Add a little black to all your colors

I am having a little bit of a meltdown. Some combination of the seasonal changes, impending holiday stress, and the huge acres of canvas I have committed to paint for upcoming shows has given me pretty awful anxiety attacks. I am working right through them but it feels pretty grim here in my studio. I don't understand why they happen or how to get over this, but I am still working and that is enough for now.

 I had an amazing photo shoot a month or so ago and am starting to use the photos in this painting.

 

 I then make a black and white scale mock-up to see how it will look full-size, and to use for tracing the image onto canvas.

Then I transfer the drawing.
 

I am adding a little black to all my colors, to grey them a bit, to unify them, and because I am so fucking depressed these days.

Lots of looseness at this stage, just sploshing paint and blocking in shapes.

 

Now I am starting to paint the figures and its really fucking hard as always. It gets better when the figures have more going on in them, but for now I get pretty frustrated easily. I guess a lot of that is my current 

state of enervation. It will pass soon. I just want to be quiet and peaceful and not bother anyone and paint. Is that too much to fucking ask for?

 

Whistler's mother and the girl with the pearl earring.

I decided to increase the complexity around the central figure, so I added some more traditional painting references (see title of blog). I also changed the painting Pollack is standing on to a wall. He is painting over a void, almost pulling the red paint out of the depths. The girl was initially painted very sharp and crisp but was distracting from Pollock, so I attacked the wet paint and motion blurred her head. The lettering is some crazy graffiti font. I have to finish this this week! Details, glazing, rendering.

Commission

I have been doing commissions lately. I will show a bit of the process in this blog.

1. Initial contact. Gallery contacted me and informed me that a client would be interested in me developing a painting from a specific photo. Chilean riot police covered with paint from protesters.

 2. I develop a possible composition in Photoshop and send to the client.

3. The Idea was that Jackson Pollack is splashing paint and that the riot police are protecting aspects of traditional painting: Still-life, landscape, etc.

4. Idea is OK'd!

5. Drawing transferred and painting begun.

6. Closeup!

Sexy Beast and the Pomegranate

Music for this session: Beatles, bass solos, Jaco Pastorius

Hey there. Been painting some commissions and I don't want to show them until the waiting patron receives the piece. But here are a couple details.

Yes it is Ghandi. Ever see Ben Kinsley in "Sexy Beast" I mean is that a character as far removed from Ghandi as the current political discourse is from rationality, or what? Kudos to Mr Kingsley for the most delicious cussing ever in a film.

This is not actually a commission.

Pushing space deeper into the picture plane.

 Music for this session: Peter Gabriel


This weekend I organized a 5 hour photo shoot. My friend Shaun Roberts http://shaunroberts.net/ and several others helped and I got some pretty amazing reference. The photos look like crazy steampunk Carravagio paintings.
Here is Toni shooting Alex.http://alexrosmarin.org/

Using glazes to unify the underlying colors. Using glazes to push back the space. Using glazes to make gradations of light. I have gotten this painting about 60% done and it took three weeks. At that pace I will not get enough done to make all my deadlines! #@$%!

I also used the extra paint to cover up some old figure studies. I like the half-glazed and dripping effect.

upside, downside

Music for this painting session: Dangermouse and Sparklehorse, Radiohead, Yes, Buckethead.

Most Sundays I start painting around 7 PM. This is after working out from 11:30 AM till 5:30. First a brutally intense yoga class (www.monkeyyoga.com) Then a worse kick-boxing/wrestling sparring class. I am usually barely able to move or think. However, the vast amounts of endorphins circulating in my blood has positive effects. I makes me feel like I've been smoking very good Indica.

This painting is coming slowly. But it is coming. That is good.

Here is a step by step drawing of a plaster torso, I did to show my class how to proceed in their drawing.

Glazing transparent veils of color

 

Music for this session: Blood music and the whisper of hemoglobin along the inside of my veins. The slow pace of breath. Snatches of memory and sexual fantasy. 

Here I have gone over the B&W figure with a transparent mix of burnt sienna and ultramarine. Its crazy how different it looks than if I had painted the same color in the original underpainting. The old masters called it velatura. Veils of transparent color. See Madeline Von Foesters website for a complete explanation: http://www.madelinevonfoerster.com.

      I worked on the machines behind him as well. I have  painted the other figures head for the past three days, scrapped it all off each time, finally realized I needed to move to another area. Sometimes its best to let go of a problem and come back to it. Discretion is the better part of valor.