Setting up the model skeleton

I'm now finalizing the drawings for the next set of BDSM skeleton paintings. There is one pose that I had to set up, for a skeleton that is going to be tying up a human subject. My studio, unlike my old one on Belcher Street, does not have wooden rafters that make it easy to suspend the skeletons limbs into positions. The ceiling here is very high, and all there is up there are pipes, and a concrete ceiling.

I used monofilament line tied to drapery hooks, looped over the pipes up there. This did the trick, and I was able to set up my skeleton into the desired position.

Project nearing the end

After about 2 months of work, my series of dancing conjoined twins is almost done. There are a total of 6 of various small sizes, with the largest being around 9 x 12 and the smallest 6 x 8. Four are totally done, and two just need little tiny adjustments (highlights and touch up) once the current layer is dry.

When I get to this stage, near the end, I always try to have the next painting in the preparatory state - the idea fairly developed and ready for final drawings prior to committing to paint.

However, this weekend I had a quite conflicting ideas about what to do next. When I get in this state, it can almost be paralyzing. Saturday, I got practically nothing done at the studio. My mind went back and forth on various ideas, and then I had this horrible fear that I was running out of ideas, and even worse, unable to come up with any decent new ones. I then realized that several ideas just need more time to percolate. They are worthy ideas and just need to be ruminated upon. While I work through some various options with these preliminary ideas, I decided to finish up the BDSM skeleton series. I still have 5 finished drawings and reference photos ready to progress to paintings.

The Weekend

I had quite a busy weekend. It started with a bang on Friday afternoon when i meet up with artist friends at our weekly Artist Roundtable, led by Anna Conti. We met up at the Columbarium, with the intention of drawing, but were unable to stay due to a service. We headed to Clement Street, and had coffee and then a great dinner at Burma Superstar. We then headed to the deYoung, which is the happening place on that end of town. There was a live jazz band, really hot, the Marcus Shelby Quartet. Plus there was a program of street art, with some disguised street artists making a presentation in the auditorium.

I had to make a difficult choice, and decided to sketch the musicians. There is something energizing about the gestures of the figures, the forms of the instruments and just the beat that makes it a fun pursuit. Afterwards, as I was wandering around looking for my friends, the band's manager, and radio personality, Donald Lacy, tracked me down and asked to see the drawings. He then asked me to stay until the end of the program to meet the band and Marcus Shelby. I ended up giving the drawings of Marcus to him. I kept the sketch of the drummer (above). Anna Conti got a good snapshot in of me with the band.

Saturday, I moved stuff from the storage unit to the new studio, which absorbed extra stuff with no problem. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon photographing the fetal skull so that I can begin painting the new dancing conjoined twins. Above is one of the reference photos. (The gray blog on the side of the skull is just a kneaded eraser - I used it to prop the skull so it looks tipped to one side)

Sunday was another art day. I went over to the Studio Gallery for the opening reception. My friend Anna Conti had a couple of awesome pieces in the show, which was quite good. Then several of us strolled down Van Ness - got ensnared at Utrechts Art Supply (of course) and then checked out the new bronze Buddha sculpture at Civic Center.

Twin #6

Here is a preliminary drawing for dancing twin #6. I've also attached the original photo of dancers, that inspired this pose.

Back to the Lizards

I spent the last couple of weeks working on my anatomical chimps, as well as some studies of dancing conjoined twins.

Today I finally got back to the lizards, and got some midtones and darks put in.

Even more exciting: a large space became available in the studio building, just down the hall from me. Looks like I'll be moving my stuff down the hall next week after Spring Open Studios. The extra space will allow me to more easily work with prop set ups, as well as bring in a larger table for drawing. I'll be able to bring all my stuff that is now in a small storage space. This space is actually a bit bigger, and much better configured, than the space I had at Belcher Street. And the light will be better than the current space that I have, which gets very intense sun in the afternoon. The new space gets a much softer light, and will be more consistent and easier to work with.

Life drawing and Artist Roundtable

Had a wonderful Friday. Spent Friday morning painting, working on an anatomical chimp, inspired by Vesalius. This is the first of three small canvases I'm working on. There is still some work needed, such as reflective glare highlighted on the muscles, more lights in some of the cartilage, and light tones and florals in the plant life around the figure.

Everytime I look at chimp anatomy, I marvel at how similar their structures are compared to humans. And yet they are so aggressive, often nasty, with male dominated social structures. They make war on other chimp tribes, murder and have other nasty behaviors. When humans exhibit their best behaviors and best nature, we are clearly a big improvement over chimps - but when we lapse into our dark side, I can see our chimp brain emerging.

