Too Sexy for her hat... carving project cont.

Color theory 101 with Jan (Van Eyck)

Jan is considered the father of oil painting for perfecting the medium, yet I wish to examine his use of bold and contrasting color to manipulate the viewer and compose a painting.

With the use of colors Jan can tricked the veiwer's eye into moving throughout the painting. The eye wants to travel from primary color to primary color and is fooled into following the lines of the browns, yet he uses darks as anchors that always bring you back to the start or center of the composition.

The greatest art school we have is the legacy left by those who came before. As always a great jumping off point to learn more is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_van_Eyck

What artist do you admire for their use of color?

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Painting is a form of profound creative release. - Jan Van Eyck

First relief print done... (thanks @Orangecatblues for modeling)

Here are two versions of the first proof. One is just the print itself and the colored one was colored with pencils and this print is 5x5 inches. Only 11 more to go. Thanks to Loki at http://www.Orangecatblues.com for being such a marvelous model!

They Wear it Well... (beginning)

I was recently invited back by the gallery that hosted my last show. (they do stipulate that it revolves around cats, which is fine). I coincidentally, heard the same week a very thought provoking podcast from http://www.artbizblog.com/2009/09/believe.html and lastly, I've been down with pnemonia and anemia, so I've been a wee lethargic.

All of these factors and bumping into a large block of carving material that I've been schlepping around my travels and moves for the past 15 years, sparked the idea of doing block prints for this next show. (I can carve anywhere including bed).

At the same time these factors were happening, there was an inside joke circulating about my cat Pinkerton and hoop skirts and Marie Antoinette wigs.

So I am embarking on carving twelve 5x5 inch different pet portraits with the caveat of them in some type of clothing that expresses their particular personality.

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“Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop”. -Michelangelo

Master Monday with Barry Moser...

Another one of my favorite living artists, is Master Illustrator, Barry Moser. I first discovered his work thru my love of the book Moby Dick.

A lot of his engraving work is published thru Pennyroyal Press and here is the link to his gallery of work there. http://www.moser-pennyroyal.com/moser-pennyroyal/Galleries.html Please take a few moments to be stunned, amazed and awed.

What is your amazing adventure with block printing, engraving or lino carving?

I've been revisiting Mr. Moser's work as I am embarking on a year long project that involves creating one 5x5" detailed block print per month, and

No animals were humiliated in the creation of this concept.

Inspired by both my daughter's great costume and a little girl in a magical sparkly princess dress, I decided that this would be a great look for Pinkerton and am going to make a graphite drawing of it just for fun.

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“I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all.” santiz Marie Antoinette