Finally Finished!

I have finally finished the ipad painting of my oldest daughter. I have probably spent the last three or so months working on it off and on. It was completed on the app, Inspire Pro, done totally freehand, with the exception of drawing some of the initial line work. It is not a "paintover." A paint over is when someone imports a photo into a computer app or program and just uses various smudge brushes to give the appearance of a painting. A lot of digital paintings on the Internet are done this way. The person pulling the stunt off wishes to receive all of the accolades of completing such a masterpiece but they never took the time to draw it, create the correct shadows,lighting or color. It really is a complete cheat. I'm not saying this type of workflow doesn't have a place in the arts, just be honest about it. What makes for a good painting are those small mistakes and flaws. These give it a human touch while at the same time mastery over the form and media brings credibility. When you can place the painting over the photo and it exactly matches, something is not quite right, it is a copy. Artists need to take the time to do their own research, spend the countless hours learning to draw and paint and then claim masterpiece status. Anyways that is my take on the excesses of computer art. I myself use technology to aid in my artistic endeavors but it needs to be used in such a way to expand creativity and uniqueness not create a plastic and lifeless art. 

The Final Painting, I think.

Painted Carving

I decided to paint a thin oil coat on the sculpture and then rub back a little to the previous color. I'm not sure if I like it. I'm still a little unsure about the overall sculpture, the small chin, the fact the left cheek bone is smaller than the right etc.  Well just as I tell my students, "you have to be willing to make mistakes to learn." And I will chalk this one up to the learning process. I'm in the planning stages of my next carving, which will be in Brazilian Cherry, a very dense hard wood but beautiful.

 

Another Carving

My renewed passion for woodcarving has me thinking of projects to work out. I decided on the classic head of the Native American particularly of the Eastern tribes. I researched images and chose several old photos to work from. I then rendered a digital sculpture on Sculptris, a free program related to the outrageously priced Zbrush. I would like to own  a version of Zbrush but at a nice $700 or so it won't be anytime soon. Besides Sculptris works just fine for me at this point. I wanted to work out any problems I might have in the actual sculpture digitally before I started cutting wood. 

Wood is such an immediate medium. If you mess up there is not much room for forgiveness although it can be done. On the following sculpture I cut too much off the left cheek and decided to make a repair by glueing some extra wood back on. One can tell where the repair is but because of the final finish it is not to apparent. Anyways here is the progression from start to finish. I decided to carve in high relief instead of fully round. 

Here is a better view of the final stage. 

Getting Back into Carving

  Several years ago I began carving wood. I find carving to be a wonderful way to express artistry and creativity. Wood is so natural and allows the artist to participate in nature. It is an unforgiving medium which requires much thought and planning if creating a specific image as opposed to an abstract design. There are so many interesting  aspects to wood carving, the various woods and their attributes, the tools and their upkeep. The tools themselves are an art and I enjoy sharpening and honing their edges. The razor edge cuts well, while the dull rounded edge tears the wood. 

  One image that I always return to in sculpture is the head of Christ. It is central to my faith, the Christian faith. The suffering Christ dying on the cross for our sins, the sins of humanity. I think what really draws me is the absolute humility of Jesus when faced with his tormentors. He let evil have its way with him and as the Son of God defeated it and its companion, death. There was nothing left for the devil to do. He had exhausted all of his tactics and Christ rose from death. 

  This sculpture is a small bust carved from solid walnut, a very dense hard wood but one that take detail very well. I love the texture, grain and tool marks which add character. A small amount of sanding was done especially to the back of the sculpture. It was finished with a coat of teak oil.

My Oldest

I've been working on and off on this painting for about a month and a half. I would say I'm a little more than half way through it. It is being completed with Inspire Pro and I am working it the same way in which I would work a traditional painting, perhaps even more carefully. It starts first with a sketch and then I begin laying in the darks and lights, gradually building up to the realism of the image. In this case I am working each area to completion rather than working the image as a whole. 

Chinese Symbols

One of the final projects I am having my students complete is to create a composition based on a word that represents them. They then research the word in Chinese and try to emulate the calligraphy of the Chinese letter styles. Finally they create the design to finish it off. 

Of course I always create finished examples for them and take off on the assignment myself. Here are some of those designs. Most was done on the ipad and developed through various apps. 

Creek side Landscape

Over spring break my family and I took a small vacation in Comfort, Tx. We stayed at a place that had over thirty acres to roam around, including a very scenic creek area. I took the opportunity to take quite a few photos and even get some plain air painting time in. This particular image was originally from a photo and then manipulated in several photo apps. I wouldn't call this a digital painting although it certainly looks like one. But it was created fairly quickly using various apps as opposed to actually physically painting it over several hours or so. There are two ways to create digital paintings or images, one where the artist is the creator and actually paints it using the different painting apps or letting the "computer" paint it for you as you guide it's creation though different creative choices presented in the app. They are both valid ways of creating art. And of course let's not forget the traditional method of painting with real paint.