What are you working on?

[Hausamann]

Your background is fine, your figures are rendered well, and I really like the wings/halo things you have going on; there, but not there. More's the pity we can't paint a passage which is both there and not-there, eh? CGI for paper and canvas. A sort of shimmer that is only seen from a certain angle (which HAS been done- I've seen it: https://bigthink.com/high-culture/optical-illusion-hans-holbein-skull-ambassadors/ video with explanation: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanit...hans-holbein-the-younger-the-ambassadors-1533 )

Anyway, THAT would be nifty but my brain doesn't work in a method allowing me to figure that kind of stuff out without leading to gray matter implosion- and I find your barely-there presentation perfectly done.

So, far be it for me to push at someone to get back into the studio and Paint, damnit! 'cause goodness knows I have taken some very long breaks, and so I'll just ask: What is it about this piece that is bothering you to the point you can do no more?

Is it maybe finished? Is it faces and expressions? Are you wishing to put a specific face on the angel women? Is there something missing for you?

Maybe talking it out here will help you get over your "painter's block"- this is looking pretty good; all you have to do now is get it to where you say "Done!"

Thanks for conversing with me and sharing your thoughts, ideas and tips.
I am aware of the Holbein skull, it's pretty nifty. We, as school kids used to elongate our text, in class as secret messages, to pass around in the class (hoping the teacher won't know what we were writing about - if caught).
Yes, my plan is to be subtle about the wings, afterall, they are only to suggest the women are angels.

Your questions about my stalling is both challenging and appreciated for your concern. Today, I have spent a fair bit of time pondering the problem. I think it's the fear that I won't be able to produce what I imagine the painting is to look like. I don't see things clearly, though at the time I actually think I am. It's been a few years since this painting has been touched. In that time I have noticed a lot of errors, and wonder why I have not seen them at the time, or even earlier, like last year. It makes me wonder what else am I still not seeing. It unsettles me a bit, as if I am suffering from perfectionism, which I detest.

I know I have to face my fears and just paint it anyway. I can always change it if I want to. I am not on a time limit as such. nor am I hope to selll it or exhibit it. It's risky enough, for me, to show and tell here on the forum. However, all the other artists here in this forum keep proving to me that it's okay to be yourself regardless of what others think. So, I am encouraged to soldier on.

I am restarting this painting in https://creativespark.art/threads/st-francis-a-work-in-progress.5675/#post-95128 as a work in progress.

Thank you @JStarr for your encouragement.

 

[JStarr]

Thanks for conversing with me and sharing your thoughts, ideas and tips.
I am aware of the Holbein skull, it's pretty nifty. We, as school kids used to elongate our text, in class as secret messages, to pass around in the class (hoping the teacher won't know what we were writing about - if caught).
Yes, my plan is to be subtle about the wings, afterall, they are only to suggest the women are angels.

Your questions about my stalling is both challenging and appreciated for your concern. Today, I have spent a fair bit of time pondering the problem. I think it's the fear that I won't be able to produce what I imagine the painting is to look like. I don't see things clearly, though at the time I actually think I am. It's been a few years since this painting has been touched. In that time I have noticed a lot of errors, and wonder why I have not seen them at the time, or even earlier, like last year. It makes me wonder what else am I still not seeing. It unsettles me a bit, as if I am suffering from perfectionism, which I detest.

I know I have to face my fears and just paint it anyway. I can always change it if I want to. I am not on a time limit as such. nor am I hope to selll it or exhibit it. It's risky enough, for me, to show and tell here on the forum. However, all the other artists here in this forum keep proving to me that it's okay to be yourself regardless of what others think. So, I am encouraged to soldier on.

I am restarting this painting in https://creativespark.art/threads/st-francis-a-work-in-progress.5675/#post-95128 as a work in progress.

Thank you @JStarr for your encouragement.

I'll follow along with pleasure.

Yes, you are falling prey to perfectionism- something completely unattainable to ones-self. You *could* consider, instead, something more like Rembrandt and his portraits, using each to demonstrate the development of his skills and his visions. You could do this painting many times, in many styles, in many sizes and comps.

Gotta wonder what the piece would be like if Francis and his not-really-angels were placed in an abandoned and derelict amusement park- wooden roller coasters the mountains, ferris wheels, swings and calliopes trees and bushes, and a few carney games to people the stage with human ideas- good and evil, to start.

Or an abandoned strip mall or part of town.

But I have a rather weird imagination.

 

[brianvds]

Been making sketches of trees in the neighborhood - part of my project of using mainly my own reference photos, and thus limiting myself to subject matter I have direct access to...

 

[JStarr]

I can look at a tree all day- I *like* them- I like their structures.

This is a very nice tree- whether the birds know it or not.

 

[brianvds]

I can look at a tree all day- I *like* them- I like their structures.

This is a very nice tree- whether the birds know it or not.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

One of the joys of winter is that one can see the "skeletons" of the trees. I like the semi-abstract shapes they make.

In this case, that box is quite large, maybe intended for owls. But I think they'd feel a bit exposed in that tree in winter; they're fairly rare here in the city anyway, though I have seen some.

