oil painting

Painting Crushed Beer Can and Working Through an Art Rut

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I finally finished the painting of a crushed Creemore beer can. It took about two months, a little longer that it normally would have taken me because I was in a rut. I really didn’t feel like working but what got me through it was just being consistent. Doing a little at a time, but doing it every day or close to every day.

Here are some process shots of the entire painting process for your viewing pleasure.

Here is the finished piece.

A Ben A Day

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My familiarity with painting my nephew is slim. So I decided to produce a painting of him over my holidays everyday. A challenge to produce a daily portrait because I have a tendency to overwork things and get into detail even if it’s a daily portrait exercise.

Day 1

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2

Day 3

Day 3

Day 4

Day 4

Day 5 This one got away from me. I find painting him head on to be a difficult angle.

Day 5
This one got away from me. I find painting him head on to be a difficult angle.

Day 6 My favourite of all of the portraits. I really like how I didn’t adhere to realistic skin tones.

Day 6
My favourite of all of the portraits. I really like how I didn’t adhere to realistic skin tones.

Day 6 detail

Day 6 detail

Day 8 (I did a virtual sitting with my niece on day 7. It’s the previous post)

Day 8
(I did a virtual sitting with my niece on day 7. It’s the previous post)

Day 9

Day 9

Day 9 detail

Day 9 detail

WIP...

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I always look forward to this stage where I just sit back and stare at my painting. Is it done? Do I need to add anything else? Do I need to take anything away? All questions I take way too much time on. Maybe I just need an hour to contemplate these questions and move onto the next painting.

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WIP

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Every time I’m faced with a blank canvas the words of my mom come back to me: Just put down something so you have something to work with. Those words were said to me while I was in high school struggling with paper writing, but I think they apply to my painting practice as well. So I’m just putting something down. Thanks, mom.

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Isolation Self Portrait

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Isolation Self portrait, summer 2020
oil on canvas
24x30in.

When I look back at this painting in times to come, it'll always remind me that this was the last major painting I did in the old apartment. It's also the first self portrait that encapsulated the environment I was painting in and the bulk of the painting was done when we hit a heat wave. Hence the shirtless pose.

There's a lot of lessons I learned from painting this. The first being that I really enjoy painting myself in an environment. I also know that I had a vision of what this would look like but came up a bit short. However, that's why I'll probably be painting more portraits of myself to close that gap between reality and the vision I have in my mind.

The painting can be seen here.

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Tokushoryu

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I finally finished this portrait of Tokushoryu.
Tokushoryu was the lowest rank rikishi in the January 2020 sumo tournament...and he won it all. With all the craziness going on in the world, I've been making a conscious effort to look for positive things in my life. I've often returned to watching Tokushoryu's Cinderella victory in the January basho for a bit of light in all this gloominess. Here's my ode to his January victory.

Here's his final match when he won it all. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slDe-99-Kr8&t=436s

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Virtual Sittings

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I realized one of the objectives as I did more of these virtual sittings was to improve my portraiture skills using oil paints. So for this batch, aside from the first one, I transitioned to using oils. These virtual sittings are sequential. There are a few goals I want to achieve painting these portraits: 1. Get really comfortable painting portraits with oil paints. 2. Not to be precious about these portraits, meaning that I have to let go of making these portraits look like the sitters. They don’t have to. These are oil sketches. It’s a space where I could practice my colour sensitivity abilty to finish a portrait in one sitting.

Ren. My second sitting with her.

Ren. My second sitting with her.

Mother and daughter.

Mother and daughter.

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Jim. The first sitting in oils with a person who wasn’t a family member.

Jim. The first sitting in oils with a person who wasn’t a family member.

Yvonne.

Yvonne.

Yvonne detail. I love the amount of paint applied on this one.

Yvonne detail. I love the amount of paint applied on this one.

Marc

Marc

Ayumi

Ayumi

Esteban and Anna. Trying to conserve paper in my sketchbook.

Esteban and Anna. Trying to conserve paper in my sketchbook.

Anna

Anna

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Jim. My second sitting.

Jim. My second sitting.

Verena

Verena

I like this spread.

I like this spread.

Robyn, my go to sitter.

Robyn, my go to sitter.

30 Faces, 30 Days. April 8-14

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Continuing with this challenge. I’m still in a mind set of what is a different way of drawing my face than the previous day’s iteration, be it through different medium or angle. Maybe I should just choose the same medium and pose and try to concentrate on depicting my face so it transcends it just being a self portrait and touches upon the deeper aspects of what makes my face my face. At least I’m aware of this mindset.

April 8, 2020

April 8, 2020

April 9, 2020

April 9, 2020

April 10, 2020

April 10, 2020

April 11, 2020

April 11, 2020

April 13, 2020

April 13, 2020

April 14, 2020

April 14, 2020

A Self Portrait and Everything But the Kitchen Sink....

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I finally finished my latest self portrait. It was a fun painting to work on and opened up some potential avenues I could explore in future paintings. It also allowed me to paint things in groups. A little unsettling at times but I have to remember that I’m allowed to make mistakes and every painting doesn’t have to be a “masterpiece”!

The final piece can be seen here.

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