Post-Graduation

School's finally over, and I've been cruising right along project-wise ever since I got back into New York. I think the fact that I was so burned out last semester helped me find inspiration faster once I was free to do what I pleased, and I have to say it's been a lot of fun so far. For the past month, and next few weeks, I'll be working on as much art as possible. At the end of June I'm headed back to Buffalo to room with my brother- and that means I have to job hunt for a part time position somewhere hopefully nearby to pay rent and the impending school bills, and get resettled after moving again. So things might get stagnant for a little while after that.
For now though, I've completed two new paintings, and started a third (the digital line comp was done last week so it's a bit further along than that right now). The Daft Punk piece was a lot of fun to work on, and it helped me develop a much more intuitive and efficient way for doing final layout and color comps. The painting with the girl in the yellow dress was a trade through the pretty recent tumblr group- Crayon Crunch. Essentially a monthly secret santa event where people sign up by sending an email out of one of their original characters, and they'll be depicted by someone randomly chosen. The character I received for May was Ironmary's Mariska Morevna.
The third wip piece is something I'm playing with, concerning individual songs by groups I'm really fond of.

 

As usual there's a lot more to see on my tumblr: http://klang-art.tumblr.com/  where anything and everything goes up!

A session in landscape.

Ok, I know I post about this class a lot on here but I felt it would be nice to give a run down of why I'm particularly fond of it and how it affects how I work.  

Now, being an illustration major, the majority of my classes are, well, based in illustration.  Which is fine but it gets to be particularly frustrating when you realize you're just as behind in composing original images as you are in painting the final product.  Last year I took landscape painting not knowing what to expect.  What I got out of it was an invaluable opportunity to play with paint.  It wound up building not only my ability to compose competent environments, but also my style.  

When you're put on location for (at most) 3 hours to create a painting that is compelling and could be considered finished...you're not quite sure where to begin.  It only takes some practice to get in the swing of things and this painting class pushed my skills on my illustration projects so much farther than if I'd been left alone. 

Needless to say I signed up again.   When starting, I kept with my habits- earth tone palette and underpainting, "fuzzing" painted areas to draw the viewers attention to where I wanted, etc.  Then something important happened (at least, I'm assuming it's important).  I was told to (a)- not blur areas unless completely necessary, and even then reconsider. (b)- break my comfort zone with earth tones and play with color.  I agreed, acknowledging my weak points and lo and behold, there was color.

Intimidation.  Pure highlighter green and simple.

Ok, I've chosen my view, have my borders mapped off, some quick pencil work to indicate where things should be.

Quick underpainting consisting of cobalt blue/paynes grey.

Laying in colors.  Ugly?  Yes.  Expected?  Yes.  Moving on.

And right around here that start-off color is throwing me.  By being so bright, anything I put down appears in comparison to be nothing more than vaguely differentiated hues of mud.  This is not good.

Still pushing forward you can tell how mad I'm getting at a painting by how much I've scratched guidelines into it with the opposite end of my brush.  Questioning what made me think I could paint.

It's going downhill.  Rage quit foreseeable future.

Colors and brushstrokes in general have been softened, adding a bit more warmth and consistency.  (apologies about the difference in photo color- adjusted my lighting settings and forgot to change them back)

Looks like the nasty has come to an end, with some sky popping up and more work in the foreground.

And where she lies now.  Still need to go back and fiddle with the sky (ran out of time in class).

In the end, I need to continue with this "color" thing.  It's taking me to unexpected places and I'm curious to see how it pops into my illustrations this year.

100th Post!

(and there was much rejoicing)

Today I want to post a bunch of my work from landscape painting thus far- it's been a really nice class so far and I've been picking up on a lot of stuff I'd been missing in my painting. And hey- playing with oils twice a week? It's keeping me sane.

We did some palette knife paintings which I conveniently forgot to take pictures of....but I'm cozy and comfy watching The Mummy while wrapped up in my Wall-E blanket so I'm not moving for a while. Luckily I have everything else we've done so far. First up- in class painting and the first time we were allowed to use both colors and paint brushes (huzzah!)


Amazingly enough it looks better in the picture I took.....but moving on! We went out to a park on Wednesday because for once it wasn't raining (apparently this has been one of the wettest Ohio autumns on record). But of course we get there and get going for about an hour before it starts to rain. Moral of story? Paint as fast as possible and revise later.


And it was unfortunately slightly damaged from the rain (you can see all the little missing flakes) but we (my roommies and I might go back to the park to hang out and paint this Sunday). If that doesn't happen we're supposed to go back there in class on Wednesday if it's nice out.
Then today was also a b-e-a-utiful drizzly disgusting windy cold miserable misting day of grossness. But we went outside anyway. Take that weather. We went to a different park and hid under shelters while painting. Got a bit more accomplished and took pictures at the end to work from to try and finish it up.


I particularly like what was going on in that section in the back on the right:


Granted I can't get any decent pics of it now since it's still wet but later this next week when it's done and dry expect an update.

Paint!

As I said before- lack of internet does not equal a lack of art! (quite the opposite in fact). Here's some random ones I've been playing with for an upcoming art show:




And an older painting and demon doodle I never uploaded for some reason:


On a whole I'm feeling much more confident technique-wise- something sophomore year had me concerned about. I also think my general mentality concerning color is improving vastly but I'm going to have to do up some new pieces to prove it. For the most part this summer I'm trying to concentrate on basic weak points (hands, faces, and a refresher in animal anatomy.) If I get far enough on those I'll be trying to actually illustrate some stuff before school comes rushing back so in my free time I've been reading a good bit- just re-read some Harry Potter and I'm going to finally read Dune. The plan is once August rolls around I'll be illustrating some things I've been reading.

Cloud Watching

Paint Blots. Same difference. Past couple of days I've found some imagination relaxation in creating and extorting lots of paint splatters. I know that scribbles are also recommended but paint has a mind of its own which results in even less control. Then your imagination is more free than before to come up with bizarre solutions.


The downside to paint instead of scribbles is that sometimes there's more blending together than one would like. But it's a useful challenge in shaping and creativity. Seeing how I enjoy this to no end expect to see more in the future.