shredded

I love how her breasts look. For lack of a better term it has a perfect gravity. The shoulders are better aligned with the body and definitely more defined. The hands looked a little small for the body so I have gradually made it bigger so it is more proportional to the arms.

The legs are going to be next and I'm checking anatomy books to make I got the muscles right. The hips look a little too small for her size that will be adjusted by the next time I post....

Stay tuned......

Shredded continued ...

Finally I feel I've gotten to the point where I can post and show my progress. The waves were created by a mix of Prussian blue, titanium white, and cobalt and other earth colors. The waves that are crashing mimic her internal and external struggles. I like the way the crest turned out and the surf. When I made this i was thinking about the line from Still Here, where he says " My hopes the wind done scattered" I depicted that thought crashing of the waves.

The bird on her shoulder is going to eventually be shown picking at her jugular vein. Like a vulture scavenging for food. The bird depicts the Nay Sayers, the people, the things, and situations that we let destroy us. I thought of the part that Langston Hughes wrote, "Looks like between 'em they done tried to make me stop laughing, stop lovin', stop livin-"

This the full view of what I've done so far. I really like the way the background is turning out. I love how all the same colors dance through the painting to give it a sense of cohesion. I'm pretty happy with the composition and i wanted it tight on a long canvas without much width to show her confinement. The sand, the hands, the dress and the skin tone will be the new things that will be worked on for my next post... I will persevere.

Shredded cont...

I really didn't realize how big the feet appeared... it will be fixed. I really like the ballooning of the skirt caused by the wind. Next I'm going to start working on the hair and the chest, and work on the birds to get the color right. I still don't know what color I want the shoes though. i started using this medium called Neo-megilp that works like the maroger medium used by the dutch masters but without the fumes. I've basically ceased using my stand oil and other spirits. Now I can confidently paint in my small apartment without fearing of inhaling dangerous fumes.

Shredded-part 2

I began the painting the background first. So I could figure out the lighting first for the skin tone. I wanted to make sure I had an idea for her values. I'm going to lighting up the clouds on her left so it wont look it so black and dark.

Here I've painted the rest of the dress and skin. I want to lighten the background with cadmium orange, and alizarin crimson. Then I'm going to paint in the birds a dove and a crow. It could symbolize good or bad. The angel or the devil !!

Shredded

This is a painting I'm finally working on drawings and sketches I've been doing for sometime a correlates with one of the poems i like as part of my poem series I was working on. I really like the proportions of the woman's petite body. I want to call it shredded or may be name it after the poem.

The name of the poem is Still Here by Langston Hughes. The poem speaks on beating battereed and beat down by the world but contineuing ti persevere. The power of perseverance and pushing through are one of the the many life lessons I really believe in and I am costantly being shown day by day, as I struggle with my life's passion.

This is the continuation of my homage to Tamara de Lempicka. This box is called The Girls, de Lempicka had a knack for showing the sensuality of women. This was the period in time that her awareness of her attraction to women was in full form. In fact she had several affairs while she was in a convenient marriage to Tadeusz de Lempicki.

This is not even close to done but at least you can see the progress of the work and the scale that I am working with.

This is also done in acrylics like the last one. Maybe soon I'll work in oils. But oils has a preparation that I don't have to deal with when I work with acrylics.

MY NEW BOXES!!!!

I've begun painting boxes a friend bought for me and thought I might like. I started with landscapes and changed my mind and I'm paying homage to my favorite artist Tamara de Lempicka. She was an art deco artist from the twenties to the forties. The first box I've attempted is called The Orange Scarf.

I've used acrylic as my medium. I really like the way it's turning out and I can't wait to put the hardware and accessories on it!

Great Mother's Day Show!!!

My group and I (Chicagoland Artist Network) had an art show at a church called Victory Christian Assembly Church. Even one of my friends stalked up on art for his new condo. I made some sales selling reproductions of my pieces on tile. All in all It was a nice show and I'm glad I participated. I will keep you all posted with any upcoming events or shows.

red stripes finally finished

I finally finished candystripes, but I decided to rename it red stripes, since I thought about it one day. I realized there are no pieces of candy anywhere in this painting. So why am I calling it candystripes? I think it turned out pretty great. It's been a while since i used red in acrylics and I realized why I don't, it comes out so patchy!!! Thank god for gloss gel. I would have pulled my hair out. I posted it on wetcanvas since technically I was a month late. I'm working on my deadlines. Using my time wisely and learning time management, constant life struggle of mine.

morning glory finished

I decided to add water droplets, to the flower... The center could be better, but I think I've done the best I could do with this painting. Imagine when I take on these further projects with oil, cant wait ... I got my liquin and I'm ready to roll stay posted on my latest pieces, guys.

morning glory phase 2

I made the petals more distinct and then I worked on the center a little more using soft white. I'm not in love with the way the stamen is turning out, so I'm going to put an a glaze of violet over the rest of the painting excluding the stamen and see how it looks to me.

morning glory phase 1

I just started this painting two days ago and this is what I have done so far. It's acrylic on 6 inches X 6 inches gallery canvas. I used gloss gel medium on this to make the painting go on the canvas more smoothly. I hate that patchy look I was getting when I was painting the reds in candy stripes because it was drying so fast. With the gloss gel it made the consistency of the paint more fluid and a better glaze also it slowed down the drying time a bit. Like liquin with oil paints.

This is the side view of the piece. I like the feeling that the painting never truly ends. That it continues into it's environment.

stripes-almost done

This is almost done. For the wetcanvas competition I'm in. I still need to work on the reds of the stripes...it looks so patchy it's driving me nuts and the right handle needs to be tweaked, as well as the apple.

flowers-still life

This is the finished piece after, trying my textural technique. I painted on all sides of the canvas so it doesn't have to be framed.

This is the front view of this painting, I'm thinking of titling it the bee. My next piece is I'm going to try have a frieze effect, probably using molding paste

candystripes

I'm working on this for a competition on Wetcanvas.com and I really it looks interesting to me.

The first stage I drew the painting onto canvas, and laid in the underpainting.

In this stage I layed down stronger colors and values to create the tone and mood of the painting. The right side of the kettle doesn't look symmetrical to me and that will be fixed by the next post.

flower-still life

I've been working a set of still life images. They are 6 x 6 inches and I'm exploring new styles and textures of paintings. I'm using acrylic for now and I will try oils on a smaller scale when I get to use these media again. This is a further search to find my creative voice.

This is the first stage where I laid out the color and values.

This the second stage, where I began using a medium from Liquitex called Pumice Stone, I used it to bring out the texture of the flowers in the background more into the foreground. I want it touchable. Almost like a frieze. However I don't want to overwork the painiting since it's so small with textures.

I'm getting to the finishing stages of this painting. It's turning out really well. I want to add more color to the leaves, they look kind of dull and I will finish the flower on the top. I like how some of the flowers go off the page and guides the eye front to back and right to left. I tried to create a triangular composition, Hopefully it was achieved.