intentionally gaudy and full of color.  I'm craving more subtlety, potent subtleties.  Like the patterns of light reflected off the structures I'm building.

1st sample drawing for book of illustrated poems I'd like to publish this year.