There and back again

Old works and new spaces

Can a painting that’s about a week old be called an “old work”? But I have been there, and I’m back again. It’s been fun and interesting to keep working on a piece and let it go in whatever direction feels right. I did plenty of that in school, but far, far less of it since. Commercial work is set from early on, and and art directors and editors don’t like it if you just decide to make major changes, like obliterate a character’s features and anatomy.

I worked on Red’s Back 5.0 the other day, but haven’t post it since I had other pieces to post. And I was doing major furniture and room moving here in the house. More on that later.

I just didn’t feel like going for a traditional figure painting. As I’ve said before, in these pieces I’m more interested in the shapes, colors and mark making than the transitions of light on the back or hair. It’s fabulous to be able to make something and not have to think “the arm is wrong”, “the light isn’t falling right on the shoulder" or hand”. I just paint what I want. The hope is that people who see the painting like what I’ve done.

Red Back 5.0

I wonder what’s going to happen to her next week? deKooning and Rothko are two painters that stay in my mind as I paint these things. Just let it go, and paint, repaint, cover, recover, repaint, scrape, etc. etc.

Here’s a Rothko, and three deKoonings showing his evolution as he painted the human figure.

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1949

Willem deKooning, Portrait of a Woman, 1940

Willem deKooning, Seated Woman, 1940

Willem deKooning. Woman with Bicycle, 1952

The other day I promised a drawing or painting of our dog, Krypto, but that hasn’t happened yet. Yeah, that was the plan yesterday, but long story short, I'm in a new studio space and I spent all of yesterday moving furniture. The kids are getting older and are needing their own spaces, so Dad gave up his studio space and the oldest moved into the studio room while Dad has set up camp in the living room. This won’t affect the workflow as I still have a good space, and the family still has the family room to congregate in. The “living room” is now the studio/gym/music/library. That’s all good, right? Anyway, after moving furniture all day, I was waaaay to wiped to do drawing of any kind. Krypto is still on the schedule though.

Today I ordered some prints of my earlier paintings, both comic related and non comic related. I’m hoping to have them by Florida SuperCon in Miami next week. If they’re not ready, I’ll have them my later appearances, and they’ll be available on my website and Etsy store.

As a holiday bonus, here’s a short time lapse video of Black Orchid. While Clip Studio Pro has a time lapse recoding feature, Corel Painter doesn’t, or at least I haven’t found it, and I find myself using Painter more and more for these pieces.

Have a good and safe holiday. Draw some fireworks or something patriotic. Something about freedom. Whatever type of freedom you cherish.

Thanks for your time and support
Jose