Painting 026 - 5/26

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Oil on gessoed hardboard

8"x10"

Not the best painting ever. The edges need work, and the contrast, but what really pulls this one down is the CIRCLE. Aughhh this is why I'm so desperately in need of that Circle Challenge Week, and why I've been putting it off.

Painting 025 - 5/25

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x8"

In the continuing adventures of Weird Things Jenna Owns, here is my scoop-bear! (Though, as I looked at it, I realized it was probably more of a scoop-mouse.) I really like how this came out, between the effect of the metal and the wine-red cloth, though oh lol at that shadow.

This is another item I tried my hand at back in 2006. Let's see how far I've come...

Painting 024 - 5/24

 

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

Though this is the second time I've painted this egg, and have included a comparison side-by-side, and have in fact tagged this post 'progress'... I'm not sure if it's strictly true. I mean, I'm pretty happy with this egg, and it was decently successful as a painting, but putting it next to its predecessor - the first painting of the summer - I'm not sure if it holds up.

I didn't go dark enough on the core shadow, for one, which is really important when trying to make an object look like it has real volume; also, I always freak out when using green. On the other hand, though, I think the edges are better on the new one. I just don't know...

Painting 023 - 5/23

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x8"

With this painting, I have exactly 100 more days (and, coincidentally, 100 more paintings) to do for my Summer of Painting. I think it's a worthy one! It's my tiger cup, companion to my bear cup, and with it I have finally painted a Yellow Thing successfully! This is a fairly big deal for me, haha, and so I'll ignore the fact that there's not enough contrast in the shadow.

Painting 022 - 5/22

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

This was going to be a white-on-white painting, and then I decided that my little spitting cow would be more interesting to try it on dark surfaces. (I'll probably revisit this as a white-on-white still life later.) I'm fairly pleased, though I could have pushed the colors more. Another day, another painting~

(the 'bigger image' is being hosted on my website at the moment; blogger decided to have An Issue with the file, for some reason.)

Painting 021 - 5/21

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x8"

I'm more pleased than I can say that I managed to paint a proper circle for once. Unfortunately, I didn't really work well/consistently with edges, and the color feels sort of flat... but circles! Omg!

(my next planned challenge week will be a Circles challenge week.)

Painting 020 - 5/20

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x8"

This, boys and girls, is what happens when you underestimate your subject. 'But I've painted glass a few times already! It's not easy, but it's not super hard. I can totally do this painting before I leave for work.' Uh, not so much. Between Failing at Glass and Failing at Circles, this is... not a success. But it is hopefully the kind of not-a-success that lights a fire under my ass.

Painting 019 - 5/19

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

In an effort to make up for the previous painting, I painted my bag and tried to really make it work. I like the results quite a bit, actually, though there are of course things I could have done better. I especially am happy with the light on the bag.

As I go forward, I'm realizing that I have less and less patience for the texture of canvas. While this is something I noticed in the past year as I worked on my thesis, the more practice I get with it, the more I realize I actually dislike it. I need to experiment a little more with gessoing different surfaces, masonite and illustration board as well as canvasboard, but I really don't think there's anything keeping me from moving away from textured surfaces.

(Apart from the 21 blank canvasboards stacked and ready to go.)

Painting 018 - 5/18

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x8"

We're not going to talk about this, beyond: I didn't get a chance to start the painting until after midnight. The reasons behind that are awesome and surreal (of all the things I expected to happen that evening, winding up at dinner with one of my favorite authors was not one of them) but yeah.

Painting 017 - 5/17

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x10"

I decided it was time to paint my hand again, given that I was still in my no-blue week and wanted to see how it would work out. Apart from the fact I wasn't working with strong lighting and as a response didn't go in for enough contrast, I think it came out nicely! The drawing is once again not quite there, but I actually really like the colors.

Look! My paint application is getting better! Maybe!

Painting 016 - 5/16

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x10"

A spoon! I made a spoon! It's not a great spoon, but it's a spoon. I like the handle better than the spoon-part, hm.

Painting 015 - 5/15

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

In today's installment of Weird Things Jenna Owns, we have a lizard... dragon...? dish that I have no explanation for. It's made of a dull metal, and it was interesting to see how the light worked over it.

The last time I used this For Art, it was 2006, and I didn't have any idea what I was doing. (...not that I do now, though.)

