whats going

so i read and re-read again the notes compiled by those who knew and learned from sargent, you know the one in .pdf format floating around the web...he said this in regards to a study one of his students had left him for critique:

"I think your study shows great progress -- much better values and consequently greater breathe of effect with less monotony in the detail. I still think you ought to paint thicker -- paint all the half tones and general passages quite thick -- and always paint one thing into another and not side by side until they touch. There are a few hard and small places where you have not followed this rule sternly enough."

I considered this in my paintings and decided to try out this "rule". It's a little unnerving at first, painting the hair right into the face and the face right back into the hair, but it puts you totally in control of your edges. It also works wonderfully with considering your largest masses first; I'm not worrying about whether im 'staying within the lines' or not, im just painting the shadow shape under the nose in one stroke and then painting the light around it back into it, then out again until I get the look I want. He also said not to starve your palette, so...SPLIRT, thats way more paint then I'll need i think...I do have paint left but when i have that much at the offset it makes you wanna mush it around and make lots of it. Sargent said to paint passages "quite thickly", so, i did, and painted them all into eachother; its great fun, much more fun then just rendering...

anyway, i dont know why i chose those colors, i was bored mainly so i wanted to make it interesting
i want to try this from life, i didnt have any reference for this "study", if you can call it that, just out of my head unfortunately

i think ill make a new post with a better image that isnt lopsided, thats the only way i could get as little glare as possible

goodnight

New York Trip

I recently had the awesome opportunity of traveling to New York for 3 full days. My targets:

The Met,
The Society of Illustrators,
The Salmagundi Club,
The Frick Collection,
The Neue Galerie,
and the Adelson Gallery.

Unfortunately I was unable to visit the Adelson Gallery; however, I was able to hit my other destinations.


My first stop was the Met with my tiny ass point-and-shoot. This thing doesn't even have an option to change the shutter speed. Even with these limitations, I was able to get some awesome high-rez shots of multiple Sargent and Hals portraits' hands and faces. Unfortunately my camera battery ran out the minute before I got into the room with the giant Sargent painting "The Wyndham Sisters" : http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/27.67


It was mind-blowingly good.

The Society of Illustrators visit was interesting; I arrived and found that the main gallery holding the SoI Student Scholarship Exhibition was also holding about 60 or so people all listening to Peter de Seve and Chris Wedge, famous character designer/illustrator and Director of Blue Sky Studios, respectively, lecture about Blue Sky Studios, particularly Ice Age and Robots, and animation/illustration in general. Very cool people, awesome to see them in person.


After the lecture was over, I wandered around the place, up the staircases that were lined with incredible illustrations by some incredible people, down the narrow hallways, more illustrations lining the walls, more staircases, til I got up to the lounge/bar with the Microvisions Exhibit opposite. Peter and Chris came up behind me and sat down at the bar for a drink and I watched as everyone who was at that night's Sketch Night was drawing, drinking, and listening to live music. It was awesome. I think if I lived in New York, I would probably live in that place.


Next was the Neue Galerie, which hosted an impressive amount of works by Klimt and Schiele, not only paintings but numerous drawings and even poster and graphic work by Klimt. 
Afterward I walked about 10 blocks south to the Frick Collection, which is currently holding an exhibition called Rembrandt and His School, which featured numerous etchings and prints by him and those who came after him. The permanent collection contained numerous Rembrandts, Holbeins, Fragonards, Gainsboroughs, and other such stuffs.


I then took the subway to the Salmagundi Club, which is currently holding the American Masters Exhibition. This I did not know until I arrived and I was thoroughly overjoyed to see works in person by Jeremy Lipking, Quang Ho, David Kassan, Richard Schmid, Sherrie McGraw, David Leffel, and other awesome names. In addition to this exhibit, there was also the Robert Lougheed Retrospective, in honor of the incredible painter, and their permanent collection, containing some truly amazing paintings; I saw a Kinstler and they even had a Cornwell. Along the walls were tacked up the palettes and brushes of famous artists, including the brushes and palette, in a glass case, of George Inness, the famous landscape painter, donated to the Salmagundi Club by the artist long ago. Quang Ho was there, too, talking with what must have been part of the Club administration about their collection in the basement floor of the building. Was really cool to get to see these creators in person.


Basically the trip was incredible.

Work

Laptop's about to die, here's some stuff!

Self Portrait - The Sneeze

Sargent study in watercolor (original in oil)

Master study of Russian academic portrait

Experimental self portrait; at the time I was looking at Sophie Jodoin and Ruprecht Von Kaufmann for inspiration.

Inktober! and sketches

Me and Philip Whisenhunt over at http://civilmouse.blogspot.com/ are participating in Inktober: http://agent44.com/blog2/?p=502

And so are many others! Join us if you'd like. It's simply an ink drawing a day for all of October. I need a good excuse to brush up (no pun intended) on my ink chops. These sketchbook pages are studies from 2 James Montgomery Flagg inks and one of his figure paintings. Here's a good page on Flagg with examples of his incredible talent: http://www.americanartarchives.com/flagg.htm

And me with 2 of the books Ive recently checked out from Ringling's Kimbrough Library. If only I could own them...

 The Flagg book is an absolute must have. A great biography and hundreds of high res details of inks, watercolors, oils, charcoals, and much more. The other is a book on John Singer Sargent; the biography is great so far. Without further ado, here are my first pieces for Inktober (among other things)! Thanks Flagg!