 

[Artyczar]

I like that idea of the skeletons of trees. Great drawing!

 

[Artyczar]

I just finished all the drawings and paintings for the zine I'm making. I thought it was going to be an Artist's book, but I decided to print it as a zine since it turned out so literal. Everything is off at the printer now (for the first prototype). If it turns out good, I'll print up 50 to make a signed edition to sell at the open studios.

A lot of the illustrations are queer...queer for a queer story! Some are a little odd I mean, so I won't post some of the super strange ones, and they really don't make sense out of context. Here are a few safe ones though:

 

[JStarr]

I just finished all the drawings and paintings for the zine I'm making. I thought it was going to be an Artist's book, but I decided to print it as a zine since it turned out so literal. Everything is off at the printer now (for the first prototype). If it turns out good, I'll print up 50 to make a signed edition to sell at the open studios.

I really like the journey one- it may be literal, but it looks adventurous, too.

 

[Hausamann]

@Artyczar . WOW. Awesome and Cool . Hoping to see more.

 

[Artyczar]

Thank you JStarr and Hausamann. I appreciate your sweet comments!

 

[Terri]

You got it done!! Yay!

This little sampling is intriguing. I think I'd know your flowers anywhere.

 

[Artyczar]

Thank you Terri.

My flowers seem so generic to me. They are just "little kid" flowers.

I'll be curious to see how the printed book turns out. I should be getting the prototype in about a week. If they look good, I'll order 50, sign and number them all and see how they sell. Who knows? I think $30 bucks.

 

[brianvds]

Decided to do something wildly experimental, in the form of a piece in expressionist mode. Can't quite decide whether I like it or hate it...

Oil on board, 20 x 15 cm.

 

[Artyczar]

I love it Brian! Can you do more of these?

 

[brianvds]

I love it Brian! Can you do more of these?

I may get it in my head to do some. I go through an expressionist phase every now and then, when I want nothing so much as to thickly smear paint all over the place. A few days ago, one I did during such a phase a few years ago actually sold too, rather to my own astonishment. I didn't think it was much good...

So did this one, which I did like:

Well, there's no telling what people might fork out cash for.

 

[Artyczar]

Well, brain, I like them both but LOVE the flowers. Do you enjoy doing them? That's probably what's more important .

 

[stlukesguild]

We spent all of last week visiting our older daughter in New Jersey. I'm finally back and working on my painting again. I just finished the halo with all the flowers (Lilies, Briars, & Poison Sumac), the snake, and the gold leaf. It's now time to move on to fully rendering the figure.

 

[ntl]

That's impressive!

 

[JStarr]

@stlukesguild

“Truth is female, since truth is beauty rather than handsomeness; this, Ridcully reflected as the council grumbled in, would certainly explain the saying that a lie could run around the world before Truth has got its, correction, her boots on, since she would have to choose which pair - the idea that any woman in a position to choose would have just one pair of boots being beyond rational belief.
Indeed, as a goddess she would have lots of shoes, and thus many choices: comfy shoes for home truths, hobnail boots for unpleasant truths, simple clogs for universal truths and possibly some kind of slipper for self-evident truth.
More important right now was what kind of truth he was going to have to impart to his colleagues, and he decided not on the whole truth, but instead on nothing but the truth, which dispensed with the need for honesty.”
​

― Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

and

“That's why it's always worth having a few philosophers around the place. One minute it's all is truth beauty and is beauty truth, and does a falling tree in the forest make a sound if there's no one there to hear it, and then just when you think they're going to start dribbling one of 'em says, incidentally, putting a thirty-foot parabolic reflector on a high place to shoot the rays of the sun at an enemy's ships would be a very interesting demonstration of optical principles.”
​

― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

 

[stlukesguild]

Finally! I finished my first major (as in large and complex) painting in nearly a year and a half. Admittedly, the untimely deaths of two of my studio partners and long-time friends took a toll on my creative drive and productivity. This mixed-media painting/drawing (pastel, acrylic, color pencil, and metal leaf on paper) measures 54" tall by 33" wide. It is about the largest I can realize in my current home-studio. Prior to this, and the previous painting, "Lenore", which measures the same...

... most of my paintings created in a large industrial warehouse/studio measure 80" tall by 46" wide.

I ran through a slew of possible themes while working on this painting including Poison Ivy (from Batman), Snow White, the Biblical Eve, and finally, the Greco-Roman Flora/Chloris. As it now stands, I am calling this yet one more "Flora" even while it retains elements that may recall Poison Ivy, Snow White, Eve... or even other themes. Honestly, I've long loved James Whistler's approach to naming his paintings after formal elements (like a classical composer): Nocturne in Blue and Silver, Symphony in White, Harmony in Blue and Gold. From beginning to end, I thought of this painting as a Harmony or Rhapsodie in Red.

Now, perhaps, I'll take a few days off before it's back to the drawing board. I do have a family gathering I must attend tomorrow... although to be honest, I think I'd rather stay at home and set about starting a new painting... or even just read.