Intaglio

I really haven't posted or talked about my Intaglio class I'm taking this semester. It's one of the 2 First year classes I have left to take, the other one being Art History II, so I'll be a a full second year student come fall, trying to start my 3rd year come January.

Anyway, we started out in intaglio with doing monotypes, where after your prepare the plate, you cover it with ink and then draw on it, whipe, use stencils, lay things on to make an image and then make single print. Sometimes you are able to strike a second plate, or a ghost print of the same image if there is enough ink on the plate. I really like printmaking and I want to do more monotypes and I am still working on the drypoint above. I will do some more etching on it and more test prints before I do my final edition.

Portrait Progress

Even though my friend Chuck wasn't sitting tonight for me, I went at the background a bit tonight very briefly while cooking dinner. Tomorrow the Dirty Palette Club meets again for another go-round on our portrait of Chuck, so be sure to check the DPC blog in a day or two to see our update.

Week 7

Well week 7 is off and running. I hope artistically the second half of the semester is better as i am pretty dam frustrated with the first part. Missing the bulk of week 6 also has made things pretty tough this week. I did spend a little time adjusting things on the painting for doug's class, I worked on the background and table set-up, even Amy's bathrobe, we have one shot left Friday with the models so I'll spend the bulk trying to nail her face and figure.

Yesterday I blocked in the figure ad background more in Al's morning class, I think we have one more go at this after the spring break which starts next week. I'm trying to be very loose on this one, blocking in with big masses of color and then the idea is to go in and define the changes between the more subtle transitions.
yesterday in Figure comp we had no models, it was the "day without a model" all classes have to have. Why? I heard it was a way yo save some $$. I know schools are all looking now for a way to cut costs, but hey, raise my tuition $20 if you need the model fee that day. But the day wasn't a total loss as Doug took us over to the museum next door and downstairs to look at paintings from the schools collection and the George Tooker show which is currently on in the school right now. That is really one of the fantastic things about PAFA , that we have two great museums at school we have constant access too, we can go, look, study great works from some of the best artists of the past 200 years up till today.

Sick Week

Well this last week was pretty much a wash for me as I got hit hard by that flu that's going around, so I was out for the count until Friday, my first day back in classes. I even had to skip my teaching as I was just too sick to even make it in for that. I still have the nagging cough, which seems to not want to let me sleep very soundly.

But I did finally drag myself back to school Friday afternoon for my uninstructed class in figure composition to once again fight with this wreckage of a painting. Last time i actually sanded it down really well and so i went back in reworking the thing as much as i could, I even stayed late to once again try and get more done. I still need to work on Amy's figure, drop down the background as it's competing too much with the figures and mark's figre, hus legs and torso need more work. But I finally nailed his head and reworked much of the table. the main issues were not planning this thing more, I just winged it and didn't draw any sketches and didn't spend enough time in the initial stage...a mistake I won't repeat on the next painting. What sucks is we have to have a class with no models for one class. Why this wasn't the first class and instead is right in the middle of our pose makes no sense, for cripes sake, raise my tuition the $20 to pay an extra hour to the models.

Oh well, sometimes the painting is a fight.

ACTION PACK 34

In stores this week Action Pack #34 featuring a Secret Saturdays inked by me.

Week 5-wrap--A bloody mess

Here is my bloody mess of a big painting. man, I was just not feeling it this week or feeling very focused on this thing. I should have made the drawing better, so I will sand the crap out of it and blast back on it this week and bust it up.

I have learned that working on a huge painting takes a lot more intense sessions, and they should be closer together, not days apart. I have no momentum on this thing and really hate the set-up and the whole mess. I think having 5 days between work sessions on this thing is contributing to my fractured approach. But I can only solve this problem by being honest and brutal to my efforts and the canvas.

Week 5

I'm off to another rip, roaring week here in the studio and at school. This begins the 5th week and a new pose in Life painting with Al Gury, so we had a new model, Mark, who's also posing in my Figure Comp class, so I was painting him twice today.

