Covid-19 Coping Week 3

Spending most of my socially distant time, this week, in my studio. I was able to finish up the fourth in a series of four portraits of my grandchildren. These works are a departure for me from a traditional painted portrait look. Over this past winter I focused quite a lot of time on learning how to paint digitally. I tried a number of apps, tablets and programs in order to find tools I was comfortable with using. It was also important that the end product not be just a print of a digital painting but an acrylic or oil painting on canvas panel. With that in mind, I ended up deciding on the following workflow:

• Artworks were going to be conceptualized, drawn and painted in an app called Infinite Painter This app is only available in ios or android. That being said, I used a Wacom One Creative Pen Display connected to my Samsung Note 10 Plus phone in order to take advantage of this particular app.
• Digital paintings were cleaned up and finalized on my MacBook Pro connected to the same pen display using a painting application called Corel Painter The final digital painting was then printed for reference.
• The line work of the digital reference print was redrawn on the canvas panel and rendered in color using acrylic paint.

My plan is to use this same workflow for another series of paintings. Hope you enjoy.

"Emery With Water Wing," 11x14inches

"Riley Floating," 11x14inches

"Colton Sleeping," 6x8inches

"Finnley Sitting," 6x8inches

Covid-19 Coping Week 2

Another week of moving through the corona virus pandemic trying to take in disseminated information and filter it into lifestyle modifications. Using the solitude to meditate, virtually catch up with family and friends, spend time in the studio, getting used to carrying my DSLR on walks (leaving phone behind, so that at least for some part of the day, to resist responding to every alert that posts) and taking advantage of online learning through Udemy They have had some great sales on art courses and I am currently taking one on hand drawn 2d animation. I have been a member for several years and in that time I have purchased a number of courses to take at some point in the future. With the pandemic, the future is now!

I spent many hours since my last post blocking in color on the 4th of a portrait series that I have been working on. Making good progress, but this final painting is much more detailed than the others and I am finding I can only take painting on it in doses. In the mean time I have been reacquainting myself with taking photographs with a DSLR. Learning about exposure settings (especially nighttime photography), white balance, manual focus and the different characteristics of the lenses I have. I think that I am having about a 20:1 ratio of good photos to bad through trial and error. Glad I have large capacity SD card. Below are a few of the successes.

Looking South from the TEIA Club

Signs of spring which continues unthwarted by Covid-19

A spring beach day at Hadlock Cove

Whaleback

Pandemic Pandamonium

Didn't post Sunday as I should have. Like everybody else, I have been consumed with navigating the corona virus do's and don'ts and local shutdowns. There have been many and wanted to make sure that my pandemic lifestyle changes were being handled before making art. I was supposed to go on vacation today for a couple of weeks to visit my son, his wife and the granddaughters. Had to cancel that trip last week, and I am glad that I did. The situation with the virus has been so fluid that I didn't want to end up in Florida with no way back to the island two weeks later. Miss them terribly though.

Back in the studio, I got started on the fourth portrait transforming a digital painting to a rendering on a canvas panel with acrylic paint. The base drawing on the panel is complete and I was able to start blocking in colors. My focus mid week changed to photography when, at a friend's house for dinner (before the social distancing thing), I was shown her new DSLR camera body just purchased. She could tell that I was handling the camera with envy and offered me her old canon DSLR body for free. Amazing offer. She told me that she didn't have any lenses to go with it and gave me some advice. To see if I want to get back into photography by investing in good glass. If I didn't like it, then I had nothing invested in the body, and would always be able to re-sell the lenses. So that is what I did. I spent the rest of the week and weekend consumed with trying to find the best glass I could afford.

My friend dropped off the camera on Sunday afternoon. It turns out the body was a Canon t4i, which was the last DSLR I owned before giving it to my son in favor of using a phone as camera for the last 3 years. When I took it out of the bag it immediately felt familiar. At the time I first purchased this same camera, I had also obtained a third party book (for Kindle) on making the most of this particular camera. Primarily to learn where to begin with using a camera that comes with a 370 page owner's manual. While waiting for my lenses and SD card to arrive from B&H Photo I started re-reading all I could to about the camera.

The lenses, protective filters and SD card arrived yesterday. I spent the rest of the day playing with my new toy. The photos that follow were not taken with the t4i but with my Samsung note 10 plus, which has a remarkable camera.

My porch at night

A wide look at the neighborhood at night

Progress 03/08/2020

It was, what seemed like, a very long week. There were several beautiful spring days, like today, and several cold cloudy days that remind you very quickly that there might be some winter left. I spent a good portion of the week in my studio working on, and finishing the third in a series of four portraits. These are conventional paintings that I am creating from portraits that I painted digitally in an app called Painter. The first two that I have completed were fairly simple in composition and detail and were rendered on 6x8inch canvas panels in acrylic. The third, because of the detail, was rendered in acrylic on an 11x14inch canvas panel; as will be the fourth that I hope to get started on today. Pictures will be posted when all in the series have been completed because I would like them to be viewed in a grouping.

In the mean time, I continue to get out for a walk each day and am truly astonished by the inspiration I am able to draw from the energy of life on an island off the coast of Maine.

A few photos...

taken on my walk...

earlier today.

A Few Photos From This Week

Gonna try and resurrect this blog by trying to post each Sunday (famous last words). I have been in the process of renewing my website and deciding on what I hope to achieve from having one. For now, I think I would like it to be a presence where I showcase the artwork and photography I am proud of creating. I took steps to renew my hosting and domain name for another three years. I have also canned my Facebook account; but for the time being have kept my Instagram and twitter accounts. The reasons for canceling Facebook were many. To keep it short, I weighed the benefits of having a presence on Facebook against all the privacy concerns and information that Facebook kept about my posts. In the end, the analysis was exhausting and a distraction and my decision to leave came down to the fact that I just lost interest in Facebook.

I had primarily used Facebook as a means to promote my art. Through posting for promotional purposes, I found that I had lost my way as to why I made art in the first place. It was supposed to be fun and about expressing myself, not about turning it into a business. Visits to my art page (which I had tried set up to keep the business of art and personal accounts separate) were down. I didn’t find that that the Facebook business model worked, so I began posting only to my personal page where my bigger audience was. But, “Likes” never translated to sales and art seemed to get lost in the mire of politics. I rather enjoy Instagram and from what I have read, many creatives are migrating to that platform anyway. So I try to keep my Instagram about my art, and my twitter account about politics and news.

I have had a creative block most of the winter. I believe that canceling my Facebook account was freeing, making being creative less about likes and sales. Back into my studio again it has become fun. I spent quite a bit of my down time acquainting myself with digital painting and more recently I am exploring translating several of the digital portraits I painted over the winter into painted works on canvas panel. I am currently 1/3 of the way done on the third of four planned for the series. I will post more when the series is finished.

In the meantime I walk for inspiration, taking photos for future reference. While out and about Portland, ME and Peaks Island, here are several photos that I took this week.

After the storm blew through...

two views back shore on the island

Portland's narrow gauge railroad...

this area soon to be re-developed