Best Of and More Figures

One of my pieces, "Warm Winter", managed to get into the Best of Ringling show. I touched the painting up a tad bit, so here's an update for what it's worth.

I'm simply glad that I made it into the show. I think the fact that I get to share space with people that I respect and admire at my school is greater than only me getting into the show. This year's been a very humbling and learning experience and I hope you guys continue witnessing my progress as well.

Changing subjects...

I was lucky enough to have painted a very great model twice. Each painting took three hours to complete and the second pose was set up in low light. I absolutely loved painting these and I learned a lot through them. I hoped to be able to render out the paintings in later sessions, but I simply didn't have the time. Anyways, I plan to analyze my paintings and reveal what I learned in later posts, so stay tuned ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy!

Pimples and Treats

Here's a piece about torrenting. I added a bunch of unpleasant small stories in the image, so beware if you decide to look closely! Also, I learned a lot about how shadows work in this specific lighting situation and angle of approach. It's funny how I've never thought about it despite how common it is for people sit in front of their computers. I hope you guys enjoy it.

P.S. Here's a small WIP of a painting I'm bound to finish tomorrow. I haven't figure painted in quite some time, but I'm glad to be back. Enjoy!

Warm Winter

I'm not too happy with this next piece as an illustration nor its composition, but I can say I've learned a pleasing amount through both the image's strengths and weaknesses. I've experimented a lot with design and composition with the painting, with great help from my friends Andrew Theophilopoulos and Nery "Ned" Mejicano III. There's simply too much to go through in terms of what I've taken away from this painting, but if I had to pick two elements I learned most about, I would choose composition and noise. 

Noise is a fairly new term I've learned over the past couple days, but from my understanding, the term simply represents the attention a certain area or element may draw from its handling. In essence, greater handling of noise helps develop a greater sense of rhythm. There is a trick however: noise is relative as much as any other element of the piece.

Composition is a very broad term, but something I know I have to wrestle with. I experimented with this recent piece but it wouldn't have been successful without great critique and suggestions from my peers and teachers. Simply put, I believe I need to improve with this.

Anyways, I hope you guys see some examples of what I've talked about in the piece. Enjoy.

A Quick Update to Celebrate the New Year!

I kind of failed myself with the post a day project. But! I didn't stop learning, so I'm not too bummed out. Here's a quick update to a previous figure painting. I focused on fixing obvious problems with the drawing, making more economical brushstrokes, and improving my edgework. I've been exploring a lot of different approaches, and right now, I'm trying to find more minimal ways to render. I've been looking a lot at design as well, but that's a story for another day, in a future post. I hope you guys enjoy.