There once was a time when I used to put up a hand-drawn picture at least once a week. I’d like to start drawing again, but it is time consuming. As motivation, I’ll post some of my favorite art work, including those I did for The Halley Branch and The Fireborn.
Click on an image for detail. When it is pulled up, you can scroll through them. Continue reading
Years ago I took a Renaissance Painting class. What do I mean by “Renaissance Painting”? First, it has nothing to do with subject matter, it was purely a class about technique.
I’ll give a brief rundown on this technique. First, the artist needs a very smooth surface. Many Renaissance paintings are done on panel for this reason. For the canvas paintings we put layer after layer of gesso on and sanded between layers. Then the picture is painted in black and white. Well, it is greyscale, like a black and white photo. We could add a little blue or red (not much!) to the paint to make the final warmer or cooler. The last step is to put a color glaze over the black and white under painting. If something is green, you use a green glaze and the underpainting will take care of the different shades and highlights.
When you look at a Renaissance era painting it almost seems to glow from an inner light. Well, in ways it does – you are seeing the shapes and shading through a layer of colored glaze. Continue reading
(This is another summer rerun. Actually, I’ve posted this twice. This time, however, I’m going to add a few more pictures to the gallery, almost doubling it.)
It began innocently enough.
Last December (well, December 2013!) I wrote a story about a hiker caught by a blizzard at the top of a New Hampshire mountain. I wanted an illustration. I was away from home and didn’t have any resources beyond a bland version of Windows paint. I spent a few minutes to make a quick B&W computer sketch and put it up.
Years ago my boss walked into my office, let out a little gasp and involuntarily jumped. She had come face to face with a giant eye. Yes, this was once the desktop image on my computer and it did shock some people (click on the image for more detail, if you dare :)). Was it the eye of a giant? Perhaps a tiger. Well, no. Continue reading
When I posted the picture of my revamped studio did you notice the paintings? The best one, the one near the center, isn’t mine. The other, the red and purple one on the right, is mine. Looking at that photo made me go back and take a look at the painting and it’s history. Continue reading
Bartelby was a very athletic cat. One way you can read this sentence is that he often got into very weird places. For instance, once when he was a very small kitten we were woken up in the middle of the night by the sounds of meowing. Turning the lights on we found Bartelby sitting on a curtain rod maybe eight feet (about two and half meters) off of the floor.
Another time I found Bartelby on top of a cabinet. He stood there proudly, head pressed firmly against the ceiling, staring into the light. I grabbed a camera (an Olympus 2020 with its groundbreaking 2 mp sensor) and took a quick picture. Continue reading
See the fabulous image at the top of the page? This painting was created by “Idiot Writer”. She painted it on a computer using a drawing tablet. Great, isn’t it? Just a quick aside – some people shut down when they read “art create on a computer”. There is no cheating, she created the picture by hand using a stylus. It’s as legitimate as using a brush on canvas.
When “Idiot Writer” posted the light-painting she set up a challenge. There are many ways this painting can be interpreted. She asked for people to use a media they are comfortable with to create their own interpretation of the painting. Suggestions include music, poems, photos, sketches, etc. etc. Being something of a composer and a musician I wrote a song. My song is more of an “influenced by” than an interpretation of the painting. Take a listen and I’ll discuss it below. Continue reading
A little over a decade ago I had a special toy, an Olympus E-10. This camera allowed an image quality that competed with the contemporary dSLRs but in a fixed lens format. With the real viewfinder (as opposed to an electronic one) and complete manual control the camera was very flexible. I took the following picture that first Christmas with the camera. Continue reading
It began innocently enough.
Last December I wrote a story about a hiker caught by a blizzard at the top of a New Hampshire mountain. I wanted an illustration. I was away from home and didn’t have any resources beyond a bland version of Windows paint. I spent a few minutes to make a quick B&W computer sketch and put it up.
A little over a decade ago I took a picture of a leaf encased in ice and snow. I played around with the picture in Photoshop and came up with what I thought was a real cool image. The leaf looked like it was glowing with its own light. I showed it to a friend who owned an art gallery. He got excited and said I needed to make a painting based on the photo. He said to make sure the male torso was clearly visible.
Male torso? Continue reading
Trent's World (the Blog) 