Painting 014 - 5/14

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x8"

This lumpen thing is supposed to be my roommate's ceramic pomegranate, which is raw pottery on the bottom and glazed a really lovely, glossy, deep red on top. I really didn't get the glossy down, and it's up to someone with fresher eyes than me to decide if anything else in this worked. For some reason, the contrast isn't really there, but in an almost pleasing way...?

Beyond it being Day Four of my no blue challenge week, I decided to try something new. My usual brushes are fairly small, all around a half-inch or less (sorry Peter! please don't take them away!) but for this, I only used brushes an inch or larger. They were filberts, so I was still able to get an edge, but it was still difficult and might inspire my next challenge week.

(oh - i've been doing this for two weeks, in posting-time anyway; in real-time, it's almost three! woah)

Painting 013 - 5/13

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x8"

Instead of avoiding blue things during my no blue challenge week, I decided that it was probably a good idea to explore how to tackle them head-on. So here is my snuggly blue blanket! I still need to work on drapery, and the edges aren't stellar, but it was a good exercise overall (in my opinion). I didn't use a strong, direct light in this one, either, which was a... choice, but which in itself has merits - not every illustration I'm going to be doing in my future will have the sort of contrasty light that I've been working on to-date.

Painting 012 - 5/12

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x10"

I decided to atone for the previous painting by tackling one of my biggest challenges to date: the glass. And what do you know? Apart from a really wonky, not-in-perspective circle for the rim of the glass  - and some strange things going on with the metal band as seen though a layer or two of glass - and something happening with the interaction of tea and teabag above the line of the water, I think I might actually have pulled it off properly! And without any blue, ohyeah.

But it wasn't until I put it next to the original glass that I got properly excited:

...because that, ladies and gents, is a week's worth of progress.

Painting 011 - 5/11

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x10"

Nnnn. God, this is embarrassing. The first day of my 'no blue' challenge, and I lose it all over the place: not enough paint, deeply flawed drawing, terrible edges...

I mean, it's a good lesson ("try harder not to suck") and a reminder how important it is to may attention to every aspect of a picture - but it's also a bad painting. Sorry ):

Painting 010 - 5/10

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

While I'm generally pleased with the little-jar-of-medium (I think that's my linseed oil...) and pretty alright with that top (which I had before Inception - BRRRRRRRRM), the contrast is somewhat lacking. Or something - it's a painting I look at and go 'eh', even though I'm proud of pieces of it, and I'm not entirely sure why.

After I finished this painting, my roommate challenged me to take all blue pigments off of my palette for five days - a big deal, since I lean on my blues quite heavily. I accepted gravely.

Painting 009 - 5/9

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

For some reason, I went into absolute shutdown over that mint. I painted the J pin without any real trouble, but the mint and its wrapper... I just couldn't do it. There wasn't even a good reason. This means, of course, that I'll be attempting it again, at a later date, but for now... augh.

Painting 008 - 5/8

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

Why yes, this is my flask! It has Hello-Kitty-With-a-shotgun on the other side, but that seemed like it would be a bit much. I wanted a straightforward painting without hitting 'boring', and this, I think, fits the bill. The curve is a little off, and I didn't quite get the fingerprints right, but other than that it's perfectly acceptable.

Painting 007 - 5/7

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

Oh man, this bear! It's from my childhood, made by the daughter of a family friend to hold any newly-orphaned baby teeth for ease of Tooth Fairy pickup. I knew it was creepy even back then, but I love it so.

Painting it was a challenge, mostly because I lost my mind and couldn't figure out how to paint mint-green fabric under warm light. But I got it eventually, and while it's not perfect, I'm pretty pleased with it.

Painting 006 - 5/6

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

A bit of a meh followup to the trauma of working with glass. I'm pleased with the interior of the box, and... maybe the color? But not even sort of enough paint was used, and it was boring subject matter to begin with - so while it's not awful, it's just... meh.

Onward, to better things!

Painting 005 - 5/5

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Oil on gessoboard

8"x10"

...and then I decided it would be a magnificent idea to toss some old oranges into a glass and paint that. While it was an interesting challenge, to be sure, it also took way longer than it should have (almost three hours!!) and I didn't use enough paint. It came out halfway decent, but I'm not actually satisfied.

