Septa-56

This is the latest Commuter painting hot off, or actually still on the easel. This is based on several pics I snapped while riding into the city one day last summer. 16 x 20, oil on canvas.

I have my next painting on the easel tonight and ready to roll....

West Philly Ride 2

Here is a painting I just completed yesterday, it was for a commission but the client wants something different. I based this off some pictures I snapped on my train ride through West Philly everyday on my way to school. It's on Belgian linen and 16 x 20.

Jane's Garden

The DPC met today at Jane's house to paint and hang out. We decided to brave the cold and paint plein air despite the bitter weather.

The oil paint was setting up fast despite trying to thin it down and keep it loose and so I did this painting in two sessions, and eventually had to give up on it as I was loosing feeling in my fingers and feet and the light was dying fast, the sun hiding behind a thickening veil of clouds.

We'll try after the holidays to venture out again and brave the cold for more painting fun. 16 x 20 in oil

Semesters End

It's been a while since I have had a chance to post an update here as the end of the semester was really busy for me between my classes at PAFA and the end of the semester crits at Uarts in the three sections of Storyboarding I teach. This semester was a dozzie, fully packed and it zipped past in a blur, but I feel I made some progress as a painter in the past 16 weeks. Once again i am thankful for my fellow DPC members, my gang of buddies at school who make it a much better, happier and funny experience. I am also thankful to my teachers especially Al and Renee who gave me some really useful help on my journey as an artist. Though i think there are some issues with the program at school, overall i still feel PAFA is the best school in the country to attend if you want to be a thinking figurative artist.

I also enjiyed the Animal Drawing class taught by Peter Van Dyke, and Peter played a little joke on the class on the last day by having a student dress up in a gorilla suit, you can see my drawing below.

The Dirty Palette Club also held our third Self Critique as a group after classes. I get a lot more out of these crits as opposed to the group crits I get in class and it's always great to see everyone's progress through the semester.

The DPC talking art.
A quick alla prima portrait I painted of my friend Alina for my portrait class.
Here is a bunch of my best work from this semester, it's good to line all of your work up and view it in one shot.

A quick mock plien air ( done inside) from the 11th floor at school, it was just too windy and cold to paint on the terrace at school.
I went back in and glazed color over this grisalle piece for my media & Methods class. it started as an oil doodle while on the phone.
This was where I left this painting in Renee Foulks's class, i could have used a few more sessions on it, but that's the breaks on class room paintings, you just never have the control of elements or the time you'd like.

Now I get to spend a few days getting ready for X-mas and then I'll put the painting smock on again and get back into the studio to finish a bunch of my commuter paintings over the break.

Week 15-Finals

This is my finals week at PAFA. I've had my finals in Life painting with Renee Foulks and my final class in 19th Century Art History, tomorrow my final crit in Animal Drawing and then my last class is Monday in Portrait painting.

The painting above is my final for Renee's class and it was painting in my living room, my friend Alina posed for it. I did it mostly from life, from the first pose which you can see below on the blog. Then I worked a bit from a photo and then Alina sat again for the final pose where I just concentrated on her head. There are many little areas I need to go back into, the sofa, the wall or light area and a few touches on the figure, but it was done to this stage for my class crit.

next week is crit week at Uarts in the Storyboard classes I teach, then is Winter Break till January--and boy can I use the break!

GI JOE!

Here are a bunch of pencil drawings I did for a GI Joe book earlier this year before the film came out.

Week 14

This is the final class painting in Al Gury's portrait class, it's basically done, I'll see if I want to tickle on it again next week.