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Bones Will Crumble

On April 28, 2010   /   Blog   /   102 Comments
Bones Will Crumble
30″ x 30″
oil on linen
This is the new painting I was trying not to “lick.” When I first moved to Philadelphia, I was fascinated with radiators because I had never really seen them before. We don’t have them in Texas. Ours was in good condition but you could tell it had been around for quite a while. Layers of paint had been built up and were flaking off. It seemed like the machine was struggling to stay useful. The crumbling facade, the white paint, dust, all reminded me of ancient ruins.
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Scale Conversion Diagram

On April 22, 2010   /   Blog   /   133 Comments
Scale Conversion Diagram
18″ x 24″
pen and watercolor
I thought it would be fun (and useful) to create a scale reference for myself to figure out how my tiny figures compare to other objects. I had in mind those dinosaur guides that always show up in natural history museums. It might be a bit confusing, even for me, to understand what it going on in the drawing. All of the domestic objects like the mug, toilet, door, and ladder have been scaled up to the equivalent of the real life landmarks (Statue of David, Parthenon, etc.). So, compared to my tiny figure, a fridge is almost the size of the Statue of Liberty.
This was a nice change of pace for me. I enjoy doing illustration occasionally, and it’s helpful to step away from something too traditional and realistic. When you actually look at this drawing, each object looks like one of those removable stickers you used to get when you were a kid. It’s also organized in the same way I might have overlapped them when I was young.
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Sir Mix-a-Lot

On April 9, 2010   /   Blog   /   113 Comments
Here is my palette and the end of the day. It’s quite a mess, for me at least. The photo also includes my color “palette” for this particular painting, which is mostly a monochromatic blue with a few areas of sienna. The colors I used were cobalt blue, ivory black, burnt sienna, olive green, and titanium white. I always use black as a muted blue.
I’m finishing up this new painting, and I wanted to post something about the process before a photo of the finished piece. I’ll be glazing this week and adding some touch-ups. I’ve been looking forward to this one for about a year.
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Don’t Lick the Painting Ricky

On April 2, 2010   /   Blog   /   90 Comments
I’ve started a new painting after a few months hiatus. It’s been tough to start new pieces lately because I seem to keep moving. It takes time to get settled in to a new studio and feel comfortable. This painting, I hope, will finally take me back to a place I reached back at the end of college. It took me a few years for me to be fully satisfied with my paintings and see them as better than my drawings. I need this painting to do that for me; no pressure right?
I am about half way done with it so far, but I am already happy with the direction it’s headed. I know I will be able to critique it to death, but I think it may finally be a superior product to my drawings. Here are a few reasons:
  • After a few paintings and experimentation, I’ve had enough time to feel comfortable with paint application
  • Better quality painting surface; with linen, my paint strokes don’t get sucked into the canvas like on cotton
  • Painting is the original idea, not an adaptation of a completed drawing
  • Thicker and more confident brush strokes
  • Completely developed concept; plenty of revisions and time to fix problems
Finally, I’ve posted a small detail of the painting. The focus of the painting is confidence of brush strokes. I need to show as much detail as I can without “licking” the painting like I have done previously. The detail is about 3 square inches of the 30″ x 30″ painting.
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Ricky, I’m in loooove with this. Really. I keep coming back. :)