Clearly, as this foe remains undefeated, I shall have to try again on another day.

Painting 004 - 5/4

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x8"

To atone for the less-than-stellar previous painting, I decided to paint my bear cup. I love this cup, man, and even though it didn't quite come out looking like the shiny plastic it's supposed to be made of, I'm actually really pleased with this painting. And look! I even used something approaching proper amounts of paint!

Painting 003 - 5/3

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Oil on canvasboard

8"x10"

So, this is not the most successful painting of the project. There's about one section I like (that left shoulder, oh yeah) and the rest is bordering on cringeworthy. But! I'm still proud: it's completed. At a friend's place for the night, with unfamiliar brushes and a limited palette, tired and headachey, I still did my painting. And I even touched upon some interesting color things I'm going to want to go back to! So, in short: a qualified success.

Edit: It was pointed out to me by the great Tristan Elwell (hi Tristan!) that I didn't use enough paint in this. I'd reiterate and plead tired/headachey/unfamiliar brushes (no soft ones! aah!) but instead I can only bow my head in shame and promise that I know better than this, and have been working with more paint in my recent paintings. It's something I'll be keeping in mind!

Painting 002 - 5/2

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Oil on gessoed canvasboard

8"x10"

Here we have my second painting, which is notable for being the second version of my second painting. The first version was started without any preliminary drawing, and though I swear to god I know better than that, it took about 45 minutes of work before I realized the painting was not salvageable. So I started my second painting, with an object lesson and a new rule for this project.

Lesson:

Always always always always start with a drawing.

Rule:

A painting may only be restarted if it is inescapably clear that it cannot be saved.

As for this painting: it's not perfect (the anatomy around the thumb joint, oh ouch) but it's perfectly acceptable, and I learned from it. I'm going to count that as a success and move on.

Painting 001 - 5/1

 And it starts!

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Oil on canvasboard
8"x8"

I decided to start simple, and what, really, is more simple than an egg on a white surface with direct lighting? Subtle color, warm/cool relationships, and precise tonal shifts have been a problem for me in the past, hence why this was a useful painting. I'll probably be working with all-white still lives again before this is over.

What you can, when you can

It is May 1st (or it was, when I began writing). Today was the first day of the challenge that will last for the next four months, and I kicked it off with a small, hour-long painting of an egg, which will be uploaded once I can scan it without smearing oil paint all over my scanner. I didn't want to let the big day go by without any comment, however, and so: instead of a painting, I have for you a quote.

"What you can, when you can - to suspend the manic urge to fulfill my potential and instead focus on doing what was possible, with the materials to hand."

I don't know who I'm quoting by posting that line - oh, anonymity - but whoever it was has my thanks for reminding me, on the first day of this personal challenge, what I'm trying to do. The point of this summer is to take the skills and knowledge I have and use them, and by that use improving them. I am not here to demand perfection from myself, or to count anything short of not painting as failure. Taking small steps and pacing the ground trod before me by my elders and betters is the name of the game, and 'what I can, when I can' is as good a mantra as any to remind myself of this fact.

I probably won't need the reminder, given the impact this past year has had on me. There is nothing so defeating as pushing for an entire year, determined to fit some image of the artist I 'should be', only to fall short again and again and again and blaming myself each time. I was reaching beyond my means and somehow coming up surprised every time I fell, cutting corners and somehow still winding up disappointed in work that 'should have' been better.

Last week, one of my professors told me that my ambition was greater than my technical ability. It was at once a revelation and blindingly obvious: of course I was overlooking the basic technical building blocks of painting, which of course was the reason painting itself was so difficult.

There's nothing wrong with ambition. I don't think I could be the artist I am today if I hadn't spent the past three years reaching for the ledge that was just out of reach. On the other hand, I wound up becoming intimately acquainted with what happens when one tries to race for the top in lieu of building the actual staircase.

To end the tortuous metaphors: this year hasn't scared me off pushing myself to make better art; it's just taught me that I need to take the time to know what I'm doing before I can succeed. And if your response to that is a resounding "duh" - well, welcome to my life.

And now, to make myself feel better, here's my progress through art school, from my freshman year to present. Nudity ahoy:

Freshman year, first semester

Freshman year, second semester

Sophomore year, first semester

Sophomore year, second semester

Junior year, first semester

Junior year, second semester