Where she stops nobody knows…..

 

..........Well the answer is to block in Yama's skin with bright red to bring him back forward a bit but since the ones I’ll be using are pure they are somewhat transparent in order to allow the colors from the drips to shine through.  Then I added all my reflective iridescent paints, which don’t photograph well, so you’ll just have to see it in person.

 This is how its done! I whip out the big guns and go straight for the gold! To do this I lay the painting flat on the ground on my painters pyramids to raise it off the floor. I’m using Testor model paints and Tamiya spray paint applied with a brush on this piece because they reflect so well! I revisit some of the whites with a more transparent Zinc white straight from the tube. Then I crisped up the  blacks with watered down black Gesso.  This helps to pop the Yama figure forward again without loosing too much of the beautiful texture the drips created.  I stop here for the night and allow myself some rest and to step back at arms length and get a fresh look in the morning. 

Some touches of detail, here and there, make the piece punchier and more resolved. I went into details of jewelery, some fire elements, some black outlines etc. You get the idea. Dropped off the work, come out an see it!

HORROR 2 SHOW

....round and round, round and round......

Class ends, I hang with Dizzy D for a bit afterward and check out his latest Artical clothing video on You Tube. SEE IT HERE. This After Effects Class is paying off for at least 1 student! 

My first step is laying the painting down on my painters pyramids and going over the entire surface with clear primer. This will help protect the surface if I make any mistake or don't like how the drips I'm taking a chance on, look. Plus it protects and punches up the colors already put down. I dripped Indian red over the entire surface to further set back the details. Then I sit back and eagerly wait to see...... WTF!? Have I done???

After sitting back for a moment, I decided to just go for! I added on more drip layer from the bottom to the top with  Transparent Yellow Oxide, which is fairly close to the yellow ochre I used previously.  Either I've got balls or I've made a mistake. And I'm right near the finish line and now have a lot more work repainting this thing, just maybe? I can't decide which one, oh wait, I'm going to have to answer with and astounding.......I've got balls! (Shit eating grin ensues.) Then I flipped it over and did one more round of burnt umber mixed with some iridescent copper dripping, why not?) dripping from the top - Holy Sh*t he's gone crazy!!! Maybe just a little bit =;P

I spritz the whole thing down as I go. Even though it's acrylic, I still have to wait a bit for paint to dry. Now, with only  a few moments left, I need some resolution to this piece, enough to confidently hang it tomorrow.....

The wheels on the bus go round and round.......

Still cracking, on the Wheel of Deluded Existence.  Had a big day and some more visitors to the studio. Had a quick break while working to do an interview with Hannah Kost from the Calgary Journal. She asked about my recent an upcoming Canvas Building Workshop for Aboriginal Youth program put on by USAY, he Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth. Here is a photo I just love of two of the participants from my last session.

It was a big day, I spent most of it reworking my course notes for After Effects to better suit the animators in the class.  It was kinda fun=, for a total review and jump into the past;) My class is about Text and Sound in regards to animation of visual information conveyed in words and how to sync sounds to the visual.  Afterward I headed straight to the studio. I knew it was going to be a long one, and the sooner I could get finished, the sooner I could run over to the Scrillex show at the Hi Fi club.

I worked my way through most of the remaining colors. Added some Green and blue variations, some quinacridone red, demon flesh tones, a little bit of brown, dark charcoal for the hells cavern, revisiting some tones in places I missed yesterday. It's a good thing I managed to save a bit in a little plastic sealable container from Vietnamese the other day. I pulled out my red sharpie to quickly block in roof tiles on the temples. See if you can see all the work one below ;)

It was about 1am when I noticed all the time had been used up;( I got out my burnt umber and quickly added in little hairs on the tiger pelt to make it look far more soft and hairy, like a kitty pelt would be. 