In the afternoon, headed over for an "Artist Roundtable" get together at Muddy's on Valencia and 16th. We had coffee, and headed over to Intersection for the Arts (exhibit of Margaret Harrison) and Art Zone. I had to really appreciate Harrison's rather unconventional paintings of sexed up comic superheroes, and her great use of watercolor. But I also had to recognize there is a fine line between making a serious statement with art, versus sheer sensationalism. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this exhibit. Art Zone had just wonderful blasts of color, and looking at the art here is best described as eye candy.

Anna, Marianna, Teresa and I then headed over to Mission Cultural Center for life drawing, where we had an amazing model. I was a bit rusty, since I hadn't been able to attend a session for the last couple of weeks.

ArtSpan Tour des Artistes

I was very honored to be selected as an artist to participate in ArtSpan's Tour des Artistes. This is a VIP Brunch-Around tour of five working artists' studios led by ArtSpan's Board Chairman, Michael Yochum, and ArtSpan's former executive director, Therese Martin. The tour began with coffee & pastries at ARC Studios & Gallery, 1246 Folsom Street; and attendees enjoyed a VIP limo bus and refreshments along the way. Even cooler than that: two of my artist friends were also featured on the tour: William Salit and Kathryn Arnold. Attendees also got to visit the studios of Carolyn Hinman and Phillippe Jestin.

I was interviewed by Kris Vagner at the SF Examiner, and described some of my preparations for the tour. (here's a link to the article http://bit.ly/c32WkN - just click the page number at the top and enter "28")

There were 22 folks on the tour, including tour guides. So it was a bit crowded in the studio. I had to caution one women to watch out for the wet palette that I had left out on the taboret. (I had worked on the skeleton/lizard painting that morning - it helped to keep me from stressing out over the event!) To make a bit more room, I shoved the easel way back and put my buddy Friedrich the skeleton out in the hallway to be my doorman.

Basically, I did a show and tell, very similar to what I do for friends when they visit except much more organized. I made "packets" of related sketches going from early thumbnail concept sketch to the final finished drawing that is transferred to panel or canvas. The discussion included several of my reference clay models used to work out perspective and shadows. I also showed them the reference photos used for the BDSM paintings, including the skeleton strung up into poses using monofilament line hung from the ceiling. I don't know if it's a good idea for artists to talk about where the problem areas of the painting are located, but I did share with them places that caused consternation during the painting process. I gave them a handout color printout, showing a painting from first layers of warm underpainting through the final touches.

I also talked about the process of finding authentic models for the BDSM series. The poses themselves were developed by looking at porn magazines, websites and so forth. I then used Poser software to manipulate a virtual human model and skeleton to visualize various poses. But the virtual model has than android look. I joined various organizations and websites to locate authentic models.

It was a very nice group of people who asked great questions, such as why certain colors were used for background, why certain color is used for underpainting/ground. There was one question though that I tried to gracefully evade: someone asked me if I participated in the BDSM lifestyle or tried it out. I told them I was too busy but had been to the Citadel a few times. Is that vague enough?

Mike Yochum was a wonderful moderator, and he asked me to cover a couple of topics pertinent to the symbolic content of the works.

I also had a milestone event: an older retired couple bought one of the paintings in the BDSM series! The usual buyer of my paintings are generally younger, so I was excited to have reached an audience beyond my normal market.

I hope that all of the attendees had a great time.... despite the butterflies in my stomach, I had a good time.

Base Layer on Skull

Another busy week. I've been asked to serve on a committee to organize for Spring Open Studios. I finished (I think for good) my temp job at the Bank, so I don't have to worry about the pesky day job anymore!

I was asked to participate in ArtSpan's Tour des Artistes. This is a limo guided tour to several artists studios. Unlike Open Studios, when an artist generally spiffs up the studio for a larger numbers of guests, this is more intimate, and the goal is to see studios in their working state. I've been putting in the hours to get several paintings to an advanced state in anticipation of the event.

I had been contemplating getting some better track lighting put up to illuminate the walls (and works). I have wall mounted lights which are great for lighting the work area/easel, but these are no good for lighting works on the wall. The Tour des Artistes, and upcoming Spring Open Studios, gave me the incentive to go ahead and put in tracks for lighting the wall.

Today, made some good progress on getting the base layer done on the skull/lizard.

P.S. the SF Giants item hanging behind the painting in the photo above is a freebie apron that Jude got for me at the ballpark. I am not a Giants fan.

New Lizard Painting

Over the last three studio sessions, I've gotten the underpainting blocked in for the next lizard painting. I've put in a very warm layer for the skull. The next layer will be much cooler, but will let bits of warmth come through.

Also got the mid tones in on the lizards.

Life drawing

Had a great day yesterday (excluding my encounter with MUNI)

Painted from 8 in the morning till 3:30 working on a commission (Barbie mermaids - putting in highlights on the fish scales).

