To some, my studio might look like a jumbled mess, but to me, it looks ordered and purposeful. I have three easels. I use the third one, the one not shown, for drawings. I expanded my palette from my habitual dozen colors to what you see now on my home-made palette. Just because I no longer count…
I finished Spring during my morning session. I added a tiny little bit of sun-thickened oil to my usual medium. A small amount of this oil dramatically affects the paint. Sun-thickened oil, unlike stand oil (which I don’t like), maintains good handling qualities even when the paint is thinned to a gouache-like consistency. Before starting, I applied…
I spent another morning working on several versions of the same subject. The top version is charcoal and chalk on toned ground. The paper is extremely thick. I don’t remember the supplier (I bought it some time ago) and I no longer like the super-rough surface. The bottom version is oil on canvas. I used to…
Here are two more treatments of the same subject. I’ve written about this before. This time, I made two drawings. The top drawing is charcoal on toned paper heightened with chalk. The bottom drawing is pen and ink on bristol board with watercolor washes. The subject, although obviously the same in both instances, feels different, which…
Just now, I’m interested in multiple treatments of the same subject. I make drawings (cartoons) and transfer them to multiple surfaces. So far, I’ve limited the process to two instances per drawing. When I do an ambitious drawing perhaps I will expand to three or more treatments. This photo shows two versions of a small winter…
Terrible photo but it’s dark and I’m tired so it will have to do. Man With a Baby Carriage is in the final stage–the fun stage. If the drawing is strong, it will take you to finish line. Drawing, like writing, can fill up with useless details that don’t advance the project when you’re tired. …
I frequently dream about paintings. Sometimes I’ll act on the dream and make a painting or drawing. I dreamed about the image in this little study three nights running. This small oil took 10 minutes to paint. Dream is 12″ x 16″.
The unfinished painting The Press is 40″ x 50.” I’ve used RGH’s walnut-ground flake white for a couple of weeks and I like it more and more. It keeps its body even when thinned to the constancy of gouache, such as the white shirts in the painting. I plan to write about preparing canvases soon.…
Odds and ends. Today, I finished the landscape (somewhere around Monterey) and worked on the figure with the striped shirt (my wife Kathleen). It still needs work. Both are watercolors. The pen and ink drawing of the figure behind the landscape is on bristle board. My watercolor kit. The bottom drawer contains watercolor tubes. I…
Along 4th Street is 40″ x 50.” The surface is very good and the painting is moving well. When the surface is solid, I do less re-painting and things go faster. I’ve written about how much I like RGH’s Extra-fine Flake white. That white is ground with safflower oil. I’ve also been using walnut oil…
The studio is busy just now. The drawing is a study for a large painting I’m preparing to launch. The figures, except for the right-hand two, are prominent in the new painting’s design. I plan 2-3 more figures in the large painting. ‘Large’ in this case means 4.5′ by 5.5′, The drawing is pen &…
I used to think speed is important in art making. Speed relates to spontaneity–some say–and spontaneity guarantees authenticity, if not creativity. While spontaneity is important in art making, it’s not fundamental. Even if you insist that spontaneity is essential, you can’t make the same claim for speed. Speed is simply irrelevant. Another important idea for…
I started working on the painting on the easel, Along 4th Street, yesterday. I’ve had two long sessions on it, but it still needs a lot of work. I’m careful about cutting off figures by the canvas edge. One of my teachers, Pearlstein, is well known for cutting figures. He used the device to…
The finished painting on the floor in this photo, Dare, is another painting of my son Keith standing in front of an earlier painting with him as the subject. Dare is 24″ x 30.” The large, unfinished painting on the easel, Picnic, is the last painting from my batch of poor-surface paintings. And it’s the…
I finished drawing the cartoon for this painting yesterday and spent the morning transferring it to the canvas. You can see the transferred cartoon in this photo. I spent the remainder of yesterday and all of today working on the new painting. In this photo, the gray ground is still visible throughout the painting. Booth at…