At this point I've realized I'm only about half way to where I'd like to be at about 40 hrs. It is looking far to simplistic and "cartoony" now. There are many little details and shading that need to be added to please my artistic temperment. Alas, I'm just going to have to deal with getting it to a place where I am happy to exhibit it on Saturday evening after my class from about 10 - 2am tomorrow evening. Sigh. We will see what kind of artistic magic I can conjure tomorrow night;)

Big wheel keep on turning...

Proud Mary keep on burning
rolling, rolling, rolling on the river.


Thanks John Fogerty. Click this --> CCR link to see and hear some inspiration. Otherwise, do as I do and hum it in your head.

Woke up feeling like THE COLD that "everybody seems to have" has moved down into my lungs. No matter, I'm gonna keep on burning and keep on working, got to get rolling, rolling, rolling on this painting.  I got out of bed and called the Canada Council about a grant I'm applying for and answered an incoming call agreeing to do an interview about some of my upcoming youth work for the Calgary Journal. I also spent many hours working on my SACRED IMAGES book design on Blurb. It's coming along quite nicely, but the proof is due Sunday or I loose my Groupon credit of 2 for one. Fingers crossed. 

In the afternoon, I dropped off my 28" wooden artist model Giraffe to Karilynn down at the Quickdraw Animation Society to use for their festival. While down there, I picked up an Imac to create my next After Effects class lesson. I'm running an older version and my computer just isn't fast enough anymore to do what I need it to do. I eagerly dreaming of the day I can afford to get a new Mac with LION on it myself.  I have enough on my plate at the moment, I don't need to be fantasizing.....

Meanwhile, Kids in the Hall - Season 1 played in the background and my hair is tied up with a twist tie because I couldn't find a hair tie. I decided to put off painting in  RED for a bit. I anticipate adding lots of blood later on., it's horrific after all !=;) I moved straight into flesh tones made with a deep Naples yellow and a permanent Alizarine. This way, I'll have all the characters placed, even the monkeys ;) I blocked in a light and dark neutral greys for the rocks and buildings.

I put on  Martin Scorsese's Kundun in the background to keep me company and remind me the history of the 14th Dalai Lama's exile from Tibet. His struggle set to the audio compositions of Philip Glass. During the 2+ hrs, I blocked in the whites of eyes and Buddha's lotuses.  My hand became severely cramped, but I was determined to block in the clothing before going home, even if it was already past midnight. I am coughing harder now, it irritates me. I need to get this far to feel that I accomplished enough.

Inner Wheel, process continues......

I did another 5hr. + session in the studio after happily removing 5 bags of unused history from my life. That is freeing. I also signed an agreement today to give a lecture on November 16th about the history of animation at the Glenbow museum. This will be an exclusive event for their PIVOT group, which are young professionals. I will also talk a little about my painting because it has inspiration and links to their Asian exhibition space. Cool.

Below is the palette I found discarded in the trash. Yes, it's a rubbermaid container lid, white and plastic, perfect for my needs.... and completely FREE!!!

I worked in a golden yellow for the Buddha's skin tone. Followed by orange for his robes. I figured I would keep on working with the larger characters and used a pure Pthalo Blue right out of the jar for the glow behind him and a mix of Cereluen blue and lime green for the halos. I also use these colors elsewhere in small details like the rooftops, some jewels and in the water portion.

As you can see there is much more to do....... but it is coming along nicely. I love how the contrast of the blues an orange look at the moment. Which is probably why I feel so reluctant to drip the paint over all my hard work all of a sudden.

Stay tuned for more developments. A reminder that this piece will be displayed this Saturday as part of the HORROR show. Check earlier blog entries for more information =;) Blog time is over, it's bed time which means How Stuff Works podcasts to put into the ream state....yay!

The cycle of deluded Existenece, inner wheels....

I spent two sessions with a sharpie marker getting down to the nitty gritty, placing the characters in their respective sections of the wheel. Getting to it..... is harder than you think.

