Mountain Flower and Girl

So, this painting was completed February 17, 2013.

Mountain Flower and Girl

 It has already been sold for $125 to the owner of the MAB studio. That's pretty cool... it ends up paying for my classes, which is nice. I decided to simplify the painting. I stole some ideas from other similar sketches to help me with the hands and I changed the central eye into a nose, which is from a different sketch. Anyways, so this is a painting with parts from many different paintings. It was kind of fun to do, but more than anything I'm glad it's got a home.
 
This is the sketch upon which the painting is based:

Sketch

And then this is the painting. Looking at the sketch now, I can see I probably should have brought it in when I started painting it. I did most of it at the art studio in North Vancouver. When I brought the canvas board, I had thought it was blank, but I had already started to paint this and had forgotten about it. Some of the symmetry I like a lot better in this sketch than I do in the painting.
Oddly enough, the painting seems more like this sketch:

But, in many ways, I like the symmetry of this one better. In any case, below is the painting in its current stage of progress.

Girl in Mountains with Flower

Still Life

This painting came from a sketch. That seems to be my modi operandorum.

The sketch is an attempt to meld the still life (bowl of fruit) with the portrait.

Portrait of a Sleeping Girl

I really have to work on the colours in here. I also don't like the 'legs.' But these can both be worked on at a later date when I have some better ideas. I really like the melons, however.

Still Portrait

"There is too much pink," my wife says. I have to agree. Most of the pink on the floor was done to help me with my perspective. A few things I've done here I like: making the lighter or fleshy part of the melons first before going in with the texture which I got from the bra that the model was wearing. I will post updates as the painting evolves.

Orca Border

These images were made as I was trying to create a page border for my upcoming book Salmone Frushdie and the Fisherman's Hook.

Orca Border

 High details to do a border like that were not of great importance. The border above this text is actually pretty good. If you scroll down to see the painting from which it was made, you can see it is not of great quality.

I think the purpose of this quick exercise with an end in mind worked out pretty well. For the books that I have worked on over the last four years or so I have mostly depended on other artists to create the images. Now I'm working on at least doing some of the work myself for the finished product. I don't know think of myself as being good enough for real illustrations, but one must start somewhere.

Orca, Octopus, Fishing Boat, and Salmon

Red's Fishing Boat

Orca

As I mentioned, this is the painting that ended up making the decoration for a page in my book.

Fish Hook

Best Sketches Dec '12-Jan '13

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Pixel Nymph

This new painting will be the largest I've ever done. It measures 3x4'. I was going to use some other things that I have been developing for awhile. But this unique structure, the girl that is, has interesting angles and shapes in front of the somewhat pixellized background where nature, the grass and other greens, are at her feet, the day at her waste, then pink sexuality, and then the city and twilight around her hair. In any case... this is the finished product.

Pixel Nymph

It is an interesting expression that I will work on some more. But, I thought I'd share it at this point.

Updates: I have the sketch from which this painting started, as well as an update to the painting as well.

Pixel Nymph January Update

 There are still a few things I need to do before this is 'finished.' I read awhile ago that a famous painter, Picasso if I'm not mistaken, said that a painting is never finished. I would have to say that I agree with this. But, there is a point one reaches where one says to himself (or herself, itself, etc) that it's gone as far as he's/she's/it's going to take it.

The instructor/supervisor in the MAB Ventures class mentioned something about light and identifying the source. I thought about that a bit more because of her comment. She said I had identified it, but when she said it, I thought she was over simplifying it. That is to say, she referred to a single light source. However, surfaces also reflect light. That is to say, if you have a white flat surface which is redirecting light to another side of the object, it will be different than if you have a black flat surface or no surface at all. That is to say, there are many light sources to consider.

I bring this up because the idea I had for this picture is that the object to the left of the model is supposed to be the main light source. It is a Sunflower: the sun in some semblance off a flower. Then there is the reflective surface to the right of the model which is not seen which I am thinking about when trying to figure out my tones.

Finally, the sketch where this painting came from:

Add caption

Jaz with Butterfly

This is the sketch

The first two images were stages in the work in progress. However, the last one I believe is the final image.

I wondered how long it would take me. I got the canvas maybe Saturday night when

This work is starting  to come together.

Closeup

And, I think... this is complete.