As with each new pose in Al's class, we start out with some sketches, then a small study and then we go up to the bigger painting. So I did a few rough sketches and then chose the composition I wanted and did this small oil on paper study using the biggest brush I could use, which was a flat. the study is on a 5 x 7 piece of Strathmore sketchbook paper. Value, shape and temperature is what I am seeking here. The trick is to keep this in the bigger painting.

I'm also knee deep in comics stuff, the Martians book and some Secret Saturdays shorts for DC's Action pack. As a result of such a full schedule I was forced to skip the NYC show this last weekend, and I see that the spring is going to zoom by.

Student Show--Figure Comp

Today in the uninstructed section of my figure Comp class I massed in the colors and tried to establish the mood of the painting. The canvas is big so I used my biggest brushes I spot and went at it.
Today was also the opening the annual student show which is open to all the students in the school, certificate students, MFA, MFA and Post Bac. I submitted my painting of my buddy Scott, and it made it into the show. Lots of people submit and fret over these shows. I guess it's part of the artists life, the stress, rush and worry. I had a painting that was accepted last year, but all of my drawings for the spring show last year were rejected, so that's the way it goes, one day they love you, the next, rejection. That's part of being an artist and entering competitions.

Still Life Study

This is a quick study done for a possible larger painting for the Philly Sketch club's upcoming Flower competition. I did this at last night's meeting of the Dirty Palette Club.

Winter Blast-Figure Comp 2

Yesterday was the first big snow storm in Philly this winter, I snapped a bunch of pics as I walked home after teaching at Uarts. My class was over late and it was a full winter wonderland on my way home. You can see more pics on my Facebook folder.

I also started my second painting in my Figure comp class, the biggest painting I've done to date at 30 x 36. It's a 4 week pose so I hope I can get something decent down on the canvas in that time.

Video Tutorials Coming

One of the things I am pretty excited about is the series of video tutorials I have started on and plan to bring on-line this year.

I get a lot of people asking me for help, tips, tricks and how-to info on a lot of art related things, from drawing and inking to coloring and even painting. I do already have an entire magazine, DRAW! which is all about comics and animation how-to, plus a DVD and book on the subject as well. But things are changing and I think everybody is going to the YOUTUBE route.

And face it, reading and demo is never as good as watching a demo. I learned a lot by watching my teacher Scott Noel work is amazing pastel drawings live in class. There are even guys like Stephen Silver doing on-line courses now.

So with all of this in mind I plan on starting to make some video-demos covering a lot of my working practices. I'm also throwing the ball out to you guys and gals to ask you what you'd like to see a demo on. I have already shot the first demo with my buddy Jamar Nicholas and I'm in the editing process now. I hope to have the first part up in the next week or so.

Week 4--The Plastic Club Small Worlds Show

Your's truly with one of the two paintings I had in the Plastic Club's Small Worlds show which held it's awards reception this past Sunday.
The Plastic Club is hop. skip or jump down Camac Street from the Philly Sketch Club and was a female only club until about 30 years ago. Violet Oakley,Cecilia Beaux, and Jessie Willcox Smith were but a few of it's famous members.
My good buddy Dave Gloas took First Place in the show for his self portrait.

Here Dave poses with all of the other winners from this year's competition.


Wow, the semester is fly'n bye, so, so fast. This week being week 4 means the spring semester is 1/4 done as of this week. I sort of hate to see it go so fast but I will not shed a tear to see the winter go and spring come. I am tired of Old Man Winter this year and can't wait for his bone chilling old ass to vacate the city.

The painting above I finished this morning in Al Gury's Life painting class. It's a study really, as we only had two session with this model so it wasn't going to be a nit-picky type painting. I tried to keep it pretty bold and go for the bigger changes. I'm about 40% happy with this, I wish I was just a bit more focused on it, but the class running at 8:30 in the am on Mondays means my brain just isn't that fresh and I just never feel I am grooving till the end of class. Al was very complimentary about what I did, so that's cool.

Februray Creepertins