I usually bring some art supplies and sketchbooks to church to help my little ones be engaged and have fun while sitting in the pews (actually…I bring them for myself, but it benefits them as well). The last three Sundays I’ve been collaborating with my 4 year old son Ethan. His style usually involves a lot of “scribbling,” but his mark-making has actually been teaching me a lot. His marks are very spontaneous. They are “randomized” in a way that is very difficult for an artist used to control to mimic. In fact, I was unable to come close to mimicking his marks until I payed close attention to how he was holding his pencil or pen. His mars were being made by his whole arm…his whole body even. It was only after gripping the pencil with my fist in the middle and moving my whole arm that we were truly able to collaborate.
Mindy and I had the opportunity to go to Maine for the first time and we decided to check out some art from the amazing Portland Museum of Art. We were immediately impressed with the quality and breadth of their collection.
When we were there, they had a show up about the Haystack School located in rural Maine. I was immediately drawn to the work created at this innovative school which began in the 50’s. I was drawn to the beauty of the work, the beauty of the natural setting the work was created in, and the beauty of the radical arts community that coalesced around the school. It was the kind of experience that makes you want to sell all that you have, move in with other artists, and dedicate yourself to communal creation. If you are unfamiliar with the Haystack School, I would definitely recommend you check them out.
Below, you will find a collection of images (including many details) from the museum. The bottom three images represent work specifically from the Haystack School.
This is a demo I did for “observational painting” in my Painting I class. I wanted to show them how to paint like they would in a sketchbook and be less attached to the end product, to work quickly, and to be engaged primarily in the process of looking and painting. I usually get more out of these exercises than my students, and I ended up enjoying the texture and feel of this piece painted on corrugated cardboard.
Every year I take my High School Art Club students to the Chicago Art Institute and I find myself drawn more to painting details than anything else. Below you will find a collection of brushstrokes, details, and full paintings that inspired me.
There are days that I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of this painting from life in gouache business (I was pretty proud of this study I did last week behind the barn where my Dad keeps his horses), but then I look at some of the work being done by other artists who I follow and I’m blown away and inspired at what they are able to do. I want to share some of these artists here so you can be inspired by their work as I am.
Of course James Gurney has been my inspiration from the beginning, and in some ways I’ve tried to learn from him the most since he posted so many awesome process videos on his gurneyjourney website. I’ve put a video below that he posted recently that blew me away. In it he paints a bunch of ferns which creates a complex and detailed subject matter. Gurney always chooses unique subject matter and is a constant student of painting. In fact, his website could serve as a one stop shop for learning all aspects, techniques, and painting media. In the fern painting, he defines the detailed fronds by painting both negative and positive shapes overlapping layers of gouache.
Another amazing gouache artist with a really distinct style is Yuchung Peter Chan. The way he slowly uses wash to build up his colors and the way he simplifies and slightly abstracts his real life subject matter set him apart from many other gouache artists. I believe he does teach some workshops, but my main exposure is from following him on his pixelp tumblr. You can also follow him on Youtube as pixelpchan (though I’m sure he also posts on instagram and I’m sure elsewhere as well). Below is a video of him painting asparagus:)
Next is the master Nathan Fowkes. He’s worked on amazing films such as “Prince of Egypt” and “How to Train Your Dragon” doing storyboards and background paintings, but he’s also as well known as a teacher through Schoolism. What I love most about some of the quick sketches he does is the economy of brush strokes he uses to create a fully realized atmospheric landscape.
The final artist who I just came across recently is Nicholas Bono Kennedy. You can follow him on Tumblr as paintwithnick and you can also check out his YouTube channel. The video I posted below was great because I love seeing his progress and the number of paintings he did in a year. I love the way he says making a lot of “starts” paintings is more valuable than spending five hours on one more refined painting, and I also felt inspired to do more still lives and portraits after checking out his work. It looks like his tumblr has a lot of teaching content as well so check it out.
Yesterday I posted an environment concept I painted. When I posted it on facebook I asked my friends what story they saw in the piece. A close friend and fellow artist Annie Lightsey suggested the following:
“[He] has embarked upon a pilgrimage that will take him far from home. Reverently and with gratitude he turns and looks, one last time, upon the opulent comforts of the home he leaves behind before he proceeds on his journey.”
I’m considering going on this journey with The Pilgrim, so I decided to do a character concept of him today.
I’ve been trying to challenge myself to create some wholly original work and find my voice as an artist, and this is what I found today.
I was inspired by watching a twitch stream of johnlestudio to just begin a drawing and figure out the story as I went. As John was drawing he would “feel” a shape or a line that looked/felt good to him and then he would figure out how to create it within the developing world of his piece.
Of course, if I’m attempting any kind of concept art, I should also mention the artists Sparth and Scott Robertson whose tutorials, both online and in book form, have been helpful to me along my journey.
I’ve been following the work of Nathan Fowkes on his blog for awhile. He’s amazing and his work is amazing. A couple days ago he posted this great image showing his charcoal portraiture process since he just released a book on the topic.
So I decided to give it a try. In looking for an image to study I came across this iconic photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the film “Shanghai Express.”
I followed the same process as Fowkes and really enjoyed the journey.
I’ve finally started learning how to use Manga Studio 5 which I invested in to see how it would do as a Photoshop alternative. It was very intuitive and has everything a comic artist needs for coloring which is all I’ve attempted at this point.
The above images are studies of a Guillaume Singelin illustration from his “Southern Tales” series which I found in his excellent book of sketches Junky. Below is a poorly filtered image I took from the book itself. This was a lot of fun to do and it was a good way to start learning a new program.
Ok, you may be wondering when I will start creating original work, but this is kind of the way I approach life in general. I research a lot before I write the paper. I shop around a lot before I purchase a product. In the case of my art, I like the idea of the Atelier model–a student should copy Master works, and hone their skills through repetition. That’s kind of where I’m at right now. On the other hand, this painting is the last one I plan to do with the aid of a video tutorial. My next works will be studies of paintings themselves. Can I take what I’ve learned and use it to recreate paintings in my own? We’ll see.
I enjoyed painting along with John Crump in this video today. We’ll see what happens next.
