Self Portraits

My Friend,

How have you been doing since my last post? As the summer winds down, I find myself no less busy and my posts remain infrequent. For a Saturday morning I am posting a couple of self-portrait sketches.

The first is an airbrush sketch and one of our Yorkshires, the late Obie, standing in front of a mantle. It was quickly executed to experiment with techniques of masking and portraiture.


While preping the image for posting I pushed the image toward the sepia and liked the result. I thought that the photograph in the background, in its abstraction, turned out quite well, yet, I haven't tried to replicate it in any form.

I've also included an exploratory sketch print that is engraving printed over a xylene-xerox transfer. The transfer was of a xerox copy of an architectural image placed face down against the print and then the back is brushed with xylene or a Chart-Pak blender. The area where the engraving will be is masked in this case. Then the engraving is printed. The plate is an acrylic plate cut with engraving tools. I found that the acrylic cut much too easily and the line get quite bold unless care is taken.

I'm finding not much interest or practitioners of contemporary engraving, wood or metal plate. I like the look of engraving and am making a study of it in an effort to do more. Luckily money is excellent work to study. I am using what I learn to influence my painting also. I like the power of the contours to infer volume.

I have prattled on too long and will close now. Have a lovely Saturday.

Brad 

Something Small for Wednesday

Green Earrings, Airbrush and pen on Yupo

Dear Friend,

I just wanted to make a quick post to let you know I am alive and kicking. I have added a portrait I executed in comic style using airbrush, pen and liquid acrylic paint. I like comic art and am drawn to the exaggerated drama. I have tried to incorporate the style in my oil and tempera compositions.

I am wrestling with the direction that my art is taking. I don't want to go away from figurative/portrait work, trouble is I'm interested in so many things that my ADD makes it difficult to focus. I'm not keen on the storytelling facet of images but more on technique and the visual impact of the image. Thus, I am trying to focus on the techniques and tools I am using to produce a more cohesive series and then branching out from there. It sounds rather comic when I read it back, so I guess this line of thought needs some work also.

Have an adventurous Wednesday.

Brad

Chambered Nautilus

The sun is out this morning and it will be a much warmer day than yesterday, Sunday. The first flush of blooms, the jonaquils, hyacinths, plums, and such have faded and have given way to the first leaves. It is getting quite green now, and we have jungle. It's thick woods, viney and thick with mountain laurel. Camp Frank Merrill is just a few miles outside of town where the U.S.Army Rangers are based and train. There's a reason, the terrain can be brutal.

I heard the first whiporwill this morning. We will hear them from now until June. We are starting to hear the turkeys also, gobbling in the mornings. In the spirit of natural things I'm posting shell drawings.

The first is executed with liquid acrylic, Dr. P.H. Martin Spectralite and a croquil pen on Yupo synthetic paper. Yupo is actually polypropylene sheets. I'm not sure what the advantage of Yupo is other than it is very durable. I like the Spectralite because it can be applied with airbrush, brush or pen.

This illustration was created with the same materials. The basic shapes and background were created with airbrush. the details were added with an airbrush and worked with a brush and a pen. The effect around the shells was created with an electric eraser.

Good Monday,

Brad

Catching Up

It's been a few days since I posted anything and I a little at a loss. I've been keeping up with the blogs I follow and appreciate your diligence in posting something for my entertainment. I've been working away at a drafting project and as is usual just before I was to send my first approval submittal to the engineers, I'm talking about my finger moving toward the email send button, I received a call from my customer sending me off on a complete reworking of what had finished and breaking it apart to realign it with a new plan of scheduling.

Here is a portion of an elevation and a wall section before "remodeling." I have tried to keep my hand in at some artistic activities. I have posted here a sprayed figurative piece, liquid acrylic paint, airbrush, brush on a panel.  

I used a drawing produced in a figure drawing class for the model. The drawing is a fifteen minute study and I was very interested in the shadows of the chair back falling across the model. The chair belonged to an artist friend and he had painted the chair. I tried to capture the flavor of his work in my painting.

I've been working on some of my Photoshop paintings also. This is the first stage of one and I will post the stages as I complete it. I can work quite quickly but I run Photoshop on an old G3 Mac which is slow saving and opening files. It's fifteen years old and only a 233mhz processor but still an excellent art machine.

Thanks for stopping by.

Brad

Male Nude

A drawing of a figure in charcoal on newsprint.

And, an airbrush watercolor sketch based on it.

I don't draw enough. I find that drawings that I do and put away for a while become resource material for my other work and the practice should be pursued. I really liked drawing in a class setting with a model. I've thought about starting a monthly figure drawing Salon and inviting local artists to join me for drawing and some chat, charging  a fee to pay the model but, it seems like a lot of work for a little bit of drawing time. I'm not much for working in a sketchbook; I like to do it but can't seem to make a habit of it. I'm working on some drafting now; in Cad and am planning some more pieces in my sprayed series. (See Windprayer and Crossroad) I'm also working on plates for engravings and hopefully with the weather improving I will be able to move along with those projects.

Brad