It's one of those points in art making where you can grind to a halt. It can feel like Oedipus must have just before reaching the top. At the most difficult moment, and the rock tumbles back down over you. My inner voices make it ever so harder to get things done, to show up and do what it takes to get to the finish line.  My inner voice reasons with me saying things like "C'mon, go out, have fun, it's the week-end, you can do this another time", or "Don't worry about it, you can do it later, there is plenty of time" etc.  I battle it with... "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today". Still, it subconsciously wants me to be distracted. It wants me to quit. It wants me to fail. Asshole!

That is why it is so important to set a goal and just keep going until you get there. Strange enough, when I do and am only responsible for the showing up part....., I get complete much quicker than anticipated. This is where the artistic play comes in, with the free time. Hmmmmm. I may be onto something here.

After drawing in the various scenes, I clear coated the entire painting so that I could resume work and have a way of wiping away mistakes if necessary.  Also, I was worried the sharpie would bleed through the next layer of paint. This layer should seal it in so that I don't run into that problem. Tonight, I'm gonna sleep on it and I look forward to the next part of the process: blocking in the drawings, followed by some more dripping (but this time I may do  it from the bottom up).

We will see =;)

The wheel keeps on turning (Deluded Existence Continued...)

Another night in the studio. Tonight I had three separate studio visits and one early in the day after picking up a large canvas from my favorite local art supply store.  It was a fun night but I got a slow start. Surprisingly, I still got exactly what I thought I would accomplished done. So here is is in its present state. I am really starting to get excited about how it is proceeding (steep learning curve with acrylic paints as my medium for this piece aside).

I began with some repair work on YAMA's nose before it started to drive me crazy =;P  Surprisingly the container I put some of the paint in, that was leftover yesterday, actually worked in keeping it from drying out. I need more of these little guys or empty baby food jars.  I blocked in the green landscape element below and some of the water to the left. I painted in the tiger pelt with two water colour like acrylic glazes in two different tones of orange as well as added some zinc white highlights along the edge of the fur. I surrounded the piece in a blue band and finalized my evening with dripping yellow ochre over the canvas. One last look and a quick snapshot with my iphone before leaving the studio.

The hard part is coming........... committing to the inner wheels and tackling that and then adding more elements and textures to the whole. I am a bit intimidated because of the level of detail that is required for this next section. I find that I work much better with larger brushes and more gestural strokes. As the brush size is reduced for more detailed work the time it takes me to paint increases dramatically. The clock is ticking.

Another day, another cycle... (The Wheel of Deluded Existence)

I spent another evening painting away at my piece for the upcoming horror show. I thought with all the hours I've been putting in..... I would have gotten the entire Yama figure painted in by now. Sometimes the going gets tough and the paints flows slowly. Like watching paint dry. Slow. Anyhow I am super happy with how it is coming along.

On a technical level, I am struggling with how quickly Acrylic dries and how flat it ends up coming out looking. I am using retarder and keeping things wet but sometimes the paint is sticky and a bit muddy. I'm tainted and spoiled by too many years with high quality oil paints. Unfortunately, oil just won't dry quickly enough to have the piece done for this Friday.

I repainted all of Yama's red skin to set back some of the drips and add depth. I added highlights to his palms, feet and nose. I retouched the crown skulls some more, as well as the hair band and the flowing brocade behind the figure. Tonight, I will keep going and get the tiger pelt and ground in so that I can transition to the contents of the wheel of deluded existence.

Skull Crown

Here is a line drawing of my belt buckle that I purchased in Las Vegas. all the circles represent the fake diamond bling.  I haven't colored it in yet because I'm thinking of making fun stickers out of it and I need the proof in B/W first.

The next work is a piece I have not finished yet. It is drawn in HB and inked with my trusty COPIC MARKER. The drawing based on a tibetan snow lion.

MAybe I'll just erase it and keep his breath/smoke empty. Maybe I'll draw in objects in it like I did back in elementary school when I was super obsessed with drawing Penny from Pee Wee's Playhouse vomiting. I must have drawn that every day for months changing up the projectiles.