Went to get a passport photo taken and had my MUNI encounter at the wonderful skanky intersection of 6th and Mission. A well deserved soy latte at Muddy's on Valencia street, sketched a little bit there. Then headed to Mission Cultural Center for life drawing. My friend Marianna was there, and met her friend Yve. We had a wonderful model. Then went to dinner, where for the first time in my life I tried Nicaraguan food (it was yummy!)

Above: 1 minute sketches, 20 minute sketch, and a 10 minute sketch of last week's model.

Good day at the studio

Made some headway today on four paintings. Friday, I got the acrylic lines painted in over the preliminary drawing and toned the panel/canvas. Today, got the background in on the skeleton, and got the sky and base colors for the clouds in on the anatomical chimps. Once the paint dries, I'll put in more highlights on the clouds.

Anatomical Chimps, after Vesalius

The more I look at the anatomy of chimpanzees, the more I see the similarities between them and humans. It reflects the fact that we share 98% or more of our DNA with them. When I draw their arms and legs, I can literally look at a human anatomy book for reference, and just make adjustments for proportions. The big areas of difference are in the cranium and the pelvis. Yet, behaviorally, humans are a big improvement, though I think we humans can lapse easily into chimp-like violence.

I'm doing a series of three small paintings, after the manner of Vesalius, the Renaissance anatomical master. Though these flayed chimps are bold legged, and somewhat stooped over, I want to emphasize their similarities to human anatomy.

I just finished three small preliminary drawings, and will transfer them to canvas this week. By the way, the side view chimp is actually a take off on an anatomical study by Albinus.

Finished it at last, and Life Drawing

Got most of the highlights in on this painting. Once it dries, I have a few little touchups left, but it is largely done.

Got in some life drawing at MCC tonight too.

Above: 20 minute and 1 minute poses

Copulating Lizards

Although I am still working on two paintings, I jumped the gun and started working on the next one; it will show an opened skull with two copulating lizards. This is a further exploration of the primitive emotions which are underneath the cerebral cortex, (or what I've heard of as the "lizard part of the brain.")

I got the preliminary drawing done, but some parts of it were difficult. The male lizard on top in particular was troublesome. The angle of his head is slightly foreshortened, and his mouth is open. I ended up redrawing several components of the composition several times. Had some trouble with the perspective - basically the view is at slightly higher than eye level with the skull, so the "platform" on which the lizards are mating appears very flattened by perspective.

Originally, I had envisioned viewing the lizards in a more foreshortened, face on angle, but it didn't work well nor very believably given the relatively limited space in the skull, because of the perspective. So I redid it with the lizards at a more lengthwise view. The clay model lizards that I sculpted came in very handy for visualizing different angles and views.

Unlike the previous paintings, one of the lizards is actually coming out of the perimeter of the skull. Her toes and her chin will be hanging over the edge. The skull itself has his/her mouth open in an expression of animal ecstasy.

Malibu Mermaid Barbie

Today was very productive day. I got the body color in on the Barbies, including their fish bodies. I'm using the barracuda as a reference for the tail. For the body, I went to Whole Foods, where a man behind the fresh fish counter was very helpful - he held up a large salmon for me so I could take a picture and get a reference photo for the silvery scales.

striping my snake

The snake is supposed to be an Amazon Tree Boa, but I made it much more colorful than the real thing. (I made the colors more saturated and exaggerated )

Progress

I changed my mind about the underpainting for the snake. I looked at pictures of an Amazon Tree Boa, and they actually have reddish scales over a ochre/yellow underlying skin. So I made him ochre, and will put reddish orange and yellow stripes over it.

More work on the skull

The more I paint skulls, the more detail I see. I'm not putting every fissure or "crack" in the painting, but by just putting in a few, it really lends a sense of realism.

I was worried about the background being too dark, but as the painting has developed, I'm liking the deep background, which is almost like a navy color.

The jaw/mandible is the last part that needs a final layer. Then I can start on the snake, bird and branch. Got the base colors on the snake and branch in already.

I should start making better progress. I'm on a little hiatus from my temp job at the Bank, for at least a couple of weeks. I'll be able to get some serious studio time.

More progress on skull

I put in the body colors for the skull today - it went amazingly fast. But things will slow down as I put more and more details in.

For now, the main thing is to get the major shadows and lighter areas blocked in. Reflections and subtle details will take longer, and will be added along with the highlights.

Paintings in process

I made some progress in the last week and a half. Got two paintings transferred to board, and acrylic underpainting blocked in. I also got the first layers of oil paint blocked in. The Malibou Mermaid Barbie painting is a commission. I got the body color blocked in for the cliffs and sea. Next week, after that layer dries, I can put in whitecaps, waves, and highlights on the rocks.