Mid-July 2019 Post

Well!  How is everyone today.  There’ve been some new developments in the world of projects and other works.  I did start another painting, but it’s not going quickly.  Here’s a WIP, colors are way off but, you know, WIP.  As you can see, it’s the same old stuff.

(Remember when I did the PaintBlogs?  I should really try another one of those, but I just don’t pick up the brush that often.)

The animation project mentioned last month is still proceeding, with more sequences done and artwork created.  There’s a Vegas project going that already has the opening pretty well mapped-out, but that’s still evolving (sigh).

I heard of a fun contest which I’m going to enter.  I’d show you the latest stage, but as it’s a contest I’m not sure I can.  No hope of winning, but it’s fun to work on.

Also, the air-conditioning has been fixed, so I shouldn’t have to suffer either temperature-wise or financially.  Always a plus!

So, keeping busy and trying to keep comfortable.  And I won’t bother you with the health worries.  Thanks for stopping by, and I may see you later this month.

And January

So, it’s a new year, and, well, I guess it has been for a couple of weeks now.  And what is there to show for it?

Well, this, from several years ago —

–bad photograph and all, has been transformed into this–

–and I think it’s been immeasurably improved, and now goes onto the wall as “finished.”  The straight, horizontal lines, suggesting walls, really made this one come together.  And the background “figure” gives it a good sense of a series of beings proceeding forward, if beings they are.  (Confession:  I used PhotoShop to take out the worst of the camera flash reflections, but this is still really close to what it actually looks like.)

Still it’s nothing that anyone, anywhere, is going to want to hang on a wall, but I like it, and I think it accompanies this one–

–very well indeed, like the front and back covers of a fairly good pulp novel.  Or even better, a series of pulp novels.

Now that would be something.  Any pulp novelists out there want to work out a deal?  Or have pulp novelists slithered away into the woodwork once the 1930’s became the 1940’s?  A question for the pulpologists out there.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Christmas 2017

Let me confess–since I’ve been working on an hourly basis (several years, now), the holidays are even more depressing than they normally are.  Aside from the obvious, for hourly folks, a “holiday” means “No.  You can’t can’t earn money today–it’s a holiday.  So, no, you can’t pay your bills–not enough earned hours.”  No, no paid holidays for you.  As you might imagine, that tends to color certain events–

Anyway, here’s a present, made for a friend this season.  Since I have no money, it’s a painting.  Fall foliage as seen on a morning when the fog is just now dissipating.  And if you like it, happy holidays to you, too.

See you again in a few weeks, and as always. thanks for stopping by.

Paintblog November 2017

Greetings all, I hope the holidays are finding you well.

So, the last project kind of stalled, so here’s something new.  Unexpectedly, I didn’t document the very beginnings of this piece, but we’ll pick it up as we go along.

What I did was take an old canvas that was never going to work, and covered it with (I thought) raw umber–what I use for black.  I may have used burnt umber instead, as it looks pretty brown.  I painted a couple of shapes at the bottom and top, using titanium white.  Here’s the earliest shot I have.

As you can see, I then did a bunch of detail work in the lower shape, again using raw umber.

The shape at the top of the painting suggested a crashing wave, so I worked toward that goal.

Added some detail work to that–

I then wondered if these two areas could be connected by the middle.  Something suggested the water beneath the crashing waves, blending into what would become the “sea floor” in the bottom window.  So I set to work with that.

Then, using raw umber, I built up into the green so that the two would blend.  Added some yellow to the green for highlighting at the top, some vague white shapes in the bottom, and a middle streak of black.  I tend not to use black–it stands out too much from the rest of the palatte–but it seemed to work here.  Though you’ll note in the next picture that it doesn’t photograph very well.

And that’s where it stands as of today.  It has actually gone pretty quickly–the above has mostly been done in the last couple of weeks, with pauses to allow for drying time.

As always, thank you for stopping by.

 

 

Paintblog October 2017

So, last month we added a bit to an old painting of a shore with water.  And we’ve added a bit more.

Just some added color out in the depths.

This is just to define the bottom of the lake or river or whatever it is.

Then–

It looks like a shadow of something, but I’m trying to give the impression that there’s an opening in the riverbed.  It’s nowhere near “there” yet but I’m enjoying this.

Thanks for stopping by.

PaintBlog 2017 Yeah Right

Remember this?  It’s from 2014 so that’s a stretch.

Really bad photo, but no matter!  There’s another really bad photo to follow.

I liked this image, but it always nagged at me as being incomplete.  Yeah, yeah, some folks might like it because it’s calm and soothing, but there was always–for me–something not quite there.

I suspect it’s because I always want images to hint at a story.  Something more than the image itself, something that projects beyond what’s actually on the canvas.  And this one just…sat there pleasantly.

You’ll note the flash highlights in the middle right…well, that’s because I’ve recently moved and I have no idea where I packed the Really Good Flash, so I’m having to use the Built-In Flash.

Other than that, I like the direction, and there is more to come.

Thank you as always for visiting.  See you soon.

Paintblog May 2017 – Chapter 2

So, yeah, I did do some more physical paint brushing on the new canvas.  Still not feeling, really, the way someone truly inspired would paint…but you get what you get.

So, it’s kind of shaping into something.  Not sure what, but at this stage it’s too early to say.

Thanks for visiting as always.

See you soon!

Paintblog May 2017

It has been mentioned that I should paint more.

I don’t object to the suggestion…in fact, I find it quite endearing.  It’s nice to have fans.  (Thank you, Tammy al-Thor.)

The problem remains, though.  Painting without a direction most often results in work that has no…reason for being.  An exercise.  At least in the last century, when charlatans could profit from the ignorance of the age.  I’ve never been like that–I wanted my work to have meaning.  I wanted it to say something.

Still, with nothing to say, I was motivated enough to start something.  Apologies as always for the bad photography, my flash was out of batteries so I relied on the camera’s built-in flash.  Here are the paint blobs on a new canvas.

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Here’s everything after preliminary smearing around.

I can see bits of things here, but the paint calls to be further spread.

And now, the spreading has finished.

Well, that’s kind of okay.  Looks nice.

And here we are at the latest incarnation.  Just to reiterate, there is no big white wash in the upper center.  That’s the camera flash reflecting off the wet oil.  So, you’re really not seeing anything here.  Damn, it’s just like a Marvel movie!

Where will this go?

Anywhere?

Maybe we’ll know when tomorrow happens.

See you then.

 

 

 

Work in Progress – April

Yeah, it’s not much, it’s still early, and it’s awful.  And it’s a bad photograph too.  I’ve been working on and off (mostly off) on this for weeks, and progress is very slow.

Still, it’s something I guess.  I hope to get more motivated very soon, but then I always hope that happens.

See you sometime next month.

July 2016

So the summer continues and I continue to do very little.  Well, there’s this.

This is something I’ve been working on over the past couple of months or so.  It’s not finished but it’s getting close.

Another one no one’s going to want hanging in the living room….

See you soon, and thanks for coming by.